TABLE OF CONTENTS
(click to skip ahead)Located in Los Angeles, California, Loyola Marymount University is a private university with Catholic, Jesuit, and Marymount traditions. With 55 undergraduate degrees, 58 minors, and an 11:1 ratio of students to faculty, students have the opportunity to explore their academic interests while cultivating relationships with their professors and peers. If you’re looking to apply to Loyola Marymount, there’s only one optional supplemental essay (lucky you) that asks you “Why Us?” and “Why Major?”
Below, we’ll talk you through how to write the Loyola Marymount personal statement and supplemental essays, with examples and tips + analysis for how to write yours.
If you want to get a clearer sense of all that LMU is looking for, you can explore an extensive, by-the-numbers look at its offerings, from enrollment and tuition statistics to student life and financial aid information, on its Common Data Set. And for insights into how the university envisions itself and its role, and how it wants to grow and evolve, read its strategic plan. Reading through these will give you a strong idea of what the school values.
What are the Loyola Marymount University Supplemental Essay Prompts??
Prompt #1
Share with us why you are interested in LMU and/or why you chose your specific area of study or major. (500 words, optional)
How to Write the Supplemental Essay Prompt for Loyola Marymount University
How to Write the Supplemental Essay Prompt for Loyola Marymount University Prompt #1
Prompt #1
- Share with us why you are interested in LMU and/or why you chose your specific area of study or major. (500 words, optional)
Before we dive into how to write this, a quick note that yes, this prompt is technically optional, but we’d highly recommend writing it, since it’s an opportunity to differentiate yourself from other applicants and (especially) show why you and LMU belong together (which is the core function of a Why Us essay).
You can think of this as two essays in one: a “Why Major?” + a “Why us?”
And maybe consider devoting about half to each—roughly the first 200-250 words or so on why you’ve chosen your major, then the rest on how you want to explore that field at LMU.
To get you started, here’s a complete guide to the “Why Major'' essay. And here’s the full guide on how to write the “Why us?” essay. When you read through that one, pay close attention to the “Why Cornell” and “Why Penn” examples (generally our favorites).
Action Items:
Read the “Why Major” guide. What mini-movie moments do you envision exploring?
Reflect on what you want out of your college experience. Collect those insights using this chart. Identifying specific or niche interests and needs will help you find equally specific resources at Georgia Tech and make your “we’re a perfect match” case (see more on this in the “complete guide” link above) more compelling.
Spend at least an hour researching 10+ reasons why LMU might be a great fit for you, mapping them out in the third column of the chart.
Remember: The best “Why us?” pieces don’t celebrate how “X school is the GREATEST SCHOOL OF ALL TIME”. They’re more an explanation of why you and the school are the perfect match. Make sure to connect each of your LMU examples to your goals and interests.
Create an outline that combines your mini-movie moments for the “Why Major” top, then outline the “Why us?” portion.
Note that you can essentially think of “Why Major” and “Why Us” as two parts (past and future) of a single story—how and why you developed your interest in Q subject, and why LMU offers a bunch of specific stuff that will help you continue forward.
Here’s a nice example essay, to illustrate how you can tackle this kind of prompt.
Example essay:
Our globe is full of endless social interconnections. Growing up a diplomat's child, I witnessed various cultures and their many means of communication, from the reserved and peaceful Japan to the energetic and expressive Thailand. From a young age, I’ve been eager to enrich my knowledge of customs within every country I’ve lived in. For example, I've learned that you should never walk the streets of Tokyo while eating food, and always order more than you think you can eat to show respect to Thai street vendor chefs.
My parents are outgoing and love to explore; because of this, I was able to witness various communities that resided in these countries, as well as varying social issues. In Thailand, I realized that the number of cars present adds to their bad air quality and pollution, decreasing their quality of life. In Tokunoshima, a small island in Japan where my grandma lives, there are lots of uneven and cracked sidewalks as well as moldy buildings. Some shops also sell expired products, which can be dangerous to families with younger children.
I began forming solutions for these issues when I attended UCLA’s Summer Institute on International Development. My group focused on Guiyu, China’s E-waste issues in relation to their rising lead poisoning in workers. We strategized a plan to provide higher quality PPE’s (such as rubber gloves and reusable p-100 masks), and partner with a neighboring Chinese hospital to bring in doctors that could inform workers on the importance of abiding by a mask mandate implementation.
At LMU, I plan to major in Communications so I can further my knowledge in solving social inequities and understanding our world's intercultural relationships. I would love to work with Professor Judy Battaglia and take her original course “Interrogating Tourism.” In the future, I plan on traveling the globe, preferably with an NPO. With the skills this class would provide me, I’d gain more awareness and sensitivity towards the cultures I encounter. I would also join the Community Health Services ongoing research program, which would help strengthen my intervention building skills for international crises. I can also see myself using my 7+ years of dance experience to start a multi-cultural dance club that includes various countries’ native dance styles––encouraging students to expand their horizons on dance history and culture, and creating new communities with fellow members.
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Tips + Analysis
Illustrate with specific examples. Specificity shines like gold in college essays—it’s what sets two applicants with similar if not the same experiences apart. For this student, their extensive travel experience allowed them to witness certain problems in different communities. They could have just left it at that, without any specifics (but thankfully, they didn’t). However, they showed us the depth of their observations and interest by explaining further what issues they observed in Thailand and Japan, and how those issues affected the population. Someone with a similar background might have noticed other issues, which gives readers an insight into what stands out to you. So the more specific you can be, the more insight we get into who you are and how you see the world.
Organization is key. Like we mentioned above, you can think of the Why Major and Why Us as two parts of a single story—your past and future. This student does a great job of giving us the backstory of their past (how their upbringing influenced the things they noticed about the world and how that influenced their academic experiences, like the UCLA Summer Institute), which becomes the explanation for why they want to major in communications and how LMU can help them with their goals. Everyone’s backstory is different, so organizationally, your essay might look a bit different from this one; however, the key is giving the reader all the pieces, so by the time you get to your major and explaining Why LMU, it all comes together seamlessly.
Forgo a traditional “conclusion.” You’ll notice that this student just has one Why LMU paragraph at the end, and no one- or two-sentence concluding paragraph. Even though this example essay only has a word count of 390 and they technically could have added a concluding paragraph, it might’ve not added anything extra beyond summarizing what they’ve already said (which is generally not necessary, or even useful, in these types of essays). Instead, this student ends their essay with how they’ll combine their dance experience and academic interests to create a new community at CMU—ending on a memorable sentiment of “creating new communities with fellow members.” So when you go back to revise your essays, see if your essay reads well without the conclusion, if you’ve added one, and consider dedicating what would be a conclusion’s word count to greater LMU details + “so whats” to really show why you and LMU belong together.
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And here are two more example LMU essays, to show you slight variations in approach (but again, notice how each is trying to illustrate that the student has done their homework on the college, and that they and LMU will make a great team).
Example essay:
I was first exposed to psychology through my personal experiences with psychological struggles, in which over the course of the last 16 years, I learned were due to an overactive brain and OCD. By going through many psychologists, therapists, and brain scans since kindergarten, I developed a fascination with the field of psychology and how it related not just to my own health, but to the health of others. I’m an inquisitive person, and the majority of my psychological knowledge comes from years of asking as many questions as I could to practitioners and viewing my own treatment as a bonus course on psychology. Outside sessions, I’d read as many psychology books as I could get my hands on, and over the years, my passion for the subject has grown immensely. All of this has inspired me to major in psychology, a field that heavily overlaps with a myriad of global challenges and provides the tools to tackle issues ranging from political issues to mental health and the prison system.
The wide scope of classes that LMU offers, from Abnormal Psychology to Psychology on Film, allows for exploration into various subtopics within the field from a variety of perspectives. The ability to explore these diverse options will expose me not only to different subjects, but to different peers and staff who I can learn from and grow with. Whether I’m participating in LMU’s student-conducted research opportunities, discussing body language and violence prevention with peers in the Psychology Club, or taking time to pursue my love of art and music, I’ll have the ability to interact with students who value using knowledge and compassion to make our world a better place. Psychology is a human-centric field, and exposing myself to people from differing backgrounds and experiences will provide me with the tools I need to help others and contribute to a healthier, safer society. My experience interning at BioReset Medical––the very clinic I received my own treatment from––has provided me with a more expansive and in-depth look at pressing issues relating to human health and wellbeing. The psychological field is ever-growing, and I aim to be part of this growth, pushing to find the root causes and solutions for violence and those who are suffering. In doing so, I can embody a leader willing and able to tackle a variety of pressing challenges, armed with the knowledge and experiences LMU provides.
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Example essay:
I first heard of Loyola Marymount University through my college counselor, and she suggested LMU as a potential fit since it is in California and cultivates traditional Jesuit values. That same day, I went home to research LMU. I took a virtual campus tour and was stunned - I immediately decided that I wanted to apply there. As I’ve had a Catholic upbringing, I’ve always been admirative of chapels/churches, and when I came across the Sacred Heart Chapel, I had flashbacks of unforgettable childhood moments of me going to churches with my family - its beauty astonished me.
As a future Finance major, the Hilton Center for Business fascinated me. It looks like an ideal location for studying for my classes: spacious and business-focused. The William H. Hannon Library helps students like me to study in a quiet environment, even ranked as one of the Top 20 Libraries by the Princeton Review. I also look forward to taking Entrepreneurial Finance (FNCE 4410) and Investments (FNCE 3420) to establish the correlation between finance and entrepreneurship, which is helpful to my future career as I want to be a leader of an investment firm. Furthermore, I plan to participate in the Student Investment Fund program with Dr. Dennis W. Draper during my junior and senior years. This program will strengthen my knowledge regarding security analysis, security valuation and selection, and portfolio management and evaluation, all crucial concepts for my career.
Additionally, I hope to join the Finance Society student organization to expand my financial skills as well as acquiring the tools necessary for employment in the financial field. I am particularly thrilled about the career development exercises and the opportunity to interact with current professionals. Also, the Entrepreneurship Society student-led organization will augment my knowledge regarding the essentials, inspirations, and interconnections of successful entrepreneurial ventures.
Moreover, I was intrigued by the Malone Student Center. It appealed to me with its diverse facilities, ranging from Campus Ministry to the Lion’s Den Coffee Shop. To be more specific, one facility that especially caught my attention was the Lair Marketplace, the main dining facility. I am a big fan of (good) food and the Lair Marketplace appeared to have everything I could possibly need in terms of food: several types of dishes helpful for me to maintain a healthy lifestyle to protect my kidney.
I want to be at Loyola Marymount University: a school that educates the whole person within the Jesuit tradition, promotes formation of meaningful character, and encourages values that will contribute to meaningful work for transformative social change. I want to be a Lion. (431 words)
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Elica (she/her) is a college essay specialist who has a love of language in all forms; she has degrees in linguistics, has taught academic writing at the university level, and has been coaching students on their college and graduate school admissions essays for over 7 years. When she’s not working with students or writing, Elica can be found reading, printmaking, and exploring nature.
Top Values: Collaboration | Curiosity | Patience