University of Washington supplemental essays

The prompts, one by one

1. Challenges and Circumstances (optional)up to 250 words · Challenge

   “Challenges and Circumstances”

   What it's really asking

   How you behave when something goes wrong. The challenge itself matters less than the steps you took and what you now do differently.

   Where drafts go wrong

   Spending most of the words on the problem and two sentences on the response. Picking a tragedy for weight when a smaller, more honest problem would show more of you. Tidy endings where everything was fixed.

   The shape of a strong answer

   State the problem in two or three sentences. Then the specific actions, in order, including the one that didn't work. End with what changed in how you operate, with one example of it since.

2. Additional Information (optional)up to 300 words · Open prompt

   “Would you like to share any additional details or qualifications not reflected in the application?”

   What it's really asking

   Whatever matters to you that the rest of the application hasn't shown. Washington is giving you the floor; the question is what you choose to put on it.

   Where drafts go wrong

   Using 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 answer

   One 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.

3. Interdisciplinary Honors essay (optional)up to 450 words · Intellectual curiosity

   “We want to know why you are excited to push your education outside the areas of academic learning with which you are most comfortable. To help us understand your enthusiasm for exploring different ways of thinking and learning tell us: What do you pay attention to? What is a unique lens through which you see the world? How does that connect to your current interests and future curiosities?”

   What it's really asking

   Whether you think about things when nobody is grading you. Washington wants a specific idea, question or project and the way your mind moved through it.

   Where drafts go wrong

   Name-dropping a big topic (AI, climate, quantum) and describing it instead of your own thinking about it. Essays that could have been written from the Wikipedia page.

   The shape of a strong answer

   One specific question or thing you made. The wrong turns and what you tried next. What you still don't know. Curiosity reads as unfinished; that's the point.

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 Washington) 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.