How to Write the Occidental College Essays 2024-2025
Occidental College (Oxy) has only one essay, with three prompt options. The first prompt is a why this school prompt, the second one asks about diversity, and the third asks about research.
Responding to this prompt is technically optional. However, Occidental is a small, competitive liberal arts school, which means showing your personal fit for the institution is key. This supplemental essay is your chance to do exactly that, so we strongly recommend that you respond to one of these prompts, so that admissions officers have as many chances to get to know you as possible.
Read these Occidental essay examples written by real accepted students to inspire your own writing!
Occidental College Supplemental Essay Prompts
Prompt: Please answer one of the following questions (200 – 250 words):
- Option A: Why are you applying to Occidental? Why do you think Occidental, and our location in Los Angeles, is the right place for you to pursue your interests?
- Option B: Oxy’s central mission emphasizes the value of community amidst diversity. What do you value in a community and how do you see your perspectives and life experiences enhancing it?
- Option C: Research is an integral part of an Oxy education. Completing a senior comprehensive is a requirement of every Oxy student and there are a myriad of opportunities for research throughout your four years. Imagine you were just awarded one of our research grants for a project of your choice. What are you researching and why?
Option A
Why are you applying to Occidental? Why do you think Occidental, and our location in Los Angeles, is the right place for you to pursue your interests? (200-250 words)
This is a classic “Why This College” essay, which asks you why you’re interested in Occidental out of the nearly 4,000 colleges in the United States alone, with the twist of also asking you to address how Oxy’s location in Los Angeles in particular aligns with your goals. To answer this question effectively, you’ll need to demonstrate knowledge of the school’s academic programs and campus culture, as well as the opportunities available in the broader LA area.
You’ll have to balance these elements carefully, though. The #1 trap with this prompt is that you accidentally focus too much on LA, and don’t integrate enough of Occidental’s specific resources and values into your prompt. Even though Oxy’s admissions officers are directly asking you to talk about LA, the bulk of your focus should still be on Oxy, as talking too much about LA could lead to an essay that could easily apply to any of the other schools in the LA area.
Brainstorming Questions
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What academic programs or departments at Occidental are you excited about?
- Are there specific professors, courses, research opportunities, or study abroad programs that appeal to you? Why?
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How does the location in Los Angeles enhance your academic or extracurricular interests?
- Are there cultural, professional, or community-building opportunities in LA that you want to take advantage of? Even better if these opportunities are through Oxy itself!
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What aspects of Occidental’s community or campus culture resonate with you?
- Is there something about the student body, the campus environment, or the college’s values that excites you?
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How do your past experiences and future goals align with what Occidental offers?
- Have you participated in activities, internships, or projects that you want to continue at Occidental?
What Makes a Good Response
- Specificity: Mention specific Occidental programs, professors, or opportunities that align with your interests. Show that you’ve done your research, and aren’t just speaking generally about things you could do at any school.
- Connection to LA: Explain why Occidental’s location in Los Angeles is an essential factor in your decision, and how you plan to take advantage of the city’s resources.
- Personalization: Tie your response to your own experiences, goals, and values. Occidental’s admissions officers should come away from your essay understanding not only why their school is a good fit for you, but also why you’re a good fit for their unique campus community.
Hypothetical Student Examples
- Aspiring Filmmaker: A student passionate about film is excited by the opportunities to engage with the film industry in Los Angeles. However, they want to acquire a well-rounded perspective on the field, so they plan to pursue the interdisciplinary Media Arts and Culture major, and complete the film study abroad program in Prague, so that they can bring a genuinely new perspective to the world of film, which they look forward to sharing even while still in school, through the Oxy Arts program.
- Environmental Science Enthusiast: This student is passionate about sustainability and wants to study Biology with a focus on environmental science. They are drawn to Occidental’s emphasis on environmental stewardship and look forward to conducting research in the Moore Lab of Zoology. They are also excited about the easy access to the Pacific Ocean LA provides, and hope to expand their skillset even further through organizations like the Marine Mammal Care Center Los Angeles.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Being Too Generic: Don’t write about things that could apply to many schools, such as a “beautiful campus” or “strong academic programs.” Focus on what makes Occidental unique–rather than saying “I’ve always wanted to study abroad,” describe how Occidental’s Language & Area Studies program in Rome will allow you to build a bridge from Latin, which you’ve studied in high school, to the modern day.
- Ignoring the Location: The prompt specifically asks about Occidental’s location in Los Angeles, so make sure to address how this city will enhance your education and experiences.
- Name-Dropping Without Context: Mentioning professors or programs without explaining why they are significant to you often comes across as insincere. Make sure to connect the school-specific resources you mention to your own values and goals, so that admissions officers can clearly see why they’re meaningful to you.
Good and Bad Examples
Good Example:
“Growing up, one of my favorite after-school activities was roaming up and down the rows of shelves at ‘The Cozy Cat,’ my local bookshop, and pushing myself to explore new genres, from poetry to historical fiction. I’m drawn to Occidental’s Comparative Studies in Literature & Culture program because of the opportunity to continue this exploration, and develop my understanding of how different texts interact with each other.
I’m especially excited about the course “Shakespeare’s Histories and other Historical Fictions.” Examining how Shakespeare and other prominent English writers both challenged and reinforced certain aspects of the popular narrative of English history will help me grasp the extent to which writers are aware of their place within a broader canon even as they are writing. Additionally, I look forward to working with the LA Public Library’s Street Fleet, to bring books to areas without a ‘Cozy Cat’ of their own, and ensure that all young readers in LA can start learning about the literary tapestry writers have been weaving since human civilization began.”
Why It’s Good: This response connects the student’s longstanding love of literature to a specific, interdisciplinary program at Occidental, and an outreach opportunity in LA’s literary community. Their interest in Occidental specifically is obvious, and they seamlessly incorporate details about how the college’s location in LA will enhance their development as a writer with real-world experience.
Bad Example:
“I’m applying to Occidental because of its excellent English program and beautiful campus, where I can easily imagine myself reading under a tree. The small class sizes will allow me to connect with professors and engage deeply in my studies. Being in Los Angeles, I’ll also have access to plenty of poetry readings and other things that will enhance my classroom learning. I’m excited to take advantage of everything Occidental has to offer.”
Why It’s Bad: This response is too generic and could apply to many colleges–just about every school has an English department. There are no specific details about Occidental’s programs or how the student’s interests align with what the school offers, nor is there a meaningful connection to Los Angeles, beyond a vague mention of poetry readings, which can be found in many cities.
Option B
Oxy’s central mission emphasizes the value of community amidst diversity. What do you value in a community and how do you see your perspectives and life experiences enhancing it? (200-250 words)
This is the classic Diversity Essay, which is a great opportunity to show off your values and beliefs. Before you write, remember that there are two parts to this question: what you value in a community and how you see yourself enhancing that community. With only 250 words, you likely can discuss only one thing you value in a community and one example of how you would enhance it, so choose wisely.
The first part of the prompt—what you value in the community—should be something genuine, and something that you could find at Occidental. Saying you value the competitive spirit of a Division I sports team is nice, but Occidental doesn’t have any Division I teams, so you might not seem like such a good fit for the school.
That said, there are a wide range of values you could hold that would align with what you can find at Oxy:
- Being able to have your deeply-held religious beliefs respectfully challenged in a safe environment.
- Multiculturalism and diversity of perspectives, whether political, social, etc.
- Collaboration and bouncing ideas off of each other
- Supporting the more vulnerable members of the community
- Advocating for change as a collective force
Once you’ve chosen what it is you value in a community, think about how you can pursue that thing at Occidental.
- Someone who values religion and multi-faith literacy might want to be involved in one of Oxy’s nine religious student groups.
- Those who value multiculturalism might want to live in Pauley Hall, a themed living community that aims to promote diversity and equip its residents to thrive in a globalized world.
After you’ve figured out your answer to those first two questions, you need to turn to thinking about how your perspectives and experiences would enhance the community. In other words, show why you’re a good fit for Oxy, not just why Oxy is a good fit for you.
Here are some examples:
- Throughout high school, maybe you were an active member of a religious group that frequently hosted multi-faith discussions and events. You felt like these events were safe places for attendees to dissect their deeply-held beliefs, and respectfully present contrasting perspectives. You want to bring this open-mindedness to Oxy, especially when it comes to religious life.
- Perhaps you grew up in a multicultural home, as your parents are from different countries. This allowed you to experience two very different cultures and meet people from around the world. You want to share the food and customs from those cultures, and promote diversity at Oxy.
Overall, remember that this essay is not only about community, but how you interact with a community. Once you’ve figured out what you value in a community, think about how Occidental would give you that thing, and how your own experiences would make Oxy’s campus a more vibrant place.
Option C
Research is an integral part of an Oxy education. Completing a senior comprehensive is a requirement of every Oxy student and there are a myriad of opportunities for research throughout your four years. Imagine you were just awarded one of our research grants for a project of your choice. What are you researching and why? (200-250 words)
For this prompt, you want to explain not just what you’re interested in, but also why. In other words, you should have a degree of personal investment in the thing you’d hypothetically research. If your interest in, say, Dante’s Divine Comedy is more academic, and you’re not sure you’d be able to build a connection to your personal life, that’s okay, but in that case you’d likely be better off choosing one of the other prompt options.
If you’re wondering what this personal connection might look like, here’s an example:
“The 2008 financial crisis hit my family hard. After both my parents lost their jobs, my family had to make sacrifices to keep a roof over our heads. My meals came to consist of rice and beans and beans and rice, and on Sundays bologna with pasta. While no more trips to Disneyland was disappointing, my frequently grumbling stomach was the one lifestyle adjustment I had real trouble powering through. Due to my firsthand experience with food insecurity, I would like to research solutions to make healthy food more accessible to all, so others can stay hungry for knowledge rather than protein.”
This essay would be far more impactful than one written by a student who is writing about food insecurity from a detached perspective. Now, your connection may not be this direct, which is completely fine. You could write an excellent essay on, for example, going to Seattle Mariners baseball games with your dad all your life has made you curious about how teams evaluate young players, and the potential of mathematical models to improve those evaluations.
Once you’ve chosen a topic for research and explained your interest in it, take your time to look into past senior comps and the current research opportunities available at Oxy, so you can give a specific pitch for how you would utilize resources particular to Oxy─professors, grants, classes, internship or study abroad programs, etc.─for your own research.
The key is that the resources you identify are genuinely unique to Oxy. Just saying “I’d like to do research with a professor who does work on x” doesn’t count, because there are probably thousands of professors out there, at schools all over the country, doing work on that thing. Instead, you’ll want to dig deeper: actually find the name of a professor doing work in the area you’re interested in, and explain which specific skills you’d hope to learn from them.
For example, the student interested in food insecurity could talk about how they want to research ways to make healthy food more accessible at food banks through the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute. There, they see Professor Sharon Cech being an invaluable resource for them, as she has a wealth of experience working with farmers to bring fresh food into urban Los Angeles, and the student hopes to collaborate with her on increasing access to that produce within the city.
Where to Get Your Occidental College Essays Edited For Free
Do you want feedback on your Oxy 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.
Need feedback faster? Get a free, nearly-instantaneous essay review from Sage, our AI tutor and advisor. Sage will rate your essay, give you suggestions for improvement, and summarize what admissions officers would take away from your writing. Use these tools to improve your chances of acceptance to your dream school!
