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How to Respond to the Yale Supplemental Essay Prompts

Yale is a popular Ivy League school located in New Haven, Connecticut. Its campus is known for its overall striking architecture, especially the beauty of its older stone buildings. Since Yale is an Ivy League school, that means it is extremely competitive in terms of admissions. Yale’s acceptance rate lies around 7%. You may feel a lot of pressure to make your application stand out in order to join the next incoming Yale class. The best way to make your application rise above the rest is through your Yale supplemental essays! 

Yale’s supplemental essays allow Yale to get to know their applicants and ultimately reach a decision on whether they should be accepted. Fortunately, Yale asks candidates to respond to a wide selection of supplemental essays. This will allow you to share multiple sides of your personality and experiences. Your responses should give admissions officers a good sense of who you are as a person! 

Read more in this guide on how to nail the Yale supplemental essay prompts!

Also see: How to write an essay about yourself

Breaking down the Yale supplemental essays 

All applicants to Yale will have to complete the Yale supplemental essay questions. The Yale supplemental essay questions will differ slightly depending on the application platform you choose to apply to Yale with. The options depend on if you select to apply with the Coalition Application, Common Application or QuestBridge Application. 

Yale asks applicants to respond to both short answer questions and essays. The short answer questions range from 125 words to only 200 characters or 30 words. Therefore, it is best to not overthink these short answer questions! Rather just write what comes to mind. Just be sure to review your responses after to ensure you are not repeating yourself or do not leave out any critical information. 

The Yale essays must be 250 words or fewer. Once again, this is still not a lot of room for lengthy sentences. Therefore, be short and concise. If you struggle with cutting down your responses, try to ask a trusted friend to help you! If not, try to write an outline of the main points you want to include in your response and get rid of the filler words in your response! 

Short answer questions for Coalition Application, Common Application or QuestBridge Application applicants

Prompt 1

“Students at Yale have time to explore their academic interests before committing to one or more major fields of study. Many students either modify their original academic direction or change their minds entirely. As of this moment, what academic areas seem to fit your interests or goals most comfortably? Please indicate up to three from the list provided. (125 words or fewer)” 

This is a pretty straightforward question. What do you want to major in or study while at Yale? It is best to be honest in this response! If you know what you want to major in, describe it! 

Be sure to double check the list of majors that Yale provided to ensure you are not selecting an area of study that is not available! 

However, if you do not know exactly what you want to study while at Yale, do not worry! As they mentioned in their question, most students change their minds about what they want to study. Do not put a lot of pressure on yourself to be deciding your future right now. Rather just write about a few majors that interest you and why. You can even talk about why you are between the two! 

Once you have mentioned one or two majors or areas of study you are interested in, you should describe how they fit your interest and goals. Discuss briefly what you hope to accomplish with a degree(s) in this field. 

Prompt 2

“Why do these areas appeal to you? (125 words or fewer)”

This question is a follow up to the first one. Now it is time to discuss the “why?” Once you have written about 1-2 majors or areas of study you want to pursue, you can talk about the “why.”

For example, maybe you want to study astronomy because you still remember your 3rd grade field trip to the planetarium and ever since then, space has intrigued you. Or maybe you want to study electrical engineering because that is what your dad does and it has interested you your whole life. 

Whatever the reasoning is, write about it! This will not only show Yale what you want to study, but also why! You always want to be revealing pieces of your personality and interests in your supplemental essay responses. 

Prompt 3

“What is it about Yale that has led you to apply? (125 words or fewer)”

This question differs from the two previous short essay questions because it wants you to discuss “why Yale?” This is a great place to detail how Yale’s location, academic programs, and extracurriculars appeal to you. 

You want to make sure that you are not just listing the great things about Yale, but rather, explain how these aspects will benefit you. For example, you can write about how you are from the West Coast, so living on the East Coast has always been a dream of yours. Or you can write about how Yale offers a particular major that is hard to find at other colleges and will help you reach your dream job. 

The most important thing is that you are connecting back to your interests and future. 

Short answer questions for Coalition Application or Common Application applicants

The following short answer questions are for Coalition and Common Application applicants only and should not exceed 200 characters. 

Prompt 1

What inspires you? (200 characters or fewer)

This question can ultimately be answered in any way. You can write about a person, a time you failed, a television show, and so much more. The most important part is that you are being true to yourself in your response!

Prompt 2

Yale’s residential colleges regularly host conversations with guests representing a wide range of experiences and accomplishments. What person, past or present, would you invite to speak? What would you ask them to discuss? (200 characters or fewer)

For this question, once again, the creativity is endless. You can literally choose anyone who has ever existed. In addition, you can even choose a fictional character – the options are never ending. Just be sure that once you select your guest, you are able to support your decision. Be sure to detail what they would discuss and why you selected them. Do not just drone on about how amazing the guest you select is! Rather, make sure that you are revealing things about yourself. 

Prompt 3

You are teaching a new Yale course. What is it called? (200 characters or fewer)

This question aims to gain some insight into your interests and passions. What do you absolutely “nerd out” about? You want to select a subject or topic that you can lecture about for hours. Once again, you have a lot of creative freedom with this response. Be sure to not choose something that is already a course at Yale! Yale wants to see that you have interests beyond just the “typical” college courses. 

Prompt 4

Yale students embrace the concept of “and” rather than “or,” pursuing arts and sciences, tradition and innovation, defined goals and surprising detours. What is an example of an “and” that you embrace? (200 characters or fewer) 

This is a question with a lot of different ways you can answer. Try to brainstorm a few values and characteristics you would describe yourself as. Then try to see if any are opposites and put them together!  For example, maybe you value being confident, but also humble. Although these are almost opposites, they define you! 

You can also select things you are interested in or in your life that may contradict one another. For example, maybe you love reading literature and solving math equations. Or maybe you were raised by parents with two very different political outlooks. The most important thing is to show Yale how you can honor two very different ideals at the same time. 

Essay questions for Coalition Application or Common Application applicants

Prompt 1

Yale’s extensive course offerings and vibrant conversations beyond the classroom encourage students to follow their developing intellectual interests wherever they lead. Tell us about your engagement with a topic or idea that excites you. Why are you drawn to it? (250 words or fewer) 

At this point in your application, Yale already has a good understanding of what you want to major in and study. Therefore, try to select a topic that does not relate to your intended major! Rather, you want to surprise them with your well-rounded curiosity. 

This is the perfect space to write a story or narrative about something in your background that sparked your curiosity. You can describe a meaningful moment in your life that made you realize your passion for this topic.

For example, maybe you are going to major in economics, but in the 5th grade, you went on a field trip to the aquarium. There, you fell in love with sea creatures and ended up going to a marine biology camp for all of elementary school. 

You can even discuss why you eventually decided to not major in this topic, but how you still love to learn about this topic. Ultimately, you just want to reveal another piece of your interests in this response that has not been disclosed yet. 

Prompt 2

You only need to respond to one of the following prompts:

Option 1

Reflect on a community to which you feel connected. Why is it meaningful to you?  You may define community however you like.

Community is such a critical part of college. It provides students with a sense of unity with their classmates and ultimately leads to a better overall college experience. Therefore, Yale wants to see that you are able to connect within a community! 

A community does not need to be large scale, rather, it can be a small group. For example, maybe you were a part of the recycling club in high school and that club community was like your second home. Or maybe you were a student athlete and being on the track team in high school gave you a sense of community and purpose. Or, maybe your very own town community made your time living at home so great! 

There are plenty of instances in which community is present in your life. Therefore, just take the time to truly think about the different communities you are a part of and which had the most impact on you. 

Once you have decided on a community, be sure to reflect on how being a part of it improved your life. You want to highlight how important community is to you and your growth. Be sure to detail how exactly being a part of that group helped you thrive. For example, you can describe how it gave you a lot of people and connections you could reach out to for help.

Remember, Yale wants to see that you can not only be a part of a community, but thrive in one! You can even discuss your role in the community you chose and how vital it would be for you to play that same role in Yale. 

Option 2

Reflect on something that has given you great satisfaction. Why has it been important to you?

Basically, Yale wants to know what makes you feel on top of the world! What gives you the most satisfaction in your life? 

There are an endless number of options for your response to this question. You can choose to write about how learning to play your favorite song on guitar took a while but when you finally nailed it you were so happy. Or how volunteering at the local hospital and helping people in need makes you the most satisfied. Or something even as little as going for a walk around your neighborhood makes you enjoy and appreciate nature! 

Once you have selected what gives you satisfaction in your life, it is important to answer the second part of the question. Why has it been important to you? Be sure to provide examples! Also, make sure you are not repeating things that you have already written about in your other supplemental essays for Yale. 

Remember to make your response completely authentic to yourself. You do not want to sound like you are writing what you think Yale wants to hear. What you choose does not matter as much as your reflection on it. The most important thing is that you backup your response with details and examples! 

Final thoughts on responding to the Yale supplemental essays

Now that you have completed reading our guide for responding to the Yale supplemental essay questions, it is time to write and perfect your responses! Be sure to double check which application you are using to apply to Yale whether it be the Coalition Application, Common Application or QuestBridge Application. 

If you are still feeling stuck responding to the Yale supplemental essays, Yale offers resources to help you. Yale has a few podcast episodes on how they make decisions on applications as well as offering some advice and strategies of what to include in your responses! In addition to their podcast episodes, they have a website with advice on putting together your application. 

By now, you are more than equipped to answer the Yale supplemental short answer and essay questions! Remember, be sure not to repeat yourself throughout your responses. You want to showcase every side of yourself so Yale gets a clear picture of who you are. 

Best of luck in your writing journey! 

Next steps after applying to Yale

Once you have perfected your Yale supplemental essays, it is time to submit your flawless application! 

Now what should you do? You can sit back and relax after being so diligent. Continue to check your Yale portal and email to stay updated on your application status. You can even follow Yale on social media to stay updated on other events and deadlines you may need to be aware of. 

Additional resources

As you are submitting your perfect Yale application, be sure to check out our guides on how many schools to apply to. In addition, check out our guide on what looks good to submit to colleges to make sure you are putting your best foot forward. Unsure about which standardized test you should take? Read more on the ACT vs SAT! Already completed the ACT or SAT? If you are wondering about test optional schools, read here about whether or not to send your SAT/ACT scores. Finally, check out our free scholarship search tool to help you afford your education. Good luck!