How to Write the Mount Holyoke Supplement 2019-2020 TKG

How to Write the Mount Holyoke Supplement 2019-2020 Mount Holyoke is an all-women’s liberal arts college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It is an all-women’s school, but it is not entirely female. Mount Holyoke embraces students who are cisgender women, trans, gender non-conforming, and non-binary who feel that an all-women’s educational environment is the best fit for them. The 2,208 undergraduate students are nearly equally spread among the humanities, social sciences, and STEM subject, and 89% of classes have less than 30 students. They are also test-optional, which means that they do not require you to submit SAT or ACT scores.  Like all other all-women’s schools, the acceptance rate at Mount Holyoke is higher than that of co-ed schools of the same academic caliber. The 52% acceptance rate at Mount Holyoke reflects the limited application pool (aka no men), not the level of excellence the school expects. We especially recommend all-women’s institutions to students who are looking to study at academically-rigorous and co mmunity-focused institution, but who do not have exceptionally strong test scores or grades.  This year, the Mount Holyoke supplement has remained the same in structure but not in content. Prompts two and three are new! This is also another case of a supplement being labeled as optional. Please do not let this delude you into thinking it is optional for you. It is not. Please respond to one of the three prompts below. Your essay should be between 250-400 words. Also include the number of the prompt you answer. 1. Tell us why you are interested in attending Mount Holyoke College.This is a standard “why us?” question with the added bonus of having a maximum word count that really lets you dig in. Most colleges cap questions like this at 250 words. You have up to 400! You don’t need to address the all-women’s aspect of Mount Holyoke first, but you do need to integrate it into your answer in a way that makes it clear that you 1. Know it is all-women’s, and 2. Are excited abo ut it. We recommend including an anecdote from your educational experience that emphasizes why you value an all-women’s educational environment. As you brainstorm, be sure to focus on positive stories that highlight the potential you see in an all-women’s environment. We have all had negative educational experiences, but this isn’t a good place to gripe about your current educational situation.  Once you have addressed the all-women’s aspect of Mount Holyoke, this is a pretty standard “why us?” essay. By standard, we mean that you should include the major you want to declare, a professor or two you’d like to work with, a few classes you’d like to take, and a minor you are interested in. If you have space (which you will), you should also reflect on the relationship between your major and your minor, and why it makes sense to pursue them together. This can require some creativity, but it is always possible. After all, if you like both of them, there must be a common thread. Finally, mention a tradition or two, and at least one extracurricular, that you are excited to take part in. 2. If you could be a superhero, what superpower would you have and how would you use it?If you choose this prompt, sit down with a pen and paper…or a note on your iPhone…and list all of the superpowers that you can think of. We aren’t going to command you to cross out all of the stereotypical ones, but we encourage you to try to come up with a few that aren’t ‘common’ (as common as a superpower can be). Consider this, when it comes time to answer this question, you have three possible routes you can take. You can go all the way into the realm of absurdism (for example, you want to have a superpower of vomiting candy so that you can always have candy). You can be very serious (for example, if you could hear anything and everything you would join the US military and use your skill to capture terrorists). Or you can find yourself somewhere in the middle. Whe re on the spectrum is best for you really matters on who you are. This is a prompt where, if you pick it, you need to be entirely true to yourself. Even if you pick a serious superpower, though, your answer for the second part of the question doesn’t need to be purely utilitarian. You can, and should, have fun. Sure, we’d love for your answer to be at least semi-related to your areas of academic interest, but we’d rather read an essay that has nothing to do with school than another one about how a student wishes they had the superpower of not needing to sleep just so that they could spend more time studying. 3. Tell us about a person, event, or moment that inspired you in a powerful way.We like this prompt but, before we dive into how you should approach it if you select it, we need to point out one major tripping point. It is very, very easy for this supplement to end up having nothing to do with you. We’ve seen countless students write about people and places and moments and leave themselves completely out of it. It is as if they momentarily forget that this is a supplement for their college application â€" not their grandmothers (P.S. Please don’t write about your grandmother. It’s overdone.). If you pick this prompt, you need to be in this essay even though you are writing about someone, or something, else. Before you start, you should also consider what ‘inspiration’ is and how you can write about it compellingly. An Olympic athlete may inspire you, but if you don’t have a personal relationship with the athlete that might not make for the most compelling story. Alternatively, there could be something that happened right across from your bus stop that made you stop in your tracks, and that you remember each time you walk by, that could qualify as an inspiring moment and be a more compelling story than writing about someone who you’ve never seen in real-life.  Whichever prompt you pick, remember that Mount Holyoke prioritizes strong-mi nded women who know what they want, have a plan for achieving it, and intend to help other people along the way.  Are you interested in an all-women’s education? Our team includes women who’ve excelled at top all-women’s institutions and who can guide you towards your successful future. Contact us to learn more about how we can help.