CollegeVine College Essay Team August 25, 2025 19 Essay Guides 2025-26

How to Write the Amherst College Essays 2025-2026

Amherst College is a private liberal arts school in picturesque Amherst, Massachusetts. A small school with a student body of just under 2,000 undergraduates, Amherst is very selective.

Amherst boasts an open curriculum, which means that students have only one required writing seminar outside of their major, rather than a full set of general education requirements. Around 40% of juniors study abroad, and Amherst’s financial aid follows them, so students don’t pay any more than they would if they were studying on-campus. Students can also take classes at one of the four nearby colleges—Mount Holyoke, Smith, Hampshire, and UMass Amherst—through the Five College Consortium.

For the 2025-2026 application cycle, Amherst is requiring one supplemental essay, for which there are three options to choose from. They also require a short essay about extracurriculars, and have two optional short response prompts about identity and research experience. Let’s break down each prompt.

Read this Amherst essay example written by a real student to inspire your writing!

Amherst College Supplemental Essay Prompts

Before getting started, make sure you’ve carefully read the instructions, as other elements of your application may impact which prompt you should select. For instance, if you applied to Amherst’s Access to Amherst (A2A) program, you can use your essay from that application for this supplemental requirement by choosing Option C. 

However, we always recommend taking advantage of each and every opportunity you have to make an impression on the admissions officers. Even though you could recycle your A2A essay if you’re applying to that program, we encourage you to respond to one of the other prompts, to demonstrate that you are truly invested in Amherst.

Furthermore, if you already submitted an analytical paper on the Common App for the “essay of your choice,” don’t choose Prompt B. With that general guidance out of the way, let’s get into each of the three essay options.

Option A has three sub-options of quotes to choose from, but the general guidelines for each are similar. This prompt is a chance to disclose more information about your identity and background—remember, the prompt says twice that your response should be personal. 

Typical responses might connect the provided quote to your culture or ethnicity, gender identity or sexual orientation, family history, or socioeconomic background. However, you can choose to center your response around any part of you that you feel has influenced your perspectives, values, and opinions, especially with Quotes 1 and 2. That could be a cause that’s meaningful to you, an experience you had with someone who’s different from you, or even simply a favorite hobby.

Regardless of your topic, make sure you support your points with personal anecdotes, and then use in-depth analysis and reflection to connect those anecdotes back to the quote and question.

This essay focuses on curiosity and your need to learn and explore. Think less about grades and academics, and more about your sense of wonder, spirit of inquiry, and drive to discover. You have 350 words, which gives you space to dive deep into one or two stories that illustrate your innate curiosity. Remember, this prompt is less about career planning or academic pursuits, and more about pursuing questions for the sake of knowledge and celebrating the why of your learning, not just the what. 

Since you have only 350 words to answer this prompt, you’ll want to pick a strong theme or primary anecdote to anchor your essay. Here are some brainstorming prompts to help you choose the most effective topic. 

• What’s the last question you couldn’t stop thinking about, even outside of school?
• Have you ever chased an idea into unexpected places—through books, experiments, conversations, or even hobbies?
• What are your “rabbit holes”? (e.g., researching the history of subway maps, trying every bread recipe you can find, teaching yourself coding to build a game).
• How does curiosity shape how you interact with other people? Do you ask a lot of questions, try to understand their perspectives, or connect dots across cultures?
• What do you hope your curiosity leads you to at a place like Amherst?

As you think about the answers to these questions, consider which topic might be the most personal and unique. A personal topic allows you to show the admissions committee who you are and why they want you on campus—at the end of the essay, the reader should know more about you than the subject you’re writing about. A unique topic makes you memorable and helps you stand out from a crowd of hundreds of applicants. 

What else should you prioritize? Vivid description anchors your essay in specific details and adds to its memorable qualities while giving you a great opportunity to demonstrate your writing chops. A future connection demonstrates how you’re self-aware enough to apply what you’ve learned from previous exploration to future endeavors, and helps connect what you’re writing about to Amherst and how you’ll show up on campus. 

This might sound like a lot for one essay, but we promise, it can be done. Let’s look at a good example of a student who picks a personal, unique topic, describes it vividly, and connects it to their future at Amherst. Let’s take a look at hypothetical student Arjun: 

Here, Arjun has chosen a deeply personal topic that immediately gives us an impression of who he is and what he cares about. We learn not just about what he learned, but how he learned it, and the extent he went to in order to turn knowledge into meaningful action. He reflects on his experience and explains how it will impact who he is at Amherst, carefully explaining why Amherst is the place that he wants to be. 

This prompt is an example of the very common diversity essay, which seeks to know more about your personal background and its impact on your worldview.

A quick note if you intend to write about your racial background: In June 2023, the United States Supreme Court struck down the use of affirmative action in college admissions. The ruling, however, still allows colleges to consider race on an individual basis, which is one reason many schools are now including diversity prompts as one of their supplemental essay prompts. If you feel that your racial background has impacted you significantly, this is the place to discuss that.

Of course, even if your racial background is important to you, you’re still welcome to write about some other aspect of your identity. Just be aware that if you do so, Amherst admissions officers will be unable to factor your racial identity into their decision in any way.

Regardless of which part of your identity you choose to focus on, make sure to also discuss what it’s taught you about diversity more broadly, and how those lessons connect to your overall life experience. Simply listing things that are commonly associated with diversity should be avoided. Sure, diversity includes different ethnicities/races, gender identities, sexual orientations, countries of origin, and languages, but just writing that laundry list out doesn’t help Amherst understand your deeper perspectives on the world.

Make sure to avoid these common mistakes: 

Don’t solely write about negative experiences. You may have had negative experiences as a result of your background or identity, and while it’s generally fine to mention adversity, college essays usually call for a positive outcome or lesson at the conclusion. Otherwise, admissions officers may feel confused about how this experience is going to help you thrive in college.

Don’t use a cliché topic like immigration, traveling, or moving. These events are very common, which doesn’t mean they can’t be an important part of your own background, but within the context of the college essay, you want to highlight experiences that are more distinctive.

Don’t write a laundry list of identities and demographics. As noted above, this prompt isn’t just about who you are—it’s about what you’ve experienced and how you see the world because of that part of yourself. So, make sure to provide deeper analysis. Most of the essay should be about your reactions, growth, and the evolution of your worldview, not just stating “[x] is a key part of who I am.”

Also, bear in mind that the traditional markers of diversity aren’t the only ones you can discuss. There are other aspects of identity that contribute to a diverse campus, including socioeconomic classes, hometowns, illnesses and disabilities, or even interests and hobbies. 

Diversity encompasses all the aforementioned attributes, so choose something that will allow you to showcase individuality and specificity in your response. This prompt, like all the others, is an opportunity to set yourself apart from other academically qualified applicants, by sharing your unique perspective on life.

So, rather than relying on some bland dictionary definition of “diversity,” think about what the word means to you personally, and the significance it’s had for your own growth and development. From there, think of anecdotes and stories that can demonstrate this impact to Amherst admissions officers. For example:

This excerpt vividly describes the writer’s multicultural background, then quickly gets into the meat of the prompt: offering specific insight into the impact of the writer’s identity on their perspective. This prompt is an opportunity to tell a story about who you are, where you come from, and what you have learned because of those things, and this writer does all of that to paint a clear picture of how they’ll add to Amherst’s already-diverse campus community.

This prompt incorporates many qualities that Amherst cares deeply about, including intellectual flexibility, humility, openness to dialogue, and the ability to grow through difference. It’s framed in the context of democracy, dialogue, and connection, so you’ll want to pick a story that demonstrates your connection to others. Let’s talk about the best way to do this. 

Here are some questions to get you thinking about a story you can use for this prompt.

• When was the last time you argued with someone and came away seeing their perspective differently?
• Have you ever worked on a group project where people strongly disagreed on direction? What role did you play in resolving it?
• Have you had to navigate political, cultural, or generational divides in your family or community?
• Did you ever change your mind about an issue because of another person’s argument or experience?

As you decide what to write about, make sure that you’re telling a story, not just describing an opinion. Giving a full, rich picture of what this situation felt like will demonstrate your writing ability and make your essay more memorable. You’ll also want to show humility by acknowledging if you were wrong, or the ways in which you grew or learned. This ties into another key point, which is to show growth—Amherst wants to know that you’ll be able to continue to adapt, change, and learn on their campus. Talking about how you’ll do so is a great way to connect to a future at Amherst, which will underscore your interest in the school as well as show how it’s a great fit for you. 

Let’s look at some hypothetical student examples that unite these elements with a strong backstory. 

• Layla, a future economics major, debated with her uncle about universal basic income at Thanksgiving. Initially, she dismissed his skepticism, but after doing independent research, she realized he raised valid concerns about inflation. She learned that listening first makes her arguments stronger, and that really listening to others can help her find the holes in her own ideas, which allows her to grow and develop even better solutions.
  

• Miguel, a theater enthusiast, clashed with the director about how to portray a character with mental illness during a play rehearsal. Instead of walking away, he interviewed people in his community, bringing back insights that reshaped the performance. Speaking with community members taught him important lessons about humility, while delivering the notes to his director helped him learn good communication and humility.
  

• Priya, a STEM researcher, pushed for one type of design of a robot while others on her robotics team pushed for another. After a heated debate, she suggested combining both approaches, which not only led to success but also showed her the value of compromise and creativity. She writes about how being a good leader isn’t just about having the best ideas, it’s recognizing others’ genius, too.

Each of these examples demonstrates a personal connection to the issue at stake, and is specific and personal to the author. The stories connect to passions or future goals of the applicants, and give them opportunities to demonstrate their best qualities, whether it’s creativity and problem-solving, listening and learning, or pursuing novel perspectives to amplify one’s own knowledge base. 

Along with hitting key themes, you’ll want to steer clear of some common mistakes. Try to avoid focusing solely on the disagreement, as the lack of reflection and depth can make your story fall flat. Don’t portray yourself as ‘the winner,’ because this is just as flat; your story shouldn’t be black-and-white to begin with, and often, talking about how you were right and others were wrong just comes across arrogant. Lastly, and perhaps counterintuitively, you’ll want to avoid overloading your essay with details of the issue. You want admissions officers to come away knowing more about you, not the specifics of the disagreement you were having. If the details are relevant, definitely include them, but now is not the time to relitigate the problem at stake. 

As we’ve already mentioned, Option B has a minor stipulation in that if you already submitted an analytical paper on the Common App for the “essay of your choice,” you should not select this prompt. There are also further guidelines for this prompt: the paper must have been for credit in a course and thus graded and must utilize “literary, sociological or historical evidence.” The emphasis on this writing sample is that it is analytical and uses evidence to construct a concise, persuasive argument. 

The ideal submission for this prompt will most likely come from an English or history class, given the instructions about the nature of the analytical evidence. If your strengths don’t lie in these fields, it may be a better idea to use a different prompt. Consider the following factors when choosing your essay:

Highest grade or most positive feedback: Papers in which your teacher praised your argument, analysis, or writing style will work best.

Reflection of interests or academic strengths: Choose an essay about a subject you’re passionate about or one that aligns with the major you intend to pursue in college.

In-depth analysis: If you have any essays in which you synthesized or pulled evidence from multiple sources and texts, it may be a strong submission.

Overall, we don’t recommend choosing this option as the “easy way out”. It’s best to only choose Option B if you have a strong writing sample that you are eager to share with the admissions committee. If you find yourself struggling to find anything worthy of submitting, maybe that’s your sign to choose a different option.

Amherst hosts two diversity open houses (A2A) in the fall for up to 100 prospective students, covering their transportation fees, housing, and meals for the weekend. Participants get to stay with a current student in their dorm, attend classes, and experience life on campus. These weekends are open to all high schoolers, but preference is given to underrepresented minorities and those from financially disadvantaged families.

Selection is based on an application, which includes an essay. If you were an A2A applicant, you may reuse your essay to apply to Amherst. However, we recommend that you respond to Option A and write a new essay if you wish to truly show your interest in Amherst.

This short response fits into an archetype known as the Extracurricular essay, which asks you to dive deeper into an extracurricular you’ve probably already mentioned in your Common App. Here, admissions officers want to know the story behind a given activity—including what you’ve learned from it, why you participate, and why it might be important to you. With only 175 words to work with, it’s crucial to write an extracurricular essay that shows off the best of you. Let’s go over how to do that. 

First, you’ll have to pick a significant activity. This usually means an activity with a significant or long-running time commitment, but could also be something you started relatively recently if you have a particularly strong connection to it, or perhaps a powerful role. Remember, while your Common App “Activities” section is to-the-point and reminiscent of a resume, this essay will be a reflective, values-driven narrative, so choose your activity accordingly. 

A good response will showcase your values or best qualities, show growth, and keep the scope tight, as you don’t have a lot of space to explore various aspects of your chosen activity. This might sound like a tall order for 175 words, so let’s look at an effective example to help you consider your own response. 

This essay does a great job of expanding on an extracurricular that otherwise would have been a singular line item on a resume. The story is highly visual, painting an image of the activity of working at the grocery store, as well as the interactions this student has. It goes beyond a description of the extracurricular to provide two paragraphs of reflection. Through this student’s writing, it’s extremely evident how this extracurricular has had an impact on them.

This is a catch-all prompt, which aims to give you the opportunity to talk about whatever you might need to in order to make your application feel complete. This might mean talking about extenuating personal circumstances, or it could be talking about an aspect of your identity that doesn’t fit neatly into any other section. Let’s talk about how to best answer this prompt. 

There are many different ways to answer this prompt. First, if something has significantly disrupted your high school experience, this is a great place to talk about it. Our blog post, linked above, breaks this down in more depth, but the important things to remember are to be clear and direct about how something outside of your control impacted your scholastic performance or extracurricular engagement. 

If you don’t have a personal exceptional circumstance to unpack, you might want to share an aspect of yourself or your identity that has shaped who you are. Maybe there’s something in your Activities section that you want to expand on—a value or quality that underlies many of your activities that you’d like to name explicitly—or a passion, quirk, or experience that shows your unique voice and humanity. 

This all might still sound pretty abstract, so let’s take a look at some examples. You could write about:

• Cooking traditional foods with your family and what those meals symbolize.
• Creating fantasy maps and how it helps you think spatially/creatively.
• Spending hours fixing up an old car with a parent and the life lessons from that ritual.
• Your collection of thrifted clothes and how you see fashion as storytelling.
• A ritual like stargazing, journaling, or sketching that helps you reflect on your place in the world.

As you can see, potential topics might include family history or cultural context, unusual hobbies or passions, significant personal experiences, quirky traits, or personal values. Anything that makes your application feel more complete and more like you is a good pick for this prompt. 

This final prompt is a straightforward research supplement. You should only respond if you have significant research experience outside of school, and your response should be succinct, clear, and to the point. Now is not the time to flex your writing ability—you really just want to communicate the most important parts of your experience, namely, what you were investigating, what your role was or what you did, and what you learned. 

What counts as significant research? Well, anything that took meaningful amounts of time or effort should definitely be included, and if the results were notable, that doesn’t hurt either. “Project” might sound limiting, but assistant jobs like gathering data or supporting data collection also count. 

However, students will make the mistake of thinking they can only talk about formal research conducted in a lab or under the guidance of a mentor—this is not the case! If you’ve conducted an independent research project, please include that here.

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