The Admissions and Scholarship Application Essay
As you make application to colleges, universities, technical institutes, military organizations, and scholarship
committees, you will want to have a rather “generic” essay that you can easily tailor to fulfill the specific requirements
of a given institution or funding source. Some college admissions officers and scholarship committee members will
ask that you respond to a specific prompt while others allow you to submit any piece of writing that meets a broad set
of requirements. In either case the piece should demonstrate your ability to think and write, while revealing something
about who you are. The following are ACTUAL (albeit, Holzer-fied) admissions and scholarship prompts Holzer
shamelessly snagged from the public domain. It’s difficult to sound authentic when you know someone is “judging
you.” Try. Be witty. Be real. Be you.
Person or Character
 Describe a person (real or fictitious) who had influenced or inspired you. (these can get boring—stand
out from the crowd—not in a creepy way—describe a “bad” person or a character that has provided a
negative example that has influenced and inspired you to be the pillar of moral decency I know you are)
Arts, Sciences, and Theory
 Consider the books you have read in the last year or two either for school or for leisure. Please discuss
the way in which one of them changed your understanding of the world, other people, or yourself. (this
prompt is asking for a literary analysis of a book someone has likely MADE you read – “literary merit”)
 What art work; musical piece; cinematic production; theater piece; dance performance; scientific or
mathematical theory has influenced your thinking, and in what way? (popular culture is FINE)
Event or Experience
 Describe a situation in which you were not successful and what you learned from the experience.
(assessing your integrity)
 Recall an occasion when you took a risk that you realized was the right thing to do only in retrospect. (an
occasion when you were afraid, but chose to act anyway—assessing your courage)
 Have you witnessed a person who is close to you doing something that you considered seriously wrong?
Describe the circumstances, your thoughts, and how you chose to respond. In retrospect, what, if
anything, would you have done differently, and why? (BE CAREFUL. DO NOT OVERDISCLOSE. No
one reading your essay should blush or squirm excessively – assessing your ethical character)
Idea
 Describe something you have learned (formally or informally) and how it applies or will apply to your life.
 Choose a political, economic, cultural, or social theory or movement and describe how it has impacted
the opportunities available to you. (Holzer original: civil rights; women’s liberation—you don’t have to
subscribe to the theory for it to have had an impact on opportunities available to you)
Culture and Environment
 Most people belong to many different communities defined by shared geography, religion, ethnicity,
income, cuisine, interest, race, ideology, or intellectual heritage. Choose one of the communities to which
you belong, and describe that community and your place within it. (cultural identity/pride)
 If you were to protest something, for or against, what would it be and why?
Open-ended
 Oscar Wilde said, “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” Pose a question of your own, the
answer to which you believe will display your best qualities as a writer, thinker, visionary, social critic,
sage, sensible woman or man, citizen of the world, or future citizen of the world. (Holzer original)