Swarthmore 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 Swarthmore supplemental essays and everything you need to keep in mind as you write.

Swarthmore uses the common app, and this means that you will be asked to answer essay questions contained in the common app. But like many top schools, Swarthmore also requires that you complete a short essay about your personal or intellectual growth. The Swarthmore supplemental essays 2022-2023 allow applicants a certain amount of freedom when choosing their supplemental essay topic, but we’re going to look at each essay prompt and discuss the best way to respond to each topic.

Swarthmore Supplemental Essay Prompts 2022-2023

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

Swarthmore requires that all applicants write the essay found in the common app, but they also require that applicants write a short additional essay. The Swarthmore supplemental essays 2022-2023 give applicants the option to choose from three different prompts, but we’re going to go over each one in detail. The Swarthmore supplemental essays 2022 are as follows:

• Swarthmore students’ worldviews are often forged by their prior experiences and exposure to ideas and values. Our students are often mentored, supported, and developed by their immediate context—in their neighborhoods, communities of faith, families, and classrooms. Reflect on what elements of your home, school, or community have shaped you or positively impacted you. How have you grown or changed because of the influence of your community?
• We are inspired by students who are flexible in their approach to learning, who are comfortable with experimentation, and who are willing to take intellectual risks that move them out of their comfort zone. Reflect on a time that you were intellectually challenged, inspired, or took an intellectual risk—inside or outside of the classroom. How has that experience shaped you, and what questions still linger?
• Why are you interested in applying to and attending Swarthmore?

As you can see, Swarthmore gives you a lot of choices when it comes to your supplemental essay, and you should choose the one that feels right to you.

How to write the Swarthmore supplemental essays?

Many students wonder how to write Swarthmore supplemental essays, but the main things you should keep in mind are: being as creative as possible and using your own unique voice. Let’s take a look at each essay prompt and come up with a strategy for each one.

Swarthmore students’ worldviews are often forged by their prior experiences and exposure to ideas and values. Our students are often mentored, supported, and developed by their immediate context—in their neighborhoods, communities of faith, families, and classrooms. Reflect on what elements of your home, school, or community have shaped you or positively impacted you. How have you grown or changed because of the influence of your community?

This prompt allows you to talk about your background, but it also requires that you discuss how your background has played a part in shaping who you have become. If you choose this prompt, spend some time reflecting on the community you come from. In this context, “community” can mean a variety of things.

The community you discuss could be your immediate family. It could be your school or your specific group of friends at school. It could also be your larger community if that community has played an important role in your development. The first thing to consider is which community you want to write about. Most of us are members of a number of different communities, so choose the one that can best illustrate your point.

Once you’ve chosen the community on which you would like to focus, think about the aspects of that community that have been most significant to you. Then consider how those factors have made an impact on you. It’s best to narrow your focus when it comes to the factors that made the biggest difference in your life. Don’t say, “everything about this community has shaped me into the person I am today.” That is too broad and too vague. Instead, focus on individual factors.

Are you a member of a community that helped you find new interests? Has your community given you confidence in some way? Are there specific members of your community who have shared new ideas and insights?

We are inspired by students who are flexible in their approach to learning, who are comfortable with experimentation, and who are willing to take intellectual risks that move them out of their comfort zone. Reflect on a time that you were intellectually challenged, inspired, or took an intellectual risk—inside or outside of the classroom. How has that experience shaped you, and what questions still linger?

This has become a fairly common essay prompt on college applications because it allows you the opportunity to highlight your intellectual curiosity and your integrity. Demonstrating that you are excited to leave your comfort zone in order to learn new things means you will be the kind of student who values the idea you will encounter in college.

Once you’ve considered this, think about times when your ideas or values may have been challenged in some way. This challenge can come from anywhere. Friends, teachers, family members, etc. The point is to highlight a specific example of when you encountered a new idea that ran contrary to your worldview. How did this experience make you feel? Were you hesitant at first to accept a new idea? What was the process that led you to change your views?

Lastly, you need to consider where you are now. If your view about something changed, how has it affected your current life? Are you still searching for answers, or do you feel confident in your new worldview?

Why are you interested in applying to and attending Swarthmore?

This may sound like the simplest prompt, but it may be the most difficult to write. This prompt asks you to look at Swarthmore and consider what it is about this school that is so appealing. In order to write this prompt, you need to have a good understanding of what makes Swarthmore different from other schools and why this school appeals to you.

Chances are, there are a number of reasons why you’ve chosen to apply to Swarthmore, and you should try to expand on as many of them as possible. The Swarthmore supplemental essay word limit is 250 words, so you don’t have a lot of room to write. This means you will have to be strategic and efficient about how you write.

The best way to approach this prompt is to make a list of the things that attract you to Swarthmore. Then narrow that list to a few factors. This will give you enough material for your essay while ensuring that you don’t write too much. As much as you may want to write about everything you love about Swarthmore, just choose and few and go into as much depth as the Swarthmore supplemental essay word count will allow.

At AdmissionSight, our goal is to help you with every step of the college admissions process. The Swarthmore 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 Swarthmore 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.