Aug 18, 2024 · Applying to Columbia? Learn how to write supplemental essays that will make you stand out, even in a highly competitive applicant pool! ... Jul 23, 2020 · This guide covers how to write each of the Columbia supplemental essay prompts with exercises and essay examples to help you along the way. ... Aug 5, 2023 · Read our Columbia University essay breakdown to get a comprehensive overview of this year’s supplemental prompts. Prompt: Why are you interested in attending Columbia University? We encourage you to consider the aspect (s) that you find unique and compelling about Columbia. (200 words) ... Nov 27, 2024 · In this guide, we’ll break down how to write the Columbia supplemental essays for the upcoming admissions cycle, explaining how to maximize your chances of acceptance. ... In this blog post, you’ll learn how to write the Columbia University supplemental essays, understand the underlying question the admissions officers are asking, and distinguish yourself from other applicants. ... Keep reading to access our expert tips for writing successful Columbia supplemental essays that are sure to impress admissions! For the list question that follows, there is a 100 word maximum. Please refer to the below guidance when answering this question: Your response should be a list of items separated by commas or semicolons. ... Sep 26, 2023 · For the 2023/24 application cycle, Columbia University has meticulously crafted supplemental essay prompts to delve deeper into the profiles of its applicants. These prompts aim to uncover your intellectual influences, personal perspectives, resilience, and your vision for your journey at Columbia. ... Nov 27, 2024 · The Columbia supplemental essays are your chance to highlight your unique strengths, experiences, background, and passions in your application. However, the short word count, with a maximum of only 150 words, poses a challenge for many students. ... Nov 6, 2024 · It’s time for the Columbia University supplemental essays. Learn how to answer them effectively when applying to Columbia this fall. ... How to Write the Columbia University Essays Updated for 2024-2025 For the 2024–25 application cycle, Columbia requires students to first respond to a “list question” about the resources that have inspired their intellectual development, then answer four short answer questions in 150 words or fewer. ... ">

How to Write the Columbia University Supplemental Essays: Examples + Guide 2024/2025

how to write columbia essays

How to Write the Columbia University Supplemental Essays TABLE OF CONTENTS

What are the columbia university supplemental essay prompts.

  • How to write each supplemental essay prompt for Columbia
  • Prompt #1: "Intellectual development" essay
  • Prompt #2: Short answer questions
  • Prompt #3: Short answer questions
  • Prompt #4: "Why us?" essay
  • Prompt #5: Columbia College: "Why major?" essay
  • Prompt #5: Columbia Engineering: "Why major?" essay

If you’re applying to Columbia University, a quick scan of its required supplemental essays will give you a good sense of what Columbia admission reps are looking for: students who’ll thrive in the Core Curriculum.

Fair warning: If you don’t consider yourself a regular consumer of culture (i.e., literature, art, film, shows, music, podcasts, and all things that are distillers of the human experience), you might be struggling to come up with things to write about.  

What do we mean? Take a look at Columbia’s Core Curriculum and then its required supplemental essays below, and you’ll see.

But don’t worry: Even if you aren’t a self-described lover of arts and culture, we’ve got a few things to share to help you make the most of these supplemental essays.

Before you begin writing, you may want to get deeper insights into the kind of student Columbia is looking for, and how it views itself. You’ll find an extensive, by-the-numbers look at its offerings, from enrollment and tuition statistics to student life and financial aid information, on its Common Data Set . For a better sense of how Columbia envisions its role in academia and how it wants to grow and evolve, read its strategic plan here .

For the list question that follows, there is a 100-word maximum. Please refer to the below guidance when answering this question:
Your response should be a list of items separated by commas or semicolons. Items do not have to be numbered or in any specific order. It is not necessary to italicize or underline titles of books or other publications. No author names, subtitles or explanatory remarks are needed.
List a selection of texts, resources and outlets that have contributed to your intellectual development outside of academic courses, including but not limited to books, journals, websites, podcasts, essays, plays, presentations, videos, museums and other content that you enjoy. (100 words or fewer)

For the four short answer questions, please respond in 150 words or fewer. NOTE: One of the short answer questions will not appear until you have selected Columbia College or Columbia Engineering in the "Academics" section of Columbia's application questions.

A hallmark of the Columbia experience is being able to learn and thrive in an equitable and inclusive community with a wide range of perspectives. Tell us about an aspect of your own perspective, viewpoint or lived experience that is important to you, and describe how it has shaped the way you would learn from and contribute to Columbia’s diverse and collaborative community. (150 words or fewer)

In college/university, students are often challenged in ways that they could not predict or anticipate. It is important to us, therefore, to understand an applicant's ability to navigate through adversity. Please describe a barrier or obstacle you have faced and discuss the personal qualities, skills or insights you have developed as a result. (150 words or fewer)

Why are you interested in attending Columbia University? We encourage you to consider the aspect(s) that you find unique and compelling about Columbia. (150 words or fewer)

Prompt #5 - Columbia College

Columbia College - What attracts you to your preferred areas of study at Columbia College? (150 words or fewer)

Prompt #5 - Columbia Engineering

Columbia Engineering - What attracts you to your preferred areas of study at Columbia Engineering? (150 words or fewer)

That application is no joke. Let’s take a look at how to tackle it.

How to Write Each Supplemental Essay Prompt for Columbia University

A word (or 2) about columbia’s list prompts.

Columbia makes clear in the prompt what it wants here: 

Here’s our tip for answering these: Don’t overthink it一it’s really not a trick question. Columbia really wants to know what you read, what movies you love, and which newspapers and podcasts you follow. That’s it. So heed the bulleted advice, make your lists, and save your brain power for the short-answer prompts. 

One more tip: Try to show some variety in your answers, but be honest about it.

See examples for each below. 

How to Write Columbia Supplemental Essay #1

  • Your response should be a list of items separated by commas or semicolons.
  • Items do not have to be numbered or in any specific order.
  • It is not necessary to italicize or underline titles of books or other publications.
  • No author names, subtitles or explanatory remarks are needed.

Note that the example below was from when Columbia asked for multiple lists, but the content still points you in a clear direction.

Books, plays, etc. The Art of Political Manipulation, William H. Riker The Better Angels of Our Nature, Steven Pinker Leonardo’s Brain, Leonard Shlain The Power of One, Bryce Courtenay Hopscotch, Julio Cortazar Gang Leader for a Day, Sudhir Venkatesh Who Gets What--and Why, Alvin E. Roth Freakonomics, Steven D. Levitt Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie Lectures The Future of American Economy, Nicholas Bloom Politics from an Ethical Perspective, Rob Reich Mechanics of Genomic Sequencing, Mike Snyder Machinery of Freedom, David Friedman Engineering your Luck, Tiffany Zhong Fighting for Minority Rights, Congressman Ted Lieu Multiculturalism, Wajahat Ali The Satire Paradox, Malcolm Gladwell U.S. Supreme Court Tour Thomas Jefferson Memorial Tour Exhibits Smithsonian Renwick Gallery: WONDER The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Design for Eternity--Architectural Models from the Ancient Americas Cantor Arts Center: She Who Tells a Story--Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World TV Sherlock Holmes House of Cards Last Week Tonight The Daily Show War and Peace Designated Survivor Quantico Concerts/Shows War Horse Mamma Mia Movies Now You See Me Pride and Prejudice Interstellar The Age of Adaline — — —

How to Write Columbia Supplemental Essay #2

While “an aspect of your own perspective, viewpoint or lived experience” can point to many things, generally the easiest way to approach it is to treat this as essentially a “Community Essay” with a bit of “Why us?” and “How will you contribute?” thrown in. You can find our comprehensive guide on how to write the Community Essay here . Or, if you’re short on time, here’s the abbreviated version:

Step 1: Create a “communities” chart by listing all the communities you’re a part of. Keep in mind that communities can be defined by ...

Place: Groups of people who live/work/play near one another

Action: Groups of people who create change in the world by building, doing, or solving something together (Examples: Black Lives Matter, Girls Who Code, March for Our Lives)

Interest: Groups of people coming together based on a shared interest, experience, or expertise

Circumstance: Groups of people brought together either by chance or external events/situations. 

Step 2: Use the BEABIES Exercise to generate your essay content. Once you’ve chosen a community, map out your content using the BEABIES Exercise . That exercise asks:

What did you actually do? (Tip: Use active verbs like “organized” and “managed” to clarify your responsibilities.)

What kinds of problems did you solve (personally, locally, or globally)?

What specific impact did you have?

What did you learn (skills, qualities, values)? 

How did you apply the lessons you learned?

Step 3: Do some “how will you contribute” research.

You’ll want to offer a few specific ways that show how the experience/s you’re discussing in your essay will allow you to contribute to Columbia. The easiest way to do this is to do some “Why Us”-like research and find ways you’ll engage with and contribute to the Columbia community. 

Step 4: Pick a structure. The Narrative Structure works well for students who have faced a challenge in or with this community. Otherwise, the Montage Structure works well.

Consider answering these three questions in your essay if you choose the Narrative Structure:  

What challenge did you face?

What did you do about it? 

What did you learn?

How do those things shape how you will contribute to Columbia? (Ideally with some Why Us detail)

Here’s an example using the Narrative Structure.

In the summer of COVID-19, I formed two virtual clubs to offer my peers a continued sense of community. With most summer activities canceled, I felt it was important to our mental health to provide alternative social connections in the absence of face-to-face interaction.  For Book Club, teachers and students met in advance, creating thoughtful presentations that illustrated each presenter's passions and perspectives. For Debate Club, conversations got heated with teachers arguing alongside students, each person advocating their position. After summer, I was told by students and teachers alike that the clubs were the highlight of their week. To my delight, the Debate Club was so popular, I am continuing it during this school year.  At Columbia, I will shift my focus to fostering community between my LGBTQ+ peers and other members of the community. From my summer club experience, I have a new appreciation for how social interactions can develop stronger bonds between students, staff, and faculty. I intend to find similar opportunities through Columbia iQ where I can organize social events like a book club or even a group cooking class to help foster new champions for the LGBTQ+ community. (192) — — — 

Tips + Analysis

Answer the question. This student effectively uses a simple narrative to answer the question clearly and directly. Here’s how she does it:

The first quick paragraph sets up the what and the why (built two virtual clubs to maintain sense of community) of the challenge she faced. 

Next, the student efficiently addresses how her experience shaped her engagement with complex, perhaps controversial ideas, and how learning to effectively engage can promote social cohesion. 

Finally, she explores how she wants to apply these insights to her experience and engagement with the Columbia community, including a specific school opportunity (Columbia iQ) that she envisions contributing to in specific ways. 

Show your values. This student packs tons of values into this essay. Read it again and see how many you count. Don’t know what your values are? Do our Values Exercise , and identify the core values you want Columbia to come away with after reading your essay.

Use structure to guide your reader. Each paragraph has a clear structural purpose—1) Problem I faced; 2) What I did, the impact it had, and what I learned; 3) What I’ll bring to Columbia because of 1 + 2. Clear topic sentences and transitions are your friends.

Add a “why Columbia” specific detail or two + “how will you contribute” language. The specific examples in the final paragraph can help a reader envision how this student will become part of and contribute to Columbia’s community. Whether it’s continuing your advocacy work with an on-campus organization, or honing your debate skills in your discussion-based core classes, let Columbia admission reps know you’ve explored why you fit with Columbia’s community and that you’re thinking of how you can apply your experiences to life on campus. Finally, one small way the essay above could be strengthened is by adding or tweaking language to more directly address the “the way you would learn from” part of the prompt.

How to Write Columbia Supplemental Essay #3

Here, Columbia wants to know about your ability to rise to adversity. Why? Well, college will throw a whole bunch of new experiences at you, and while you may be prepared for some, others may take you by surprise: Classes may be harder than you thought, people may be talking about ideas you’ve never heard of before, you may have never been away from home for a long period of time, etc… So when you invariably do face new challenges in college, Columbia wants to know how you’ll respond.

If you’ve looked at some of our guidance on personal statements, you might think this prompt sounds a lot like a shorter narrative essay . And, in many ways, it is. You’re going to want to quickly and clearly explain a “barrier or obstacle” you’ve faced, explain the effect it had on you, explain what specific things you did to overcome it, and then explain “the personal qualities, skills, or insights” you learned. The trick here is to do all of that in fewer than 150 words. So how do you do it?

Focus on what matters most:  

what did you do to respond to the challenge, and 

what did you learn from how you responded? 

These are the two key questions readers will be most interested in learning about.

The example below, written for a very similar prompt for another school (with a larger word count), works well.

I’ve gotten used to running around, waving my arms, trying to get students enthusiastic about exercise. As a volunteer teacher at a special needs fitness camp, I usually ended up getting more of a workout than the kids. After a few moments of tirelessly waving my arms, I noticed that Connor hadn’t moved from his starting position, but was instead on his third round of a video game on his phone. Once again, I tried my method of excitedly jumping and shouting to motivate him, but my exuberance was not enough. Eventually, he stood up, walked up to me, and slapped me in the face. Realizing the gravity of his mistake, he apologized profusely, and then in typical Connor fashion, gave me a big bear hug.  That’s when I realized my teaching style wasn’t going to work with every student. So I tried something different with Connor. Instead of shouting encouraging words from the bench, I ran laps with him. Rather than the usual pushups, we made up new exercises, like the burpee ball-pass. Connor taught me that overwhelming students with instructions was less effective than finding creative ways to engage them.  Jasmine taught me about self-love. She was overweight, and as her coach, I thought it was my job to teach her healthy habits. But as I watched Jasmine exercise with vitality and enthusiasm, I realized that I’d been focusing on the wrong thing. Jasmine yearned to improve her form in the exercises and stay active, and I focused on helping her find enjoyment in it. Her attitude demonstrated to me that health is not defined by pants size, but by an eagerness to learn and grow.  John made me a better instructor. A new student in the fitness program, he was quiet and timid. As his mentor, I gave him space to open up, but I soon realized that in my patience, he only withdrew further. I discovered that sometimes, the solution isn’t patience, but some impatience. Pushing and challenging John helped him find more confidence in himself and his movements, and it taught us both to work outside our comfort zones.  My students have taught me that it’s not enough to be good at something to be a good teacher. I also have to be good at recognizing my own shortcomings and adjusting my approach when needed.  — — —

Think broadly about what a “challenge” can be. When asked to write about adversity, we’ve seen a lot of students say something along the lines of “but I haven’t really experienced any adversity.” Many of these students think that if they haven’t fled war, fought off some obscure disease, or saved a child from a burning building, they don’t have anything worth writing about. And sure, those could make for amazing essays. But you don’t need something extreme here. To be clear, if you have experienced significant challenges, and you’re willing to write about them, you can certainly do so. But notice that this writer’s challenge works, too. Their challenge isn’t something as tangible as a fire or war . Instead, it’s the challenge of overcoming their “own shortcomings” in an effort to connect with their students. That’s definitely worth writing about.

Get specific with what you did. This writer uses details like “big bear hug”, “ran laps” and “jumping and shouting” to show key moments in the essay. The result is that it’s easy to “see” actions this writer took over the journey of this essay. This essay explores relationships with three different students, which is partly why it ends up stretching out to 390 words. If this writer were to revise this essay for the Columbia prompt, they’d need to reduce the amount of context they provide about the camp in the opening paragraph, and really sharpen the examples in their essay. Instead of writing three separate paragraphs for each student, they could instead condense them all into a single paragraph with clear and precise “what I did” and “what I learned” components.

Get specific with what you learned. It's also easy to “see” this writer’s growth. They found “creative ways” to engage their students; they learned to “work outside” their “comfort zones”; they learned to define health not “by pants size, but by an eagerness to learn and grow.” The specificity makes it clear that they’ve reflected deeply on the relationships they’ve created with their students. The result is that readers trust that this student will continue to reflect on how they navigate adversity in the future. And, believe it or not, colleges don’t want or need you to have all the answers. They will think it’s pretty cool if you have the humility to reflect clearly on moments of growth, though.

Check out this bonus essay below for another example of how you could approach the “overcoming adversity” prompt. Like the one above, this one would need to be shortened to meet the word limit, but the content is a good example of what kinds of things you could discuss in a response to this prompt.

Bonus example:

We were walking down Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv, just a few months after the Revolution of Dignity, when people rallied there to stand up to the government and oust a corrupt president. My father explained to me that volunteers help others because of their belonging to a community; their contribution became vital to Ukraine’s rebirth. From that moment, I started to look for opportunities to engage in the community. In the 9th grade, I stood in front of the thirty students who promised to say “Wow!” to any physics experiment. I wanted to show them how to set fire to cotton wool using a battery and foil, but I tried this experiment shortly before the demonstration. I quietly set fire with a lighter, since a short circuit in the battery happens only once. As part of the student council, I successfully conducted the following science fairs sessions. My first volunteering contribution beyond the school walls happened in my 10th grade. Reaching out to the regional coordinator of a children’s film festival, I suggested my help. During ten days of the festival, I greeted the cinema workers. With another volunteer, every morning, we talked about the festival, presented films, and counted the torn corners from the tickets — the votes for the best film. But at this event held at the city level, only two volunteers engaged in the organization. Why did not other people join us? To tackle this issue, I decided to develop a united volunteering community in my town. Communicating with participants about logistics, fundraising, and writing posts on social media, I carried out two Schools of Volunteering, trainings #VTalk and FAQ: Volunteering, cleaning in the park, and walking dogs. As a result, 250 people volunteered and joined the community, and five of them became members of our team to continue developing the community. Over the past year, I started to push my limits. I learned how to cover transportation and accommodation costs for speakers and lunch for participants, having two hundred dollars. Dealing with children, I needed to be creative, for I fashioned a “tree of dreams” for the Children’s Day festival using a coat rack, scotch tape, and some colored paper. As I joint a pet shelter, I overcame my fear of dogs. I cherish my experience of volunteering community in Chernihiv, and I look forward to joining a similar community in college. (397 words) — — —

how to write columbia essays

How to Write Columbia Supplemental Essay #4

This prompt is your classic “Why us?” essay, only it’s a bit on the short side with a max of 150 words. We recommend checking out our complete guide on how to write the “Why us?” essay and pay close attention to the “Why Cornell” and “Why Penn” examples, which are our favorites. The “Why Tufts” essay is a nice example of how you can write a shorter version of the “Why us?”

Here’s the abbreviated version of how to write the “Why us?” essay:

Spend 1 hr+ researching 5-7  reasons why Columbia might be a great fit for you (ideally 3-5 of the reasons will be unique to Columbia AND connect back to you).

Per the last sentence of the prompt, make sure you’re focusing on opportunities you can only (or mostly only) find at Columbia (and not, say, New York City). That’s so important to school officials, they made a point to add that clarification to the prompt this year.

Make a copy of this chart to map out your college research (see it below as well).

Create an outline for your essays based on either Approach 1, 2 (recommended), or 3 in my full guide above.

Write a first draft!

Here’s a great sample essay for this prompt. Note that this essay is nearly 300 words (Columbia’s word count used to be longer)—yours will need to be a bit shorter.  

Columbia cultivates a focus on diversity of intellect, research, art, and tradition that brings me home.  At North Carolina Governor’s School, the My Lai Massacre, determinism vs. free will, and epistemology were just a few of the topics we discussed in seminars. During the 5.5 week program, I asked myself countless questions: How should we define truth and knowledge? What principles would rule the ideal society? How does Plato’s Allegory of the Cave apply to my experiences? Similar to that found at Governor’s School, the discourse surrounding the Core forges a sense of community and curiosity that will allow me to delve further into these inquiries. In fact, the Contemporary Civilization course closely resembles the GS focus on the investigation of relevant political, moral, and social issues. Further, the flexibility to take unique courses such as Cognitive Mechanics and Economic Behavior and Research Ethics & Philosophy will allow me to gain a clearer understanding of the connections between my chemistry research and impactful societal, religious, and technological decisions and realities. The research opportunities at Columbia are unparalleled. The SURF program will allow me to further my knowledge of the applications of chemistry by delving into research in a laboratory at Columbia. I hope to build upon my research in catalysis through work in Dr. Robert Farrauto’s lab, which places a refreshing focus on environmental sustainability through catalysis engineering. Outside of the classroom and the lab, whether it be through CU China Dance or Raw Elementz, I hope there is a stage in NYC that will embrace my dancing. Further, the tree-lighting, hot-chocolate drinking, and acapella singing that occur each year are just a few of the many traditions that strengthen the Columbia community–ones that I want to be a part of.  — — —

Identify unique opportunities at Columbia. The prompt is asking you kindly not to write about its location, or its friendly students, or any other quality you could ascribe to hundreds of other schools. You can tell this student spent a good deal of time doing her research. The great thing about a “Why Us?” essay is that once you’ve compiled your research, it almost writes itself. 

Follow the formula. This essay answers the question using a template that’s very basic, and we don’t mean that pejoratively. The writer gives us “example + personal connection” over and over again. Her examples include most of the “Why us?” greatest hits: In the author’s own words, “intellect, research, art, and tradition.” So, find specific coursework and research opportunities and faculty that align with your (hopefully specific) interests, extracurriculars that nourish your creative side, and campus culture-y things you identify with. Then put these in an order that makes sense to you. And don’t forget:

Make it personal. Even though she packs a lot of research into these 291 words, this is not a merely expository essay. We learn a lot about what matters to her and what stokes her curiosity—the intellectual vitality leaps off the page. That string of questions she asks herself do a lot of the legwork early on.

Remember, “Why us?” = Why Columbia + Why Me.   Another great thing about this essay is the way the writer matches her own values with Columbia’s. As important as identifying your own values is identifying those of the schools you’re applying to, and connecting the two in ways that show the two of you are compatible.

How to Write Columbia Supplemental Essay #5

Columbia College - What attracts you to your preferred areas of study at Columbia College? (150 words or fewer) Columbia Engineering - What attracts you to your preferred areas of study at Columbia Engineering? (150 words or fewer)

This essay is what we call a “Why Major” essay. 

You’ll find a step-by-step guide to writing this essay at this link , but here’s the short version:

Step #1: Imagine a mini-movie of the moments that led you to your interest and create a simple, bullet point outline.

Step #2: Put your moments (aka the “scenes” of your mini-movie) in chronological order, as it’ll help you see how your interests developed. It also makes it easier to write transitions.

Step #3: Decide if you want to include a specific thesis that explicitly states your central argument—in this case what you want to study and why. This thesis can be at the beginning, middle, or end of your essay.

Step #4: Write a draft!

Here’s a great example from a previous version of the prompt. Note that this example is nearly 300 words, and yours will need to be no more than 150 words. 

Hikes along the Great Wall. Sharing freshly fried green onion pancakes from a food stand with my cousins. Three-person moped rides through busy streets. Dinners with my extended family.  Every trip back to Wuhan, China, is marked by these events and numerous other shared moments with family. Yet, when I am reminded of China, I instead envision people rushing around busy streets wearing face masks to avoid pollutant inhalation, the rarity of blue skies on any given day, and the disturbing level of air contamination that prevents my relatives from leaving their homes. Seeing this phenomena so clearly on a day-to-day basis during my visits has been a call to action.  Working with Dr. Hotz in the Department of Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering at Duke allowed me to combat these problems directly. Throughout the summer of 2016, I explored methods of improving the efficiency of the Dry Reform of Methane (DRM), a reaction that transforms harmful waste gas to a useful syngas, through catalysis. I was able to investigate a novel method of catalyst synthesis that drastically reduced the costs associated with catalyst creation and increased the efficiency of the Dry Reform of Methane. These benefits may propel the reaction towards use in industry. Breakthroughs in catalytic research for the DRM have the opportunity to transform energy sustainability and increase environmental sustainability. In a “values” auction at Governor’s School, I bid $800 of my allotted $1000 dollars on a single value: Making an Impact. My experience in chemical research thus far has shown me that chemistry has an incomparable ability to influence lives in substantial ways, which is why I hope to study chemistry at Columbia. (277 words) — — —

Show you have skin in the game. The writer is clearly invested in the cause of environmental sustainability. He makes a smart choice by opening with that lovely “mini-movie moment” of cherished memories, then laments how these memories are polluted by China’s dangerous air quality. His cause is personal. And he has literally bought in. 

Geek out when possible. How ’bout that third paragraph? This guy knows his stuff and has the experience to back it up. Knowledge of specialized language is a great way to demonstrate fit to major, so use a measured amount of geeky (read: insider) language. But be careful not to overdo it or you risk alienating your reader. This essay is a nice example of how to walk that line.

Look to the future. Not only does this student prove he’s a good fit for his major, he tells us that Columbia is the right launchpad for his mission to use chemistry to “influence lives in substantial ways.” Wouldn’t you want someone like that on your campus?  Since “Why Major” essays offer natural connections to potential future careers, if you know what career you want to pursue, consider ending the essay with that look forward. Even if you don’t know what you want to do yet, you can still share some insights into how your major will prepare you for life after college.

And here are two more examples to illustrate the direction you’ll want to head with this prompt, regardless of your major:  

I fell in love with computers at nine when I learned how to make a graphical turtle crawl across the screen, and I’ve written code every week since. I am self-taught in nine programming languages (my favorite is C++), which I learned through iteration and persistence. Teaching advanced algorithms at a programming bootcamp for the past two years allowed me to share my love of computer science with others. My interest in CS runs deep—from studying memory virtualization to the beauty of the B-Tree O(log n) search algorithm. Writing protein folding simulations for my biology teacher peaked my interest in computational science. Building real-world machine learning models during each of the last two summers expanded my awareness of the types of problems computers can help solve. Over the years, though, I have shaped a focus: security. In the process of running multiple servers, developing custom security software, and configuring the switching and routing for a 96-computer network, I became fascinated with the challenge of creating secure systems. Software has found its way into all aspects of our lives, creating staggering risks to privacy and security. These are problems I want to study, understand, and solve. — — —

Bonus Example:

Engineering primarily appeals to me because of my nuclear engineering summer internship with Applied Research Associates. Initially, my team and I conducted static tests, placing a radioactive isotope in the center of the room and then reading the output to look for certain outcomes based on our government contract. Then we did dynamic testing where professionals took out the detectors in different scenarios to see how they would perform in real-life operations. At the end of each detector run, I handed out surveys and interacted with the professionals before categorizing their survey opinions. The remaining weeks alternated between static testing and dynamic. I analyzed the data and results with my coworkers. I loved speaking with my incredible team, six of twelve of whom held PhDs, and learning about the broad range of nuclear engineering careers. Asking them about their college experiences, I found that most of them wished they had conducted more research earlier. Their insights were invaluable as I headed into my senior year. This internship demonstrated what life as an engineer could look like and solidified the fact that I want a career in engineering. — — —

Special thanks to Nick Muccio for writing this blog post.

how to write columbia essays

Rather than candy, Nick (he/him) went searching for people’s vacuum cleaners when trick or treating. He’s since found other ways to help people clean, usually involving their essays (though he has great ideas on carpet maintenance, too). He earned a degree in Psychology from Bates College, where he rowed boats and acted in plays. Teaching high schoolers English for seven years taught him about the importance of presence and knitting sweaters. He sweats a lot, usually on purpose, and usually involving running shoes, a bike, or a rock climbing harness. His greatest fear? Heights. His greatest joys? Numerous, though shared laughter is up there. 

how to write columbia essays

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how to write columbia essays

8 Great Columbia Essay Examples

What’s covered:, essay example 1 – mechanical engineering, essay example 2 – trailblazing, essay example 3 – the core and community.

  • Essay Example 4 – Cancer Research

Essay Example 5 – Joy in Birds

Essay example 6 – psychology.

  • Essay Example 7  – Slavic Languages and Cultures

Essay Example 8 – Diversity

Where to get your columbia university essays edited.

Columbia is an Ivy League school in NYC with an incredibly low acceptance rate. Like most other competitive schools, Columbia has supplemental prompts where students can demonstrate parts of their life that aren’t present in other portions of their application. Many applicants to selective colleges like Columbia have stellar grades and test scores, so the essays can help you stand out from other candidates with the same stats.   

The school requires applicants to fill out a variety of prompts, ranging from quick short-answers about your favorite books and pieces of media to fleshed out essays. In this post, we will share three essays real students have submitted to Columbia and go over what each essay did well and where they can be improved. 

Please note: Looking at examples of real essays students have submitted to colleges can be very beneficial to get inspiration for your essays. You should never copy or plagiarize from these examples when writing your own essays. Colleges can tell when an essay isn’t genuine and will not view students favorably if they plagiarized. 

Read our Columbia University essay breakdown to get a comprehensive overview of this year’s supplemental prompts. 

As I continue my journey toward becoming a mechanical engineer, I am constantly searching for ways to positively impact and solve complex problems. Columbia University is the perfect place for me to do so. The university’s diverse and brilliant community, combined with its focus on hands-on learning, will provide me with the foundation I need to grow as a student and a person.

I am excited to take advantage of Columbia’s many opportunities, from its Core curriculum to its various labs and research centers. In particular, I am drawn to the F1 car club and the opportunity to work on real-world projects through Columbia World Projects. These experiences will help broaden my knowledge and skills and allow me to make a significant difference in the world.

In addition to the academic opportunities at Columbia, I am also drawn to the university’s rich traditions. From the tree lighting ceremony to the Holi celebration, these events foster a sense of belonging and connection that will be invaluable as I begin my studies. I believe my unique perspective and skills will be an asset to the community, for I am excited to contribute my voice to Columbia’s dynamic and diverse community.

What the Essay Did Well

In responding to this textbook “Why This College?” prompt, the author effectively selects a topic, mechanical engineering, to focus his essay on, and connects that topic to opportunities that can only be found at Columbia, such as the F1 car club and Columbia World Projects. These specific opportunities show admissions officers that the student has done their research, and has tangible reasons for wanting to attend Columbia that go beyond, for example, the generic “I want to go to school in New York.”

The author also expresses an interest in the traditions that form the backbone of Columbia’s community, such as the tree lighting ceremony and the Holi celebration. This variety demonstrates that the author has spent time thinking about what their life at Columbia would look like overall, not just in the context of their mechanical engineering studies.

What Could Be Improved 

While this essay effectively conveys which specific things about Columbia interest the author, it could be strengthened by providing more details about why each activity is important to them, as that will explicitly connect their past experiences to their potential future at Columbia.

For example, the author could connect the F1 car club to the summers they spent working in their parents’ car repair shop. Or when discussing Columbia World Projects, they could explain how the CWP’s “Transforming Wastewater Infrastructure in America” project would allow them to build on the skills they learned from an elective they took on urban planning.

Along the same lines, the author could expand on how they see Columbia’s traditions helping them grow as a person. They name-drop the tree lighting ceremony and Holi festival, but don’t say anything about why these events are important to them. The essay would be stronger if, for example, they discuss how lighting the Christmas tree was always a time for their family to reflect on the previous year, and they look forward to having a similar unifying moment in college.

Finally, while the author does a good job in general of using specific opportunities to show their interest in Columbia, there are places where they are too vague. For example, when they talk about Columbia’s “Core curriculum” and “various labs and research centers,” we don’t get any information about what in particular intrigues them about the Core, or which labs and research centers they hope to work at. 

The essay would be stronger if the writer highlighted their excitement about using the Core to explore topics, such as art history, that they otherwise might not make time for in their schedule, or about working at the Earth Engineering Center to learn about how to harness their knowledge of biomechanical engineering in service of a greener future.

“She is a natural leader and role model.”

This comment punctuates all my report cards. However, I never believed it, until an alumnus of my high school was murdered by a maintenance worker for rebuffing his advances. Feeling angered, I spearheaded a plan of action for my poetry club—it was a reflex. I led one group poem celebrating her warmth, which we performed for her parents, and one about the rape culture that killed her, which we performed at a sexual assault awareness event.

Columbia boasts an exceptional culture of students who feel emboldened to call out injustice, even when it’s perpetuated by their own community. From the student-driven Columbia Prison Divest campaign, which successfully led Columbia to divest from the private prison industry, to the recent protests about Columbia’s gentrification of Harlem, the tenacity of Columbia’s Lions reflects my own.

Moreover, as someone from a household of sexual and domestic violence, I feel drawn to activism in that field. As a Peer Advocate for Columbia Health, I would provide support and resources for survivors, protecting them from the environment I was in.

The core of Columbia’s ethos is building trailblazers— I can’t wait to be one of them.

The student’s discussion of the difficult topic of sexual assault is impressive, as many applicants wouldn’t be bold enough to include this topic in a college application, and many others wouldn’t have the reflective or writing skills necessary to make it work. This student, however, is able to highlight both a genuine desire to fight back against injustice on a large scale, through public poetry performances, and a grassroots compassion for the victims, by working for Columbia Health as a Peer Advocate.

On that note, the writer also does an excellent job of connecting their passion for justice and advocacy to their potential life at Columbia. Remember that a “Why This College?” essay should be as specific as possible to that particular school, and this author not only mentions a variety of activities they hope to get involved in at Columbia, but also makes it clear which of their values and past experiences are motivating their interest in those particular opportunities. That gives admissions officers a strong sense of who this student is and what they’ll bring to the table at Columbia.

Finally, the reader’s emphatic tone throughout the essay stirs up readers’ emotions, and makes us feel like getting up and marching towards justice alongside them, which is an incredibly effective way of making us experience their leadership abilities firsthand. Lines like “ it was a reflex” and “ Columbia boasts an exceptional culture of students who feel emboldened to call out injustice, even when it’s perpetuated by their own community” make us viscerally feel the writer’s passion, and that sensation adds even more weight to their points.

Currently, the beginning of the essay is disjointed, as the author’s shift from positive report card comments to a former classmate’s murder is extremely abrupt. That jarring transition may have been intentional, but you don’t want to shock readers just because. While the essay is about leadership, readers will understand that without the first line, and thus the writer could be better off starting “in medias res” (in the middle of things) to immediately immerse readers in the story.

For example, they could say: “November 20, 2022 was a dark day at our school, when news broke of our former classmate’s murder.” This alternate first line gets right into the details of how the author developed their leadership skills, rather than starting off talking about those skills in the abstract and then zooming in. Remember, space is limited in the college essay, so you want to be as efficient as possible with how you make your points.

A vibrant, intellectually curious culture cultivated by the Core Curriculum, rich student interconnectedness, and an alignment of core values attract me to Columbia.

Seminar-based courses comprehensively facilitate my learning style; learning from peers, sharing my perspective, and exploring unquenchable curiosities comprise my ideal environment. Columbia’s emphasis on such learning through the Core Curriculum provides balanced structure and an approach encouraging valuable interdisciplinary study. Although I plan to pursue current intellectual interests through Columbia’s electives, the Core offers an invigorating communal experience and exposure to potential newfound passions, such as philosophy or Western musical analysis.

In conversation with my tour guide, Ashley, and through discussions with current students, I was inspired by the emphatic sense of community pride that envelops Morningside Heights. Beginning with the shared experience of the Core, it is apparent that inclusive community is fostered through academic spaces. Through traditions such as Tree Lighting, “Surf, Turf, & Earth” – which sounds absolutely scrumptious – and cultural celebrations, the Columbian community radiates in social spaces.

I envision myself blanketed with Columbia blue, clutching a glimmering snowball on the day of First Snow. Exuberant with lion pride, I prepare for a sportive battle, and a euphoric moment, with fellow prideful lions.

In the first paragraph, the author clearly lists three characteristics of Columbia–“a vibrant, intellectually curious culture cultivated by the Core Curriculum…rich student interconnectedness…and an alignment of core values”–which provide structure for the rest of the essay. This organization makes the essay easy to follow, as each point connects back to that first paragraph.

The writer also shows that they have a true appreciation of the community at Columbia, and that they aren’t just paying lip service to one of the most frequently used words in college admissions, by mentioning their tour guide by name, and the discussions they have had with current students. Those details show that the student has spent real effort getting to know Columbia’s campus culture, which in turn shows that they will be committed to making contributions to that culture themself.

As noted above, one of the keys to this kind of “Why This College?” essay is not just showing genuine interest in the school, but also how that interest will manifest once you’re there. By referencing traditions like the Tree Lighting ceremony and “Surf, Turf, & Earth,” the author demonstrates that they have already spent time thinking about how they would fit into Columbia’s community.

Finally, the author’s vivid imagery of “[themself] blanketed with Columbia blue, clutching a glimmering snowball on the day of First Snow,” ends the essay on a high note. The author doesn’t just restate that they want to go to Columbia, but paints a tangible picture of their excitement and anticipation, which makes those feelings come across far more strongly than if they just said something generic like “I can’t wait to hopefully be arriving in Morningside Heights next fall.”

While the author does include some Columbia-specific traditions, as described above, too much of the essay, particularly the paragraph focused on academics, is phrased in general terms. For example, the line:

“Although I plan to pursue current intellectual interests through Columbia’s electives, the Core offers an invigorating communal experience and exposure to potential newfound passions, such as philosophy or Western musical analysis” 

doesn’t tell us anything about what the author’s “current intellectual interests” are, nor about which specific courses or professors at Columbia will help them pursue their “newfound passions.” The essay would be much stronger if, for example, the author talked about how Columbia’s “American Film: Cult and Exploitation” course would help them refine their interest in contemporary media culture, which they have already started exploring through a research project in their American history class.

Additionally, rather than listing general categories of courses like “philosophy or Western musical analysis,” the author should talk about the Core in more specific terms, which are also linked to their own personal interests. That line could look something like:

“While I’ve never considered myself a musician, I’ve always been fascinated by how songwriters can unify millions of people with just a clever turn of phrase, and the Core’s ‘Music Humanities” requirement will help me better understand why musicians can wield so much power in society.”

Finally, along similar lines, the author should ideally connect the Columbia-specific traditions they mention to their own interests. For example, rather than just saying that the “Surf Turf & Earth” event sounds “absolutely scrumptious,” they could talk about how their multicultural family has always encouraged adventurous eating, and so they are excited about attending a college that also values culinary exploration.

Essay Example 4 – Cancer Research and Community

I’ve always known about Columbia’s stellar core curriculum, first hearing it from my uncle. He would speak of the strengths of this method, allowing students to experience learning in all fields of study. And its rumors are nothing less than reality – being given this holistic foundation throughout college is one I wish to thrive on. It would allow me to explore other subjects and meet Columbia’s astute professors, specifically Dr. Adana Llanos. I want to journey through Cancer Epidemiology and possibly assist in her research towards breast cancer subtypes because of its prevalence in my family.

Looking past academics, I view Columbia as a family where I can learn about myself and those around me. After hearing about the South Asian club, Club Zamana, I want to use it as a mode of discovery for my own heritage, participating in flamboyant events like Tamasha. This club would create a door to indulge in the passionate cultures that make up Columbia. 

I believe Columbia to have academic resources, a community, and energy like no other. It is the home where I want to discover my passion and pursue it for my 4 years. I think my uncle would love that.

This essay succinctly captures the “why?” of the “Why This College?” essay in a straightforward, easy-to-follow response. This applicant is interested in applying to Columbia because of: 1) the core curriculum, 2) their personal interest in studying cancer epidemiology, and 3) the opportunity to explore their own heritage through the South Asian club. 

While having a simple structure may not initially seem like something to get excited about, one of the unfortunate realities of college essays is that, while you spend many hours writing and revising them, admissions officers have no choice but to read them extremely quickly, because they have so many to get through. So, you want to be sure that your readers understand what you’re saying the first time around, as if they’re confused about something, they don’t have time to  stop and figure it out.

Additionally, by mentioning a specific professor they hope to work with, the author shows they’ve done some research on how exactly Columbia will help them delve into their interest in Cancer Epidemiology. The key to successfully responding to this kind of prompt is joining your current background/interests with opportunities at the school that will help you explore them. The line “I want to journey through Cancer Epidemiology and possibly assist in her research towards breast cancer subtypes because of its prevalence in my family” accomplishes both things.

If, however, the last two sentences of the first paragraph were replaced with the vaguer “I want to journey through cancer epidemiology, and possibly learn about breast cancer subtypes because of its prevalence in my family,” the reader would still understand this student’s interest in the field, but not how that connects to their desire to attend Columbia, which would give the essay an incomplete feel.

Finally, college is more than just academics, and this student’s discussion of their non-academic interest, in a club that will help them better understand their own identity, shows they have thought comprehensively about what their life at Columbia would look like. That will in turn help admission officers create a complete picture in their minds of how this student would fit into Columbia as a whole, not just the classrooms.

As noted above, the author does a good job of tying the opportunities they hope to pursue at Columbia to their existing interests. That personal connection could be strengthened, however, by more details about why they are drawn to these opportunities over any others.

For example, regarding the student’s interest in cancer epidemiology, they do mention the prevalence of breast cancer in their family as their motivation for studying the topic, but that line is brief, and thus could be missed by someone who, as noted above, is reading quickly. It’s also lacking specificity, as plenty of people have familial connections to certain topics–say, Jewish history if you have an aunt who is a rabbi–and yet don’t have much interest in exploring them themselves.

The author could more concretely connect their background to their potential breast cancer research at Columbia by providing additional details about, say, a summer research program they completed, or their experience learning about genetics in their high school biology class, or a 5K race they run every year to raise money for breast cancer research. That will in turn show admissions officers what they would bring to Dr. Llanos’ lab, not just that they hope to work there in general.

This same general idea also applies to the student’s discussions of the Core and the South Asian club. The student generally references things that appeal to them about these features of Columbia, like a “holistic foundation” provided by the core, and “discover[ing]…[their] own heritage” through the club, but we don’t get any specific details explaining how their past experiences have led to them prioritizing these things in their college experience.

Specifically with regards to the Core, as you’ve probably noticed in our analysis of both this essay and the preceding two, just mentioning this feature of Columbia isn’t enough. When a school is particularly well known for one thing, like Columbia with the Core or Brown with their Open Curriculum, pretty much every applicant is going to mention it somewhere in their application. 

So, in order to set yourself apart–which is the whole point of the essay, after all–you want to make sure you’re being as detailed as possible about how your past experiences and goals for the future align with this aspect of the school. Otherwise, you’re wasting valuable words, as just saying you like the Core won’t move the needle on your application.

Finally, a general word of caution when writing applications: don’t lose sight of the fact that admissions officers want to understand a student’s motivations for applying to their school, not those of their family members, or anyone else for that matter. This student both starts and finishes their essay by talking about their uncle, which makes it seem like their motivation for applying to Columbia is to make their uncle proud, rather than a personal interest in the school. 

While it’s not automatically bad to mention how someone else helped you become interested in a school, the overall focus should stay on you. In the case of this essay, that means the student shouldn’t frame the second line around their uncle “speak[ing] of the strengths of this method,” but rather around how their uncle’s introduction to Columbia led them to start researching the school themself. And at the end, the last thought in their reader’s mind should be of them at Columbia, not their uncle. So, the line “I think my uncle would love that,” should be taken out.

A small bird nest rests outside my doorway. Everyday at 3:40 pm, the mother bird eagerly comes home to her ecstatic children. They remind me beauty is everywhere, even in the smallest of reunions.

The author makes great use of the limited word space in this essay with a charming account of what brings happiness in their daily routine. Thanks to the efficient writing and simple but vivid imagery, created through strong word choices like “ecstatic” and creative phrasings like “the smallest of reunions,” this short essay reads almost like poetry.

Furthermore, the author’s description also teaches us something about who they are, which is the key to any college essay, even the short ones. The reflection “They remind me beauty is everywhere, even in the smallest of reunions” shows that the author appreciates the beauty and significance of seemingly ordinary moments, which in turn shows that they would bring both thoughtfulness and positivity to Columbia’s campus.

This is an incredibly strong essay, without much room for improvement. If anything, the lesson to be learned here is that usually, you eventually get to a point where your essay doesn’t need any more changes. Calling your essay “finished” can be challenging for many students, due to the overall stress of the college process and the constant feeling that you should be doing something, anything, to improve your chances of acceptance. But at some point, it’s okay to take your hands off the keyboard, be proud of the work you’ve put into the essay, and take a five-minute break to unwind 🙂

Prompt:   For applicants to Columbia College, please tell us what from your current and past experiences (either academic or personal) attracts you specifically to the areas of study that you previously noted in the application. (200 words or fewer)

The flickering LED lights began to form into a face of a man when I focused my eyes. The man spoke a ruthless serial killer of the decade who had been arrested in 2004, and my parents shivered at his reaccounting of the case. I curiously tuned in, wondering who he was to speak of such crimes with concrete composure and knowledge. Later, he introduced himself as a profiler named Pyo Chang Won, and I watched the rest of the program by myself without realizing that my parents had left the couch.

After watching the program, I recited the foreign word until it was no longer unfamiliar — ”profiler”. I stayed up all-night searching the meaning; my eyes sparkled with the dim light of the monitor as I read the tales of Pyo Chang Won and his Sherlock-like stories. From predicting the future of criminals and knowing the precise vicinity of a killer on the loose, he had saved countless lives; living in communities riddled with crimes in my youth then and even now, I dreamed of working against crimes. However, the traditional path of a lawyer or a police officer only reinforced the three-step cycle of arrest, trial, and jail which continued with no fundamental changes for years; I wanted to work with the psyche of criminals beyond courts and wondered about the inner workings of the mind.

Such admiration and interest led me to invest my time in psychology. Combined with working with the likes of the Victim Witness Agency, I decided to pursue psychology as my major for my undergraduate education. Later on, I want to specialize my research and education on behavioral/forensic psychology and eventually branch out to my childhood dream of becoming a criminal profiler. 

A major positive of this essay is how it is focused on one moment in time. This student goes into depth about the night they first fell in love with criminal psychology which allows the reader to feel like they are there watching TV with the student and researching afterwards. Having the essay focus on a snapshot of the student’s life opens the door to include more imagery and delve into the internal monologue of the student, thus creating a more engaging and personable essay. 

The student’s genuine fascination for the topic is evident through what they show the reader. They explain that they stayed to finish the show after their parents left, they stayed up all night researching what they just learned, and their eyes sparkled the more they learned about criminal psychology. Providing all these details shows the student’s fascination and passion for this topic without them ever having to explicitly say they were excited about it. 

This essay also does a good job of expanding past the requirements of the prompt to explain what they hope to accomplish with their degree. Including their career aspirations reinforced their passion to pursue this field to admissions officers. It also demonstrated that they are a goal-oriented person who wants to make a difference in the world.

What Could Be Improved

One thing that could be improved in this essay is the grammar. There were a few sentences where there were either typos or just clunky sentences that could be tightened up. In order to catch grammatical errors, you should always give your essay to at least one other person to read. CollegeVine offers  essay reviews that allows students to receive feedback on the grammar, structure, and content of their essays. It’s always a good idea to have a fresh pair of eyes read your essay to catch mistakes that might go unnoticed by you. Having someone review this essay would have likely helped this student fix their grammatical errors.

Essay Example 7 – Slavic Languages and Cultures

Steaming fruit filled knedliky, singing Czech Christmas Carols, and falling asleep to fairy tales about princesses with golden stars on their foreheads compose my earliest memories. As I grew older, I found myself exploring the streets and museums of Prague on my own and requesting less fantastical fairy tales, consisting of true stories from my parents about life under Communism. These personal experiences with Czech Language and Culture have vastly influenced my academic interests. 

Exploring the manner in which Czechia developed and understanding its intrinsic components remained an innate goal of mine. Though Czech was my first language I developed my skills further as I matured by utilizing Czech news sources and literary works. Throughout my AP English and History courses, I continually sought out both works by Czech authors and their accounts of consequential historical events, attempting to discover the common ground between these readings and those assigned in class. Through these unique means, I began unearthing the intricate history and background of the country. 

Majoring in Slavic Languages and Cultures provides ideal opportunities to develop a cross-cultural understanding of pertinent political issues while defining my identity as a Czech-American, thus fostering my innate academic passions and personal ambitions. 

Although this student doesn’t reveal what their intended major is until the last line, the entire essay does a great job of building a vivid picture of Czech culture and this student’s fascination with it that we almost don’t need to be told the actual major. 

The author shows how their Czech heritage has fascinated them through different stages of their life, demonstrating their maturity through the information they seek out. To show the beauty of their childhood innocence, they describe “ Steaming fruit filled knedliky, singing Czech Christmas Carols, and falling asleep to fairy tales about princesses with golden stars on their foreheads. ” Then, they demonstrate their interest in history by asking their parents about Communism. This fascination for history continues when they discuss searching for Czech authors in their AP classes.

Not only do we see how Czech language and culture has been an integral part of their life, but we get to see their determination and drive to develop new skills through exploring their Czech heritage. This student could have been content with speaking Czech at home, but instead they demonstrated intellectual curiosity by “ utilizing Czech news sources and literary works” to go above and beyond in their studies. If this student acted on their niche passion in the confines of a high school classroom, imagine what they could do with Columbia’s resources!

While the prompt asks you to reflect on your past experiences, for this essay to really stand out, it should have touched on the future as well. You can strengthen any “ Why Major? ” essay by explaining what you hope to achieve with your major post graduation. Prompts won’t always ask for this, but it’s a nice way to demonstrate you are forward-looking.

Even if there was just a phrase in the final sentence that mentioned something about how this student wants to become a Czech historian or they want to move to Czechia after graduation to reconnect with their roots, this would be enough of an addition to show admissions officers that this student is confident in both their past and future.

Prompt: A hallmark of the Columbia experience is being able to live and learn in a community with a wide range of perspectives. How do you or would you learn from and contribute to diverse, collaborative communities? (200 words or fewer)

Uno. Jenga. Monopoly. These were the board games I grew up with in America. But I found that the seniors at St. Theresa’s Home in Singapore did not share my enthusiasm for these pastimes (nor did they understand my elation at finally capturing Boardwalk)!

Prioritizing flexibility as a facilitator, I flipped the tables.

Pai Gow. Xiangqi. Mahjong. Initially, my team and I struggled to keep track of the countless new gameplay rules. However, I embraced the initial discomfort of this “hands-off” approach, realizing how it allowed us to transfer control to a community whose voices we wanted to amplify.

The small but crucial details, like knowing Mandarin pronunciations of game and piece names, built trust and respect and soon, we found ourselves trading stories freely, like cards.

I was initially hesitant to talk about my upbringing in a Western society and my constant struggle to define my own identity. However, I found a true sounding board in the aunties and uncles. Both sides simply wanted to hear and be heard. 

This is the knowledge I will carry into Columbia, where I hope to foster cultural discourse through safe spaces and conversations, ensuring that no one feels like a missing piece.

This student very creatively displays the discomfort of cultural divides and the joys of overcoming them through playing games. The parallel of listing three US board games (“ Uno. Jenga. Monopoly. “) and then three Singapore games (“ Pai Gow. Xiangqi. Mahjong. “) shows the reader how this student had to step outside of their comfort zone to connect with the seniors.

By explaining how it was difficult to “ keep track of the countless new gameplay rules ” and know the “ Mandarin pronunciations of game and piece names ” we understand the challenges of relating to people from a different culture that this student had to overcome. However, by describing the seniors as “ aunties and uncles ” and a “ sounding board ” for this student, it shows the level of comfort they finally established and how this student benefitted from hearing diverse perspectives.

Additionally, this essay has a strong game motif running through it that contributes to the playfulness and cohesiveness of the essay. From cracking jokes about getting the most coveted property in Monopoly, to referring to their conversation as “ trading stories freely, like cards “, to concluding with the analogy of a “ missing piece “, the commitment to games is a nice way to reinforce the connections they fostered.

Something missing from this essay is an explanation of why this student was at the senior center and what they wanted to accomplish. Was this a volunteer activity they were originally hesitant to join but grew to love once they embraced the Singaporean games? They mention the seniors as “ community whose voices we wanted to amplify ,” so does that mean they were interviewing seniors for articles or research projects?

Although the essay still effectively answers the prompt without telling us more about why this student was at the senior center, the lack of answers can be distracting for the reader and diminishes the lasting impact of the story.

Do you want feedback on your Columbia University essays? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays. 

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

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How to Write Columbia’s Supplemental Essays for 2024-2025 (With Real Samples!)

Bonus Material: PrepMaven’s 50+ Real Supplemental Essays for Ivy+ Schools

Last year, Columbia admitted a scant 3.93% of applicants , which means that if Columbia is your dream school, your application needs to be perfect to stand a chance!

Fortunately, at PrepMaven, we’ve helped thousands of students craft compelling college application essays. It doesn’t hurt that many of our expert tutors have been admitted to elite schools like Princeton, Columbia, and Harvard themselves, and so they know exactly what works. 

In this guide, we’ll break down how to write the Columbia supplemental essays for the upcoming admissions cycle, explaining how to maximize your chances of acceptance. 

As you read on, check out our free resource linked below: it contains real, successful examples of supplemental essays written for Ivies and other top schools–including real essays that got  students admitted into Columbia!

Download 50+ Real Supplemental Essays for Ivy+ Schools

Jump to section: Columbia’s 2024-2025 Essay Prompts How to Write Columbia’s First Essay  How to Write Columbia’s Second Essay How to Write Columbia’s Third Essay How to Write Columbia’s Fourth Essay How to Write Columbia’s Fifth Essay Next steps

Columbia’s 2024-2025 Essay Prompts

For this admissions cycle, Columbia has 5 required supplemental essays, although the first is actually just a list:

Here all of the essays, prompts, and word counts for Columbia’s 2024-2025 supplementals:

how to write columbia essays

List a selection of texts, resources and outlets that have contributed to your intellectual development outside of academic courses, including but not limited to books, journals, websites, podcasts, essays, plays, presentations, videos, museums and other content that you enjoy. (100 words or fewer)  A hallmark of the Columbia experience is being able to learn and thrive in an equitable and inclusive community with a wide range of perspectives. Tell us about an aspect of your own perspective, viewpoint or lived experience that is important to you, and describe how it has shaped the way you would learn from and contribute to Columbia’s diverse and collaborative community. (150 words or fewer) In college/university, students are often challenged in ways that they could not predict or anticipate. It is important to us, therefore, to understand an applicant’s ability to navigate through adversity. Please describe a barrier or obstacle you have faced and discuss the personal qualities, skills or insights you have developed as a result. (150 words or fewer) Why are you interested in attending Columbia University? We encourage you to consider the aspect(s) that you find unique and compelling about Columbia. (150 words or fewer) What attracts you to your preferred areas of study at Columbia College or Columbia Engineering? (150 words or fewer)

Below, we’ll dive deep into how to approach each of these supplemental essay prompts, laying out the tips, tricks, and strategies to help your essay stand out from thousands of others. 

We’ll also be taking a look at real sample essays that got students admitted to Columbia and breaking down what allowed them to succeed. 

As you read on, we’ll often be encouraging you to spend time looking through as many real supplemental essays for Ivy League schools as possible. Writing is easiest when you have a model! 

Below, we’ve collected over 50 real supplemental essays that got students accepted to Ivy+ schools (including Columbia). You can download that collection for free by clicking the link below. 

How to Write Columbia’s First Essay: List of Texts

This essay matters much more than people think! It gives Columbia admissions officers an insight into how seriously you take your reading and thinking. 

It also will show them how mature and self-aware you are, which is the real test of this supplemental essay. 

how to write columbia essays

If you pick books, podcasts, or sources that are too basic, it’ll signal that you’re not a deep or unique thinker. For example, if all your books are things typically assigned in school readings, it’ll be clear you don’t read much on your own. 

At the same time, if you pick texts that are generally known–by adults, by college admissions officers, by undergraduates–to be associated with a certain worldview or subculture, that might be held against you. 

To pick an extreme example: if you pick a number of texts that are often recommended or read by people with intolerant tendencies, that might send a red flag to admissions officers. 

Of course, this can be more subtle as well: it can often be hard to tell whether the texts you’re putting on your list might convey something you don’t intend. This is a great area to check with someone who has some more perspective–like one of our essay tutors ! 

Beyond that, however, we suggest making sure that the texts you pick are nuanced, interesting, and correspond to the broader picture you want to paint of yourself. 

If you pick a text/resource that’s very obscure, feel free to add a brief explanatory note. After all, you do get 100 words for this!

When everything has to come together perfectly like it does here, we recommend working with one of our experienced college essay coaches , the majority of whom come from Ivy League schools themselves. 

In the meantime, download over 50 sample essays for free below! 

How to Write Columbia’s Second Essay: Community

As you can probably tell by the prompts, this essay question really wants you to reflect on who you are and your background. 

To a large extent, the advice that we give for the Common App personal statement also holds true for this kind of supplemental: be specific and tell a story!

The good news is that you don’t have to write about a particular identity for this essay to be effective! 

In fact, one of the best ways to approach this Columbia supplemental is by writing about a meaningful community you’re involved with. 

how to write columbia essays

That could mean a number of things: it could be a religious or identity-based community. But it could just as easily be a community you’re part of through sports, extracurriculars, or your interests. 

The key to this essay is to show Columbia how you’ve been a good community member, and how you’ll be a good community member at Columbia. 

Use Columbia’s second essay as a chance to show how your background–religious, cultural, or anything else–has influenced your ability and desire to contribute to a large and diverse college community. 

Below, check out a real, successful essay one of our tutors wrote to get admitted to Columbia!

One of my favorite authors, Cheryl Strayed, gave a TED Talk in which she discussed the concept of “radical sincerity” — being true and sincere to yourself and others. This is something I try to practice in my everyday life. I believe that kindness, sincerity, and gratitude are all muscles that must be used in order to be strengthened. I try to bring all of these traits to my interactions with others, especially when we have different viewpoints. I believe Columbia would be a great place for me to both strengthen these attributes in myself and continue to learn them from others. I’ve had the chance to practice interacting with a wide variety of people and opinions through my school’s social advocacy club. We make it a priority to hear all voices in a discussion while still ensuring that people’s identities are respected. This has certainly allowed me to practice empathizing with others and trying to understand their perspectives. I feel that my time in this club has made me a more open-minded and thoughtful person and prepared me well for an even more diverse collegiate setting.

And below, you can find over 50 more: these are real supplemental essays, written by our tutors when they applied and were accepted to Ivy League universities!

How to Write Columbia’s Third Essay: Obstacle

This essay prompt is quite straightforward: what obstacles, challenges, or adversity have you overcome, and how? 

When thinking about what essay topic to focus on for this essay, consider a few things: 

  • What experience allows you to tell the best story? 
  • Is the challenge you’re describing unique to you? 
  • Is there meaningful growth that happened as a result of the adversity you describe?
  • How does the story you tell here connect to the rest of your application narrative? 

Once you settle on the right story to tell, you should follow our usual advice for writing compelling essays: 

how to write columbia essays

  • Tell a story
  • Use your own voice
  • Be honest 
  • Don’t be generic

It isn’t always to do all four–especially if you’re not an experienced writer. 

A good way to tell your essay is doing all four of these things? Work with a college essay expert who’s read many of these essays and can give you an outside perspective on your writing. 

Below, find over 50 real supplementals that got students accepted into elite schools like Princeton, Yale, and Columbia. There’s no better resource to use as you start your own Columbia supplemental essays!

  Download 50+ Real Supplemental Essays for Ivy+ Schools

How to Write Columbia’s Fourth Essay: Why Columbia

The fourth supplemental essay prompt from Columbia is a classic essay type that we’ve written a lot about. Below, we’ll summarize our advice to the “Why this College?” essay, then offer some Columbia-specific tips before looking at a real example. 

The tricky bit is that while usually these essays have a word count of around 250, Columbia only gives you 150 words to make your case. That’s not a lot!

The analogy we like to use is that you can approach this essay a bit like a first date: you want to show why the two of you (you and the college) are a good match. 

how to write columbia essays

A lot of students just start by talking about how great the school they’re applying to is, but that’s the wrong move. Columbia already knows it’s hot stuff (they rejected over 95% of applicants, remember?). 

What they want to know is why you are such a good fit for their offerings and culture, and vice versa. 

So, we recommend tackling this essay in two steps: 

  • Step 1: Research unique offerings

This first step is key. Research what Columbia offers that other universities do not. 

And note: because Columbia has a separate question about academic offerings (the last prompt), you should not mention courses or academic offerings in your response to this question. 

So, what should you focus on? 

The best answer is likely community or student life! But you can feel free to write about any specific element of the Columbia experience that speaks to your story. 

So, when answering this question, be sure to focus primarily on why their community is a good fit for you, and vice versa. Our real sample essay below does a great job of showing this in action! 

  • Step 2: Link to your story

People usually do step 1, but many forget to do this second step. It’s not enough to show that you did your research into Columbia’s offerings. 

You need to show that Columbia’s offerings actually speak to your interests, capabilities, and goals. 

So, for every specific aspect of Columbia you mention, you need to connect it back to something you’ve already done or some existing passion of yours. 

Quality over quantity is the rule here. Instead of listing 5 specific programs at Columbia you like, list 2, but go on to explain how each one speaks to the experiences you’ve already had or the goals you’ve set for yourself. 

Below, take a look at a real response to this prompt that got one of our tutors admitted to Columbia: 

What draws me to Columbia is its dichotomy. Columbia focuses on a traditional core curriculum, and yet is located in New York, one of the most modern and evolving cities in the world. That isn’t to say that the core curriculum is inherently old-fashioned, but to highlight the contrast between convention and exploration. Columbia’s respect for tradition in its core curriculum is an approach that many schools have dismissed, to the harm of their students’ development. I’m in the minority at my high school for valuing the course requirements of secondary education. Most people don’t enjoy being “forced” to take classes they don’t enjoy — instead, they prefer to continue strengthening already well-developed passions. I have a high appreciation for the concept of a core curriculum, because I want to continue working on all of my academic skills, both strengths and weaknesses. And alongside the draw of Columbia’s curriculum itself is the thrum of New York City. I would feel incredibly lucky to learn in such an electric environment. I find it’s impossible not to feel inspired to pursue my education and open my mind when surrounded by a campus and city full of people striving to do the same.

How to Write Columbia’s Fifth Essay: Why Major

Columbia’s fifth essay prompt is a classic “why major” essay, on which we’ve written a comprehensive guide here: How to Write the “Why Major” Essay . 

The key to answering this supplemental prompt about your intended area of study is to answer three key questions: 

  • What specifically are you interested in?
  • Why , using specific details from your life, are you interested in that subject?
  • How , using the specific resources available at Columbia, will you pursue that subject?

If you’ve already written a Why Major essay for another school, you should be able to save a lot of time by reusing the basic structure of that essay, and simply replacing the school-specific portions. 

If you don’t already have a template, here’s what it should look like: 

  • Start with a brief anecdote from your life or academic question that interests you. 

The anecdote should show where your interest comes from, the moment you realized you wished to pursue this subject, or simply dramatize an important learning experience related to your chosen field of study. 

You can use this portion of the template for any school that asks a Why Major supplemental. 

how to write columbia essays

  • Use that anecdote to launch into a discussion of why the subject matter interests you/why you want to pursue it as a major. 

Whatever your major, you need to convincingly convey your passion for a particular subject to the admissions officers at Columbia.

Do so, and they’ll be far more likely to see you as someone who will seriously pursue your interests–which is, of course, what they’re looking for. 

As with the anecdote, you can reuse this portion of the essay for any school with a similar prompt.

  • Explain how you’ll use specific resources at Columbia to pursue your academic interests. 

This is the school-specific portion of the essay, which you’ll have to modify for every school you apply to. And the first step here is research: identify specific, unique offerings of Columbia University that you hope to take advantage of. 

Your best friend here will be the departmental website of the program/major to which you’re applying. Invest time in exploring that website: you’ll find all the information you need about curriculum, research, and work opportunities there. 

Then, you’ll take this specific information and focus on 1-2 key points at the end of the essay, favoring depth over breadth. Don’t just rattle off the first 10 things you see on the website: pick just a couple and spend a few sentences on each, explaining how the particular resource aligns with your academic interests and goals. 

Some great things to focus on would be: 

  • Research programs
  • Work/internship/coop opportunities
  • Unique curricular offerings
  • Unusual minors or specializations
  • Service learning opportunities 
  • Thesis/honors opportunities

Take a look below for a real sample essay written in response to this prompt! And, if you want to work with a college essay expert like the one who wrote this essay, contact us . 

I’ve been a voracious reader my entire life. Some of my earliest memories include lying on my bedroom floor listening to audiobooks; my absolute favorite was Matilda, because I related to her as a nerdy child. My theatre company performs a Shakespeare play each spring, which exposed me to his works at a very young age and has led me to explore storytelling from a performance perspective as well. This adaptable quality of literature — how stories can be told in diverse formats such as movies, plays, and albums — has always interested me, and I enjoy exploring its many facets. I believe digging deeply into stories can improve empathy, sharpen critical thinking, and even shape personality. Books and characters have had a powerful influence on my development: who would I be without the courage of Hermione ( Harry Potter ) or the kindness of Meg March ( Little Women )? Given the influence literature has had on my life, I would also like the opportunity to share it with others as an English professor. Through Columbia’s English courses, I could both strengthen my knowledge of English and learn from the incredible faculty who I one day hope to emulate.

Once you’re ready to start writing supplemental essays for Columbia and your other schools, we have two main pieces of advice. 

First: read real, successful sample supplemental essays that helped get students into elite schools like Columbia.

Most people don’t really know what colleges like Columbia actually want from the supplemental essays, and the best solution is to spend lots of time reviewing sample essays. We’ve collected over 50 of these essays in the free resource below. 

Second: get expert help. Whether you’re a brilliant writer or just an okay one, you’ll benefit tremendously from the advice of someone who’s already successfully navigated the high-stakes college application process. 

Unfortunately, not all college essay tutors are created equal: picking the right one can be the difference between getting into your dream school or just wasting your money. 

That’s why we had our experts come up with the definitive ranking of the 14 Best College Essay Services , evaluating everything from tutor credentials to customer reviews. Check out that list, and make sure you only work with the best.

And when you’re ready to work with our team of college essay experts–who earned admission to elite schools like Princeton and Columbia  before undergoing a rigorous training process– contact us to get matched with a tutor! 

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How to Write the Columbia Supplemental Essays 2024–2025

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Columbia University , located in Manhattan, New York City , is one of the most competitive universities in the United States, with an acceptance rate of only 3.73% in the 2021-2022 admissions cycle. Columbia’s acceptance rate has declined significantly over the past decade. So, if you dream of attending, differentiating your Columbia supplemental essays from the crowd is that much more important.

how to write columbia essays

There are six Columbia supplemental essays, also known as the Columbia-specific essays. The first two questions ask for lists of media you consume. The second set of four questions are short essays that illustrate your interest in Columbia and how you would fit into Columbia both as a student and a community member. In this blog post, you’ll learn how to write the Columbia University supplemental essays, understand the underlying question the admissions officers are asking, and distinguish yourself from other applicants.

Columbia’s 2024-2025 Prompts

Background questions, list a selection of texts, resources and outlets that have contributed to your intellectual development outside of academic courses, including but not limited to books, journals, websites, podcasts, essays, plays, presentations, videos, museums and other content that you enjoy. ( 100 words or fewer), a hallmark of the columbia experience is being able to learn and thrive in an equitable and inclusive community with a wide range of perspectives. tell us about an aspect of your own perspective, viewpoint or lived experience that is important to you, and describe how it has shaped the way you would learn from and contribute to columbia’s diverse and collaborative community. (150 words or fewer), in college/university, students are often challenged in ways that they could not predict or anticipate. it is important to us, therefore, to understand an applicant’s ability to navigate through adversity. please describe a barrier or obstacle you have faced and discuss the personal qualities, skills or insights you have developed as a result. (150 words or fewer), why columbia question, why are you interested in attending columbia university we encourage you to consider the aspect(s) that you find unique and compelling about columbia. (150 words or fewer), what attracts you to your preferred areas of study at columbia college or columbia engineering (150 words or fewer), we’ll review your essay.

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how to write columbia essays

Columbia’s Background Questions

This prompt asks you to list your media—what you read, watched, listened to, or generally enjoyed consuming in high school or secondary school, but not for your high school or secondary school. Even if The Great Gatsby changed your life, if you read it in AP English Lit, it’s not the right answer to this question. On the other hand, if you read a poem no one’s ever heard of, but you read it on your own time and enjoyed it, don’t hesitate to include it in your list.

Additionally, if you read a lot of books in high school that aren’t generally considered “literature,” but you enjoyed them, you also definitely shouldn’t hesitate to write them down. The most important thing is authenticity, which will serve to differentiate you. It’s unlikely that any other applicant is going to write down exactly the same titles as you. After all, you should be able to fit 10+ titles within the 100-word maximum . Remember, you don’t need to list authors, subtitles, or any explanatory details.

Don’t be afraid to list something that is popular, unpopular, or light-hearted . Admissions officers want to know that you have a strong personality. If you love listening to music, you might want to start your list with your favorite musical artists, composers, soundtracks, or songs. Still, remember to offer a couple of other types of media before you run out of words. Feel free to express your personality by naming your favorite comedian’s podcast. Mention the romantic comedy you re-watch every year. Or include the social media account of a celebrity llama, if that’s who you follow!

If the admissions officer decides to look up the media you referenced and gets a laugh out of it, then you’re probably on the right track to planting a more memorable seed in their mind. Nevertheless, if there are also “serious”/academic lectures, Ted Talks, educational YouTube videos, or museums you really enjoy, be sure to include at least a few of them in your list.

That said, there are some “don’t”s in answering this prompt. Including the name of a social media account you love but which is not publicly accessible won’t allow the admissions officer to look it up. For instance, NSFW-type material is a no-go (R-rated movies are generally fine, but X-rated movies are probably not appropriate).

Finally, in terms of websites, it’s not advisable to list websites you must use for school, or websites that have many distinct purposes, because it is already implied that you use these websites. For instance, listing the government website of your town doesn’t clearly express your involvement in polling efforts for local elections. Listing Wikipedia doesn’t necessarily communicate that you are a registered admin on the site. Linking the community portal on Wikipedia, though, or a page explaining how to register to vote, might more specifically communicate your involvement in those endeavors.

The underlying questions are: Who are you outside of the classroom ? What media shapes you ? These questions are not the time to indicate your academic interests. Instead, they’re the perfect occasion to display your unique personality, your cultural influences, and your authentic media consumption.

This background question gives you the chance to express your personality. In this 150-word essay, you can dive into a (not necessarily marginalized) identity you hold. (For example, your religion, cultural background, or LGBTQ+ identity.) You could also discuss a formative experience you have undergone. (For example, taking care of a family member, participating in sports, or overcoming a health issue.) The underlying questions this essay prompt asks fall along these lines: How has your unique identity shaped the way you move through the world ? How will it continue to shape your life?

In posing this prompt, the admissions officers indicate their curiosity about who you have been within your community(ies) throughout your life. In the same vein, they want to know how you will participate in the community of Columbia University undergraduates. As a result, it is important for you to describe your past participation in a community through actions you have taken.

For instance, if you identify as Muslim, how does your Muslim identity manifest (or not manifest) in your choices, personality, or relationship with others? If you are a boy in a family of all women, how has that experience influenced your perspective on women and society? Reflecting on questions like these may help you consider how you may evolve as a Columbia University student.

This background question asks you to describe your experience with overcoming hardship. Through this Columbia supplemental essay, you have the opportunity to highlight a challenge you have faced in your life and describe how you responded to it. The underlying question here is, How do you respond to adversity?

Many students answer a similar question to this one in their Common App personal statement. If you are one of those students, you should consider selecting a different obstacle to discuss in this essay. Discussing the same obstacle would create redundancy within your application. Moreover, this essay question only permits answers of 150 words or fewer. Meanwhile, the personal statement permits 650 words. It is difficult to effectively condense a 650-word answer down to 150 words without losing crucial details.

In sum, make sure you can discuss your essay topic fully in only 150 words. The prompt doesn’t ask for the greatest barrier you have faced, just “a” barrier you have faced. Of course, you should write about a significant challenge. But even more importantly, you shouldn’t write a rushed, incomplete, and/or oversimplified essay.

Remember, you can also choose to discuss a specific aspect of a barrier you have faced. For instance, if your family is socioeconomically disadvantaged, that is a huge topic that you could probably discuss for pages. Instead, you could focus on a particular, exciting high school opportunity that you had to turn down due to finances. You could mention a specific side job you had to get to support your family while in high school. Or you could describe the way you emotionally supported your family members during a specific time of financial hardship. By keeping your answer specific, you avoid oversimplification or generalization and ensure your answer is specific to your experiences.

Why Columbia? Questions

The first Why Columbia? question may seem straightforward. However, it is both one of the most common and one of the most commonly misunderstood by applicants. Unlike the rest of the college application, the Why Columbia? essays should not tell the reader about yourself (at least not directly). Nor should it read like a Columbia University advertisement. Instead, this question expects you to research , refine , and relate to Columbia and its current student body.

Research what classes, programs, professors, extracurriculars, and other aspects of Columbia most interest you. Then, refine this list to include only what is unique to Columbia. For example, you might think Columbia’s English department is amazing, but many other universities have English departments. What about Columbia’s is different from the English departments elsewhere? Lastly, relate to your own unique interests what you’ve listed.

For instance, don’t sing the praises of the Columbia Ballet Collaborative unless you want to do ballet! Moreover, don’t assume that the reader knows exactly how you relate to a given aspect of Columbia. This is unless, of course, you’ve explicitly stated the relation earlier in the application. If you haven’t mentioned anywhere in your application that what you want to do with your physics degree is to work at NASA, then your reader won’t necessarily know why you so badly want to take a class with Professor Massamino.

The second Why Columbia? question is one of the tougher questions among Columbia’s supplemental essays. This is because it asks you to explain why you are interested in the academic fields that you wish to pursue. Many students feel like they have to explain some grand story about how a doctor saved their best friend’s life and now they want to be a doctor. Or they might feel compelled to spin a tale about looking at the stars every night as a child, dreaming about astrophysics. The truth is, for many students, they chose a subject because they had a talent for it. For just as many students, their choice of major is motivated by career opportunities. As a result, these students need to engage in some introspection before writing this essay.

If you do have a grand story about the origins of your love of 16th-century French history, then that’s amazing. And you should write about it in as much detail as your 150 words permit ! If that doesn’t sound relatable to you, though, there are still plenty of ways to express the answer to this essay’s underlying question: Why are you passionate about your prospective major(s)?

One way to get started on this essay is to think back to the origins of your academic interests. After all, a variety of financially reliable fields exist. Moreover, you likely have a talent for more than one academic subject. How did you end up choosing this one (at least for now), and what motivated this decision?

Note that the question also mentions your preferred areas of study at Columbia specifically. Make sure to tailor your response to this question to Columbia’s offerings. You can start the essay by specifying which major(s) at Columbia are of interest to you. Then, you can end the essay by name-dropping majors, courses, or even professors if you have words remaining.

Another question to consider, especially if you can’t remember how you got into your subject of interest, is how you feel when you are doing activities or assignments related to this subject. Does Spanish class always engage your full attention? Do you feel a jolt of excitement when you find out you get to do a chemistry lab? Does reading a book for English class feel more like leisure than work?

Addressing your emotional state can be a great way to “prove” that you are interested in your subject(s) of choice. That said, be sure to use specific language when talking about your emotions. Involve rhetorical devices if you can, versus just writing that math makes you happy.

If you need help polishing up your Columbia supplemental essays, check out our College Essay Review service. You can receive detailed feedback from Ivy League consultants in as little as 24 hours.

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Columbia University 2024-25 Supplemental Essay Prompt Guide

Regular Decision Deadline: Jan 1

You Have: 

Columbia University  2024-25 Application Essay Question Explanations

The Requirements: 1 list of 100 words; 4 essays of 150 words each 

Supplemental Essay Type(s): Community , Why, Short Answer

How to Write Columbia Supplemental Essays

Your college application is full of lists, from your transcript and test scores to your resume and activity list, but that hasn’t stopped Columbia University! Their supplement asks you to generate yet another list, along with some brand new essay material.  Keep reading to access our expert tips for writing successful Columbia supplemental essays that are sure to impress admissions! 

Columbia Essay Prompts Breakdown

List questions, for the list question that follows, there is a 100 word maximum. please refer to the below guidance when answering this question:, your response should be a list of items separated by commas or semicolons., items do not have to be numbered or in any specific order., it is not necessary to italicize or underline titles of books or other publications., no author names, subtitles or explanatory remarks are needed., list a selection of texts, resources and outlets that have contributed to your intellectual development outside of academic courses, including but not limited to books, journals, websites, podcasts, essays, plays, presentations, videos, museums and other content that you enjoy.  (100 words or fewer).

How do you pursue intellectual development outside of the classroom? You’ll need to be careful to avoid self-aggrandizing or pandering choices. Don’t top your list with 1984 unless you genuinely picked it up of your own accord, read it from start to finish, and meditated on Orwell’s intentions (while staring out the window, jaw agape). Think of not just the most recent media you’ve consumed, but also the old classics you can’t help revisiting (anything by Jenny Han, the podcast you binged in two weeks, the film you saw in theaters three times). Play with the sequencing here: how would you set these up in your library? Chronologically? Alphabetically? Thematically? Maybe you can make an entertaining leap from the sublime to the ridiculous by placing a heart-wrenching play alongside a goofy satire. Have fun with it! After all, this list is, at its core, about what you consume for the pleasure of it.

Short answer questions

For the four short answer questions, please respond in 150 words or fewer., a hallmark of the columbia experience is being able to learn and thrive in an equitable and inclusive community with a wide range of perspectives. tell us about an aspect of your own perspective, viewpoint or lived experience that is important to you, and describe how it has shaped the way you would learn from and contribute to columbia’s diverse and collaborative community. (150 words or fewer).

Ah, the infamous “community” essay. Many schools ask students about their communities because they want to know how you relate to the people around you, forge connections, and commune with your peers. In this particular instance, the question emphasizes equity, inclusivity, diversity, and collaboration. What do these words mean to you and how do they relate to your perspective or lived experience? Maybe you’re very involved in a progressive church youth group that celebrates its members differences, including trans and nonbinary members. Perhaps the friends you made at the skatepark have introduced you to a new culture and mindset of “try and try again” that you love. Maybe there are different languages spoken by the volunteers in your community garden, and now you know how to say “basil” in four different dialects (BTW in Italian it’s “ basilico ,” #funfact). How do you see equity, inclusivity, diversity, and collaboration play out in your community? And, looking forward, how would you keep those values alive at Columbia next fall?

In college/university, students are often challenged in ways that they could not predict or anticipate. It is important to us, therefore, to understand an applicant’s ability to navigate through adversity. Please describe a barrier or obstacle you have faced and discuss the personal qualities, skills or insights you have developed as a result. (150 words or fewer)

This prompt is incredibly similar to the Common App’s Prompt #2, which asks applicants to recount a time when they faced a challenge, setback, or failure. Our advice is similar: isolate an incident of trial in your life and illustrate how you learned from it. Writing about a difficult time in your life requires both vulnerability and perspective. Instead of focusing on the barrier or obstacle you were up against, spend most of the words at your disposal on how you rose to the occasion to overcome the challenge at hand. This is your opportunity to show admissions that you are a developing, maturing young adult with resilience and work ethic. As you zero in on a key moment, ask yourself the following questions: What healthy coping mechanisms or communication skills did you develop? Who, if applicable, did you choose to lean on and why? What did you learn about yourself? How will you approach difficult situations moving forward? Be honest and open, and we’re sure admissions will be impressed.

Why are you interested in attending Columbia University? We encourage you to consider the aspect(s) that you find unique and compelling about Columbia. (150 words or fewer)

This brief assignment is Columbia’s version of the classic Why Essay , and the key to every good Why Essay is solid, specific research. Spend some quality time with the Columbia website or, if you can, on a campus tour. Ask questions, take notes, and dig to find specific people, organizations, and experiences that excite you. Don’t dig too deep into majors or classes just yet; you’ll have an opportunity to write about your academic interest in a little bit, so for now, focus on the Columbia experience as a whole. Once you have some notes on the page, try to weave together a story that pairs your interests with Columbia’s offerings. Reveal new information about yourself while also showing that you’ve done your homework.

What attracts you to your preferred areas of study at Columbia College or Columbia Engineering? (150 words or fewer)

This prompt gives you a chance to geek out about your intended area(s) of study. Whether you’re hoping to study at Columbia College or Columbia Engineering, the assignment is the same: offer admissions insight into your academic interests and pursuits. Whether your goals are intellectual, professional, or somewhere in between, your reasoning should be grounded in what Columbia has to offer. 150 words isn’t a lot of space, but that doesn’t mean you can’t provide a detailed response. Get ambitious and aim to answer these two key questions: What intrigues or excites you about your intended major? And why is Columbia the ideal place for you to study it? Do a little research to identify classes you’d like to take, professors you’d like to work with, and alumni you’d like to network with; then, get to drafting—and leave yourself plenty of time to edit and revise! 

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Columbia Essays

We have been reading Columbia supplemental essays for over twenty years now, so we know a thing or two about the most common mistakes students make. The most common mistakes to avoid are repeating the prompt in your essay (don’t waste your words), trying to sound like an academic (admissions wants to hear your authentic voice!), and using cliches (they’re ineffective and—let’s face it—lazy).

Why Choose College Essay Advisors for Columbia Essays

We at College Essay Advisors have been guiding students one-on-one through the essay writing process for the Columbia supplements for over twenty years. We take a holistic approach to these essays and short answers, considering each student’s application package as a whole and identifying their strengths to highlight. Our Advisors accommodate each student’s scheduling needs to virtually brainstorm, draft, and revise winning essays. It’s incredibly important to us that each student’s voice is preserved, and we pride ourselves in helping students to write successful Columbia supplemental essays that differentiate them from similarly qualified applicants. For more information, submit a contact form below or review our one-on-one advising services or list of student acceptances . 

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Frequently Asked Questions

That depends on when you’re applying. If you’re applying Early Decision , the supplement is due November 1. If you’re applying Regular Decision, the supplement is due January 1. 

Columbia requires one (1) list of 100 words and four (4) essays of 150 words each.

As per Columbia’s website , “these questions provide insight to your intellectual curiosity, habits of mind, love of learning and sense of self. They also allow the Committee on Admissions to learn more about you in your current community and why you feel Columbia’s distinctive experiences in and out of the classroom would be a good fit for your undergraduate education.” So, in short, admissions is looking to learn more about you, the role you play in your community, and why Columbia is the best place for you to pursue your degree.

In order to make your Columbia essays stand out, you’re going to want to be authentic, do your research so you can pepper specific examples into your Why Essay , and make a strong case for why you will be a great addition to Columbia’s campus community (and vice versa!). The clearer a portrait you can paint for admissions (both of your candidacy and aspirations), the better. Excellent grammar and syntax won’t hurt either!  

Approach Columbia’s “List Questions” with honesty and have some fun! The list serves to provide admissions with deeper insight into the content you enjoy. Of course, we don’t recommend listing all of the Fast and Furious franchise movies when just listing one will show your passion for speed and Vin Diesel. Try to diversify your list. Maybe include a few books, a podcast or two, a TED Talk, an art installation, or a zine. The possibilities are endless. The point is to show admissions what you’re curious about and how you pursue knowledge outside of the classroom

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How To Answer Columbia's 2023/24 Supplemental Essays: Tips & Insights

How To Answer Columbia's 2023/24 Supplemental Essays: Tips & Insights

What's New

What Are Columbia's Essay Prompts?

How to Answer Columbia's Essay Prompts?

General Guidelines

Columbia's supplemental essays are a crucial part of the application, offering a deeper insight into your fit with the university. This guide provides detailed prompts, tips, and insights to craft compelling responses that resonate with Columbia's ethos. Approach with authenticity, align with Columbia's offerings and showcase your unique perspective to stand out.

The Essay That Got Me Into Columbia

Columbia's 2023/24 Supplemental Essay Updates: What's Changed?

Securing a spot at Columbia University , with its acceptance rate of around 4% , is a monumental achievement. In the intricate dance of college admissions, your supplemental essays are instrumental in portraying your distinctive narrative and alignment with Columbia's ethos.

Elite institutions like Columbia refine their application criteria each academic year to ensure they gain a holistic perspective of their prospective students.

For the 2023/24 admissions cycle, Columbia has made several pivotal changes to its supplemental essay questions:

  • Consolidation of Prompts : The initial list-based questions about favorite readings from high school courses and beyond and resources and outlets of interest have been merged into a single comprehensive prompt. This new question seeks to understand the texts, resources, and outlets influencing the applicant's intellectual journey outside formal education.
  • Word Limit Reduction : Several questions now have reduced word limits, emphasizing the need for applicants to provide concise and focused responses.
  • Emphasis on Inclusivity : The question about learning from diverse communities has been refined to underscore the importance of an "equitable and inclusive community." This change prompts applicants to reflect more deeply on their perspectives and experiences.
  • Introduction of a Resilience Question : A new question has been added to gauge the applicant's resilience. It asks them to describe an obstacle they've faced and the steps they took to overcome it.
  • Minor Adjustments : While the question about the applicant's interest in Columbia remains, its word limit has been shortened. The prompt about attraction to specific areas of study at Columbia has been slightly rephrased but retains its essence.

These modifications highlight Columbia's evolving admissions approach, emphasizing a deeper understanding of the diverse life experiences and intrinsic values that applicants would bring to its dynamic undergraduate community.

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What Are Columbia's Supplemental Essay Prompts for 2023/24?

For the 2023/24 application cycle, Columbia University has meticulously crafted supplemental essay prompts to delve deeper into the profiles of its applicants. These prompts aim to uncover your intellectual influences, personal perspectives, resilience, and your vision for your journey at Columbia.

List-Based Question

Columbia's list-based question offers a glimpse into your intellectual influences outside the classroom.

  • Intellectual Influences : List a selection of texts, resources, and outlets that have contributed to your intellectual development outside of academic courses, including but not limited to books, journals, websites, podcasts, essays, plays, presentations, videos, museums, and other content that you enjoy. (100 words)

Short Answer Questions

These questions provide deeper insights into your perspectives, experiences, and values.

  • Equitable and Inclusive Community : A hallmark of the Columbia experience is being able to learn and thrive in an equitable and inclusive community with a wide range of perspectives. Tell us about an aspect of your own perspective, viewpoint, or lived experience that is important to you, and describe how it has shaped the way you would learn from and contribute to Columbia's diverse and collaborative community. (150 words)
  • Navigating Adversity : In college/university, students are often challenged in ways that they could not predict or anticipate. Please describe a barrier or obstacle you have faced and discuss the personal qualities, skills, or insights you have developed as a result. (150 words)
  • Interest in Columbia : Why are you interested in attending Columbia University? We encourage you to consider the aspect(s) that you find unique and compelling about Columbia. (150 words)
  • Areas of Study : What attracts you to your preferred areas of study at Columbia College or Columbia Engineering? (150 words)

Requirements

For the list question, adhere to a 100-word maximum. Your response should be a list of items separated by commas or semicolons without the need for numbering, italicizing, or underlining titles. No author names, subtitles, or explanatory remarks are required. Responses should be limited to 150 words or fewer for the four short answer questions.

Columbia's application process is undeniably competitive, with an acceptance rate of around 4%. These prompts offer applicants a unique opportunity to showcase their intellectual influences, personal growth, and the distinct perspectives they'll bring to the Columbia community.

Looking for inspiration? Dive into these  Columbia essay examples  to see what successful applications look like!

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How to Answer Columbia’s Supplemental Essay Questions?

Prompt 1 (list-based question), “list a selection of texts, resources and outlets that have contributed to your intellectual development outside of academic courses, including but not limited to books, journals, websites, podcasts, essays, plays, presentations, videos, museums and other content that you enjoy.”, - 100 words or fewer.

This prompt is an invitation to showcase the diverse range of materials that have shaped your intellectual journey outside the confines of a classroom. It's a chance to provide a snapshot of your intellectual curiosity, interests, and the resources instrumental in your growth .

Diversify Your List

While focusing solely on academic or highbrow materials might be tempting, remember that intellectual growth can come from various sources. A podcast episode might have changed your perspective on a social issue, or a museum visit might have deepened your appreciation for art or history.

Be Authentic

It's essential to be genuine in your selections. Don't list items you think might impress the admissions committee but don't resonate with you. Your list should reflect your true intellectual diet.

Consider the Impact

While the prompt doesn't ask for explanations, the items you choose should have clearly impacted your intellectual development. Whether it's a book that introduced you to a new field of interest or a documentary that deepened your understanding of a global issue, each item should have contributed to your growth.

Format and Presentation

Given the word limit, you'll need to be concise. List items in a clear, organized manner, using commas or semicolons to separate them. While you don't need to provide detailed explanations, the order and grouping can subtly indicate connections or themes.

  • "1984" by George Orwell; "The Daily" podcast; TED Talks; The Louvre; "The Social Dilemma" documentary; National Geographic website; "The Future of Humanity" by Michio Kaku; Shakespeare's "Hamlet"; The Economist.
  • "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho; MoMA; "How I Built This" podcast; "The World in a Grain" by Vince Beiser; TED-Ed videos; "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Díaz; The Smithsonian Magazine.

Columbia's first list question is a window into your intellectual world outside school. It's an opportunity to showcase the breadth and depth of your interests and the resources that have been pivotal in your academic journey. Approach this list with authenticity, diversity, and a clear sense of how each item has contributed to your growth .

Prompt 2 (Short Essay)

“a hallmark of the columbia experience is being able to learn and thrive in an equitable and inclusive community with a wide range of perspectives. tell us about an aspect of your own perspective, viewpoint or lived experience that is important to you, and describe how it has shaped the way you would learn from and contribute to columbia's diverse and collaborative community.”, - 150 words or fewer.

This prompt delves into your personal experiences and how they've shaped your perspective. Columbia is seeking students who will not only benefit from its diverse community but also actively contribute to it .

Reflect on Your Unique Perspective

Start by identifying a specific experience, background, or aspect of your identity that has profoundly influenced your perspective. This could be related to your cultural background, personal challenges, unique experiences, or any other facet of your life that has shaped your worldview.

Show, Don't Just Tell

Instead of merely stating your perspective, narrate a brief anecdote or experience that encapsulates it. This makes your essay more engaging and provides a clearer insight into your viewpoint.

Connect to Columbia's Community

Reflect on how your unique perspective will enrich Columbia's community. How will you engage with others, participate in discussions, or contribute to campus activities? Consider how your viewpoint can foster understanding, spark meaningful conversations, or inspire collaborative projects.

Embrace the NYC Advantage

Given Columbia's unique location in New York City, consider how your perspective aligns with NYC's dynamic, diverse, and cosmopolitan environment. How might the city's cultural resources amplify your learning and contributions?

  • "Growing up in a multicultural household, I've learned to navigate and appreciate multiple cultures simultaneously. This has taught me the value of open-mindedness and adaptability. At Columbia, I aim to bridge cultural gaps, fostering understanding and collaboration in this diverse community, while also immersing myself in NYC's rich tapestry of cultures."
  • "Facing economic hardships, I've developed resilience and a deep appreciation for education as a tool for change. My experiences have instilled in me a drive to advocate for equitable opportunities. At Columbia, I'd champion initiatives that support underprivileged students, leveraging the resources and platforms that NYC offers."

Columbia's second short essay question invites you to share how your unique experiences and perspectives will enrich its vibrant community. By weaving a narrative that connects your journey to Columbia's ethos and the broader NYC environment , you can effectively convey the value you'll bring to the university's diverse and collaborative landscape.

Prompt 3 (Short Essay)

“in college/university, students are often challenged in ways that they could not predict or anticipate. it is important to us, therefore, to understand an applicant's ability to navigate through adversity. please describe a barrier or obstacle you have faced and discuss the personal qualities, skills or insights you have developed as a result.”.

This prompt seeks to understand your resilience, adaptability, and growth in facing challenges . Columbia wants students who persevere, learn from adversity, and contribute positively to the community despite unexpected obstacles.

Identify a Genuine Challenge

Begin by pinpointing a specific challenge or obstacle you've encountered. This could be academic, personal, social, or even professional. Ensure it's a situation where you faced genuine difficulty, uncertainty, or setback.

Narrate the Journey, Not Just the Outcome

While it's essential to discuss how you overcame the challenge, also delve into the emotions, thoughts, and processes you went through. This provides depth to your narrative and showcases your problem-solving and coping mechanisms.

Highlight Personal Growth

Discuss the qualities or skills you developed from facing this challenge. Did it make you more empathetic? Did you develop better communication or analytical skills? Maybe it gave you a fresh perspective or a renewed sense of purpose.

Connect to the College Experience

Reflect on how this growth prepares you for the unpredictable challenges of college life. How will these qualities or skills help you navigate Columbia's academic and social intricacies?

  • "When a close family member fell ill, I had to balance school with significant home responsibilities. This period taught me time management and the value of support networks. I've learned that seeking help isn't a sign of weakness but of strength. At Columbia, I'll proactively join study groups and access available resources."
  • "Facing academic challenges in my calculus class, I initially felt defeated. However, I sought tutoring, collaborated with peers, and spent extra hours practicing. This experience honed my perseverance and collaborative spirit, qualities I'll carry into challenging coursework at Columbia."

Columbia's third short essay question provides a window into your character, resilience, and growth mindset. By detailing a genuine challenge and the subsequent personal development , you can effectively convey to Columbia how you'll handle the unpredictable challenges of college life and contribute positively to the community.

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Prompt 4 (Short Essay)

“why are you interested in attending columbia university we encourage you to consider the aspect(s) that you find unique and compelling about columbia.”.

This is a classic " Why This School " essay, a staple in the college application process. Columbia wants to understand not just why you want to attend an Ivy League institution but why you're specifically drawn to Columbia over other prestigious schools .

Research, Research, Research

Before you start writing, research Columbia's programs, culture, and opportunities. Go beyond the obvious and look for unique offerings or traditions that resonate with your interests and aspirations.

Connect to Your Goals and Interests

Discuss specific Columbia programs, courses, or opportunities that align with your academic and extracurricular interests. Maybe there's a particular professor you're excited to work with or a unique program that aligns with your career goals.

Beyond Academics

Columbia is more than just its academic programs. Maybe you're drawn to its location in New York City, diverse student body, or its commitment to community engagement. Highlight aspects of Columbia's culture or values that resonate with you.

The Core Curriculum

While many applicants will mention the famed Columbia Core Curriculum, make your mention stand out. Dive deep into specific courses or texts within the Core that excite you. How do you see the Core enriching your academic journey?

  • "Columbia's interdisciplinary Science and Society program perfectly aligns with my passion for bioethics. The blend of rigorous scientific study with philosophical inquiry offers a holistic education I'm eager to dive into."
  • "Being in the heart of NYC, Columbia offers unparalleled opportunities for real-world learning. I'm excited to engage with the city's diverse communities and bring those experiences back to the classroom."

Columbia's fourth short essay question is your chance to showcase your genuine interest in the university and how it aligns with your goals. By connecting specific Columbia offerings to your aspirations, you demonstrate a clear vision of your future at the university .

Prompt 5 (Short Essay)

“what attracts you to your preferred areas of study at columbia college or columbia engineering”.

Columbia wants to understand the driving force behind your academic choices . This question delves into your intellectual passions and how they align with what Columbia offers in your preferred study area.

Reflect on Your Journey

Begin by considering the experiences, both academic and personal, that have shaped your interest in your chosen field. Was it a particular class, a personal project, or maybe an internship or mentorship?

Specificity is Key

Avoid generic statements about the value of education or the prestige of Columbia. Instead, delve into specific programs, courses, or opportunities within Columbia College or Columbia Engineering that resonate with your interests.

Connect Past, Present, and Future

Discuss how your past experiences have prepared you for your intended major. Then, bridge this with how Columbia's offerings will further your academic and career goals.

  • "My internship at a local tech firm ignited my passion for computer engineering. Columbia Engineering's renowned Data Science Institute offers the perfect platform for me to delve deeper into machine learning applications."
  • "After spearheading a community art project, I realized the power of visual storytelling. Columbia College's interdisciplinary approach to art and media studies will allow me to explore the intersection of art, culture, and social impact."

Columbia's fifth short essay question seeks to understand the depth of your commitment to your chosen field and how Columbia's specific offerings align with your academic journey. Connecting your past experiences with Columbia's resources demonstrates a clear vision of your academic future at the university . Remember to be genuine and specific, and show how your background and Columbia's offerings align with your educational aspirations.

How Anuar Got Into Columbia

General Guidelines for Answering Columbia's Supplemental Essay Questions

  • Deep Dive into Columbia's Offerings : Columbia's prompts are tailored to understand your fit within its academically rigorous and culturally diverse environment. Highlight specific programs, courses, or professors that align with your interests. Demonstrating this level of specificity indicates genuine interest and thorough research.
  • Reflect on Personal Growth : Columbia values introspective students. When discussing challenges or personal perspectives, always circle back to what these experiences have taught you and how they've shaped your worldview.
  • Celebrate Your Unique Perspective : Columbia thrives on various voices and backgrounds. Emphasize how your unique experiences or viewpoints will enrich classroom discussions and the broader Columbia community.
  • Authenticity Above All : Be genuine in your responses. Rather than trying to fit a mold, showcase your true self, interests, and aspirations. Authentic narratives resonate more deeply.
  • Conciseness is Key : With tight word limits, it's essential to be concise yet impactful. Prioritize depth over breadth, giving a comprehensive view of selected experiences or thoughts.
  • Engaging Narratives : Engaging storytelling can elevate your essay. Whether you're listing resources that have shaped your intellectual journey or explaining why you're drawn to Columbia, a narrative touch can make your response memorable.
  • Meticulous Proofreading : Ensure your essays are polished and free from errors. Beyond grammar, ensure clarity and coherence in your narrative. Seek feedback from trusted individuals for fresh perspectives.
  • Connect to the Columbia Experience : Relate your answers to how you'll engage with and contribute to the Columbia community. This showcases a long-term vision of your time at Columbia beyond just securing admission.
  • Embrace the Opportunity : These essays are more than just a formality; they're your platform to present a holistic picture of who you are. Use them to articulate why the synergy between you and Columbia would benefit both.
  • Stay Updated : Columbia, situated in the heart of New York City, is ever-evolving. Stay updated with recent developments, courses, or initiatives that might align with your interests.

Columbia's supplemental essays are your gateway to showcase your fit, passion, and potential contributions to its esteemed community. By thoughtfully crafting your responses and intertwining them with Columbia's ethos and offerings, you can compellingly convey why you're a perfect match for Columbia University.

For more inspiration, you might want to explore these  Columbia essay examples  to understand what makes an application truly stand out.

Final Thoughts

Embarking on the journey to Columbia is not just about showcasing academic prowess but weaving a narrative that aligns with Columbia's esteemed legacy and the admissions committee's expectations. Your supplemental essays are a window into your character, aspirations, and the unique contributions you'll bring to the Columbia community.

Every Columbia aspirant has a distinct story to share. This is your moment to articulate yours. Approach your essays with authenticity, depth, and a genuine passion for your narrative.

If you're unsure whether your essay truly captures your essence or stands out amidst many applications, our essay review service is here to guide you. Our experienced experts will provide a thorough review and feedback, ensuring your essay resonates with Columbia's admissions officers. For further inspiration, dive into our ebook , which showcases essays from students who clinched spots at top-tier institutions. And for those targeting Columbia, our compilation of successful Columbia essay examples will be invaluable.

For those just beginning their college application journey, consider scheduling a free consultation with our seasoned college counselors. We're dedicated to assisting you in crafting an application that enhances your chances of joining the ranks of Columbia's Lions. Your dream of becoming a part of Columbia's legacy is within reach, and we're here to support you at every juncture.

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What Makes Crimson Different

Key Resources & Further Reading

  • Everything you need to know about US Application Supplemental Essays
  • Acing your College Application Essay: 5 Expert Tips to Make it Stand Out from the Rest
  • How to Tackle Every Type of Supplemental Essay
  • 2023-24 Common App Essay Prompts
  • What are the Most Unusual US College Supplemental Essay Prompts?

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Updated: Wednesday, November 6, 2024

How to Write the Columbia University Supplemental Essays

how to write columbia essays

Columbia University is a popular choice for many students. Its prime location in the heart of New York City and its renowned Core Curriculum are just two of the many reasons this Ivy League institution receives tens of thousands of applications each year.

You might ask yourself, “ how do I get into Columbia University? ” Because Columbia is one of the most selective universities in the U.S., you should ensure that every component of your application, including your supplemental essays, are top notch. Read on to learn how to help your writing stand out to Columbia’s admissions officers.

How Many Supplemental Essays Does Columbia Have?

Every college has different essay requirements and guidelines. Students applying to  Columbia University  are asked to respond to five supplemental essays. These include one list question with a 100-word limit and four short-answer questions — each with a 150-word maximum.

2024-25 Columbia-Specific Application Questions

If you want to write the best possible supplemental essays and question responses for Columbia University, it’s important to carefully review the list question and each essay prompt.

List Question

For the list question that follows, there is a 100 word maximum. Please refer to the below guidance when answering this question:

  • Your response should be a list of items separated by commas or semicolons.
  • Items do not have to be numbered or in any specific order.
  • It is not necessary to italicize or underline titles of books or other publications.
  • No author names, subtitles or explanatory remarks are needed.

List a selection of texts, resources and outlets that have contributed to your intellectual development outside of academic courses, including but not limited to books, journals, websites, podcasts, essays, plays, presentations, videos, museums and other content that you enjoy.  (100 words or fewer)

Short Answer Questions

For the four short answer questions, please respond in 150 words or fewer.

  • A hallmark of the Columbia experience is being able to learn and thrive in an equitable and inclusive community with a wide range of perspectives. Tell us about an aspect of your own perspective, viewpoint or lived experience that is important to you, and describe how it has shaped the way you would learn from and contribute to Columbia’s diverse and collaborative community. (150 words or fewer)
  • In college/university, students are often challenged in ways that they could not predict or anticipate. It is important to us, therefore, to understand an applicant’s ability to navigate through adversity. Please describe a barrier or obstacle you have faced and discuss the personal qualities, skills or insights you have developed as a result. (150 words or fewer)
  • Why are you interested in attending Columbia University? We encourage you to consider the aspect(s) that you find unique and compelling about Columbia. (150 words or fewer)
  • What attracts you to your preferred areas of study at Columbia College or Columbia Engineering? (150 words or fewer)

How Do You Answer the Columbia List Question?

The list question might look simple, but it can actually be one of the most challenging parts of Columbia’s application process because the word limit is so low. This question will force you to think strategically and choose every word carefully to achieve maximum impact.

Think back and try to pinpoint the texts, media, and other outlets that had the greatest impact on you and your personal journey. This list should be all about what you enjoy learning in your spare time rather than inside of the classroom. Choose sources that are meaningful to you and align with the academic goals and extracurricular interests that you’ve articulated throughout your application.

How to Write Columbia Supplemental Essays

Students also need to prioritize the short answer questions in Columbia’s supplemental essay section. Here are a few top tips on how to tackle each question:

Supplement Question #1

The first Columbia supplemental essay question asks students to reflect on their ability to work with peers with different perspectives. The most impactful responses to this question will focus on an applicant’s desire to learn from those who are different from them and that highlight the applicant’s commitment to expanding their worldview. Ideally, answers will reference specific times in which the student contributed to collaborative communities that are diverse and unified.

Supplement Question #2

To respond to this essay prompt, focus on a specific obstacle or challenge you have faced. Briefly describe the situation and its impact on you, then emphasize the personal qualities or skills you used to overcome it. Highlight how this experience helped you grow, whether by developing resilience, problem-solving abilities, or gaining new insights. Keep your response concise and reflective, ensuring that it demonstrates your capacity to handle adversity in a college or university setting.

Supplement Question #3

Most colleges have some version of a “ Why this college? ” prompt and Columbia is no exception. The best responses demonstrate that you have done your research and that you are an expert on what Columbia has to offer. This means that you will name specific clubs, professors, research programs, and courses that excite you.

Supplement Question #4

This question asks you to articulate why you are passionate about a field of study that you wish to continue to focus on in college. Since you only have 150 words to devote to this response, stick to one subject that really interests you and fully explain why you are interested in that topic. Aim to include specific examples and anecdotes that highlight your commitment to that field, as well as any future goals you may have.

Evergreen Tips for Writing the Columbia Supplemental Essays

While some tips are specific to certain Columbia supplemental essay questions, we also have a few general pointers:

Answer the Question

It might be tempting, but don’t go off topic, even if you have something interesting to share. Admissions officers want to see that you’re capable of following directions and giving them the exact information that they’re looking for. Reread each of your answers to make sure every point directly ties back to the question that is being asked. If you’re not sure whether it’s relevant, it’s better to play it safe by editing it out or asking someone you trust for their feedback.

Express Your Values

Each of Columbia’s supplemental essay questions gives you an opportunity to express your opinions and articulate what makes you unique. Avoid giving cookie-cutter answers. Instead, embrace the traits and quirks that set you apart from the pack.

Focus on the “Why Columbia?” Question

The “Why Columbia?” short answer question is one of the most important prompts on the Columbia application. Admissions officers are looking to accept students who are passionate about attending, so it’s important to let your love of Columbia University shine through. Take time to  do your research , be specific, and articulate exactly what kind of impact you would like to make on campus.

Discuss a Future Career Path

Other top  college application essay tips  include highlighting a view toward the future and your career aspirations. Admissions officers are interested in learning about your long-term goals and the kind of legacy you wish to create. When you discuss your passions and goals, don’t be afraid to think long-term and write about what you hope to accomplish post-graduation, even five or ten years down the line.

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how to write columbia essays

2023-24 Cornell University Supplemental Essay Prompt Guide

Is Cornell University on your college list? Because it’s an Ivy League institution with a low admissions rate, your application needs to be extremely competitive. Your responses to Cornell’s supplemental essay prompts can help set you apart if they are compelling, thoughtful, and authentic. Keep reading for some insights into Cornell’s 2023-24 supplemental essays.   

how to write columbia essays

Tips for Supplemental Essays

how to write columbia essays

How to Answer the “Why This College?” Essay Prompt

The questions typically address certain aspects about the school or the applicant’s intended major, and while they’ve tended to grow a little quirky over the years, one question that typically pops up is some form of the “why [this college]?” prompt.

how to write columbia essays

Stanford University Supplemental Essay Prompt Guide 2023-24

If Stanford is one of your top-choice schools, you may be wondering how you can make your application stand out. Your responses to Stanford’s supplemental essay questions are a significant way to set yourself apart from other applicants. However, these essay prompts require you to be both concise and creative, which is not an easy task. Keep reading to learn more about Stanford’s supplemental essays for the 2023-24 admissions cycle and how to craft them.  

how to write columbia essays

Deferred? Write a letter of continued interest and choose your EDII school!

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Command Education Guide

How to write the columbia university essays, updated for 2024-2025, instructions .

For the list question that follows, there is a 100-word maximum. Please refer to the below guidance when answering this question:

– Your response should be a list of items separated by commas or semicolons. – Items do not have to be numbered or in any specific order. – It is not necessary to italicize or underline titles of books or other publications. – No author names, subtitles or explanatory remarks are needed.

For the four short answer questions, please respond in 150 words or fewer.

NOTE: One of the short answer questions will not appear until you have selected Columbia College or Columbia Engineering in the “Academics” section of Columbia’s application questions.

List a selection of texts, resources and outlets that have contributed to your intellectual development outside of academic courses, including but not limited to books, journals, websites, podcasts, essays, plays, presentations, videos, museums and other content that you enjoy. (100 words or fewer)*

Explanation:

This question is a great opportunity to further showcase the diversity of your intellectual interests and pursuits. While the prompt is specifically asking about resources that have enriched your intellectual development, consider how you might add depth and dimension to your core academic interests—for instance, you could select resources that tie those interests to real-world problems, show your interdisciplinary curiosity, or deepen your knowledge through a unique medium. Did you deepen your knowledge of architecture through the virtual landscape of video games? Become passionate about Classics after taking a virtual tour of Pompeii? Gain an interest in data analytics after watching an Edward Tufte lecture on YouTube? This is the place to share about your interest in those resources.

Don’t write what you think the admissions committee wants to hear—this question is about your authentic interests, and the more genuine you are, the more likely you’ll be to catch the eye of your readers. If you like to read graphic novels and explore operatic performances in your free time, this is the place to showcase it!

SPQR by Mary Beard, The History of the Ancient World by Susan Wise Bauer, The Histories by Herodotus, ​​sententiae antiquae blog, The Digital Sappho, HBO’s Rome, Age of Bronze by Eric Shanower, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, The British Museum, Bad Ancient Blog, Perseus Digital Library, Logeion app, Theater of War Productions, DuoLingo Latin, NerdWriter, Eidolon, Working Classicists, Circe by Madeline Miller

A hallmark of the Columbia experience is being able to learn and thrive in an equitable and inclusive community with a wide range of perspectives. Tell us about an aspect of your own perspective, viewpoint or lived experience that is important to you, and describe how it has shaped the way you would learn from and contribute to Columbia’s diverse and collaborative community. (150 words or fewer)*

In asking this question, the Columbia admissions committee is seeking to learn a little bit about your prior experiences working with and learning from people who are different from you, as well as gauge how interested you are in having similar experiences in college. The prompt specifically asks the writer to point to a specific aspect of their perspective that shapes the way they engage with others’ who have dissimilar points of view. While this could be an aspect of your culture or identity, note that there is an active component to the prompt—you should choose something about yourself that has shaped how you engage in the communities you are a part of. Be sure to select a quality that you have thought about and can demonstrate in clear and tangible ways. Perhaps you had an experience that taught you the power of collaboration or influenced your approach to dealing with people who hold opposing beliefs. You should share details about the experience, highlighting the specific aspect of your personality you are seeking to convey, then discuss how you believe the experience will help you contribute to Columbia’s community.

Most people experience music through headphones, escaping into their own world. However, growing up as a trained classical musician instilled in me the belief that music is, at its core, a social and intersectional practice. As I have played with other musicians, I have experienced firsthand the power of music to form communities and foster intimate connections between people whose paths would not otherwise cross. As a result, the practice room has become my favorite classroom; whether to learn a technical skill, a social convention, or a cultural phenomenon conveyed through a jazz standard or Gregorian chant.

At Columbia, I plan to continue sharing my music with others and joining the vibrant community of musicians on campus. I would love to play in the Columbia University Orchestra to continue developing my ensemble skills, and learn to perform and arrange other genres of music as a member of Columbia Pops.

In college/university, students are often challenged in ways that they could not predict or anticipate. It is important to us, therefore, to understand an applicant’s ability to navigate through adversity. Please describe a barrier or obstacle you have faced and discuss the personal qualities, skills or insights you have developed as a result. (150 words or fewer)*

When responding to Columbia University’s prompt about navigating adversity, it’s crucial to be both reflective and concise given the 150 word limit—and this can be a tricky balance. First, note that because of its length, this essay is not an opportunity to list every obstacle you have faced or describe in depth the reasons that a particular challenge was significant. Start by identifying one specific barrier or obstacle you’ve overcome. The prompt is most concerned with your response to the obstacle rather than the obstacle itself, so don’t worry about choosing something that will elicit sympathy from or impress the admissions officers, but instead choose an experience in which you truly took charge of a tough situation and found a creative solution.

Next, focus on the personal qualities, skills, or insights you developed as a result of navigating this challenge. Columbia is looking for evidence of resilience, adaptability, and self-awareness. For example, if you overcame a fear of public speaking, you might discuss how you developed confidence, learned to articulate your thoughts under pressure, and became a more effective communicator. Your response should emphasize your active role in innovating a solution and integrating your learning into your perspective moving forward. Finally, highlight how this experience shaped your character and prepared you for the challenges of college life.

Despite performing regularly on stage since the age of seven, I began developing stage fright in ninth grade. What was once second nature suddenly became difficult—my hands began to shake, and I would get dizzy as I approached the stage. I had to bring music with me onstage as I feared that I would freeze in front of the audience.

Though my anxiety made me feel paralyzed on stage, I sprung into action off stage. I began researching the psychology behind stage fright and collected anecdotal techniques from online communities of people who had similar experiences. I researched performance psychology and watched hours of interviews given by professional musicians and performers around the world. By seeking to understand and analyze my experience, I not only found the tools to overcome my debilitating anxiety, but I also developed an abiding interest in performance and psychology.

Why are you interested in attending Columbia University? We encourage you to consider the aspect(s) that you find unique and compelling about Columbia. (150 words or fewer)*

The “Why Columbia” essay is your prime opportunity to showcase your unique interest in the institution. With just 150 words, being specific and concise is critical when writing this prompt. As a result, you will want to avoid both praising the prestige of the institution—the admissions committee is well aware of Columbia’s reputation—and writing about why you’re excited to attend college in New York City—there are other schools in the city, and describing the opportunities NYC has to offer does not indicate why Columbia specifically appeals to you. Consider discussing specific professors and the classes that they teach or check out some of the many clubs and organizations on campus. Most importantly, think about your past experiences and identity, and try to express how you see yourself contributing positively to the student body at Columbia.

As soon as I stepped into Butler Library, dwarfed by the soaring gold ceilings, I knew I wanted to continue my educational journey as a member of Columbia’s campus community. As I continue my research in music and psychology at Columbia, I’m excited to examine the neurobiological and cultural factors involved in creativity. I would be eager to work with Geraldine Downey, whose work on identity and social perception aligns with my own. Her emerging research on intersecting identities as assets for coping with stress is an intriguing line of inquiry that I would like to explore taking her courses or through in an independent study.

In combination with the Core Curriculum, I hope to not only better understand human thought and behavior through the study of psychology, but also to develop a more nuanced and full understanding of the cultural and philosophical roots of such thoughts and behaviors.

A. What attracts you to your preferred areas of study at Columbia College? (150 words or fewer)*

B. What attracts you to your preferred areas of study at Columbia Engineering? (150 words or fewer)*

The final prompts (from which students select the relevant school to which they are applying) ask students not only why they want to study at Columbia, but why they want to study their specific major at the institution. As you respond, your goal is to convey your passion for the field(s) you intend to study, demonstrate your familiarity with the field, and explain how Columbia will specifically prepare you to reach your academic and professional goals.

Start by briefly explaining what initially drew you to your intended area of study. This could be an experience, a book, a class, or a personal interest that sparked your curiosity. Then, highlight how Columbia’s programs, faculty, and resources will allow you to explore this interest further. Mention specific aspects of the curriculum, research opportunities, or academic centers at Columbia that align with your academic goals. If you are concerned that your response is not specific enough, ask yourself whether the same could be said of another institution. If you could repurpose this essay for another supplemental essay prompt, your response is too general.

Finally, show that your interest goes beyond just wanting to major in a subject. Illustrate how you intend to engage with your field both inside and outside the classroom, such as through interdisciplinary studies, seminars, or related extracurricular activities.

My fascination with linguistics began when I realized how my bilingual upbringing allowed me to switch seamlessly between cultures and ideas, easily swapping one linguistic vocabulary for another. Columbia’s Department of Linguistics, with its interdisciplinary approach and renowned faculty like Professor John McWhorter, offers the perfect environment for me to explore these intricacies further. I’m particularly drawn to the department’s hands-on approach to linguistic study, whether through courses such as Prof. Perlin’s class on endangered languages in New York City or the many study abroad opportunities that would allow me to pursue my interests in practical and contextual ways. Columbia’s unique Core Curriculum will also allow me to examine linguistic concepts through the lenses of history, philosophy, and literature, enriching my understanding of how language both reflects and influences human thought. This holistic approach aligns perfectly with my desire to study the intersection of language, culture, and cognition.

how to write columbia essays

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COMMENTS

  1. How to Write the Columbia University Essays 2024-2025">How to Write the Columbia University Essays 2024-2025

    Aug 18, 2024 · Applying to Columbia? Learn how to write supplemental essays that will make you stand out, even in a highly competitive applicant pool!

  2. How to Write the Columbia University Supplemental Essays: Examples ...">How to Write the Columbia University Supplemental Essays:...

    Jul 23, 2020 · This guide covers how to write each of the Columbia supplemental essay prompts with exercises and essay examples to help you along the way.

  3. Columbia Essay Examples | CollegeVine Blog">8 Great Columbia Essay Examples | CollegeVine Blog

    Aug 5, 2023 · Read our Columbia University essay breakdown to get a comprehensive overview of this year’s supplemental prompts. Prompt: Why are you interested in attending Columbia University? We encourage you to consider the aspect (s) that you find unique and compelling about Columbia. (200 words)

  4. How to Write Columbia’s Supplemental Essays for 2024-2025 ... - PrepMaven">How to Write Columbia’s Supplemental Essays for 2024-2025 ... -...

    Nov 27, 2024 · In this guide, we’ll break down how to write the Columbia supplemental essays for the upcoming admissions cycle, explaining how to maximize your chances of acceptance.

  5. How to Write the Columbia Supplemental Essays 2024–2025">How to Write the Columbia Supplemental Essays 2024–2025

    In this blog post, you’ll learn how to write the Columbia University supplemental essays, understand the underlying question the admissions officers are asking, and distinguish yourself from other applicants.

  6. Columbia University 2024-25 Supplemental Essay Prompt Guide">Columbia University 2024-25 Supplemental Essay Prompt Guide

    Keep reading to access our expert tips for writing successful Columbia supplemental essays that are sure to impress admissions! For the list question that follows, there is a 100 word maximum. Please refer to the below guidance when answering this question: Your response should be a list of items separated by commas or semicolons.

  7. Columbia's 2023/24 Supplemental Essay Prompts - Crimson ...">How To Ace Columbia's 2023/24 Supplemental Essay Prompts -...

    Sep 26, 2023 · For the 2023/24 application cycle, Columbia University has meticulously crafted supplemental essay prompts to delve deeper into the profiles of its applicants. These prompts aim to uncover your intellectual influences, personal perspectives, resilience, and your vision for your journey at Columbia.

  8. How to Write the Columbia Supplemental Essays | HelloCollege">How to Write the Columbia Supplemental Essays | HelloCollege

    Nov 27, 2024 · The Columbia supplemental essays are your chance to highlight your unique strengths, experiences, background, and passions in your application. However, the short word count, with a maximum of only 150 words, poses a challenge for many students.

  9. How to Write the Columbia Supplemental Essays | IvyWise">How to Write the Columbia Supplemental Essays | IvyWise

    Nov 6, 2024 · It’s time for the Columbia University supplemental essays. Learn how to answer them effectively when applying to Columbia this fall.

  10. How to Write the Columbia University Essays - Command Education">How to Write the Columbia University Essays - Command Education

    How to Write the Columbia University Essays Updated for 2024-2025 For the 2024–25 application cycle, Columbia requires students to first respond to a “list question” about the resources that have inspired their intellectual development, then answer four short answer questions in 150 words or fewer.