Just a 30-minute train ride from Chicago, Northwestern University is a private research university situated in Evanston, Illinois. It has a lovely waterfront campus and sparkling city views It is particularly well-known for its journalism, political science, and chemistry programs. With 90 school-based research centres spread across its six undergraduate schools and an additional 50 on the university level, Northwestern is undoubtedly the place for you if you enjoy doing hands-on research.
All things considered, Northwestern is a highly sought-after and competitive college. It’s obvious that prospective Northwestern Wildcats need to stand out in order to be accepted, and acing your supplemental essays are one way to go about it. We’ll go through Northwestern’s suggested supplemental question for all applicants in this blog.
How to answer the Northwestern Supplemental Essay prompt
In 300 words or less, help us understand how you might engage specific resources, opportunities, and/or communities here. We are curious about what these specifics are, as well as how they may enrich your time at Northwestern and beyond.
This is a typical “Why Us?” essay. What about Northwestern appeals to you the most? is what Northwestern wants to know about why you chose this school over the competition, including its academic offerings, campus life, and extracurricular activities—in other words, why it satisfies your requirements and goals.
Every “Why us?” essay must, of course, also address “Why you” (i.e., how you intend to utilise the particular opportunities and resources offered here). In other words, explain why you are the type of student Northwestern is searching for—someone who will make a positive contribution to the university. To put it another way, you need to understand what Northwestern values in a student and what you value in a college, or how Northwestern’s ideals line up with yours.
Here are some guidelines to how you should go about writing this essay:
Do your research
Always keep the school’s website open and perform a few more clicks than you anticipate being required. You should give yourself plenty of time because school websites can be confusing. Examine faculty biographies, lists of recent undergraduate projects, related programmes, and any volunteer work carried out by various departments.
In addition, you can subscribe to e-newsletters from many departments, research institutes, or undergraduate schools, as well as find their publications online. This will show you the most current contributions and learnings from Northwestern researchers and staff. This is also an excellent time to cordially write departments and professors to inquire about their opinions of Northwestern programmes or request information from existing students. You’ll get a better perspective from this than looking at the website.
Be very detailed and precise
This applies to your interests as well as your long-term objectives. It is insufficient to have an interest in a broad subject, such as “politics” or “journalism.” You must decide precisely which aspects of your area you wish to fully explore.
Instead of “journalism and politics,” you might instead talk about how a specific program will enable you to gain invaluable practical experience directly from Northwestern’s classroom and how this will aid your goal of working in a specific field in the future. This is far more specific and provides a more accurate portrayal of you as a student and future employee. Keep in mind that it’s simpler for them to admit somebody with a detailed plan than someone who has a vague idea of what they want.
Don’t spare extracurricular activities
Although the classroom is crucial, Northwestern also wants to know how you will interact with the campus community. Your goal should be to talk about your extracurricular interests just as much as your academic ones because doing so will show your personality traits and capacity for original thought outside of the confines of the textbook and grade transcript. Selecting extracurricular activities that advance your objectives and academic interests is worthwhile.
Lay out your goals.
Since the prompt asks you to “make use of specific resources and opportunities,” you need to have some kind of objective or interest in mind. A definite and defined goal also reads better than a generic, hazy purpose (and is simpler to write for). This doesn’t necessarily imply that you need to have a major or a career picked out; you only need to identify a certain area of interest in learning or the method of analysis you wish to use. Many other approaches—philosophy, how you want to interact with others, a community you wish to support, etc.—can help you get more specific.
This essay’s contents should always come back to you and your objectives. If you believe that any student could write what you have written, then your writing is not yet interesting or engaging. The Northwestern resources you pick to discuss are no different. To demonstrate your genuine commitment to Northwestern, you could conduct extra research and choose resources that aren’t offered at other institutions.
Refine and edit your writing
Nobody’s first attempt at a project is flawless, and that’s okay! When you revise, you can make sure that your work is well-written and that you’ve answered the prompt fully. Verify your writing for punctuation and grammar mistakes. Having someone else review your work can be beneficial, even though it’s essential to check your own work first. When you examine your own work too closely, you could begin to miss mistakes that someone else might catch.
Refine with Rostrum
To get a new perspective on your work, think about working with an admissions consultant; it could make all the difference and increase your chances of being accepted! At Rostrum, expert admissions consultants help you throughout your essay writing process. From your first draft to your final edit, our consultants will guide you every step of the way. Schedule a free consultation today.
