How to Write the Brigham Young University Essays 2023-2024

 BYU has six supplemental essays, which are required for all applicants. This is likely one of the most extensive supplemental essay packages you’re going to have, so make sure you leave yourself ample time to brainstorm for, write, and revise your essays.

While only you know exactly how to draw on your own experiences to build a connection between yourself and BYU, in this post we’re going to break down each prompt for you and provide a general approach that will lead to a strong response. Then, all that’s left for you to do is apply that approach to your own background, personality, and goals for college!

Note that, because BYU is not a Common App school, you’ll have to log on to their school-specific application platform in order to see word/character limits for these prompts. Be sure to do that before you start writing, or otherwise you may accidentally write a response that’s way too long or short, and end up having a whole bunch of extra work to do when you thought you were done.

BYU Supplemental Essay Prompts

This prompt is designed to gauge your love of learning and genuine interest in scholarship. One of BYU’s Aims is Intellectually Enlarging, meaning the school is looking for people who have a desire to learn and who seek out answers to questions beyond what is required or mandated by school or work. It is an opportunity for admissions officers to learn something about you that isn’t conveyed or fully developed on other parts of your application. 

Potential examples of topics might include:

• A scientific concept that blows your mind
• A type of media you enjoy consuming
• A unique hobby or skill you taught yourself
• A favorite sport you can play for hours 

Your topic can be literally anything—as long as you can write about it with an academic tone. Just avoid overly casual topics or language as these will not illuminate your personality in the most flattering light. For example, an applicant that writes about bingeing Netflix shows has a much weaker essay than one that couches their Netflix addiction as a side effect of their love of screenwriting. 

When determining your topic, make sure to delve deep and choose something that is specific enough to differentiate your essay from others’. For example, instead of writing about a generic academic subject, choose a concept or theory that resonates with you the most. Here is an excerpt of a response that achieves this:

“I can easily remember when I stopped hearing music and truly began listening to it. Mrs. Petersen, our music teacher, was playing a recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons for my fourth grade class. I closed my eyes and there I was—in springtime, with birds overhead, and soon enough, winter, braced against a biting wind of sound. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard, and from that moment forth, I dedicated myself to understanding how it worked. 

Studying music theory as I do is like unraveling a rich tapestry woven of pitch, melody, rhythm, and timbre…” 

From here, the student can go in multiple directions with their response. They can explore how their studies of music theory helped them develop as a musician or composer. Or, they can talk about how learning music theory has enabled them to think more analytically about other art forms, like literature.

The next portion of the prompt asks how you have advanced your understanding of the topic on your own and what resources have helped you do so. Avoid mentioning school-mandated resources like classes or required readings; rather, mention ways that you have explored the topic outside of any structured obligation. Have you checked out library books on the subject? Do you dive into Reddit subthreads or fashion YouTube playlists to learn more? Is there an organization or community you founded or joined to help you gain knowledge? Here, it is important to keep up reader engagement by showing, rather than telling, how you sought out additional resources. 

Another key element of your response is a future-facing component. One of BYU’s Aims stresses Lifelong Learning and Service; you should try to incorporate this sentiment in the last couple lines of your response. This will give admissions officers an idea of how you plan to continue exploring this topic in the future, or sharing your love of it with others. Going off of the previous example, a fitting conclusion might go like this: 

“Studying music theory has allowed me to think differently and listen to the world as I never had before. I intend to study music composition at BYU, and I look forward to learning even more about the inner workings of the world’s musical traditions.”

However you choose to relay your topic, make sure to maintain a narrative-like quality and include specific, descriptive details. The point is to make your essay so unique that no one else could write it. The more well-thought-out and engaging your essay is, the more likely it is to resonate with admissions officers.

This prompt asks you to recount your participation in community service. One of BYU’s Aims is Lifelong Service, so it might help to read their website’s breakdown of what it means to their school before you start writing. 

To brainstorm for this essay, think about times where you’ve addressed needs for others. This could be anything from babysitting your younger siblings while your parents work full-time to making blankets for dogs at your local animal shelter. Try to make your topic something that isn’t necessarily apparent from the rest of your application. If you choose an organization already listed out in your extracurriculars, make sure to focus on a specific instance rather than generalizing your role. Here are two examples of potential responses to this prompt: 

Weak: “As a Girl Scout, I have participated in multiple community service projects in my community. I have baked cookies for the elderly, written letters to soldiers overseas, and helped make blankets for my local animal shelter. I organized and executed these activities because community service is important to me.”

Strong: “At lunch, some kids played soccer. Others texted or played iPhone games. I made blankets. For my Girl Scout Gold Award, I decided to target a community near and dear to my heart: the animal shelter. As a weekly volunteer, I saw how many of the dogs had nothing in their concrete kennels and I vowed to change that. I created a school-wide fundraiser to raise money for supplies and spent my Saturday mornings shopping in our downtown textile district. During our lunch period, a few volunteers and I would make no-sew blankets and toys out of various fabrics.”

The first response states the author’s contributions in a straightforward manner that does not convey exactly what efforts they put into improving their community. The overall general descriptions do little to set them apart from other applicants. Meanwhile, the second essay takes readers through specific actions that the author took towards their goal. It is more vivid and immersive in nature, which allows admissions officers to get a better idea of the student’s personality. The first response tells admissions officers that the student is dedicated, while the second shows them through specific details. 

Here, admissions officers want to see how you deal with adversity. When choosing a topic, try not to pick something overdone like a poor grade or losing a sports game. Instead, write about something that is unique to you. 

The first thing you need to do is establish the context of the defeat. Talk about the instance and the way it made you feel. Use an active voice and vivid details to give it an anecdote-like quality. 

For example, someone who was training for a half marathon might not have achieved their personal record time despite training daily for 4 months. 

Another student might not have been accepted into a pre-medical program that would have helped them gain field experience and choose a career path. 

Next, think about how you moved past the failure, and what specific steps you took to ameliorate the situation. Show admissions officers how you felt by taking them through your thought process; this added vulnerability will make your essay more personable. 

Writing about frustration, anger, or sadness is valid, but make sure you do so in a way that isn’t overly victimizing or putting down others. It is important to keep your tone professional while conveying these feelings in order to make your essay resonate the most strongly.

After writing your reaction, walk readers through the steps you took to recover from the failure. The prompt asks you multiple questions: how you recovered, resources you used, and how and why you are different. You should touch on all of these but it is okay if within the limited response you don’t elaborate on all of these. Keep these questions in the back of your mind while writing the prompt, but don’t answer them sequentially; rather, phrase your answer like a narrative for the most ideal flow and compelling response. Keep your response forward-facing and focus on what you did to fix the situation instead of dwelling on the failure; this will show your character to admissions officers.

The applicant who was training for a marathon might talk about how they reframed their mentality to revolve around how they felt while running rather than breaking their personal records. They can describe mixing up their training regimen and changing their diet to make running a more pleasurable experience, rather than a competitive one.

An essay about being rejected from a pre-medical program might have made the author question their desire to be a doctor. However, by compiling their own resources and seeking out volunteer experience, they learned that they are willing to put in the work to pursue the field, which has underscored their desire to become a medical professional.

By describing the steps you took to work around the failure in a narrative-like manner, you can create a compelling essay that demonstrates your character to admissions officers. 

BYU wants to know what sets you apart from other students. This is an opportunity for you to mention something that is not mentioned elsewhere on your application. Think about your various identities and the unique ways they intersect. This topic might seem overly broad, but just think of it as there being no wrong answer. As long as your essay remains academic in tone, you can craft a masterful narrative about anything.

Avoid mentioning clichés or being redundant on your application. For example if you have already discussed your career interest in another essay, make this essay about something completely different. Also, avoid being too general with your topic. For example, instead of mentioning the culture you are a part of in a holistic manner, name a couple specific traditions that you enjoy participating in and elaborate on those.

If you need inspiration or a starting off point, read over the school’s Aims and look at the website with example essays. Doing so may jog your memory or provide you with a better idea of what kind of candidate the school is looking for. A good check to see whether you have selected a good topic is to take a step back and think if anyone else could have written your essay. If the answer is no, you’re in good shape! If the answer is yes, make your topic even more personal and specific.

BYU may have been started by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but you don’t need to be a believer to attend. If you are a member of the church, or even of another religion, this is a great time to affirm what you believe, what your religious tradition means to you, and why you believe this is the best setting in which to learn. If you are not religious, this is a time to reflect what appeals to you about BYU’s values, and the school’s overall learning environment. Here are some questions to help you brainstorm, whether you are a believer or not.

• What does faith or devotion mean to you? What does it look like in everyday life, and how might it contribute to a positive learning environment?
• How might shared values and beliefs make a community stronger? How can you explore your own values and beliefs in the BYU community?
• Even within one community, there can be diversity of beliefs and practices. How do you envision both learning from the BYU community, and contributing to the diversity of belief on campus?

Once you have some ideas for your essay, it’s time to start writing. Remember to check the application for specific word and character limits, as these limits will be crucial in planning your essay. Though you may have many pages’ worth of thoughts on this prompt, college essays require you to state your thoughts as efficiently as possible–you need to be brief, but also thoughtful. Depending on how you want to structure your essay, you can do that in a lot of different ways. 

One very effective way to structure a college essay is by using a single event or story to illustrate your values and character. This is a dynamic way to help admissions officers get to know you without resorting to a laundry list of qualities and information. If you are using an anecdote, or a few anecdotes, to tell BYU about yourself, make sure you are choosing stories that focus on you and demonstrate the qualities you want to share. While you may find other stories from your life more exciting, the point of this particular narrative is that it showcases your personality and what’s important to you.

If you don’t want to use a story to answer this prompt, you may want to describe your potential engagement with BYU by envisioning a future for yourself on campus. This is another great way to show the BYU admissions team who you are, as you are almost doing their job for them, and painting a picture of the ways you hope to contribute to their community. Like the previous approach, this essay structure will be most effective with specific examples. Rather than just saying that your faith inspires you to serve others, talk about how you hope to volunteer with the Adopt a Grandparent group through Brigham Young’s Y-Serve program. 

This is a great time to dig a bit deeper into BYU and flex your knowledge of the university. The whole reason why the BYU admissions committee is reviewing your application is to imagine you on campus–what you’d do, and why they should want you there–and a response that utilizes this approach effectively will directly answer those two questions. Just remember to always connect the things you hope to do on campus to the spiritual focus of this question.

These next prompts go together and allow you to elaborate on your current extracurricular activities. This is an opportunity for you to expand upon your application and give some of your activities more than a simple description. While your short description and how long you’ve participated in this activity should be relatively straightforward, answering why you chose to participate in it and how you have benefited should take on a more narrative-like quality.

Here is an example of a potential response.:

“Donate Life is a club dedicated to raising awareness about organ donation and transplants. I have participated in this club for four years, first as an active member and then as a board member, and eventually, President. However, my connection to organ donation goes farther back than high school. When I was thirteen, my cousin was able to receive a heart transplant from someone who had recently passed in a car accident. Seeing her recovery inspired me to make this opportunity available for more people. In this club, I hold weekly lunch seminars during which students can learn more about how they can contribute to the movement. We participate in marathons and other nonprofit events to get the word out and to encourage people to sign up to donate their organs. This past summer, we were able to get over 5,000 signatures pledging to sign up for organ donation in the event of the person’s passing. My Donate Life family and my real family experiences have shown me the importance of being an active community member who pushes for positive change and encourages others to do the same.”

Whatever you choose to write about, make sure that your voice shines through and that you list your specific contributions by mentioning the work you did in a tangible manner. 

Where to Get Your Brigham Young University Essays Edited

Writing essays takes a lot of time and focus, and after seeing the same essay time and time again, it can be hard to tell what to change. Going through the editing process with another pair of eyes can help identify areas where your essay could be stronger, as well as areas that you’re already doing well. CollegeVine has created a free Peer Review Essay Tool, where you can get feedback on your essay, and give feedback to other students just like you!

CollegeVine also offers essay review by our team of experienced advisors, who have helped hundreds of students submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you and get the feedback you need to make your application a success!