Boston College offers four supplemental essay choices for 2023-2024 applicants. This flexibility is a fantastic opportunity for students to highlight their specific strengths and personality. Applicants must respond to one of the prompts #1-4, unless they’re applying for the Human-Centered Engineering major, in which case they must respond to prompt #5 only.
With a word limit of 400, this supplemental essay allows for a bit more creativity while still ensuring applicants demonstrate their ability to formulate clear and concise responses.
All four options touch upon the applicant’s ability to engage with social issues through a personal lens. Supplemental essays provide students a chance to stand out through sharing their unique perspective and individual interests.
Boston College is considered a top Jesuit educational institution. While students do not need to be religious to attend, Jesuit colleges share a set of key values including justice, care, and collaboration. When writing this supplemental essay, think about how you connect with one or more of these values, and relate your answer to these life experiences.
Boston College’s Supplemental Essays
1. Each year at University Convocation, our incoming class engages in reflective dialogue with the author of a common text. What book by a living author would you recommend for your incoming class to read, and why would this be an important shared text?
2. At Boston College, we draw upon the Jesuit tradition of finding worthwhile conversation partners. Some support our viewpoints while others challenge them. Who fulfills this role in your life? Please cite a specific conversation you had where this conversation partner challenged your perspective or you challenged theirs.
3. In her November 2019 Ted Talk, “The Danger of a Single Story,” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi warned viewers against assigning people a “single story” through assumptions about their nationality, appearance, or background. Discuss a time when someone defined you by a single story. What challenges did this present and how did you overcome them?
4. Boston College’s founding in 1863 was in response to society’s call. That call came from an immigrant community in Boston seeking a Jesuit education to foster social mobility. Still today, the University empowers its students to use their education to address society’s greatest needs. Which of today’s local or global issues is of particular concern to you and how might you use your Boston College education to address it?
5. Human-Centered Engineering (HCE) Applicants only: One goal of a Jesuit education is to prepare students to serve the Common Good. Human-Centered Engineering at Boston College integrates technical knowledge, creativity, and a humanistic perspective to address societal challenges and opportunities. What societal problems are important to you and how will you use your HCE education to solve them?
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By working on your applications NOW, you will be ready to reap the benefit of increased odds in the early round of admissions. Top Tier Admissions is tracking supplemental essay prompts for all top schools here — we look forward to supporting you!
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