How to Write a Stellar “Why This College?” Essay + Examples
What’s Covered:
- FAQs About the “Why This College?” Essay
- Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Good “Why This College?” Essay Examples
- Brainstorming for the “Why This College?” Essay
- Where to Get Your “Why This College?” Essay Edited For Free
One of the most common college essay supplements will ask you to answer the question: “Why This College?” These essays are looking to see whether you’re a good fit for the campus community, and whether the college is a good fit for you and your goals.
In this post, we’ll show you a couple examples of these prompts, go over good and bad sample responses, and break down how to ensure yours is one of the good ones.
Sample “Why This College?” Prompts
Let’s start by taking a look at real prompts from the 2024-2025 applications cycle that fit under the “Why This College?” archetype:
Dartmouth: As you seek admission to Dartmouth’s Class of 2029, what aspects of the college’s academic program, community, and/or campus environment attract your interest? How is Dartmouth a good fit for you? (100 words)
Lehigh: How did you first learn about Lehigh University and what motivated you to apply? (50-200 words)
As you can see, these prompts are basically asking why you want to attend the school in question. Dartmouth goes into more detail by asking you to identify specific aspects of the school that interest you.
Note that both prompts have fairly restrictive word counts, which is common—usually, this prompt has a limit between 100-250 words. That’s not a lot of space for arguably the most important question you’ll have to answer, so you want to make sure you’re using the words you do have wisely.
FAQs About the “Why This College?” Essay
What are colleges looking for in the “Why This College?” essay?
First, schools are trying to evaluate whether or not a particular applicant will thrive on their campus. In addition to good grades and extracurriculars, they want to see that you understand the culture of their school, and are excited to take advantage of all they have to offer, not just within the classroom. A strong response should spell out specific ways the college can support your goals, and demonstrate genuine enthusiasm about the institution.
On a practical level, colleges want to admit students who are likely to enroll. “Yield” refers to the percentage of accepted students who ultimately enroll at a school, and schools care about their yield rates, as they’re often factored into rankings. This kind of essay allows admissions officers to get a feel for whether a student is genuinely interested in a school, or only applying for prestige or to round out their list.
Which colleges have a “Why This College?” essay?
This is one of the most popular supplements among colleges. Here is a selection of schools that often ask this question (note that supplemental essay prompts can change year to year):
- Dartmouth
- Lehigh
- Brown
- UChicago
- Duke
- Columbia
- Boston University
- University of Michigan
- Tufts
Check out our essay guides for these schools for more in-depth advice on how to respond to this essay for a specific school.
What kind of writing style should I use?
This is a straightforward question that generally has a short word count, so you can be direct about what you like about the school and why. If the prompt gives you slightly more words (300+), you can incorporate some narrative-style writing, but in shorter essays that isn’t the most productive use of space.
Do make sure you’re using varied sentence structure and highlighting the most important reasons why you want to attend the school. You don’t want your essay to sound like “I want to go to [school] because of [major]. I also like [extracurricular]. Additionally, I’d love to do [study abroad program].” This kind of dry, formulaic writing can easily cause your admissions officer to tune out.
Rather, pick 2-3 aspects of the school that you’re especially excited about. Describing fewer opportunities in detail will go further than giving a long, bullet-pointy list. Additionally, being more selective about the reasons you provide will allow you to personalize the essay more. Just mentioning that you visited campus won’t help you stand out, as many students have done that.
Highlighting the class you sat in on, and how it connects to your current interests, on the other hand, will paint a clear picture in the admissions officer’s mind of what you’d look like as a student at their institution.
Can I copy and paste my essay for other schools?
Absolutely not. The #1 rule with this kind of essay is that if you could just swap out the name of the school and it would still make sense, it’s not specific enough.
You can use your other essays for inspiration during brainstorming, as there might be similar things about multiple schools that appeal to you, and opportunities you discovered at School Y might help guide your research about School X. But the resources you ultimately incorporate into your essay should be highly specific to the college you’re actually writing about.
Common Mistakes When Writing the “Why This College?” Essay
The most common mistake students make is listing generic characteristics that could apply to any school. This mistake suggests you didn’t do your research, which in turn makes your interest in the school seem inauthentic.
You also want to avoid talking about only the most famous aspect of a school. Just speaking generally about something that draws many students to a school won’t help you stand out. What you can do instead is connect this general attribute to your personal experiences and goals for college, to show how you will actively enhance this part of the school’s culture.
Example of what NOT to write: I’m applying to Dartmouth because of its low student to faculty ratio, strong language programs, and connection to the outdoors. When I visited campus, the school already felt like home.
This example is bad because many schools have low student to faculty ratios and strong language programs, and thousands of students are likely going to casually mention Dartmouth’s connection to the outdoors in their essay. Plus, there are lots of other schools out there that are connected to the outdoors, like Bowdoin, Colby, Bates, etc. Remember, if your statements can apply to many other schools, that’s definitely not a good sign (avoid things like location, weather, size, and ranking).
The student also uses an emotional appeal with the line “it felt like home,” which might sound nice, but it has no substance and can be written for any school. We have no idea what about Dartmouth made it feel like home, and so we don’t have any sense for how the student would fit into the campus community.
Lastly, the student doesn’t connect Dartmouth to their own interests. We have no idea why they care about the language programs as opposed to, say, the math or history departments. Your goal is to show not only why Dartmouth is a great fit for you, but also why you are a great fit for Dartmouth.
To summarize, the main mistakes to avoid are:
- Citing generic or widely known aspects of the school (location, weather, size, ranking, etc.)
- Using empty emotional appeals
- Not describing your goals and interests
Good “Why This College?” Essay Examples
Now that we know what a bad example might look like, here’s an excerpt from a stronger example:
What TO write: Having studied Latin for four years, I’m curious to see the language’s evolution into modern Italian, which makes Dartmouth’s Italian program the perfect fit. Thanks to the small class sizes and undergraduate research programs like HARP, I’ll be able to connect early with professors like Dr. Danielle Callegari, a renowned Dantista who can help me understand how Dante’s writing laid the foundation for modern Italian.
This is a good example of how you want to write about a given opportunity, as the student not only identifies the specific language they’re interested in (Italian), but also says why (they have a background in Latin), and what about Dartmouth makes the school the right place for the student to explore this interest (a professor with similar interests).
This is just an excerpt, but if you want an example of a complete essay, here’s this real student’s response to a past “Why This College?” prompt from Boston University:
Prompt: In no more than 250 words, please tell us why BU is a good fit for you and what specifically has led you to apply for admission.
Boston University’s College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) attracts me because of its support of interdisciplinary study among its wide array of majors. In fact, the CAS now offers a course that combines biology, chemistry, and neuroscience. As I hope to conduct medical research into brain disorders, I plan to pursue all three areas of study. These cross-disciplinary connections at BU will prepare me to do so.
CAS’s undergraduate research program would allow me to work with a mentor, such as Dr. Alice Cronin-Golomb or Dr. Robert M.G. Reinhart related to their research on neurological disorders. With them, I can advance the work I have already completed related to Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). In a summer class at our local university, my partner and I extracted data from fMRI and PET studies and inputted them into a coding program. We then created an indicator map, which we imported into another software program, AFNI, to display significant activity in the brain regions affected by DID. Seeing the representation of our data thrilled me because I knew it could eventually help people who live with DID. I want to experience that feeling again. Successfully analyzing these fMRI and PET studies and learning to code drives me to pursue more research opportunities, and this desire motivates me to study at a university that offers research opportunities to undergraduates. BU’s interdisciplinary approach to psychology and support for independent undergraduate undergraduate research will optimally prepare me for a career as a neurological researcher.
This student clearly outlines BU-specific resources (the interdisciplinary course and undergrad research program), plus explains how these resources align with their professional goals (to become a neurological researcher). They mention professors whose work clearly relates to the student’s interests, so we can see the student has done their homework and hasn’t just plopped down names at random.
The student also provides context on why they want to pursue research, and shows that they already have experience, which makes their interest in the undergrad research program more concrete. Make sure you’re giving this context, as otherwise you risk sounding like you’re just mentioning things that sound impressive, but aren’t actually interesting to you.
The only thing missing from this essay is the student’s fit with BU in terms of extracurriculars and social life. “Why This College?” essays should primarily be academically focused, as colleges are schools first and foremost, but the residential college experience is about more than just class and homework. Especially at more selective schools where many applicants have strong grades and test scores, admissions officers want to see how you’ll contribute to their broader campus community.
70% academic, 30% social/extracurricular is about the ratio you want to hit, although with extremely short supplements (less than 100 words), you might need to scrap the social element, which is fine. If you’re writing a longer essay but still the word count with just academics, see if there’s anything you mention which already comes up elsewhere in your application, as that part could be shortened.
For example, this student probably already talked about their research experience in their Common App activities section, they could’ve summarized their research background more briefly, and used the space saved to talk about a specific social aspect of BU that interests them.
Remember, admissions officers don’t read these essays in a vacuum—they’re part of your broader application, so if you’re talking about something you already discuss elsewhere, there’s no need to repeat yourself fully. Just jog your reader’s memory and then explain why this experience is relevant in this new context
If you want to better understand what makes a strong response, check out more “Why This College?” essay examples!
Brainstorming for the “Why This College?” Essay
Now that we’ve gone through a couple examples, you might be wondering how to get started yourself.
Here are three steps we recommend to get your essay underway:
- Reflect on your academic and career goals
- Research unique opportunities related to your academic and extracurricular interests
- Pick your top academic reasons for applying, and your top extracurricular/social reasons
1. Reflect on your academic and career goals.
The driver behind this essay needs to be you, not the school itself. Anyone can write nice things about the college, but only you can build a bridge between this specific institution and yourself.
Ask yourself:
-
What do you want to major in, if you know? If you’re undecided, what are the subjects you’re interested in? Why?
- Example: Enjoying history classes because you like identifying patterns across long time periods
-
Which career do you want to pursue, or what are the potential options?
- Example: Being a vet, or, if you don’t know to that degree of specificity, you might say “I want to do something that allows me to work with animals”
-
What do you want to get out of college? Any particular skills or experiences?
- Example: Learning a new coding language, studying abroad in a specific country, or trying a particular new activity that you haven’t had the chance to explore in high school
Once you have a clear idea of your plans for college/the future, then you can dig into how the college can support those plans. If you don’t know every single detail, that’s okay! Part of the point of college is to figure out more specifically what you want from your future. You just want some broad strokes that can at least loosely structure your essay.
2. Research unique opportunities related to your academic, career, and extracurricular interests.
You might be wondering where you can find all these specific courses, clubs, and other resources you’re supposed to mention. The school’s website is a good place to start, or if you have a general idea of what you’re looking for, you can even use Google with the school name in your search, such as “Dartmouth orchestra.”
AI can also provide a useful initial summary of what a school has to offer in a specific area (music, for example), but make sure you cross-check with the school’s official site. Offerings can change year to year based on student interests, and you don’t want to accidentally cite a course or club that no longer exists!
Take a look at the website of your department/major and dig into the courses, fellowships, internships, and other resources. For course syllabi, you can visit the website of the professor who’s teaching the course; they’ll often post more detailed information than the online course catalog, including readings and concepts to be covered.
Clubs may have their own websites, but you can also try to find their Facebook groups or Instagram pages, which might be more current and even show events they’re hosting.
If you can, try to speak with a current student. Your school counselor may be able to connect you with one, or you can also reach out to the admissions office to see if they can connect you. If not, speaking with an admissions officer is also great, or you can try to find day-in-the-life videos on YouTube.
3. Pick your top academic reasons for applying, and your top extracurricular/social reasons.
Once you’ve done your research and found specific opportunities to cite in your essay, pick your top 1-3 academic reasons and top 1-3 extracurricular ones, depending on the word count. Going back to the Dartmouth essay, the good example we gave mentioned one research program and one professor, and was already at 65 words (out of 100).
Keep in mind that you not only have to describe resources specific to the school, but also how they’ll contribute to your goals. This personal aspect is just as important as the actual opportunities, so be sure to allot space to describe why exactly these resources make the school a good fit for you, rather than just trying to cram as much in as possible.
When it comes to academic reasons, you are free to list anything from special dual-degree programs to unique majors to specific courses and professors. We want to caution you against “name-dropping” professors, however. Their work should clearly fit with your established interests and future goals. Otherwise, you might come across as disingenuous.
We also want to reiterate that you should be sure to not only talk about academics in your essay, but also extracurriculars (unless the prompt specifically asks you to focus only on academics, or if the word count is unusually short). Again, college isn’t just about what you do in the classroom. Admissions committees want to be sure that accepted students will also contribute to the wider college community.
Ultimately, your essay should do two things:
- Reveal more about your goals and interests.
- Describe how the school can help you develop your interests and reach your goals, by naming highly specific and unique campus resources, both academic and extracurricular.
If your essay checks both of those boxes, you’re well on your way to making your candidacy more compelling to admissions officers!
Where to Get Your “Why This College?” Essay Edited For Free
Do you want free, nearly-instantaneous feedback on your “Why This College” essays? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. So meet Sage, our AI tutor and advisor, who will rate your essay, give you suggestions for improvement, and summarize what admissions officers would take away from your writing. Sage can improve your chances of acceptance to your dream school by helping you show what you have to offer beyond the numbers!
