If you aim to join the ranks of UPenn’s elite students, you’ll need more than good grades and high test scores. Supplemental essays play a crucial and specific role, providing an opportunity to demonstrate your character, aspirations, and unique fit for UPenn. In this guide, we’ll take you step-by-step through the process of crafting compelling UPenn supplemental essays.
Writing Supplemental Essays
What is a Supplemental Essay?
Most competitive colleges and universities require supplemental essays in addition to the Common App personal statement. Before diving into the specifics of the UPenn supplemental essays, you need to understand the basics that apply to all supplemental essays.
Tips for Writing Supplemental Essays
- Answer Every Part of the Prompt. Many supplementals essays want to know more than one thing sure you answer everything the prompt is asking.
- Be Direct and Specific. Colleges want facts and information instead of piece of creative writing. Use a direct approach with specific details to support your answer to the prompt.
- Research. Many supplemental essays require research about a specific school. The key is to learn as much as you can about college, like classes, notable faculty, research program, service opportunities, etc. that would be a good fit for you.
- Show Your Genuine Enthusiasm. Colleges want to admit students who demonstrate genuine interest in attending their schools. Make sure your enthusiasm reads through your writing.
For more a more comprehensive breakdown, visit our Ultimate Guide to Writing Supplemental Essays.
UPenn Supplemental Essay Specifics
While it’s important to research before writing your essays, it’s a good idea to examine the prompts beforehand to help guide your research.
For the 2023-24 year, there were two UPenn supplemental essays required of all students:
- Write a short thank-you note to someone you have not yet thanked and would like to acknowledge. (We encourage you to share this note with that person, if possible, and reflect on the experience!) (150-200 words, only required for first year applicants)
- How will you explore community at Penn? Consider how Penn will help shape your perspective, and how your experiences and perspective will help shape Penn. (150-200 words)
The third of the required UPenn supplemental essays varies depending on your school or program:
- The school-specific prompt will now be unique to the school to which a student is applying. Considering the undergraduate school you have selected, please respond to your school-specific prompt below.
As an example, if you apply to The Wharton School of Business, the third prompt will be:
- Wharton prepares its students to make an impact by applying business methods and economic theory to real-world problems, including economic, political, and social issues. Please reflect on a current issue of importance to you and share how you hope a Wharton education would help you to explore it. (150-200 words)
But if you’re applying to the College of Arts and Sciences, your third prompt will be:
- The flexible structure of The College of Arts and Sciences’ curriculum is designed to inspire exploration, foster connections, and help you create a path of study through general education courses and a major. What are you curious about and how would you take advantage of opportunities in the arts and sciences? (150-200 words)
For students applying to one of the Coordinated Dual Degree or Specialized Programs, your third prompt will respond to your single-degree school choice. However, you’ll also have a fourth prompt that is specific to your program.
Lastly, if you are a transfer student, you will likely not be a first year student. That means, you do not need to write Prompt 1, BUT you will need to write an essay to explain your reasons for transferring from your current institution and what you hope to gain by transferring to another institution.
To summarize, completing your UPenn supplemental essays requires responding to at least three prompts.
- Single degree program students will write three.
- Dual Degree and Specialized Program students will need to write four.
- Your third and/or fourth essay is based on the specific school and/or program.
Timeline for UPenn Supplemental Essays
At the earliest, you will be able to submit your application on November 1st, which means you ideally want to start on your UPenn Supplemental Essays in July or August. Keep in mind that these essays require research. So, if you wait until the fall to start writing, you may be juggling research demands with school work.
Writing the UPenn Supplemental Essays
Though short in length, the UPenn supplemental essays are not necessarily easier than the personal statement. In fact, supplemental essays are often more demanding in terms of the research and attention to detail required. The UPenn Supplemental Essays, in particular, require a clear strategy to be successful.
A simple approach is to take each prompt and convert its key questions and information into bullet points that isolate the specifics you need to answer the prompt fully.
Prompt 1
Write a short thank-you note to someone you have not yet thanked and would like to acknowledge. (We encourage you to share this note with that person, if possible, and reflect on the experience!)
Unlike many other supplementals, this question does not require school research. But it does have two parts:
- Write a short thank-you note to someone you have not yet thanked and would like to acknowledge.
- Share this note with that person, if possible, and reflect on the experience.
If a highly selective school tells you something is optional but desirable, then it really isn’t optional—not if you want the best odds of acceptance. The goal is to do both bullets. This means you’ll need to consider the time required to send your thank-you note to the recipient, the time they’ll need to respond, and the time you’ll need to reflect on the response.
It’s also important to notice a key element of the first bullet point: you need to select someone that you have not thanked before. Someone you have already thanked is not a good candidate.
To get started, make a list of people who fill you with gratitude for specific reasons. Before writing your essay, contact your chosen person to confirm they’ll be free to respond to your note. Once you select someone and confirm their availability, you can start writing your letter.
Prompt 2
How will you explore community at Penn? Consider how Penn will help shape your perspective, and how your experiences and perspective will help shape Penn.
We will again convert its important information and “asks” into bullet points:
- How will you explore community at Penn?
- How Penn will help shape your perspective?
- How your experiences and perspective will help shape Penn?
A successful response to this prompt will answer all three bullet points. If at the end, for example, your response does not show how your experiences/perspective will shape Penn, then that will count against you.
This essay requires research. To gather material you can use to produce a standout response, research community at Penn through four avenues:
- Campus life (what every student is likely to experience)
- Major/Program (what students in your major/program experience)
- Sports/Clubs/etc. (focus on those you intend to participate in)
- Personal Identity (what students with your identities have access to)
The university website will have a ton of information to reflect each of these avenues. You can supplement the website research with tours (either virtual or in-person), YouTube videos, and contacting admissions directly.
The goal of this research is to find aspects about the communities at UPenn that genuinely excite you so that you can easily answer all three bullet points needed to respond to this prompt. Keep the search going until you find something that excites you.
When you begin writing about your research, it’s important to be specific and go beyond broad descriptions. For example, note this example of a broad sentence that lacks detail and specificity to any one college:
“At UPenn, there are numerous clubs and organizations where I can make an impact…”
Compare this example that demonstrates research and is unique to Penn:
“In 2023, the Penn Lens Club put together a photo exhibit that featured one of my favorite objects to examine in portrait…”
For a deeper dive into the “Why this College?” essay, visit our blog post on the subject.
Prompt 3
The school-specific prompt will now be unique to the school to which a student is applying. Considering the undergraduate school you have selected, please respond to your school-specific prompt below.
The third required essay also requires research. Visit UPenn’s Preparing Your Application webpage for more details and links to where you should spend time researching. Again, before diving into research, it’s useful to break down the questions into simpler bullet points.
Here are some examples of current school-specific prompts:
Penn Nursing intends to meet the health needs of society in a global and multicultural world by preparing its students to impact healthcare by advancing science and promoting equity. What do you think this means for the future of nursing, and how do you see yourself contributing to our mission of promoting equity in healthcare?
- Penn Nursing intends to meet the health needs of society in a global and multicultural world by preparing its students to impact healthcare by advancing science and promoting equity.
- What do you think this (first bullet) means for the future of nursing?
- How do you see yourself contributing to our mission of promoting equity in healthcare?
The flexible structure of The College of Arts and Sciences’ curriculum is designed to inspire exploration, foster connections, and help you create a path of study through general education courses and a major. What are you curious about and how would you take advantage of opportunities in the arts and sciences?
- What are you curious about?
- How would you take advantage of opportunities in the arts and sciences?
- “The opportunities” refers to the way the curriculum is designed. So what the second bullet is really asking is how would you take advantage of a curriculum “designed to inspire exploration, foster connections, and help create a path of study through general education courses and a major.”
- Additionally, you can talk about the opportunities you learn about reading within the recommended research links.
Wharton prepares its students to make an impact by applying business methods and economic theory to real-world problems, including economic, political, and social issues. Please reflect on a current issue of importance to you and share how you hope a Wharton education would help you to explore it
- Please reflect on a current issue of importance to you.
- Share how you hope a Wharton education would help you to explore it.
- To understand the second bullet, you need to remember what a “Wharton Education” includes: it prepares students to apply business methods and economic theory. So you need to show how either business methods or economic theory or both (as taught by Wharton) would help you with the issue you choose.
Penn Engineering prepares its students to become leaders in technology, by combining a strong foundation in the natural sciences and mathematics, exploration in the liberal arts, and depth of study in focused disciplinary majors. Please share how you hope to explore your engineering interests at Penn.
- Please share how you hope to explore your engineering interests at Penn?
- Quick Tip: identify/make a list of your engineering interests.
- Answer the first bullet by explaining how a foundation in natural sciences, mathematics, liberal arts, and your disciplinary major will help you explore your interests.
For students applying to coordinated Dual Degree programs or Specialized programs, the demands can be rather different from the other supplementals, and with much longer word counts. However, the steps for approaching prompts are the same.
Conclusion
The UPenn Supplemental Essays provide a distinct challenge compared to the personal statement and even compared to other supplementals. However, if you start early and adopt a clear strategy, you can write an essay that genuinely communicates you excitement and readiness to attend UPenn.
When writing any college essay, a great way to ensure success is to get feedback. Having someone else review, edit and offer suggestions on your writing is the best way to level-up each draft and get noticed by admissions. To learn more about the essay services at HelloCollege, including one-on-one time with an expert essay coach, contact us about a consultation today.
