CollegeVine College Essay Team October 10, 2025 12 Essay Breakdowns,Essay Guides 2025-26

How to Write the Clark University Essays 2025-2026

Clark University is a private research university in Worcester, Massachusetts, that combines the rigor of scholarship with liberal arts breadth and hands-on learning. Known for its small class sizes, strong faculty-student mentorship, and interdisciplinary programs, it offers over 50 majors and minors and unique opportunities like tuition-free accelerated BA/MA pathways.

For the 2025-2026 application cycle, Clark has one optional essay that applicants can choose from two prompt options for. Additionally, applicants to the VCU Honors College are required to submit another essay. In this post, we’ll share our advice for writing all of these Clark essays.

Clark University Supplemental Essay Prompts

While this prompt is optional, we strongly encourage applicants to respond to one of these essays. You only have so many chances in your application to speak directly to the admissions officers and share details about yourself that don’t come across in a transcript or resume, so take advantage of this one!

Your essays are the best place for you to set yourself apart from other applicants with similar GPAs and test scores—it’s where you can humanize yourself and connect with the admissions officers reading your application.

Clark won’t hold anything against you if you choose not to submit a supplement, but it can only help you by including one with your application.

This essay falls into the Impact on Community archetype, meaning the goal is to show how you’ve engaged meaningfully with one community and what role you’ve played in it. Clark wants to see that you already have the mindset to participate in and contribute to their community during your time there.

Clark is asking you to define a community you belong to now. It can be geographic, cultural, school-based, online, professional, or interest-based. Then, explain your role. What do you do in that community, not just that you’re a member. Show your impact and how you’ve contributed to or changed that community. 

What Makes a Good Response

A strong essay will begin by clearly defining the community you’re writing about, and it should do so within the first few sentences. This doesn’t mean flat-out saying “A community I care about is X”, but rather painting a picture of who makes up the group and why it matters to you. Whether it’s your robotics team, your church choir, or the neighbors who gather at the community garden, give the reader a concrete sense of place. By grounding your essay in specific details early, you ensure the admissions officer knows exactly what “community” means in your context.

Once the community is established, show yourself in action through vivid examples. Maybe you’re organizing schedules, teaching younger members a skill, or creating a safe space for others to share their ideas. Strong responses also highlight the people around you—your essay shouldn’t read like a solo performance. If the impact is only framed in terms of how you felt, it risks sounding self-centered. Instead, show how your efforts affected others, whether that meant making someone feel included, solving a collective problem, or helping the group thrive.

Finally, emphasize growth and authenticity. Admissions officers are less interested in the title you held and more interested in what the experience taught you about leadership, empathy, or service. Perhaps you learned that listening often accomplishes more than directing, or that the most meaningful impact can be quiet and consistent rather than flashy. Avoid framing your involvement as something you did just to boost a résumé; authenticity resonates far more strongly than perfection.

Hypothetical Student Examples

Here are some examples of students and their communities that they might write about:

• Fatima, a cultural bridge-builder, is part of the Pakistani-American student association in her city. She created interfaith cultural nights with other student groups to share traditions and food, and to help break down stereotypes.

• Luca, an adaptive sports volunteer, is part of a local wheelchair basketball league. He designed custom practice drills and secured funding for new equipment, helping younger athletes develop confidence and skills.

• Naomi, a teen library council leader, is a member of the local public library’s teen advisory board. She launched a bilingual story hour, bringing in immigrant parents and children, to foster literacy and connection.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

One frequent mistake is choosing a community that is too large or vague. Writing about “my school” or “readers” without narrowing it down makes your response feel unfocused, since almost anyone could claim those as communities. Instead, zoom in on a slice of that larger group: perhaps your school’s theater tech crew rather than the entire school, or your neighborhood book club instead of “the world of readers.” This makes your story specific, memorable, and easier to tie to concrete experiences.

Another pitfall is treating the essay like a résumé by listing every role you’ve held without going into detail. For example, saying “I was president of the student council, captain of the soccer team, and a volunteer tutor” doesn’t leave space to show what those roles meant to you or your community. Instead, it’s more powerful to choose one example and unpack it through vivid anecdotes, like organizing a food drive that collected 2,000 cans or designing drills that helped a nervous freshman gain confidence on the field.

Additionally, many students skip the “how,” which makes their impact feel vague. Writing “I helped my community” or “I made people feel welcome” doesn’t show admissions officers how you did that. Instead, describe the specific actions you took. Maybe you created bilingual flyers so parents could understand announcements, or you started a buddy system for new members. These details make your contribution real and help readers appreciate why it mattered.

Finally, don’t forget to include how you will contribute to the Clark community in your essay. You can weave this throughout your response or incorporate it into your conclusion, but you want to make sure you discuss how you will take the lessons you’ve learned in your previous community and apply it to either a specific Clark community, or the campus community as a whole.

Like the first option, this prompt also wants to hear about your relationship with others. Instead of describing it within the context of a community, this prompt has you explain it within the context of making a difference. This can be as small as working with your siblings to bake your mom a birthday cake or something larger like working with your peers to add free hygienic products to restrooms in your school district. The size of the impact doesn’t matter so much as the story you tell.

What Makes a Good Response

When it comes to having a strong essay, the key is to tell an engaging and detailed story. This is where the age old advice of “show, don’t tell” really comes into play. You want to describe the situation, who you were working with, your reaction to working together (i.e. were you eager or reluctant), the actions you took, and the impact you had.

To demonstrate what we mean by show, don’t tell, let’s compare two examples—one that tells, and one that shows.

Out of these two examples, the second is far more engaging and enjoyable to read. It feels like we are reading a story, rather than a summary of the student’s experiences. As you’re writing, compare your response to these examples and if it reads more like the first example, try adding more imagery, dialogue, and personal reflection.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

One thing you should be mindful of if you choose this prompt is that you don’t want to come across as bragging. Clark specifically wants to hear about how you worked with others, so you don’t want to seem like you accomplished everything yourself. Show how you listened to others, compromised, or combined ideas to achieve your goal. You should be choosing an example where you played an active role, while not being the sole hero.

Another mistake students make is choosing an overused story like working together as a team to win a big sports game. Even if your essay was well-written, admissions officers have read this trope so many times that it feels tired 90% of the time. If you do choose to write about a more cliché topic, hone in on a more unique moment within that story—maybe your team banned together to cheer up your star player who was going through a tough time at home and that is the focus of your essay rather than winning the game.

Lastly, remember Clark’s values of being a force for change. Don’t forget to emphasize that value in your essay and elaborate on why it’s important to you. You want to show that you align with Clark and what they care about through your story.

Here, the Honors College wants to know what you are passionate about and how you have engaged that passion. This is really a way to get to know you better as both a person and an academic. 

Now it might seem illegal to talk about a video game in a college essay, but that’s the point! You are allowed to choose any piece of media you are genuinely excited by as the focus of this essay. This is not a trick question; you don’t get extra credit for choosing an “impressive” piece of media like War and Peace or Citizen Kane. At the same time, you have to discuss how you’ve pursued this interest in your life so if The Hunger Games is your favorite book but you don’t engage with the themes within it beyond when you read, maybe don’t pick it for this essay.

Brainstorming Your Topic

As you are brainstorming, consider your favorite books, movies, TV shows, paintings, pictures, plays/musicals, video games, songs, magazines, or even YouTube or TikTok videos. Make a large list and as you go through it, ask yourself: Do I just like it or am I fascinated by something deeper? You want to narrow your list down to items that satisfy the latter.

For example, choosing Titanic wouldn’t be a good choice if you just love Jack and Rose’s love story. However, if watching Titanic sparked your interest in the history of the incident and other sunken ships, then it would be a great choice for the focus of this essay.

You might also want to ask yourself the following questions after you’ve identified your piece of media to guide the rest of your essay:

• Have I explored similar themes in school projects, papers, or discussions?
• Did this media inspire me to create something (i.e. art, writing, a research question, a club initiative)?
• How has it shaped my hobbies, career interests, or worldview?
• Have I shared it with others (i.e. recommended it, debated it, or built something from its ideas)?
• How could I bring my passion for this topic into class discussions or group projects?
• What unique perspective or skill could I share with my peers?
• How do I imagine conversations about this topic enriching others — not just me?

Hypothetical Student Examples

Let’s take a look at a few examples of how students can respond to this prompt now.

• Aisha – The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: Aisha was deeply moved by Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. It revealed the ethical gray areas of medical research and the humanity behind scientific discovery. The story inspired her to intern at a hospital’s patient advocacy office and research bioethics through her school’s science honors program. She’s passionate about balancing innovation with justice — a theme she’d like to continue exploring through Clark’s Honors seminars. She imagines starting discussions about medical ethics and the power dynamics of science, bringing together students from both STEM and humanities backgrounds. 

• Ryan – “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen: Ryan has always been drawn to “Bohemian Rhapsody” because it defies structure—it’s operatic, chaotic, and unapologetically experimental. It inspired him to see creativity as a process without boundaries. He started producing his own music, experimenting with genre mashups, and leading a music production club at school. At Clark, he wants to bring that same inventive mindset to interdisciplinary learning, encouraging peers to take intellectual “risks” the way artists take musical ones.

• Oliver – “The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates: Reading Coates’s essay in The Atlantic was a turning point for Oliver. It reframed his understanding of systemic racism and economic injustice in America. He spent months reading related works in sociology and history, eventually writing his AP Research paper on racial wealth gaps. Volunteering with a local equity coalition deepened his understanding of how policy connects to lived experience. At Clark, he hopes to continue this inquiry by engaging in community-based research and facilitating campus dialogues about economic justice and historical accountability.

• Kaitlyn – Stardew Valley: Kaitlyn fell in love with Stardew Valley’s slow, intentional rhythm. Farming, fishing, and tending relationships became meditative—a contrast to her usually chaotic life. It sparked her interest in sustainability and small-scale agriculture, leading her to volunteer at a community garden. At Clark, she hopes to study environmental science and economics to explore how local, community-driven systems—digital or real—can model more sustainable ways of living.

• Sam – Les Miserables: Sam first fell in love with Les Miserables after hearing the overture in his middle school auditorium. Constantly listening to the soundtrack turned into a fascination with Victor Hugo’s story of justice and redemption. Determined to understand it more deeply, Sam read the novel in English—then began teaching himself French to one day read it in its original form. He now practices by translating lyrics and reading short French texts. At Clark, he hopes to study abroad in Rennes to strengthen his language skills and explore the culture that shaped Hugo’s masterpiece. What began as a love for a musical has become a lifelong passion for language, history, and the power of storytelling to connect people across time and place.

In all of these examples, the student picked a piece of media that has genuinely inspired them in some way—whether it’s to start a new extracurricular, learn a new skill, conduct independent research, or pursue a career path. While these examples are more like outlines for what each student will discuss, even from these short descriptions we can see multiple ways they have engaged with the piece of media in their lives.

Additionally, all these examples have a connection to how this student will carry their fascination for the media—or the lessons they’ve learned from it—with them to Clark and the Honors College.

Remember, while it might seem like this essay is about a piece of media, in actuality it’s still about you: your interests, your actions, your thoughts, your goals. As long as you keep that in mind and use your chosen media as a jumping off point for discussing your intellectual curiosity, you should be good to go.

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