CollegeVine College Essay Team September 28, 2023 19 College of William & Mary | William & Mary,Essay Guides 2023-24

How to Write the College of William & Mary Essays 2023-2024

The College of William & Mary, located in the easternmost part of Virginia, is the second oldest institution of higher education in the country, just after Harvard. As such, the school has educated some of the earliest and most influential names in American history, including Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, Henry Clay, and George Washington. It has since been designated a Public Ivy, signaling its exceptional academics.

Given the caliber of a William & Mary education, it’s no surprise that gaining admission here is competitive. On top of impressive grades and extracurriculars, you will also need unique and compelling essays to set you apart from the crowd. In this post, we’ll go over the essay prompts for the College of William & Mary and detail how to write effective responses to them.

College of William & Mary Supplemental Essay Prompts

This prompt, similarly to the Common App Additional Information section, provides you with an opportunity to share something that the admissions committee wouldn’t find anywhere else on your application. Your response shouldn’t just be focused on academics or your favorite club you’re a part of. It also shouldn’t be extra information in the sense of extenuating circumstances that impacted you or your studies—it should be something fun, special, or quirky about you that sets you apart from others.

Below are some categories to spark your creativity and help you brainstorm:

• Hobbies: You might play the harmonica with your dad in your freetime. Or, maybe you upcycle clothes you thrift and host your own fashion shows in your backyard. You could belong to a rock-climbing gym and go every week. Or, perhaps you’ve cultivated your own butterfly garden on the rooftop of your apartment.
• Random talents: Can you name all the world capitals? Are you great at unicycling? Maybe you have a signature dance move you bring out at every party. You might have perfect pitch, which makes you a great (or really annoying) judge of your brother’s band.
• Skills: Perhaps you can play the piano with your eyes closed, since you’ve been playing for so many years. Do you know how to speak American Sign Language? Perhaps you know how to change a car tire in under a minute. Maybe you taught yourself how to DJ and mix music.
• Personality traits: Maybe you’re notorious for being chronically late. Perhaps your sarcastic sense of humor is a defining part of your character. You might be incredibly adventurous and down to take any risks. Or, maybe you’re incredibly empathetic and always offer your friends a shoulder to cry on.
• Accomplishments: Have you run a marathon? Did you code your own app on the App Store? Maybe you and your friends started a podcast where you talk about health and wellness tips. Perhaps you obtained a scuba diving certification.

As you can see from the examples above, you can have fun and share random facts with the admissions committee here. You have 300 words for this essay though, so make sure to tell a story along with your fun fact. Anecdotes are a great way to let your personality shine through in your writing.

Share how you first learned your talent, why you enjoy pursuing your hobby, what it felt like to finally accomplish the goal you had been working towards, how your personality manifests itself in specific situations, etc. This essay is all about the story you can craft to accompany your unique talent, skill, ability, or trait.

When it comes to a diverse community essay, many students feel like it has to be a racial or ethnic community, so they avoid choosing a prompt like this because they feel like they don’t have a valuable contribution. That couldn’t be farther from the truth though! Communities can take any shape or form, from extracurricular clubs to sports teams and from online communities to religious groups! Anyone can write a great essay if they just think deeply about some “nontraditional” communities they might be in.

A quick note if you intend to write about your racial or ethnic community: 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 one place to discuss that. You might also consider writing the next prompt instead if you want to dig deeper into how your background has affected you.

For this prompt there are two crucial things you need to do.

1. Describe a meaningful community you are part of, your role in it, and its impact on you.
2. Explain how you will contribute to, and what you will gain from, the William & Mary community.

In order to better understand each component of the essay, let’s look at each in greater detail.

Describe an Existing Community

Your essay should start off by discussing a community that you’re currently a part of. The community you pick should be one that is meaningful to you. Meaningfulness can vary from person to person—you might think a community where you’re a leader is meaningful, while another person might think a community that connects them to their culture is more meaningful—so it’s important that you make it clear why you find your chosen community important in your essay.

The essay should include a thorough description of the community. For example, telling us, “Every January or February, the Chinese families in my neighborhood gather for a giant Chinese New Year celebration,” doesn’t provide us much imagery to understand the community.

Instead, these sentences provide a wealth of information with their use of imagery: “Crimson and gold dragons danced around the room, which was crowded with dozens of Chinese families hugging and wishing each other a lucky New Year. Crispy chun juan, sugary-sweet tang yuan, and steaming changshou mian adorned the tables, drawing the attention of hungry youngsters.”

In addition to describing the community, you should also establish the role you play in the community. This helps the admissions committee to better understand your involvement with the community and to think about the role you’ll play in the William & Mary community one day. 

Finally, explain the impact of the community on you. This part is extremely important because it allows for self-reflection and lets you demonstrate how you’ve been shaped by the community. The impact could be emotional (for example, feeling like you’ve found a home) or it could be more tangible (maybe you learned a new skill or got to try something you never had the opportunity to do before).

Connect to the William & Mary Community

Once you’ve established your existing community and the important role it played in your high school life, you need to turn your attention towards future you, and think about the William & Mary community.

There are a few ways you can connect the ideas from the first half of your essay to those in the second half.

Firstly, you might want to find a similar community at William & Mary to join. A student who was in their school’s marching band might want to join the marching band at William & Mary to continue playing their instrument and to connect with other students who share a passion for band.

Another option is to seek out a specific community at college. For example, maybe at home you were part of a large Jewish community and didn’t have to go out of your way to connect with others, but at college you plan to join Hillel to ensure you have that established community.

You might choose to instead discuss how you will engage with the William & Mary community more broadly. In that case, you could talk about how you will apply the lessons you learned from being in your community to college. Maybe you learned patience and negotiation from serving on the student government, and you will use those skills to handle disputes that might arise with your dormmates or classmates.

Or, you could describe how you will find ways to get the same impact from a college community that you had in high school. For instance, being a member of the multicultural club allowed you to explore and appreciate new cultures you were never exposed to before, so you are planning on taking language and anthropology classes to keep feeding your fascination with other cultures.

Another way to approach this option is to explain how you want to play a similar role in the William & Mary community. So, if you enjoyed being a leader on your sports team, maybe you want to join student government in college to continue growing your leadership skills.

Regardless of how you connect your previous experiences to a particular college community at W&M, keep in mind that you need to demonstrate both what you will get from the community at W&M and what you can give to it. Many students forget to explain the contribution they can make—whether it be teaching others, helping people as a leader, or something else entirely—so remember to include that in your essay.

This is a fairly direct instance of the common diversity prompt. When colleges have a diversity prompt, they want to know about your own personal background and how it has influenced your worldview and perspectives.

As mentioned in the previous option, in June 2023 the United States Supreme Court struck down the use of affirmative action in college admissions. Nevertheless, colleges can still 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 a great place to discuss that.

In general, such a common prompt can be approached with a traditional answer. You might consider answering this prompt with what you think is the most important part of your identity, then a small discussion about how that aspect of diversity is relevant to you and your general life experiences.

Such a response might be written about one of the following scenarios:

• Using your fluency in another language to help members of a specific community.
• Interpreting a text in class differently from your classmates because of your ethnic culture.
• Having a friend of a different background who has changed your perspective on something important.
• Having an illness or disability that helps you view accessibility through a different lens than your peers.
• Taking on more responsibility in your family due to the illness or loss of a parent.
• Approaching a situation involving money differently than a friend from a different socioeconomic background.

Diversity encompasses all the above attributes, but you should strive for individuality and specificity in your response. This prompt, like the others, is an opportunity to showcase your unique life perspective. You don’t want to waste your essay by writing down bland dictionary definitions. Go beyond what makes you diverse and really think about the impact it has had on your life. How has that aspect of your identity contributed to your growth and development? How has it been a challenge?

Make sure your essay digs deep into how you have been impacted. A decent essay will explain a student’s unique background, but a great essay will describe how that background influenced their actions and personality.

Instead of a traditional “Why This Major?” prompt, this option allows you more freedom to discuss any academic interest or goal. While you can totally approach this essay by discussing your interest in your major, if you feel like you’ve already discussed that a lot elsewhere in your application, don’t be afraid to discuss a more niche passion that isn’t directly related to your major.

Also note that you are asked to share an academic interest or a career goal—you don’t have to squeeze both in. That being said, the two often go hand-in-hand, so if your essay naturally flows from your interest to your career goals, that’s completely fine.

In terms of writing the actual essay, the main thing you need to do is communicate your passion for the topic. The prompt doesn’t ask for you to discuss anything in particular, so you can choose from a variety of essay styles.

• You could talk about your first encounter with the academic subject or career.
• You could explain independent research you conducted related to the field.
• You could share your favorite memory related to the topic.
• You could describe your emotional connection to the interest or career.
• You could explain ways in which you’ve engaged with the topic or career outside of school.

However you choose to approach the essay, it’s crucial that you share new information with the admissions committee. This is an opportunity for you to demonstrate the depth of your passion and provide them with more information about yourself, so if you’ve already talked about volunteering at a hospital in your extracurricular section, either pick a specific anecdote from your time volunteering to highlight your love for it, or find a different way to show your interest in becoming a surgeon.

Let’s look at a sample response from a student.

“I’ve been fascinated with economics since I first heard of bonds and stocks. The market is a constant force that affects our lives in ways most of us never even think about. But what even fewer of us consider is how our own thoughts and decisions influence the market. This phenomenon is better known as economic psychology.

In 10th grade I was able to fully explore my passion for economic psychology when my history teacher assigned us an independent research project. I decided to look at the psychological factors behind the Black Friday market crash of 1929 and compare it to the factors at play during the 2008 financial crisis. Through countless hours of research, I learned about the complexities of economic psychology and my fascination only grew.

Looking to the future, I cannot wait to take my passion for economic psychology and apply it to organizations. Being able to truly understand the impact individuals have on a market can put a company miles ahead of its competitors and even make it easier to more accurately predict economic downturns.”

While this student does share more about their specific interest in an academic subject, the reader doesn’t get a full sense of why this student is passionate about this topic. The essay is missing elaboration and excitement because the student is telling us everything, not showing us.

To fix this essay, let’s zoom into the research project the student did and use that to explain their interest in economic psychology.

“‘You can’t predict the market!’ ‘History repeats itself!’ Well, which is it? If history repeats itself, shouldn’t market trends be somewhat predictable? This question consumed my every thought during my monthlong 10th grade research project. However, my approach differed from the opinions of erudite academics—understand people to understand the market. Assuming the role of an economic psychologist, it was time to learn how people can influence financial markets.

To most people, the 1920s and early 2000s bear zero resemblance. Velvet tracksuits and hip hop convey a very different aesthetic from that of flappers and the jazz age, but to an economic psychologist, those two decades are like twins separated at birth. The financial crisis at the end of each decade could have been predicted if you look at people’s underlying motivations in markets and their attitudes towards risk. It might make Adam Smith roll in his grave, but economics has far more to do with people than it does with math.

It was this realization that got my blood pumping. Suddenly, there’s a new way of looking at the world—a way that builds people back up from the raw numbers economists strip them down to. Understanding the mechanics of economic psychology in the past opens the door to predict market trends in the future. You could call it sorcery; I call it science.

The future of economic psychology is as limitless as our imaginations. I can feel my mind start revving up to pick apart market trends every time the Dow swings. Who is at the root of that downturn? Is the general public experiencing a sense of security right now? Not only have I come to understand economics in a new light, but my perspective on people has also blossomed through my fascination with economic psychology.”

Notice the huge improvement in the level of detail, and thus the interest in the subject, that the student is able to convey by focusing on a specific example? That’s what you should aim for in your essay.

This prompt is similar to the second Common Application prompt on overcoming challenges, so if you already picked that prompt for your Common App essay, maybe don’t choose it again for your supplement. If you haven’t written about a challenge yet though, this prompt could be a good choice.

Whereas most prompts asking about a challenge will ask you how you overcame it, this one does not. Instead, it simply wants to hear about the impact adversity had on you. While you can definitely write about the impact in terms of overcoming the challenge, you aren’t limited to discussing a challenge that you conquered. You can just as easily choose a challenge that persists in your life and explain how you’ve learned to cope with it.

If you are choosing a challenge that you didn’t overcome, just be mindful not to make your essay totally negative and hopeless. No one wants to read an essay where a student complains about the adversity in their life and doesn’t do anything to fix it. It’s okay to discuss how you were negatively impacted by adversity—if anything, that can bring more emotion to your essay—but spin it in a positive light or show your growth from the experience.

The most important part of this essay is demonstrating how the adversity you faced impacted you. The majority of your essay should be centered around this, rather than describing the challenge in detail. But how can you make sure you show the impact?

You might consider drawing a comparison between the before and after of the challenge:

“The balance beam was my home. On that four-inch-wide plank my feet had eyes of their own. With a running start, a springboard, and a half twist in the air, I could land one foot miraculously in front of the other, perfectly posed a meter off the ground. But what once came so easily is just a memory. My broken ankle is like a lead ball chaining me to the ground, even years after the cast came off.

Where I once used to flip through the air like a coin debating between heads and tails, I now sit on the side and get to watch other girls feel the exhilaration that used to be mine. I watch their smiling faces after sticking a landing or the sharp jolt of pain cross their features when they fall off the beam, and my expressionless face hides the agony deep down that there will always be a part of me missing.”

You could include your inner monologue to demonstrate the impact adversity had on your thought process:

“The horrifying crimson 60 across the top of my pristine white paper caused my stomach to lurch. ‘HOW?! I worked so hard for this one. Mr. Andersen has no idea what he’s talking about.’ Content with shoving the blame off myself, I stuffed the crumpled paper into my bag and stormed out the room. ‘What do I do with three failing grades in one quarter? Should I talk to him after school?’ The thought of asking for help felt like a betrayal to my independence, but what other choice did I have?

‘It’s just one conversation. How bad could it be?’ Pushing my stubbornness aside, I reluctantly turned around and slinked back into the classroom. After all, facing Mr. Andersen would be easier than facing my parents.”

Another strategy is describe the impact adversity had on your actions:

“No way was I prepared to take no for an answer. Immediately getting to work, I scribbled out a rough petition to increase funding for the drama department. Turning to my friends in the musical, I got my first signatures. In between classes and bites of cafeteria pizza, I collected signatures like they were my oxygen. Before I even hit 200, I began creating slides with pictures from past productions and testimonials from students.

Every night before bed I practiced my speech in the mirror, stressing different phrases to determine the best way to deliver each line to my audience. At last, the night of the board meeting came. Strolling confidently to the center of the room, I felt the familiar heat of lights in my face and expectant faces ready for me to speak.”

You can also choose to focus on your emotional impact:

“Returning from the hospital at 3am, there was a gut-wrenching loneliness that shrouded every object I looked at. But it was her half-finished crochet blanket that caused white hot tears to sting my eyes. It was too small to fully envelop myself in, and it would forever remain that size. With a blanket unable to warm me from the cold numbness spreading through my fingers and toes, I stared at nothing and surrendered myself to the all-powerful grief at last.”

As you can see, there are many ways to demonstrate the impact the challenge had on you. However, challenges can also have multiple impacts. For instance, the last example shows the negative impact of losing a loved one, but the essay could go on to discuss how the student found ways to remember their family member and to harness their grief to think about happy memories. This would be a good example of discussing a sad challenge but not letting the essay itself turn into something overly depressing to read.

This option is the most lighthearted of all, but just because it isn’t strictly academic doesn’t mean it doesn’t reveal a lot about the student. The purpose of asking this question is to see what types of things you value, based on what you want to show someone about your hometown.

A student who takes the admissions committee on a food crawl of their town would probably be a big foodie. Someone who shows off a historical monument and tells an interesting story about the history behind it likely enjoys history and storytelling. Similarly, someone showing off the soccer field by their school might want to demonstrate their determination by showing the place where they’ve spent countless years practicing.

It’s important that you include explanations about why you’re choosing to show this in your essay to help the admissions committee understand its importance to you and your values.

For example, the student showing a monument shouldn’t say, “I’d show you the statue of Teddy Roosevelt in the park because he was an influential president.” Instead, they should say something like this: “Looking up at Teddy Roosevelt’s figure, I’d explain how his model of diplomacy changed the landscape of international relations in the 20th century, making him a key figure to understand in a postcolonial world.”

You aren’t limited to just showing physical locations or places. If someone came to your hometown you might want to show them the solar-powered toy car you and your friends built because it isn’t easily transportable. Or maybe you want to take the admissions committee to your chorus concert so they can see the hard work that went into the five part harmonies.

Perhaps you would even want to show them something that has changed dramatically or that doesn’t exist anymore, like the corner where you opened your first lemonade stand or your favorite restaurant that went out of business a few years ago.

Here are a few more tips to help you approach this essay:

• Keep your list relatively short. You might be tempted to show off a few different places, but try to keep it to three or fewer. It’s a better idea to give more background and depth for an individual place than to create an itinerary that lacks detail and is full of different stops.
• Have a central theme connecting your places. If you decide to include multiple places, make sure they are all related in some way. For example, you could show the two dance studios and describe your growth in dance as you progressed from one to the other. Or you could pick the three cafés in your town that have the best coffee that gets you through your day.
• Try to avoid generic places. While you might like to show people your house, school, or local mall, there are far more unique options for you to pick that will excite the admissions committee more. Take your time brainstorming to come up with something that is personal to you and won’t be overdone.
• Include anecdotes. The best way to show the reader why the place is important to you is to tell a story about its significance. Bring the reader into one of your memories at the place to show why this is one of your favorite places in your hometown.

This prompt is asking a few different things. First, it wants to know why you’re interested in the particular subject you’re applying to. Second, why the Joint Degree Program? And third, what experiences have you undertaken that prove you want to learn more about other cultures and institutions?

While this prompt isn’t exactly either archetype, it may help you to look at CollegeVine’s guides to the “Why This Major?” prompt and the “Why This College?” prompt.

You can begin the essay by talking about your interest in, and experience with, the major you are applying to. If it’s film studies, for example, open with the story of when you first fell in love with film. Maybe watching Birdman, uniquely filmed to look like a never-ending shot, made you want to learn more about camera angles and the science of cinematography. This is a good way to lead into how you have pursued this interest (i.e., your experience in film studies). Prove that you have lasting passion for the academic area, rather than choosing one on a whim.

Next, you need to demonstrate that the Joint Degree Program is the best way for you to study this topic. That’s going to require specificity, and in order to get there, you need to extensively research the program both at William & Mary and at St. Andrews. As you research, take notes on what makes both institutions unique in this area of study.

Continuing with the example of film studies, here’s an example of some things to note at both schools:

At William & Mary:

• WMTV is a student-run television show at W&M
• Students can submit their films or volunteer at the W&M Global Film Festival

At St. Andrews:

• The Film Studies boardroom has unique virtual reality facilities
• The Byre conference room has 3D projection
• St. Andrews’s library has one of the best cinema collections in the world, with over 9,300 pieces of AV material

You’ll want to note specific characteristics at each school, but you have to make it clear that simply attending one of the institution’s programs is not sufficient to help you reach your goals. This is an important point to stress in your essay to make sure that your interest in the fusion of the two schools is clear. For help with this, be sure to check out the majors page to read up on your chosen subject through the lens of the Joint Degree Program.

As an example, the film studies major in the JDP has students work on an independent research project. Perhaps you are fascinated by the influence of national identity on mainstream media and hope to research this by using W&M and St. Andrews as contrasting case studies. Whatever your story may be, make it clear that the JDP is a fit for your interests and goals, and show that you have done research on the program.

Finally, the third part of the prompt asks you to validate your interest in learning about other cultures and institutions. Perhaps, in the case of film studies, you created a short film in which you interviewed first-generation immigrants in order to study global perspectives and the impact these perspectives have on living and working in America. Show your interest in acquiring a global perspective.

If you haven’t had the opportunity to explore this interest concretely, discuss ways in which you hope to study it in the future. Conclude your essay by tying this back to your aspirations for the future and to how the JDP will help you achieve them.

Where to Get Your William & Mary Essays Edited

Do you want feedback on your W&M essays? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool, where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays.

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!