2026–27 Common App cycle · Golden, CO
Colorado School of Mines supplemental essays
2 prompts, 0 required, 2 optional, about 500 words in total. Below: each prompt, what it is really asking, where drafts go wrong, and the shape of an answer that works.
Free, no card. Paste a draft and Admitify reads it line by line against the prompt. It never writes for you.
The prompts, one by one
- Periodic table element essay (optional)up to 250 words · Open prompt
“What element on the periodic table best represents you and why?”
What it's really askingWhatever matters to you that the rest of the application hasn't shown. Colorado School of Mines is giving you the floor; the question is what you choose to put on it.
Where drafts go wrongUsing the space to summarise achievements, apologise for a weakness, or restate the personal statement. Choosing a topic because it sounds like what colleges want.
The shape of a strong answerOne subject the reader couldn't guess from your file, told through a specific scene. Keep it in your own voice; if it sounds like a brochure, cut it. End on something still unresolved.
- Why Mines / Oredigger essay (optional)up to 250 words · Why us
“Why do you want to be an Oredigger? You can share what you want to study, your future involvement and activities, or anything else about the Mines experience that excites you.”
What it's really askingNot "why is Colorado School of Mines good" but "what will you do here that you can't do elsewhere, and what in your past proves you'll actually do it." The reader already knows the school is good.
Where drafts go wrongOpening with the campus, the ranking or the "world-renowned faculty." Every sentence that would survive with another school's name swapped in is wasted. Listing three programs with no explanation of any of them is the second trap.
The shape of a strong answerStart with the specific thing you've already been doing. Name one or two concrete Colorado School of Mines resources (a course, a lab, a program, a professor's actual work) and say what you'd do with each. End on the next step, not on a compliment.
Every US applicant also writes the Common App personal statement: 650 words, seven prompts. Don't repeat it here; the supplements are for what the statement didn't show.
A self-check before you submit
Cover the school name and read the essay. Then cover your name and read it again. It should fail the first test (it only makes sense for Colorado School of Mines) and pass the second (only you could have written it). If it passes the first test, it's a brochure. If it fails the second, it's a template.
Run your draft through Admitify, free →Prompts verified September 2026 against Colorado School of Mines's published application. Admission facts and requirements for Colorado School of Mines are on its university page. Spotted a change? Tell us.