CollegeVine College Essay Team December 10, 2024 12 Essay Breakdowns,Essay Guides 2024-25

How to Write the UMass Lowell Essays 2024-2025

As part of the University of Massachusetts system, UMass Lowell offers a strong education. Although they do not require applicants to submit essays, they offer two optional prompts for you to respond to. If you wish to submit essays to bolster your application, we will cover how you can write strong responses in this post to help you as you prepare to apply.

UMass Lowell Supplemental Essays

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This prompt asks you to reflect on your personal identity and the communities that have shaped you, and to connect that with how you will grow and contribute at UMass Lowell. The key here is to discuss not only your aspirations, but also how your background, identity, and communities will play a role in shaping your future. Let’s unpack what a great response looks like. 

There are three main pieces to a successful response. You’ll want to describe who you are, what your dreams might be, and how UMass Lowell will help you achieve your goals. This may sound relatively straightforward, but a strong response will use every one of the approximately 500 words available. 

As you begin to form a response, consider what identities or experiences of yours have most influenced your growth and development, as well as what will be most salient on UMass Lowell’s campus. Reflect on what your academic and career goals are, and what steps you plan to take towards those goals. Once you have these two pieces set, you can conduct some research into how you as an individual can best use campus resources to achieve the objectives you’ve set for yourself.

Every part of these requirements is unique to you, so it’s important that your response is just as individual and specific as you are. If your identity is captured in all its complexity, and your goals are connected to that identity and formed just to you, that’s an excellent thing. However, if your connection to UMass Lowell is generic and poorly researched, the admissions committee will see that you’re a great applicant, but not that you’re serious about their university. Each piece is necessary to create a compelling essay. 

Let’s look at one excerpt that shows how these three elements can come together to create a gripping essay. 

“The roar of engines and the smell of gasoline are embedded in my earliest memories of summer days spent in the garage with my father, who spent his weekends fixing old cars for friends and neighbors. Growing up in a working-class, Latino community, I learned early on that resourcefulness and perseverance were key to overcoming the obstacles we faced. My dream is to become a mechanical engineer, working to design affordable, fuel-efficient vehicles for underserved communities like mine. UMass Lowell’s hands-on approach to engineering education, particularly through the Advanced Vehicle Technology Competitions, excites me because it aligns with my goal of using engineering for social good. I hope to contribute to the diversity and inclusion initiatives on campus, bringing a unique perspective shaped by my lived experience, while also gaining the technical skills I need to make my dreams a reality.”

This response shines because we learn about the student’s past and their future, and that future takes place on UMass Lowell’s campus. They connect their background and identities not just to their future goals, but to UMass Lowell, and as well as saying how the school will serve their passions, they mention the strengths and contributions they will bring to college with them. This helps the admissions committee imagine them as an enthusiastic, engaged, contributing member of the campus community. 

The second of UMass Lowell’s prompts has five options to choose from. If you decide to submit an essay for this prompt, you will only have to respond to one of the following options. We will go through each one in detail.

While this last essay is optional, we highly recommend completing it, as it gives you another chance to tell the admissions team about who you are and what you care about, as well as demonstrating how serious you are about your application by taking the time to complete another essay. 

If you choose Option A, you’ve picked the Extracurricular archetype. This essay provides you the opportunity to talk about something you’ve deeply engaged with, and show how and why you’re passionate about it. Not only that, it’s a chance to highlight a formative experience, showcase personal growth, and demonstrate through one concrete example how you engage with the world around you.

As you consider this prompt, notice that you are not being asked to list accomplishments, hours spent on this activity, or a number of different activities you enjoy. Rather, you want to focus on personal development and how this activity or extracurricular has changed you for the better. 

For this, it helps to be specific and reflective. Don’t simply say something had an impact – demonstrate what the impact was, and what exactly was so meaningful about it. 

What might this look like? Let’s look at a few student examples that answer this prompt particularly well. 

• Rosa has been volunteering with a local animal shelter since she was 14. When she first started, she just loved animals but didn’t see herself as a leader. Over the years, she developed empathy not just for the animals, but for the people who came to the shelter during difficult times. This experience taught her patience, leadership (as she began training new volunteers), and the value of community service, which she plans to continue in college through student-led animal welfare clubs.
• Jordan plays guitar at their local church every Sunday. While the initial draw was their love of music, over time, the sense of responsibility and the connection with the congregation deepened their commitment. Their involvement showed them how powerful music can be in bringing people together and provided them with a space to develop discipline and accountability.
• Carlie spent her summers as a counselor at a camp for children who have experienced grief. The first summer was challenging, and Carlie felt overwhelmed by the responsibility. However, by the second year, she grew into her role, developing resilience and compassion. She now sees this experience as one that helped her become more patient and adaptable, and it has inspired her to pursue a career in social work.

As you review these examples, you’ll notice that each one focuses on a specific setting, allowing the applicant to fully explore that activity’s impact on their life. Each highlights other traits along with commitment to an extracurricular – leadership, discipline, and compassion. Finally, each pays special attention to how the activity changed these students and helped them grow. These are all powerful tools that you can use in your own essay. 

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This option falls under the scope of the Overcoming Challenges archetype, with a focus on how you sought out and benefited from support services to improve an academic aspect of your life. The admissions committee wants to see how you’ve been resilient, used available resources, and advocated for yourself, as well as the positive outcomes of these actions.

Let’s begin by talking about what might qualify as support services. This might be tutoring, academic advising, mental health counseling, disability services, or another resource local to you or your school. You’ll want to choose a specific instance, and spend some time thinking about how this resource helped you. This question does focus on academics, so you’ll want to think of academic support services, but don’t fall into the trap of thinking only about grades. Being expansive in your definition of “meaningful difference” allows you to demonstrate reflection and a capacity to grow in many different ways, beyond a grade in a class. 

Though you want your response to focus on your success and the difference in your life, don’t forget to discuss the challenge that inspired you to reach out for help. This helps clarify the stakes, as well as reminding the admissions committee that you took initiative in response to a problem you identified. This allows you to demonstrate the most growth, and to explain why this situation was important and meaningful to you, which helps make the essay more personal and thus more memorable. 

Let’s look at an example of a strong essay that incorporates all of these elements. 

“The first time I walked into the tutoring center, I felt like a failure. I had always been the student who never needed help – often, I was the one offering it. Then, in my junior year, I started calculus, and all that accumulated confidence went down the drain. After failing my first exam, I realized that my usual study habits weren’t enough for this class. If I didn’t get support, I might not pass the course at all. Reluctantly, I signed up for weekly tutoring sessions, worried that asking for help meant I wasn’t good enough. Maybe, all those years of confidence in the classroom had really been me fooling everyone, including myself.

In my sessions, I quickly discovered that tutoring wasn’t just about solving specific problems—it was about learning how to learn. My tutor broke down concepts in a way that finally made sense, and more importantly, she encouraged me to embrace mistakes as part of the process, not something to fear. As I began to see improvement, my confidence grew. By the time I took the final exam, I had gone from barely passing to earning an A. More importantly, I learned that asking for help is not a sign of weakness, but a crucial step in growth. This experience has shifted the way I approach challenges—not just in academics, but in life. My brittle confidence in pure knowledge gone, I now face the classroom with tried-and-tested faith in my ability to learn.”

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This prompt wants to dig deep into leadership, and your understanding of it. This is a great opportunity to show off your own leadership skills, as well as a deep understanding and appreciation for what makes a great leader. You’ll want to highlight your personal leadership style, show how you’ve taken initiative, and demonstrate the positive impact you’ve made on others.

As you consider this prompt, keep in mind that you have two objectives. The first is to define what makes a leader effective, and the second is to share your own leadership in action – an example that should definitely follow your definition of an effective leader!

Remember, leadership doesn’t need to be about a formal title or role. While it can be those things, it can also be stepping up in a time of need, guiding others, making a difference in a group, or assuming responsibilities. Consider the following examples as you reflect on what leadership can look like:

• Class presidency, running a club, or being captain of a sports team. 
• Organizing an event, tradition, or program, and taking responsibility for making sure it goes smoothly. 
• Founding or starting something like a club or group project. 
• Advocating for a cause in your community. 
• Mentoring younger students, peers, friends, or siblings. 
• Being the first to do, adopt, or learn something new. 
• Leading by example; conducting yourself in a particular way to help guide others in the same path. 

Each of these examples could showcase leadership, but they also emphasize different aspects of leadership. Some highlight the courage that might be involved – being the first to do something, or taking a risk by founding something. Others speak to the community aspects of leadership – leading a group, mentoring others, or modeling particular behavior. Still others address the visionary qualities of leadership, in advocating for a cause. Many of them also overlap and demonstrate multiple qualities. 

The most important thing is to pick a definition of leadership that speaks to you, and an example from your own life that illustrates this particular philosophy. Bringing your authentic personal experience will make this essay more compelling and more specific to you, so try to pick a topic that shares your unique viewpoint and style. 

Finally, as you write this essay, make sure you’re picking something that’s important and that the admissions committee will appreciate and take seriously. You don’t want to spend your whole essay talking about how visionary and courageous you are – you want to show your impact on others, both because it speaks to your influence, and because it shows you care about those around you who you might influence. A leader isn’t much of a leader unless people care to follow them, after all. 

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This prompt is an example of the “Why This College” archetype, and is a perfect choice for an applicant who wants to demonstrate just how much they care about UMass Lowell. This prompt asks you to first discuss why you are interested in UMass Lowell, and then to describe why UMass Lowell should be interested in you. Your response should be personalized and demonstrate how UMass Lowell aligns with your academic and personal goals while showing that you’ve thoughtfully considered how you’ll get involved in campus life.

As you brainstorm answers to these questions, doing some research and reflection can be helpful. Looking into UMass Lowell’s offerings will give you insight into what’s special about the school, and why you might want to go there. Reflecting on your own goals, needs, and desires for college will help you pinpoint why you would be a good fit for the campus. 

If you’re feeling lost on how to make these points unique and compelling, consider these questions as you craft your essay. 

• What programs, resources, or opportunities at UMass Lowell are exciting to you? Are there any unique aspects of the campus, like professors, labs, or facilities, that you wouldn’t get access to anywhere else?
• Are there any aspects of campus that align with your goals or passions? How do you envision participating in or contributing to these aspects of the school?
• What qualities, skills, or experiences do you bring to campus life? Why are these especially valuable at UMass Lowell?
• How does the campus culture align with your values or personality? Is there something unique about the school’s student life, diversity, or community service opportunities that excites you?

Use these questions to guide your essay, and then take the chance to really show off your deep knowledge of UMass Lowell and of yourself. This is a great way to prove you really are excited about the school, and that you’re self-aware and reflective enough to know why exactly these things are exciting. By writing well about yourself, you can get the admissions committee just as excited about you. 

Here, you have the opportunity to use whatever way you choose to express your best qualities to UMass Lowell. The prompt is asking you to reflect on the traits, motivations, or experiences that will enable you to thrive as a student. The admissions committee is interested in learning how your personal qualities will contribute to your academic success and how you’ve prepared yourself for the challenges of college.

This prompt is pretty open-ended, so you have a lot of options for crafting a strong response. You might choose a particular story that illuminates your best character traits, but you also might pick a more unusual or unexpected structure like a letter to your future self or a schedule of your typical day at Umass Lowell. The key is to drill down on a few specific traits, demonstrate them in yourself, and describe how they will aid you at UMass Lowell. 

It might sound like a good idea to rattle off a laundry list of excellent traits, but with only 250 words to work with, you’ll want to focus on quality over quantity. Choosing two to four traits that you can dive deeper into and making sure that you display them fully will have a much stronger impact than skimming through twelve traits that you merely tell the admissions committee you possess. You’ll find that taking the time to show these traits is often much more effective than merely writing them out. 

Along with quality over quantity and showing not telling, a great essay will show personal growth and link your best qualities to your future at UMass Lowell. You can do this through talking about clubs or communities you plan to join (or even form) or actions you will take while on campus. This will help the admissions committee envision you as someone who is prepared to arrive and thrive at their school. 

Where to Get Your UMass Lowell Essays Edited For Free

Want feedback on your UMass Lowell essays to improve your chances at admission? When you’ve proofread your essay a dozen times, it can be hard to even spot where there’s room for improvement. That’s why we’ve created our free Peer Essay Review tool, where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also sharpen 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!