How to Answer the 2025-2026 Emory Supplemental Essay Prompts

Emory University is one of the country’s leading liberal arts research schools. If you are hoping to gain admission to Emory, it’s a good idea to focus on acing your Emory supplemental essays. Emory requires each student to write a 200-word essay on what academic areas interest them. For the second essay of 150 words, students can choose their topic from four prompts. We will help you stand out with your responses and identify the prompt best suited for your story. Let’s begin!

Question #1

What academic areas are you interested in exploring at Emory and why? (200 words)

This prompt is pretty common as far as supplemental essays go. Beyond indicating your intended major, schools want to know why you are drawn to that subject. A solid way to organize your response is to start by describing your academic interest. Think of when your curiosity with the topic first began. What story can you provide to invite readers in and make it personal?

Next, discuss the ways you have pursued this interest since. Did you start a club in high school centered around this topic? Have you shadowed anyone who also does what you’re interested in? Does your high school coursework reflect this interest?

Finally, connect this passion to Emory. What about this school will help you accomplish your goals in this academic field? Is it a class? A certain professor? Internship opportunities? In addition to connecting Emory to yourself, this section can help an admissions counselor know that you have done your research, that Emory is not just a random school you picked, but rather one that you have heavily invested in getting into.

Also see: Top 15 college majors for the future

Question #2

For this section of the Emory application, you will be allowed to choose to respond to any one of the following prompts in 150 words.

1. Emory University has a strong commitment to building community. Tell us about a community that you have been part of where your personal participation helped to change or shape the community for the better.

This is a question that you should only answer if you have a strong answer to it. That being said, the community you may have been impactful in does not need to be a big one. Maybe you were very influential in a club that you participated in at your high school, or a sport either at your school or in your community. You can also think of communities on a larger scale like your city or town, or even your identity. Take some time to think about the communities you are a part of, big or small, reflect on the impact that you have had on them and that they have had on you.

Questions to consider: 

• What communities are you a part of? (Extracurriculars, volunteer work, virtual communities, etc.)
• How do you participate and give back to your community?
• Do you hope to find a similar community or continue your work with your community while at college?

2. Reflect on a personal experience where you intentionally expanded your cultural awareness. 

When have you taken educating yourself and broadening your perspective into your own hands? The admissions team wants to hear about it!

You could write about a current event that sparked your curiosity and pushed you to learn more, a time that you learned about another culture before traveling there, a historical event that you learned about and moved you to learn more, or anything you can think of really. The point of this question is to speak about intentionality. Good students don’t just let what they learn wash over them, they are intentional and colleges want to see that you have exemplified that.

Questions to consider: 

• When did you realize your ignorance about a social issue and took steps to address it?
• Have you ever exposed yourself to people of a different cultural, socioeconomic, religious, etc. background?
• What tough conversations have you had to initiate in order to gain greater awareness?

3. Emory University’s unique mission calls for service to humanity. Share how you might personally contribute to this mission of service to humanity. 

If you’ve spent any time in high school volunteering or giving back to your community in other ways, then this might be a great question for you to answer. If you know of a specific organization you’d like to volunteer with on campus, this might also be a good place to speak about that. Be careful with being too vague with this question. Your answer should be specific to show that this isn’t just something you’ve thought about in theory, but also something you’ve made actual steps toward working towards.

Also see: How to write an essay about yourself

Questions to consider: 

• What organizations have you volunteered with or are hoping to volunteer with in the future?
• What issues are you passionate about and why?
• Do you have specific experiences where you were able to give back to your community? If so, how did this make you feel?

4. In a scholarly community, differing ideas often collide before they converge. How do you personally navigate disagreement in a way that promotes progress and deepens meaningful dialogue? 

This question is an opportunity to describe how you react in situations where you have to debate a topic, which are very common to run into in higher education. Colleges want to admit students that can manage disagreement in academic settings maturely and respectfully. Try and think of times when you and a peer disagreed about something, and you were able to approach the subject with an open mind and curiosity, rather than dismissal.

Questions to consider: 

• Do you often find yourself debating with friends and family at home or in the classroom?
• What are some subjects you like to banter about?
• When you find out someone has a different opinion than you, how do you initially react?

Other supplemental essay guides

• Georgia Tech (Atlanta, GA)
• Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD)
• Wake Forest University (Winston-Salem, NC)
• Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN)
• Duke University (Durham, NC)

Summing up the Emory supplemental essays

Phew! We made it through all of the prompts for your Emory supplemental essays. Fortunately, you only have to select one of the last four. We recommend choosing a few questions that stick out to you and brainstorming ideas for each. Land on the prompt that you believe best conveys your core attributes. Also consider which prompt most lends itself to a unique response. 200 words and 150 words are tricky word limits. We recommend you get your thoughts down, no matter the length. You can cut them down later to share your powerful story succinctly!

Key Takeaways

• Emory only has two required supplemental essay prompts
• For the second prompt, make sure you take time reading through all of your options before choosing one
• Be sure to use some additional resources from our website as well to help you write the best application possible
• For more help with your application, you can also check out some of our top ten tips for a successful application