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Introduction
Located in aptly named College Station, Texas, A&M University has evolved significantly since its founding nearly 150 years ago. The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas was originally formed to teach military tactics and the agricultural and mechanical arts (the A&M in the school’s name is a symbolic nod to this past), alongside traditional classical and scientific studies.
Today, Texas A&M is a premier research facility with the triple distinction of holding land-, sea- and space-grant designations, while its Corps of Cadets is the largest uniformed body outside the national service academies.
Although Texas A&M is rooted in tradition, it’s by no means stuck there. Its long-term vision focuses on four pillars: transformational education; discovery and innovation; impact on state, nation, and world; and university as a community. Understanding this vision can help you write essays that reflect those same morals and values.
For deeper insights into these pillars and how this public university envisions fostering long-term student success and making a global impact, read through its strategic plan and vision for the decade ahead. And to get a better understanding of what Texas A&M is looking for in its Aggies, a by-the-numbers look at its offerings, from enrollment and tuition statistics to student life and financial aid information, is available on its Common Data Set.
Note: Texas A&M accepts applications via the Common App and ApplyTexas. It’s worth pointing out that the maximum word counts for A&M’s supplemental responses vary based on which application portal you’re using. We’ve noted the word counts for both portals below
What are the Texas A&M University supplemental essay prompts?
Prompt #1
Tell us your story. What unique opportunities or challenges have you experienced throughout your high school career that have shaped who you are today? (Required, 10-750 words for Common App, 9,600 characters max for ApplyTexas portal)
Prompt #2
Describe a life event which you feel has prepared you to be successful in college. (Required, 10-250 words for Common App; for ApplyTexas portal “As the name indicates, responses should be short and concise. Typical length ranges from a few sentences to a paragraph.”)
Prompt #3
Tell us about the person who has most impacted your life and why. (Required, 10-250 words for Common App; for ApplyTexas portal “As the name indicates, responses should be short and concise. Typical length ranges from a few sentences to a paragraph.”)
Prompt #4
Optional: If there are additional personal challenges, hardships, or opportunities (including COVID related experiences) that have shaped or impacted your abilities or academic credentials, which you have not already written about, please note them in the space below. (250 words for Common App; for ApplyTexas portal “As the name indicates, responses should be short and concise. Typical length ranges from a few sentences to a paragraph.”)
How to write each Supplemental Essay Prompt for Texas A&M University
how to write Texas A&M Supplemental Essay Prompt #1
(Required, 10-750 words for Common App; 9,600 characters max for ApplyTexas portal)
Essay prompts don’t get more open-ended than this. While it may seem overwhelming to have such a broad prompt, it’s actually an amazing opportunity. You now have the latitude to share with A&M something about who you are beyond your grades and test scores.
If you’re applying to other colleges using the Common Application or Coalition Application and think you need to write a second personal statement for A&M to match this prompt, don’t panic. Here’s some valuable advice for you: Choose a subject for this essay that can also answer a prompt for other schools on the Common App (which sets a max limit of 650 words) and/or Coalition Application (which suggests but doesn’t strictly limit your essay to 500-650 words).
If you’re applying to A&M through ApplyTexas, they suggest this Topic A essay be 500-750 words, but that’s just a suggestion—you won’t be penalized in any way for going over (or under) that suggested word budget. Things are a little different if you’re applying through the Common App: Your maximum word count is 750, and you’ll paste your Topic A essay into the A&M Questions section of the Common App. You’ll want to not also submit your Common App personal statement when you’re asked if you want to include it or not (A&M won’t consider it, and it’s likely the same essay as your Topic A anyway).
In either case, we recommend you spend only the number of words necessary to tell your story in a concise, complete, and compelling manner, without going to extremes one way or another.
We know that you’re thinking. “Can I really use the same essay for all three application portals?”
Yup.
All the prompts for these application systems are so broad and open-ended that you can pretty much write about any topic (well, almost any). But, more importantly, by focusing on writing one main essay for three application types, you can spend more time drafting and revising it so that it’s really, really great. #efficiency
“But what if I’m not applying to other schools using the Coalition Application or Common App?
Then write your deepest story.
What do we mean by that?
There’s so much to say about writing your personal statement that we’ve created an entire step-by-step video course. Oh, and it’s pay-what-you-can. :) But if you want the short version, check out this free, one-hour guide. It covers the three core parts of writing a great college essay: brainstorming your topic, structuring your essay, and revising it to make sure it’s doing its job.
This essay, written for the University of Texas at Austin, does a great job at answering this Topic A prompt.
Example:
I am fascinated by the ways that microscopic biomolecules like proteins, fats, sugars, and nucleic acids come together to create an incomprehensibly complex organism. The systems of the body are vast and intricate, and yet, one tiny mistake can be the difference between health and disease. Biology is about searching for that one small missing piece, the single A out of 3 billion, swapped with a T, that can mean the difference between normal hemoglobin and single-cell anemia, a disease that comes with a lifetime of complications.
From the little boy hunched over his science kit to labs in AP Bio, my search for that special missing piece has continued to drive me down the many important avenues of my life.
My mom signed me up for my first acting class when I was 4, and I jumped right into my role as a male Glinda the Good Witch, complete with sparkly pants and vest. I was hooked. On the day of the show, racked with nerves, I stood in front of the crowd of parents as I did my best to remember what seemed like a bajillion lines. I fell in love with the cheers of proud parents and bored siblings. Afterwards, I ran over to my parents and begged them to sign me up for another show. Although my initial performance was not exactly what one would call moving, as I grew, so did my dedication to discovering how to portray a realistic emotional arc of a complex character. Acting, to me, is about finding the missing, hidden piece and unlocking the mystery of a character's dreams and motivations.
Another mystery I’ve come to marvel at is the complex, intricate ways that numbers can model situations. I love looking at a confusing question, seemingly unrelated to anything I’ve learned, and stripping it down to its basic concepts. For example, the limit as x approaches 1 of (4(-2+x)-4)/(x-1) is just asking for the slope of the line y=4x-8, where x is -1. From Algebra I to AP Statistics and AP Calculus BC, math has become a game, as I scavenge for the missing pieces that can turn a dataset of 100 heights into the probability that a randomly selected person is 5-feet tall.
When I discovered the world of politics, I became engrossed in the moral dilemmas, ethical trade-offs, and the profound effects the people we elect can have on society. I watched with disgust as same-sex couples were denied the right to marry, migrants were locked in cages, cops shot unarmed Americans, and mass shooters massacred hundreds while politicians offered little more than “thoughts and prayers.” Searching for the missing pieces of justice, I have turned my outrage into action—organizing and attending protests, educating friends and family on current issues like climate change and presidential abuse of power, and leading a voter registration campaign at my high school.
From the newsie Davey's righteous anger, to the DNA double-helix, to local linearization, to gun reform, my search for the missing pieces in the world around me comes together to assemble a portrait of the person I am today. But, like the world around me, my portrait is still missing pieces, especially when I try to sort out the puzzle of my future career.
Will I be a lawyer, crafting complex arguments, defending the civil liberties of the neglected and abused? Or a lawmaker, working to create a more just system of laws that benefit the masses, not just the top one percent?
I’m not sure, but one thing’s for certain: My search for the missing pieces of my life has taught me to look beyond the easy, obvious answers, and instead work to devise multifaceted solutions to intricate world problems.
As I continue my quest, the question is: What other pieces will I find along the way? (643 words)
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Tips + Analysis
Look for unusual connections. Remember that admission officers want to see the unique sides of you that don’t come through in the four corners of your application. This student takes a potentially simple theme—missing pieces—and uses it to show dramatically different sides of himself: acting, math, politics, and biology. The result? We walk away with a better understanding of who this student is and how he’ll contribute to a college campus.
Showcase your knowledge. It’s perfectly OK to show you know what you’re talking about when it comes to your favorite subject. But there’s a way to do it without losing your reader in complex lingo. This student is obviously well-versed in biology and math, yet he weaves slightly technical explanations of the biological component of hemoglobin and the limit of X in a conversational way that displays genuine curiosity and interest without over-jargoning the essay.
Don’t be afraid to have fun. It’s easy to think your personal statement has to be super-serious and to the point. After all, your future is at stake here, right? But we’re confident in saying schools are also looking for students who enjoy life, seize opportunities, and have a sense of humor about the things life throws at them. This student shows he’s well-rounded by balancing the serious topics of migrants’ rights and LGBTQIA+ equality with the descriptive visuals of him as “Glinda the Good Witch, complete with sparkly pants and vest.”
End with a clear “So what?” This student takes the opportunity at the end of his essay to restate his theme about searching for missing pieces. And then he leaves us with a takeaway—a “So what?” moment that demonstrates he’s still just as curious as ever: “But, like the world around me, my portrait is still missing pieces, especially when I try to sort out the puzzle of my future career.”
how to write Texas A&M Supplemental Essay Prompt #2
(Required, 10-250 words for Common App; for ApplyTexas portal “As the name indicates, responses should be short and concise. Typical length ranges from a few sentences to a paragraph.”)
You might panic at the two different (like, really different) word counts for the same essays in the different portals. But let’s take a deep breath together first. Inhale. Exhale. Better?
Your response can be a few sentences to a few paragraphs, depending on what you have to say about the topic, but we’d generally recommend you use a good portion of the possible word count, since these essays are an opportunity to show the school who you are and what you bring to the community.
Here are some tips on brainstorming and writing your response:
Help your reader see your life. Be sure to focus on specific details that respond to the prompt, but also be reflective. How have you changed because of this event? What did it teach you about yourself or the world? How is your perspective different than it was before? How have your values been shaped?
Focus on growth. Your response doesn’t need to be all sunshine and roses and puppy kisses. But your readers are generally more interested in the actions you took in response to an event and what you learned from it than they are in the event itself—show us the transformation you went through and the insight you gained.
Aim for less common. Stories like a sports injury or winning/losing the big game tend to appear in a lot of essays. That doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t use them—but it’s way harder to write them in a way that shows how you’re different from other applicants. Your event/experience doesn’t have to be truly unique—cause it’s rare for that to exist—but aim for that end of the spectrum. What are some experiences in your life that shaped you in powerful ways and that your peers probably don’t have really similar versions of?
While we don’t have an A&M-specific sample to share, here’s a sample essay for a similar prompt from UT-Austin, with analysis.
Example:
As Co-Head of Roman2Roman, a program intended to help integrate incoming ninth-graders into my school community, I have become a creative, open-minded, and empathetic leader by understanding the dynamics of communication and responsibility. From leading bi-weekly committee meetings to pairing 135 freshmen with older mentors, coordinating with administrators, planning and orchestrating events for 350 people, and finding unique ways to involve the greater community, my role in the R2R program has equipped me with managerial skills that will be helpful in college and beyond.
As a result of my leadership experience, I was selected to be Co-Head of The Student Service Learning Board. In this role, I organized successful food, clothing, and book drives, in addition to planning meal-packing projects for the homeless, card-design activities for veterans, and beach clean-ups to support local parks, all of which involved participants ages K-12.
Within my family’s Farm Foundation, I also assumed leadership responsibilities as I coordinated our annual Thanksgiving meal donation at the local fire station which entailed fundraising, communications, purchasing, packaging, and operations.
As a Longhorn, I hope to expand my leadership opportunities and make a lasting impact on the UT community. Through establishing meaningful connections among R2R members, and understanding the importance of an inclusive community, I am interested in getting involved with The Transfer Student Agency of Student Government as a way to help incoming transfer students integrate into the UT community. I’d love to participate in The McCombs Leadership Program to hone my leadership skills through retreats and workshops focusing on cooperation, communication, and contributions to society. Hunger and Homelessness Outreach would also be an ideal opportunity for me to continue my leadership and service and utilize my experiences on the SSLB and my family’s farm foundation to organize volunteer opportunities to aid members of the Austin community.
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Tips + Analysis
Think beyond extracurriculars. While it seems logical to connect an extracurricular activity in your response, and you can definitely do so, don’t feel like that’s the only way to answer this question. Much like the Topic A prompt, this “life event” topic is deliberately broad. Unlike the Topic A prompt however, you’re given license to even pull events from beyond the high school-era you. Even so, we recommend you …
Make connections beyond the single life event. Whether your meaningful life event happened during high school or earlier, it’s important to show how you’ve implemented the lessons learned from that event into your life today. So while the student in the example above initially is detailing their experience of Roman2Roman, they list several examples of how that opportunity at leadership helped them develop far more than simple leadership skills—enabling them to strengthen managerial, planning, and collaboration skills that will help ensure their success in college.
Consider connecting your growth with future opportunities at A&M. While the prompt doesn’t specifically ask about how you’ll continue these interests at college (just how they’ll help you be successful there), some clear tie-ins will help solidify your expression of interest. In the example above, after demonstrating their leadership skills developed during high school, the student shows that they’ve considered how they’ll continue to build on leadership by participating in the McCombs Leadership Program and Hunger and Homelessness Outreach, among others.
And here’s another essay, also written for UT-Austin, that could work well for this prompt.
Example:
Sitting at my desk, a rainy day in quarantine, an email arrived from a teacher: Would I join the GSS fellowship? My school’s Global Seminar Series developed out of a realization that in a time of limited connection, we could harness technology for high school girls from Tanzania to Thailand to Texas to learn about and collaborate on addressing global issues.
As a Fellow, I work with school administration to cultivate a network connecting 200+ students from 19+ countries to leaders in fields such as STEM, Business, and Government/Non-profit organizations. Throughout 16 seminars, our goal is to inspire our participants and support them as changemakers.
During the week, my responsibilities are planning based: brainstorming, content and resource development, and speaker outreach. During the seminars, I cultivate conversation and make sure everything runs smoothly. Saturdays, when the seminars happen, are my favorite, especially once they are over and students stay on the Zoom to chat (we’re going to start holding a mid-week connection session to facilitate more of this!).
One Zoominar explored the intersection of medicine and technology in the pandemic. Doctors and healthcare workers from CT to South Africa spoke of measurable and meaningful benefits of cross-boundary and cross-sector collaboration made possible by Zoom, Teams, and Azure. Moderating our panel discussion, I was struck by the vastness over which technology supports us, despite COVID imposing geographic limitations.
Later in the session, as I facilitated smaller discussions with students in breakout rooms, I wondered if, perhaps, the silver lining of COVID is knowing that when we thoughtfully utilize technology, developing a global community, we can foster otherwise impossible progress. I hope to continue developing community in order to foster innovation.
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how to write Texas A&M Supplemental Essay Prompt #3
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Tell us about the person who has most impacted your life and why.
(Required, 10-250 words for Common App; for ApplyTexas portal “As the name indicates, responses should be short and concise. Typical length ranges from a few sentences to a paragraph.”)
While this might seem like a pretty straightforward prompt, appearances can be a little deceiving. Many students take this prompt at face value, writing 250 words solely on the person who’s most impacted them and why they’ve been so influential. And while we’re thrilled that you’ve got someone in your life you can write so effusively about, don’t forget the purpose of these essays: for your readers to learn something new about you that will help you get a “yes” from admission officers.
As great and impactful as Grandpa Fred or Coach Burns is, A&M isn’t considering them for admission. They’re considering you. So give the admission officers what they want: insight on how this person has impacted you so much that you now exemplify the values, skills, and characteristics they’ve taught you.
In short: Make sure you’re still the main character of your essay.
The essay below, while written for another school, shows one way to successfully approach this prompt.
Example:
When I met Bella, my ears didn’t work. I could hear, but not listen. When I conversed with friends, we were in our own universes. There was little empathy, just interruptions and distractions. And because nobody around me seemed to have the desire to listen, I gave up on it too.
From the moment Bella and I were crowned co-winners of a middle-school cup-stacking competition, each winning half of a coveted cookie cake, things changed. I soon realized how perceptive Bella was to people’s feelings.
Our chats morphed into meaningful conversations and fits of laughter. She was the first friend I came out to as bi. After telling her, I waited nervously for the uncomfortable acceptance and frantic search for other conversation topics. But instead, she looked me in the eye and said she loved me no matter who I loved. Then, she asked curious questions rather than trying to ignore my identity. And I was there for Bella too. When she told me about the emotional distance she felt growing up far away from her dad who lives in South Korea, I supported her, not trivializing her pain with dismissive reassurances. Since our cup-stacking battle, we’ve been strong for each other.
Bella unplugged my ears. That’s why she was the first person I interviewed for my podcast, Portraits, about people in my life. I know that as an empathetic listener, I am more vulnerable now, but, thanks to Bella, I understand how to communicate love. (246 words)
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Tips + Analysis
Find a balance. Yes, we want to hear about that person who impacted you—you can’t write this essay without talking about them. But as we mentioned above, that’s only part of the story. The (much) bigger part is how you’re different now because of that person. While we learn a bit about Bella in the essay above, we learn even more about the author and how she’s different because of Bella’s influence: She’s a more empathetic listener. More vulnerable. A better communicator.
Consider the obscure. Your mom. Malala Yousafzai. Your basketball coach. Taylor Swift. All are important and relevant, but as an essay topic, they might be a little too common and make it harder for you to stand out. But what about the 5’0” basketball player on your team who taught you a lesson in overcoming obstacles? Or how a not-super-well-known character in your favorite novel changed your worldview in some meaningful way? These more obscure topics can be just as (sometimes even more) impactful than those topics making headlines.
Show, don’t tell. If you’ve read other College Essay Guy material, you already know we’re big on showing versus telling. We’ve got a great blog about it here, but here’s the TL;DR: If you’re trying to demonstrate that you’ve learned the importance of creative problem-solving, then show the reader specific examples of how you’ve taken that lesson and applied it to your real life. The student in the example above shows her improvement in listening by giving specific examples, like how she supported Bella in meaningful ways as she talked about her father.
how to write Texas A&M Supplemental Essay Prompt #4
Optional:
If there are additional personal challenges, hardships, or opportunities (including COVID related experiences) that have shaped or impacted your abilities or academic credentials, which you have not already written about, please note them in the space below.
(Max. 250 words for the Common App; for ApplyTexas portal “As the name indicates, responses should be short and concise. Typical length ranges from a few sentences to a paragraph.”)
If you’ve already filled out your Common App, this might sound like a familiar question. And that’s great news for your typing-weary fingers! If you’re using the Common App for your A&M application and you’ve already completed the Additional Information and COVID responses, you can leave this blank. If you’re using ApplyTexas to submit your application, you can use your same answer for this question as you’ve done on the Common App.
And if you haven’t gotten started on either, here are our can’t-miss tips.
Resist the urge to use the whole word count. Instead, use only the space needed to say what you need to say. No more, no less. This is especially true if you’re completing this prompt for the Common App, where you’ve likely already completed responses to the COVID-19 and Additional Information sections and you can’t think of what on earth more you could possibly write about. Which brings us to …
Say something new. Don’t repeat things you’ve already included elsewhere in your application. This would be the place to explain how the lack of Wifi impacted your grades during remote learning or to add important details about the nonprofit organization you started that didn’t fit in your activities list. If you’re not sure what to include, head over to our guides on How to Use the Common App Additional Information Section and How to Write About Coronavirus/COVID-19 in Your College Essay & Application.
Don’t feel obligated to fill it out at all. This section is optional (really!). So don’t feel like you have to write something just because there’s space there. You want to add value to your application, not empty words. Little frustrates (and bores) an admission officer more than reading a whole lot of nada.
Special thanks to Julia for writing this post
Julia published her first “book” on the elusive Pika in elementary school and has been writing fervently ever since. She’s thrilled to unite her quirky love of grammar and master’s in psychology to help students tell their most meaningful stories. Her favorite punctuation mark is the apostrophe because, in the words of Imagine Dragons, it’s “a symbol to remind you that there’s more to see.”
Top values: Collaboration | Family | Productivity
