Brown Supplemental Essays

Brown has a reputation as the quirkiest of the Ivies: an academic powerhouse that gives undergraduates enormous latitude in designing their own education.

Before starting your essays, it’s important to spend some time thinking about what a Brown education would look like for you. Make sure you understand Brown’s Open Curriculum and think creatively about how you might make use of it. Brown admissions officers want students who understand Brown, and they’re likely to be turned-off by an application that reads like a “backup” for Harvard, Yale, or Princeton.

Brown Supplemental Essay Questions (2024-2025)

1. Brown's Open Curriculum allows students to explore broadly while also diving deeply into their academic pursuits. Tell us about any academic interests that excite you, and how you might pursue them at Brown. (200-250 words)

This is essentially a Why Our School essay, with a twist that you’re prompted to address the Open Curriculum. Start it by briefly explaining one or more of your intellectual interests, perhaps with a very short story that shows you exploring that interest. Then use the majority of the essay to connect the dots between your interests and Brown’s offerings.

See the Why Our School guide for tips on this type of essay, and make sure to specifically address how you’d make use of Brown’s Open Curriculum!

2. Students entering Brown often find that making their home on College Hill naturally invites reflection on where they came from. Share how an aspect of your growing up has inspired or challenged you, and what unique contributions this might allow you to make to the Brown community. (200-250 words)

If you think this looks like a Contributions/Lived Experiences essay, you’re right! Refer to our guide for tips on how to write it.

3. Brown students care deeply about their work and the world around them. Students find contentment, satisfaction, and meaning in daily interactions and major discoveries. Whether big or small, mundane or spectacular, tell us about something that brings you joy. (200-250 words)

This question is straightforward; they genuinely want to know what brings you joy. Think of this essay as an opportunity to highlight something you’re passionate about or truly enjoy doing that isn’t highlighted elsewhere in your application. To structure it, you could try using the first 2/3 of the essay to show them something that brings you joy, ideally by telling a short story with a beginning, middle, and end. Then in the last 1/3 of the essay, reflect on why that brings you joy.

Pro tip: Note that the prompt says “something that brings you joy.” Avoid the temptation to list multiple things! Instead, follow the instructions and focus on one joy-giving “something.”

Brown Short Answer Questions (2024-2025)

In addition to the longer essays, Brown requires four “very short answer questions.” Although Brown’s guidance is that responses should “range from a few words to a few sentences at most,” you have up to 100 words for two of them.

What three words best describe you? (3 words)

Don’t overthink this one! Three words that express your personality.

What is your most meaningful extracurricular commitment, and what would you like us to know about it? (100 words)

This is a standard, short Activity Essay; use our guide to write it.

If you could teach a class on any one thing, whether academic or otherwise, what would it be? (100 words)

Keep it simple: briefly describe the class you want to teach (you could give it a fun, geeky name if you want, like “How the Ent Stole Christmas: Hobbit Holidays in LOTR”) and write a few sentences on what it might look like and why you want to teach it.

In one sentence, Why Brown? (50 words)

Despite the wording of the prompt, this is not an invitation to write a Why Our School essay. Instead, give them your unique, one-sentence “pitch” for why you want to go to Brown. Have fun with it!

For more help with your Common App essay, supplemental essays, and your entire application, check out my new book Write Yourself In, available from your favorite library or bookseller. You can also subscribe to my Admitted newsletter for monthly updates and guidance.