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MIT Supplemental Essays 2022-2023

By Eric Eng

By Eric Eng

View of MIT building surrounded by leaves.

MIT Supplemental Essays 2022-2023

When it comes to applying to the top schools in the country, your application is vitally important. In order to give yourself the best chance of gaining admission, you need to make sure all aspects of your application are top-notch.

In this post, we’re going to do a deep dive into how to write MIT supplemental essays and everything you need to keep in mind as you write.

MIT does not use the common app, so this means that MIT requires that you complete several short essays about your personal or intellectual growth.

The MIT supplemental essays 2022-2023 allow applicants a certain amount of freedom when choosing their supplemental essay topic. Still, we’re going to look at each essay prompt and discuss the best way to respond to each topic.

So, let’s start by looking at each supplemental essay prompt, and then we will discuss how to approach each one individually.

The MIT Supplemental Essay Prompts 2022-2023

When it comes to answering the MIT supplemental essays 2022-2023, there are several factors that you need to keep in mind.

This requires having a strategy for your responses, and luckily, we’re going to go over each essay prompt one by one. For the 2022-2023 MIT application, the essay questions are as follows:

  • We know you lead a busy life, full of activities, many of which are required of you. Tell us about something you do simply for the pleasure of it.
  • Describe the world you come from (for example, your family, school, community, city, or town). How has that world shaped your dreams and aspirations?
  • MIT brings people with diverse backgrounds and experiences together to better the lives of others. Our students work to improve their communities in different ways, from tackling the world’s biggest challenges to being a good friend. Describe one way you have collaborated with people who are different from you to contribute to your community.
  • Tell us about a significant challenge you’ve faced (that you feel comfortable sharing) or something that didn’t go according to plan. How did you manage the situation?

We’re looking for responses of approximately 200 words each. There is also one final, open-ended, additional-information text box where you can tell us anything else you think we really ought to know.

How to write the MIT supplemental essays?

Each of these questions provides you with a different opportunity to express your intellectual curiosity as well as your personal growth. Let’s take a look at the first question.

  • We know you lead a busy life, full of activities, many of which are required of you. Tell us about something you do simply for the pleasure of it.

Many schools are now using some form of this question because it allows them to get a better idea of who you really are. Every elite school assumes that your studies are very important to you, but your classes and grades only tell part of your story. Like all of these questions, there is no “right” way to respond. The key is to reflect on your life, and what is important to you. You can speak about your involvement in athletics and why that has been meaningful. You could also highlight your academic interests outside of the classroom.

This is also true of the second question.

  • Describe the world you come from (for example, your family, school, community, city, or town). How has that world shaped your dreams and aspirations?

Applicants to MIT come from all over the world, and they have wildly different life experiences. The key to answering this question is in the second part rather than the first.

The first part of the question asks you to describe the world you come from. MIT knows that you had little to no control over this, so do your best to be evocative when describing your origins.

The point isn’t that you came from an impressive or incredibly difficult background, but rather the role your background has had in shaping you. Your particular history isn’t nearly as important as the lessons and values you’ve taken from it.

The third question focuses on two points which you will need to intertwine.

  • MIT brings people with diverse backgrounds and experiences together to better the lives of others. Our students work to improve their communities in different ways, from tackling the world’s biggest challenges to being a good friend. Describe one way you have collaborated with people who are different from you to contribute to your community.

The prompt begins by asking you to consider the diversity you have experienced in your life, but it also asks you to reflect on an experience in which you successfully collaborated with people who are different from you.

Again, applicants come from all backgrounds, and the concept of “diversity” in this prompt is used fairly widely. Mostly what you should focus on in this prompt is how you harnessed your integrity and leadership skills to solve a problem or accomplish a goal.

But you also need to consider that this accomplishment isn’t just about you. Instead, it’s about how you have managed to work in collaboration with others. Are there specific experiences in your life in which you had to work in a team and you thrived?

  • Tell us about a significant challenge you’ve faced (that you feel comfortable sharing) or something that didn’t go according to plan. How did you manage the situation?

This prompt asks you to reflect on an experience in which you were able to solve a problem of overcome a challenge. The key to responding to this prompt is to focus on your problem-solving skills.

How did you first realize there was a challenge? What actions did you take? What was the resolution of the challenge? And finally, what did you learn from it? MIT wants students who can use their creativity to find creative solutions. This is your chance to show just how clever you can be when it comes to confronting a challenge.

There is no absolute MIT supplemental essay word limit, but they ask that you try to keep your responses to around two-hundred words.

This can be difficult because you have so much to say, but that is part of the challenge. You need to find ways to distill all of your ideas down to a manageable essay that is easy to ready.

Finally, there is a space for you to add a short essay about anything you’d like.

There is also one final, open-ended, additional-information text box where you can tell us anything else you think we really ought to know.

This is a great opportunity because you can use it in a variety of different ways. Some students feel as though they need to convey information that isn’t covered in the MIT supplemental essays for 2022-2023.

While other students may choose to use this space to relate fun or interesting experiences. However, you choose to use this space, make sure that you highlight your unique personality and worldview.

The MIT supplemental essays 2022 are designed to give all applicants an equal opportunity to showcase their background and personality, so when it comes to how to write MIT supplemental essays, it’s really about reflecting on your values and priorities.

At AdmissionSight, our goal is to help you with every step of the college admissions process. The MIT supplemental essays 2022 can seem daunting at first, but our experience and expertise will help you navigate the entire process with confidence. Hopefully, this guide to the MIT supplemental essays 2022-2023 has been helpful, but if you want more information about how AdmissionSight can help you realize your dreams, set up your free consultation today.

 

 

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