If youāre applying to Duke, itās likely that youāve invested many an hour in some combination of academics, athletics, extracurricular activities, employment, and community service. Thankfully, Duke wonāt demand too many more of those hours, keeping its supplemental writing ask to a few shorter prompts. The challenge? Standing out in just 500-750 words. Letās take a look at the prompts and check out some strong examples to help you make the most of Dukeās supplemental essay prompts.
But before you get too farāone more thing. (Thereās always a catch, right?) Youāll want to take a quick peek at Dukeās Common Data Set. In it, youāll find a treasure trove of information on the institution, ranging from enrollment and tuition statistics to student life and financial aid information. Next, read through Dukeās academic strategic plan to better understand its values, roadmap for the future, and the role ādiverse and inclusive communities of excellenceā play in its vision. Checking out both will help you better understand who Duke is looking for and how youāll fit in on campus.
What are Duke's supplemental essay prompts?
Prompt #1:
What is your sense of Duke as a university and a community, and why do you consider it a good match for you? If there's something in particular about our offerings that attracts you, feel free to share that as well. (250 word limit)
Prompts #2 + #3:
We want to emphasize that the following questions are optional. Feel free to answer them if you believe that doing so will add something meaningful that is not already shared elsewhere in your application. Five optional questions are available - a maximum of 2 can be selected. (250 word limit for each)
- Perspective response - We believe a wide range of personal perspectives, beliefs, and lived experiences are essential to making Duke a vibrant and meaningful living and learning community. Feel free to share with us anything in this context that might help us better understand you and what you might bring to our community.
- Intellectual experience: Tell us about an experience in the past year or two that reflects your imagination, creativity, or intellect.
- Beliefs & values: We believe there is benefit in sharing or questioning our beliefs or values; who do you agree with on the big important things, or who do you have your most interesting disagreements with? What are you agreeing or disagreeing about?
- Orientation, identity, expression - Dukeās commitment to inclusion and belonging includes sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. Feel free to share with us more about how your identity in this context has meaning for you as an individual or as a member of a community.
- Being different: We recognize that not fully āfitting inā a community or place can sometimes be difficult. Duke values the effort, resilience, and independence that may require. Feel free to share with us circumstances where something about you is different and how thatās influenced your experiences or identity.
How to Write Each Supplemental Essay Prompt for Duke
How to Write the Duke Supplemental Essay #1 + Examples
What is your sense of Duke as a university and a community, and why do you consider it a good match for you? If there's something in particular about our offerings that attracts you, feel free to share that as well. (250 word limit)
This prompt is asking for a short āWhy us?ā essay. Check out my full guide to this essay here.
Rememberāthe best āWhy us?ā pieces donāt celebrate how āxā school is the GREATEST SCHOOL OF ALL TIME. Theyāre more an explanation of why you and the school are the perfect match. Make sure to connect each of your Duke examples to your goals and interests.
Letās jump right into some examples and explore what makes them work.
Example 1:
If I could pursue one goal for the rest of my life, it would be promoting gender equality. With a major in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies and certificate in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, I plan to focus on the intersection of social impact and business at Duke. Classes such as āWomen at Work,ā āTransnational Feminism,ā and the annual Feminist Theory Workshop will help me understand how race and gender impact economic exchange and womenās mobilization.
I plan on rushing Scale and Coin to catapult my career in business and participating in the Design to Impact Incubator which encourages social innovation.
To give back in Durham, I hope to empower women of color at surrounding schools by leading social entrepreneurship workshops. I will also work with TEDxDuke to incorporate female speakers from underrepresented industries. I believe that Dukeās interdisciplinary approach will help me become a strong businesswoman and champion of equality.
ā ā ā
Tips + Analysis
Ground your āWhy us? in a specific purpose or objective. This student names her long-term goalāāpromoting gender equalityāāand then names the specific programs sheād pursue to prepare her for that goal. Remember, this doesnāt lock you into a single course of study once you get there, but it can demonstrate that youāll arrive on campus focused and motivated. Not sure what your big picture goal is? Try asking yourself: What impact do I hope to have on the world?
Name campus resources. This piece is brimming with specific Duke resources: Women at Work, the Feminist Theory Workshop, Scale and Coin, and TEDxDuke. Use your internet research superpowers to find the most specific resources possible. For example, instead of writing about a āBusiness Leaders Speaker Series,ā name actual speakers who have been a part of the event in the past.
Diversify your resources. Not only does this student name specific resources, but she also names various types of resources, including classes, workshops, student societies, and clubs. She also includes an activity she wants to create and lead: social entrepreneurship workshops. Review your Duke research and make sure youāve found diverse resources, not just classes.
Identify what youāll walk away with. This student doesnāt just name resources; she cites the specific skills, understandings, and outcomes sheāll gain. Whether itās understanding āhow race and gender impact economic exchange and womenās mobilizationā through her engagement with the Feminist Theory Workshop or āgiving back to Durhamā through āleading social entrepreneurship workshops,ā we know this student isnāt just copying and pasting the stuff she Googledāsheās identifying resources that will both help her grow and help her impact her communities. You can set yourself apart as well by doing the same.
Example 2:
Iāve always been amazed by the beauty of nature and I want to dedicate my efforts to preserving the planet. By combining a major in Mechanical Engineering and an Energy & the Environment Certificate at Duke, I intend to apply robotic technology to solve global environmental challenges.
Courses like Energy Engineering and the Environment and Power Generation will teach me about renewable energy conversion devices to serve todayās energy-hungry society. Unique interdisciplinary robotics courses like Control of Dynamic Systems would give me the skills to design robots capable of promoting forest regrowth without human intervention.
Iāll grab FLUNCH with Dr. Justin Ridge and discuss his research on using remote-sensing drones to evaluate coastal habitats. During the summer, I hope to volunteer with Duke Engineers for International Development, where I could use my skills as an engineer and to help solve pressing environmental issues in developing countries.
ā ā ā
Tips + Analysis:
This piece showcases the same elements of a strong answer as the previous example, but with a focus on engineering and sustainability.
Ground your āWhy us?ā in a specific purpose or objective. Just like in the first example, this student names her long-term goalāāapplying robotic technology to solve global environmental challengesāāand names the specific program she would pursue to prepare her for that goal (a mechanical engineering major and environment certificate). Again, this doesnāt lock you into a single course of study once you get there, but it can demonstrate that you'll arrive on campus focused and motivated.
Name campus resources. This piece shares lots of Duke resources as well, including classes like Energy Engineering and the Environment, Power Generation, and Control of Dynamic Systems, academic resources like FLUNCH, and volunteer opportunities like Duke Engineers for International Development. Use your internet research superpowers to find the most specific resources possible. For example, instead of writing about a professor you want to work with, name her current research project and how it overlaps with some of your interests.
Diversify your resources. This studentās specific resources are focused on academic resources geared toward solving environmental problems. But she still manages to include classes, an extracurricular academic opportunity, and a volunteer opportunity. Review your Duke research and make sure youāve found diverse resources, not just classes.
Identifying what youāll walk away with. This student also goes beyond just naming resources. She too cites the specific skills, understandings, and outcomes sheāll gain. In this case, she backs up every resource she names with what sheāll gain, using transitions like āwill teach me aboutā¦ā or āwill give meā¦.ā
How to Write the Duke Supplemental Essay #2 + #3 + Examples
We want to emphasize that the following questions are optional. Feel free to answer them if you believe that doing so will add something meaningful that is not already shared elsewhere in your application. Five optional questions are availableāa maximum of 2 can be selected.
Option 1
We believe a wide range of personal perspectives, beliefs, and lived experiences are essential to making Duke a vibrant and meaningful living and learning community. Feel free to share with us anything in this context that might help us better understand you and what you might bring to our community. (250 words)
Choosing a Topic
If you read this prompt and think, āOh, I can totally write about _____________!ā jump right down to āExample # 1: Top-of-mind Identity.ā
If nothing immediately comes to mind (as a straight, white cis male, I get that), donāt despair! The prompt invites you to talk about a ācommunity you belong to,ā which leaves the door open for you to write about almost anything. Two general approaches that might work:
Go broad, with an identity that lets you highlight a few different activities/experiences.
Brainstorm some shared values you have with your family (āI come from a community/family of _____________.ā)
Consider if any of these shared values have connections to activities you do.
For example:
Creators ā Film makers club, stage crew, knitting
Storytellers ā Theater, young historians, Sunday school teacher
Educators ā Tutoring, student council, babysitting
Skeptics ā Debate team, student representative in local government
Optimists ā Environmental club, neuroscience research
2. Go super specific and make it a more focused community/extracurricular essay.
Make a list of clubs or activities youāre involved in that have a sense of purpose. Spoiler alert: Almost any club or activity can fit this description.
Identify one or two that have a strong sense of community (Stereotypically: theater kids. But weāve also heard of close-knit Science Olympiad teams, political clubs, etc.)
Some examples (but again, almost any can work):
Progressive Students Council
Wikipedia editors
Community Beautification Club
Model UN
Still struggling to come up with different communities youāre a part of? Check out this longer post on How to Write the Community Essay.
Example Essay 1: Top-of-Mind Identity
I look around my room, dimly lit by an orange light. On my desk, a framed picture of an Asian family beaming their smiles, buried among US history textbooks and The Great Gatsby. A Korean ballad streams from two tiny computer speakers. Pamphlets of American colleges scattered on the floor. A cold December wind wafts a strange infusion of ramen and leftover pizza. On the wall in the far back, a Korean flag hangs beside a Led Zeppelin poster.
Do I consider myself Korean or American?
A few years back, I would have replied: āNeither.ā The frustrating moments of miscommunication, the stifling homesickness, and the impossible dilemma of deciding between the Korean or American table in the dining hall, all fueled my identity crisis.
Standing in the āForeign Passportsā section at JFK, I have always felt out of place. Sure, I held a Korean passport in my hands, and I loved kimchi and Yuna Kim and knew the Korean Anthem by heart. But I also loved macaroni and cheese and LeBron. Deep inside, I feared I'd be labeled by my airport customs category: a foreigner everywhere.
This ambiguity, however, has granted me the opportunity to absorb the best of both worlds. Look at my dorm room. This mƩlange of cultures in my East-meets-West room embodies the diversity that characterizes my international student life.
Iāve learned to accept my āambiguityā as ādiversity,ā as a third-culture student embracing both identities.
Do I consider myself Korean or American?
Now, I can proudly answer: āBoth.ā
ā ā ā
Tips + Analysis
Share your identity by setting the scenes with rich details. The prompt says it allāDuke wants to know āthe real personā applying to Duke. An engaging description will help set the scene for your lived experience of your identity. It also helps preempt any possible stereotypes that might unconsciously exist in a readerās mind. Instead of opening her piece with āI am Korean-American,ā this student brings us right into her room and shows us what her Korean and American identities lookāand even smellālike.
Share challenges youāve faced due to your identity. Duke wants to hear about a variety of ways your identity affects your experience (and what you will in turn bring to Duke). Sharing challenges (for this student: a lack of belonging) will help your reader empathize with you and can set you up to share some learning or growth thatās been an outcome of living with this identity. If you havenāt experienced challenges, no worries! You can use your 250 words to:
Share the positive ways you experience your identity. What have the benefits of holding this identity been? Are there values youāve learned from others with the same identity? Are there unique experiences your identity has opened up? Are there lessons youāve learned through any adversity related to your identity?
This student gets to experience āthe best of both worldsā because of her mixed identity. She even explicitly renames her challenge (ambiguity) as a strength (diversity), demonstrating a strengths-based mindset.
Bonus Points: How might you engage with this identity at Duke? Thereās a chance for a mini āWhy us?ā with this prompt. Research a club, class, space, or speaker that will help you further engage with this identity at Duke. Canāt find one? Write about wanting to create that space, class, or club.
Example 2: No Top-of-Mind Identity
I belong to a community of storytellers. Throughout my childhood, my mother and I spent countless hours immersed in the magical land of bedtime stories. We took daring adventures and explored far away lands. Imagination ran wild, characters came to life, and I became acquainted with heroes and lessons that continue to inspire me today. It was a ritual that I will never forget.
In school I met many other storytellersĀĀĀĀāteachers, coaches, and fellow students whose stories taught me valuable lessons and enabled me to share stories of my own. My stories took shape through my involvement with theatre. I have learned that telling stories can be just as powerful as hearing them.
When I tell a story, I can shape the world I live in and share my deepest emotions with the audience. This is exactly why I love theatre so much. The audience can relate to the story in many of the same powerful ways that I do.
I love to perform with my theatre class to entertain and educate young audiences throughout my community. To tell our stories, we travel to elementary and middle schools performing plays that help educate younger students of the dangers of drugs, alcohol, and bullying. As storytellers, we aim to touch lives and better the world around us through our stories.
ā ā ā
Tips + Analysis:
Name the community you belong to and how/why you got involved. If youāre writing about a shared family value, describe how that value has shown up for the generations that came before you. Donāt spend too many words on thisāDuke wants to hear mostly about you!ābut spending a few early words detailing where you inherited a value or identity from will help the reader āunderstand and appreciate the real people applying to Duke.ā
This student names the community (storytellers) and how he became a part of it (bedtime stories). If youāre writing about a club or group youāre a part of, share a descriptive anecdote that captures the kind of work you do with that group, and follow it up by naming the group and its purpose: āAs a member of (insert group), I belong to a community of people who (insert amazing activities and values).ā
From there, you can write a straightforward extracurricular essay! Our full guide for that kind of essay can be found here.The best extracurricular essays are grounded in values, but that will be doubly important for this prompt to make sure your writing stays on-prompt (i.e., addressing identity and community).
Bonus Points: How might you engage with this identity at Duke? This approach also gives you a chance for a mini āWhy us?ā essay. Research a club, class, space, or speaker that will help you continue your work at Duke. Canāt find one? Write about wanting to create that space, class, or club.
Option #2
Intellectual experience: Tell us about an experience in the past year or two that reflects your imagination, creativity, or intellect.
This prompt is a great option for students who have had a truly one-of-a-kind creative or educational opportunity and/or who have experienced some deep revelations or insights on who they are (or who they want to become) thanks to that experience.
The key here is diving in deep with your experience and reflection, showing us the interesting, complex ways in which you pursued your curiosity or creativity. You donāt necessarily have to have built an actual airplane from a kit in your engineering class and then been part of the team who flew said airplane from Texas to EAA AirVenture OshKosh. But the more creative or deeply intellectual the experience was, the easier it will be to write about it well.
The essay below was written for a similar UC prompt. With a trim to word count, this essay would fit nicely as a response to Dukeās prompt. Weāll explain the marks it hits in the Tips + Analysis below.
Option #2 Example Essay:
Following my sophomore year in high school, I was hungry to apply the skills I had learned in calculus and engineering to real world problems. I secured a summer internship with Professor Gurav Santās Laboratory for the Chemistry of Construction Materials, a Civil and Environmental Engineering Lab at UCLA.
The labās focus is to make building materials more sustainable. When I joined the lab, their primary project was to design a concrete that can sequester CO2. My individual research project, which aimed to solve a part of the problem, focused on the dissolution kinetics of calcite to better understand calcite stability in cementitious solutions.
I designed and conducted experiments to test calcite dissolution in solutions containing organic ligands including EDTA, citrate, and acetate. My tests were largely unique because they were the first to be conducted in alkaline pH regions due to the nature of cementitious systems. I imaged the surface of my samples with a Vertical Scanning Interferometer (VSI) and analyzed the data with the micro-nano software Gwyddion. My results have applications for breaking down calcite in cement to sequester CO2.
During my second summer in the lab, I studied the crevice corrosion of Ti-6A-4V, a titanium-aluminum-vanadium alloy, which has applications ranging from oil pipelines to medical implants.
In order to characterize the corrosion of Ti-6Al-4V due to the breakdown of its passive film, I applied immersion and electrochemical tests. My experiments were conducted in an artificial saliva solution with fluoride and chloride to understand how dental implants respond to hygiene rinses and toothpastes in a simulated human mouth environment. My results help characterize the inition of crevice corrosion due to harmful anions, which has not been previously studied.
In my last two years of high school, Iāve been able to start important work that has important practical applications. My research has solidified my desire to be an engineer and let me understand the teamwork that addressing pressing problems requires. In college and beyond, I want to further develop my engineering skills and continue to work with passionate peers to change the world.
ā ā ā
Tips + Analysis
Donāt be afraid to geek out on your topic. Calcite dissolutions? Harmful anions? Gwiddion? While the reader may not know exactly what this student is talking about, itās clear he knows his stuff. Using the lingo of your educational experience adds depth to the response, showing this studentās passion for the topic and all-in, can-do attitude that will make him successful in engineeringāor whatever he sets his mind to.
Focus on the experience and the outcome. Itās great to be able to show a natural progression of skill development and learning during this one-of-a-kind experience. Itās even better when you can tie that in with how youāll be an asset to both a college campus and to the future field. This student shows how his initial interest in pursuing a subject (using amazing descriptors like āsecuredā and āhungryā) landed him right where he needed to be: doing the research he loves. But this response is more than that. It shows how heās going to leverage that experience to make him a better problem-solver on campus and to be part of a team that changes the world. Signed. Sealed. Delivered. BOOM!
Brag without being braggy. Thereās a fine line between highlighting your contributions and just plain old showing off. You donāt want your essay to sound like a LinkedIn profile thatās full of bullet point-style accomplishments. This student walks that fine line by bookending his essay with the idea that he wants to make practical contributions to real-world problems. Then he piles that essay sandwich high with both the proof that he did what he set out to do and the insight to show how what he did mattered.
Showcase your personality. Whether itās the engineering lingo you use, the visual imagery that burns the story into the readerās brain, or the sense of humor that makes the essay undeniably yours (check out the next response for a prime example), donāt hesitate to let your voice shine through. Education doesnāt happen in a personality vacuum, and when you bring your story to life in the way only you can, the reader gets to connect with you on a whole new level.
Hereās another nice example that shows these tips in action:
Picture thisāan edible tortoise-shaped syringe, spring-loaded with a needle to automatically inject a payload of medicine through the wall of your stomach. Horror movie material? Good guess, but no. Itās actually from a study by the University of Toronto. I was exposed to this wacky, creative side of science through the Summer Youth Intensive Program (currently known as the Science for Youth Intensive Program). This program, hosted by UC Berkeley College of Chemistry, consisted of 9 months of weekly virtual mentoring meetings with a Berkeley grad student. While the 4 week on-campus portion was cancelled due to COVID-19, I was nonetheless able to take advantage of this opportunity to deeply study many interesting fields.
SYIP reinforced my love for innovative science. Our research was full of studies that defied conventions. Like removing brain tumors with a straw (to be fair it was a rather complex straw). Or weaving yarn made of human skin so stitches would integrate after the procedure. Or one of my personal favorites, dipping materials in liquid dopamine so they would become, uh, stickier (thatās actually quite a valuable property). All of these graduate-level research papers covered concepts that initially seemed overwhelming. Nanostructure assembly, cancer vasculature, immunology, rotating pigs at high speeds. Quick note on that last one: no, itās not a joke; yes, it is hilarious. Swine orientation aside, to better grasp these fields of study, I would heavily annotate the papers and research unfamiliar terms. I also compiled any remaining questions to consult my mentor during our study reviews and took ample notes during her presentations.
In all this research, it was vital that we never compromised on data and testing. After our analysis and critiques, sometimes a brilliant idea would show promise, and other times be constrained by some critical detail. But repeatedly, I found that creativity didnāt necessarily produce pseudoscience. Research can push boundaries in unorthodox ways without ever sacrificing the empiricism that makes science special.
Here's the big takeaway: Sometimes the best solution isnāt the expected one; sometimes it looks more like a tortoise poised to stab your intestines with medicine.
ā ā ā
And hereās one more:
My mom is always screaming. But sheās affectionate, not angry, as she yells over the phone to my grandmother, who lives in India. Amammaās hearing has weakened, yet she still abhors her hearing aids due to their high cost and discomfort.
My grandmother's dilemma led me to discover biomedical engineering. The potential to create life-altering prosthetics fascinated me; however, I found that devices were often inaccessible. This realization motivated me to apply to my local Biomechanics Lab during my sophomore year.
I was shocked when my mentor covered me head to toe in movement markers and made me a test subject on my first day. She said, āWhile youāre here, youāll be doing everything we do.ā And, she was right. I collected data, edited research papers, and learned new technologies like Matlab and Visual Studio.
In addition to applied skills, throughout the summer I learned about inclusivity. The lab conducted studies for practically everyone, from veterans who lost their limbs in combat to the aging population with PAD (Peripheral Artery Disease). The most significant part of the lab for me was seeing its direct impact, like a patient's wife mentioning her husband can now keep up on their daily walks. Now, over a year later, I continue to witness lives change.
In college and beyond, Iād like to work with a hands-on research community that has a real-world impact. With these skills, I hope to make biomedical technology more attainable and improve the lives of people just like my Amamma.
ā ā ā
Option 3
Beliefs and Values: We believe there is benefit in sharing or questioning our beliefs or values; who do you agree with on the big important things, or who do you have your most interesting disagreements with? What are you agreeing or disagreeing about?
Partāand really, a big partāof the college experience is being exposed to new people, perspectives, and āperiences (and, perhaps, playing with creative alliteration). This prompt is the perfect springboard for showing your natural curiosity and interest in engaging in lively, productive discussions. Your answer will be a multifaceted one: Whose perspective (or whose approach to taking a stance on an issue) do you respect or admire (and why), what subject are you passionate about (one way or another), and how have you changed because of what youāve learned from (or discussed with) others?
Hereās an essay written for Princeton that does an excellent job of addressing a similar prompt (and illustrates nicely the idea of a super essay.)
Option #3 Example Essay:
I probably argue with my grandfather more than I do with most other people combined. Itās not because weāre at odds. We just have different perspectives, influenced by our experiencesāhis as a life-long resident of India, mine as a first-generation American.
One pretty common argument we have is over Eastern vs. Western medicine. My solution to a headache, for example, is to take Advil. His is to rub Tiger Balm on his forehead and coconut oil on the soles of his feet. I try to convince him of the benefits of taking a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory, describing how it can reduce inflammation by blocking the production of certain chemicals. He tries to convince me that the balm creates a cooling effect, distracting the brain from pain and relaxing the muscles. Rather than becoming sore at or resentful of each other, weāve grown closer through these debates, and Iāve learned how to disagree without letting the situation get acrimonious.
Through these interactions, Iāve learned that a discussion shouldnāt be confrontational. The purpose isnāt to win, but to share my knowledge with the other party and learn from them as well. So rather than saying, āRubbing balm on your forehead is stupid; you should just take Advil,ā I say, āWhile rubbing balm on your forehead seems to work, Iāve noticed that taking an Advil has a stronger and more immediate effect.ā Respecting the opposing party makes them more willing to hear you out.
Iāve also learned thereās a fine line between logic and emotion. I try not to take personally the things my grandfather says in an argument. Just because he doesnāt think taking Advil is the better solution doesnāt mean he thinks Iām stupid. If I take it that way, we begin to move away from what the argument really was aboutāthe facts.
Iāll continue to apply these learnings in discussions and debates I have with others, realizing that having a āsuccessful argumentā isnāt about winning. Itās about sharing my opinion and learning from theirs, expanding our perspectives without alienating each other.
ā ā ā
Tips + Analysis
The conversation topic can be anything. You might assume that for your essay to be attention-grabbing, you need to pick a āhot topicā like a recent SCOTUS decision or climate change. And those topics are fine, if theyāre really reflective of who you are. Instead, consider challenging yourself to go more obscure. Less clichĆ©. More you. Smaller discussions can be just as lively ā¦ just as relevant ā¦ and just as revealing. Who didnāt spend time debating whether the Vans tennis shoes were gray/teal or white/pink? Or whether brussel sprouts are great or gross. (Spoiler: The shoes are actually āmahogany roseā and ātrue white.ā The jury is still out on the sprouts.) This student does a great job at finding a unique cultural differenceāTiger Balm vs. Advilāand showing how heās used that as a springboard to finesse his art of debate and understanding.
But itās important to show growth or a new understanding. In the tennis shoes debate, perhaps what was most interesting to you was the realization that people truly saw one set of colors vs. another. And they werenāt necessarily wrong: Our brains perceive colors in different ways. So perhaps this argument revealed to you that issues really arenāt black and white (or gray/teal) but that thereās sometimes a spectrum of āright answersā stemming from our backgrounds or even our physiology (e.g., taste buds, eyesight)āand thatās changed the way youāve approached other, more impactful arguments. The student above uses the last lines in his second and third paragraphsāand the entire closingāto show how his perspective has shiftedāall because of headaches.
Be willing to be wrong. We can learn as much from our failures as we do from our successes. In fact, sometimes, it says more about us when weāre willing to be vulnerable enough to admit weāre wrongāor, at least, not entirely right. This student echoes that point, acknowledging it āisnāt about winning.ā Instead, having viewpoints that are different from those he respects and admires helped him learn about balancing logic and emotion as well as practice the art of listening.
And hereās another example:
In my freshman year common room, girls snatched dumplings from othersā hands because they had āeaten enough.ā Giggles followed in reaction, but fidgeting hands exposed the opposite sentiment.
Weeks passed like this. I wanted to respond to these convoluted cries for help, but I couldnāt fathom losing my first friends at a new school. An hour before our semi-formal dance, I heard a faint echo of the phrase, āI heard she told Isa to throw up.ā In that moment, I realized my desire to help had to overpower my fear of disapproval.
After creating and distributing infographics about body positivity and healthy eating, I organized a conversation with my dormmates. It was initially uncomfortable, but I realized that shared vulnerability and transparency were necessary to change this toxic dynamic. I started by sharing the impact of a family member who struggled with an eating disorder. Once everyone was given the space to open up, we built greater trust that helped people express their insecurities and concerns. The hallās climate and health transformed.
By creating space for open dialogue, I was able to spark a greater degree of growth within myself and my peers than I ever expected. The difficulty of this experience also illuminated an integral facet of my identity. Whether changing my hall environment, mentoring my āLittle Brotherā Callen, or proctoring 20 freshmen girls, being an advocate for people and issues I care about allows me to facilitate the difficult, but crucial, conversations that foster safe and accepting communities.
ā ā ā
Option 4
Orientation, identity, expression: Dukeās commitment to inclusion and belonging includes sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. Feel free to share with us more about how your identity in this context has meaning for you as an individual or as a member of a community. (250 words)
We dive pretty deep into the topic of ācoming outā in your college writing in this blog post, so if youāre planning to write this optional prompt, you can find a bunch of doās, donāts, and examples there. Just note that those tips are for a 650-word essay and this prompt asks for just 250 words, so youāll need to get to the point more quickly. In short, value information over poetry.
One quick note for this prompt specifically: This is a supplemental prompt and not your personal statement. Consider including more āWhy Duke?ā contentāHow do you see Duke as a place where youāll belong? What resources do they offer? What work might you do while at Duke to engage with and elevate the LGBTQIA+ community?
If youāve already addressed your LGBTQIA+ identity somewhere else in your application, thereās no need to repeat things here. This is truly an optional prompt, so only write a response if it will add something new to your application.
Hereās an example essay we love.
Option #4 Example Essay:
I grew up in a society where discussing sexuality was taboo. Teachers deliberately skipped the chapter on genitalia and childbirth in biology class. So Iād secretly educated myself about sexual health, tiptoeing to fetch my laptop after bedtime and watching YouTube videos under my blanket. Becoming knowledgeable about sexuality and health both excited and humiliated me. Though I knew such education was essential, I often felt like an outcast.
My struggle to find belonging escalated when I perceived my queerness. In China, employees can be legitimately fired for their sexual orientation and gender identity. Scared of being expelled from school, I forced myself into conversations about attractive actors and pretended to admire the opposite, sex just like everyone else. But I was lonely.
It was first watching the feminist play The Vagina Monologues in high school that provided me comfort and widened my perspective. Knowing that female sexuality can be discussed ā even championed ā in public productions amazed me. I came to realize that I was, after all, not alone in the journey of self-exploration.
More importantly, The Vagina Monologues opened the door to a wide range of queer media and organizations that offered me a sense of belonging. I finally found my home volunteering at the Beijing LGBT Center. It was the only place Iād seen in China where rainbow flags are hung high and proud, where the house pet is a cat named Duo Yuan (ādiversityā), and where the usual response to āI am queerā is āthatās awesome.ā From watching Call Me By Your Name with my co-workers to pulling all-nighters collaborating on an interview project to fight stereotypes, I had found my āpolitically incorrectā salvation.
Using free time to navigate online queer resources and explore my identity, I did not let this challenge impact my academic achievement, but rather to inspire it. The Vagina Monologues and my work at the Center spurred my interest in Gender Studies, altering the direction of my later academic career.
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Tips + Analysis
Share what youāll offer ā¦ and receive. As mentioned above, consider adding some āWhy Dukeā to your response. What is it about Dukeās allyship that appeals to you, and how will your experiences, skills, and personality build on its inclusivity? This student mightāve tied in her past experiences with how sheāll volunteer with one of the LGBTQ student groups on campus, or even how sheāll expand the Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies.
Explore the unspoken. The first part of the prompt says, āDukeās commitment to diversity and inclusion includes sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.ā Includes is a pretty big word here. Diversity and inclusion encompass a wide range of experiences, and āincludesā gives you permissionāeven beseeches you (if you donāt mind going all William Shakespeare for a moment) to share the other identities that, when combined, make you, you. Your LGBTQIA+-ness may be one part of the essay, or it may be all the essay. In this essay, we see a firm focus on her journey of self-exploration, which started with her sexuality but evolved to embrace multiple communities: LGBTQIA+, activism, and student.
Embrace the vulnerability. Exploring diversity and inclusion is inherently vulnerable, but acknowledging your vulnerability in your story forges a personal connection between author and reader. Sentences like, āBecoming knowledgeable about sexuality and health both excited and humiliated me,ā and āI came to realize that I was, after all, not alone in the journey of self-explorationā allow readers to accompany the author on her journeyāempathizing with her struggles and emphatically agreeing that āno, you are not alone.ā
Option #5
Being different: We recognize that not fully āfitting inā a community or place can sometimes be difficult. Duke values the effort, resilience, and independence that may require. Feel free to share with us circumstances where something about you is different and how thatās influenced your experiences or identity.
While many of Dukeās supplemental essay options present students with a chance to reflect on a piece of their identity that may or may not have a loaded emotional journey or vulnerable insights, this prompt might appeal to students who may have interesting idiosyncrasies or personal quirks that arenāt so ādeepā (with the caveat that ādeepā is obviously subjective). Note that obviously you can dive deep with aspects of ways youāre differentāyou just also have the option here of leaning in another direction.
One great way to source these personal āismsā is College Essay Guyās 21 Details exercise, which is a chance to brain-dump random details about yourself that may not seem traditionally ācollege-y,ā but that often can be connected to larger insights or patterns about how you move through the world and how your mind works.
The examples below illustrate how you can tackle this prompt.
Example:
I'm a long-suffering insomniac. Thereās nothing like the alarm going off after finally drifting off. For a minute.
Thatās a normal night.
Yet, Iāve come to appreciate my alone time.
1:02 a.m.: This is when my most complicated questions come to life. How do we conquer partisanship? What are the benefits of alternative medicine? Next thing I know, Iām down an internet rabbit hole, finding articles, books, videos to answer my questionsāthen sharing them with other insomniacs roaming the internet.
4:04 a.m.: My search history now contains one important question: How to fall asleep? Iāve tried hundreds of methods, from progressive muscle relaxation to essential oils. My most recent strategy: tricking my brain by trying to stay awake. (Itās not working great.) Still, I share it with my unsleeping friends, posting a few more tips (calming music and breathing techniques) with a Facebook group of never-sleepers, my insomniac community. Here, problem-solving meets helping others.
6:30 a.m.: BUZZZZZZ! I didnāt get much sleep but I got answers on the definition of consciousness, and more sleeping tips to try.
Being an insomniac has become an important part of my world, offering unique experiences that give me comfort in knowing that, no matter where I am, or what time it is, I have a support system to help answer my burning questionsāwhether itās if humanity is heading in the right direction, or how to cope with only a few hours of sleepāthatās just a mouse click away. (250 words)
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Tips & Analysis
It doesnāt have to be that deep (...sleep š“). As noted above, this prompt can really appeal to students whose main points of difference may not fit neatly on a demographics questionnaire. Are you a lover of the arts in a school thatās dominated completely by athletics (or vice versa)? What about someone who spends their Friday nights birdwatching with grandma versus ātraditionalā teenage social activities? (Not sure how many birds you can find at night beyond owls, but hey, that student might know š). All of those points of difference have helped influence your skills, qualities, values and interests in some way. This studentās insomniatic identity is, objectively, not something that an onlooker (or admission reader) would be able to garner by looking at the student, or reading a basic fact sheet about them. BUT there is often such beauty to be found in these idiosyncrasies. Embracing them unabashedly communicates to a college that youāre someone who is open-minded and accepting of differencesāboth tangible and intangible.
Marry the effect AND the meaning š. Duke gives students permission to write about how their area of difference has either affected them OR what it means to themābut this student wisely provides a lens on both angles, which really helps the reader get a better sense of their skills, qualities, values and interests. While the first 3/4ths of their content describes how it has directly affected them (irregular sleep schedule, ample time to explore their intellectual curiosities online, a unique community who understand this disorder), they wrap up their response with a concluding āso whatā sentence with the āmeaningā side of the coin. This makes it much easier for the reader to envision how the studentās unique difference (insomnia) may actually benefit Dukeās campus.
The glass is half full (... of warm milk š„š). Many students (falsely!) think that challenged-based topics are preferred by admissions officers. While talking about how youāve overcome challenges in your life can certainly demonstrate useful skills like resiliency, thatās only one of many values that make us who we are. This student could have very well focused their entire response on how difficult being an insomniac is (because, think about itā¦ chronic sleep deprivation? HARD pass). Yet, instead, they chose to center their response on the values that insomnia has helped them live out more fully with each timestamp: a sip of curiosity at 1:02am, a gulp of open-mindedness and flexibility at 4:04 am, and an aftertaste of optimism at 6:30am. Ask yourself: what values have I already shared with my colleges in my personal statement and other essays, and which ones do I feel are less clear? Highlighting a personal difference that helps give air-time to these additional values helps fill up the admissions officerās cupāand hopefully yours. š
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And hereās another example, without analysis, that demonstrates a fairly different approach, just so you see that youāve got options for how you explore here.
Iām what some call a loser. I spend my free time crocheting dresses for my friends while watching YouTube montages of the top 100 Glee songs. While my peers are out partying or clubbing, Iām in my room learning how to use a rolled hem foot on my sewing machine.
My definition of a loser is someone who prioritizes developing their interests and talents rather than trying to āfit inā with society. Effectively, they lose the social game. If that makes someone a loser, then, Iām a loser for life. In fact, I gave a TED Talk on the matterā¦ https://youtu.be/GxZ_e8zgcsc
Many of us are currently burying our passions and personalities under the huge weight of social pressures. If we take time to develop something weāre actually interested in, weāll push past this pressure and build toward our highest potential in life. For me, this means learning how to assess skincare ingredients, recycle yarn from a sweater, or paint with gouache. I stick to what I really want to do rather than what others might want me to do. The difference, while shocking to many, has helped me immensely in finding out who I am and who I want to surround myself with - people who respect my choices.
After I presented my talk on being a loser, I got a flood of positive feedback. Friends, as well as people I had never met, thanked me for helping them feel that being different is not a bad thing.
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And hereās one more.
As a light-skinned, soft-spoken, empathetic, and analytical Black woman, a lot of times I have felt that I am not a part of my own community. Many of my family members ask me why I relate so much to the East Asian community and culture. This, of course, has led me to question whether or not community is only skin deep.
I became engrossed in the East Asian community at a young age. My dad, an international pilot, often brought movies home from China. One day he brought home Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki. He described it as something similar to Alice in Wonderland. I could truly see myself in the Miyazakiās heroines: from how they transcended their roles in life to how they met obstacles with resilience and bravery, these heroines helped me feel less alone.
I evolved from watching Miyazaki movies to joining anime clubs, to reading East Asian philosophy, and eventually studying the works of Japanese author Haruki Murakami. This culminated in a trip to Japan last summer as a People to People: Student Ambassador. Immersed in the culture, I visited a Japanese high school, hiked Mt. Fuji, soaked in an onsen, and experienced a deep connection with my homestay family, the Mishimas.
Through being a part of the East Asian community, I have explored answers to metaphysical questions, prayed at a Shinto shrine, and realized that community is a state of mind, much more than skin deep.
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Special thanks to Tom for contributing to this post.
Tom Campbell (he/him) is an eternally extra Gemini who has spent the past seven years helping students and families navigate the college admissions processāone alliterative/assonant aphorism at a time. Prior to joining College Essay Guy, he worked as a college counselor at Lakeside School and an admissions officer at Pomona College and College of the Holy Cross (his alma mater). He stans em dashes and semicolons, Kacey Musgraves (all eras, not just star crossed and Golden Hour), superior breakfast burritos, and complaining about space tourism.
Top Values: Authenticity | Fun | Vulnerability
