 I have a love-hate relationship with Emory's supplemental essays. Stick around to find out why, but most importantly to find out how to make yours great. Thank you for joining me on my channel for the best college essay advice. Hit that subscribe button and you won't miss a video. So beyond the main college essay, Emory has two supplemental essays. One is kind of the academic interest one, and then the other one is like the getting to know you option. And so there are a couple of options and we're going to talk about all of them so that no matter how you go, you have guidance. My name is Dr. Josie. This is right your acceptance. Thank you. Thank you for stopping by. I've worked with hundreds and hundreds of students attending some of the top universities in this country. And I know what they're looking for to help you stand out. So let's get to it. So prompt one, What academic areas are you interested in exploring in college? No more than 200 words. So this one is very kind of similar to the Georgia Tech one. I have that video in case you are also applying to both, but this is definitely one that you can recycle from that one or that you can recycle to Emory one for Georgia Tech. You want to think with 200 words, you want to think maybe kind of like a two paragraph option or at least a two part option in case it is one paragraph. Maybe it is a mini story showcasing you in that intellectual kind of arena, participating in an extracurricular activity that showcases you in engineering, you in philosophy debates, you in an English symposium reading poetry. So showing kind of like you immersed in that field in some way and then kind of go into reflection as to was that a spark moment? How did that really kind of experience really showcase why you want to or clarify why you want to study the major that you are studying. So after your mini story, maybe you reflect on how you found your academic area of interest, how it complements another academic area of interest and how you would pursue kind of both in at Emory. Maybe you're mentioning courses, a professor, a student organization. So really kind of the second half of the response should be a strict why Emory kind of supplement response. But I would make sure that you have that opening anecdote showing you in action within the field. I think that that's super important and a nice way of kind of changing the tone, particularizing kind of the essay to you. So making it more personal to you while still having that kind of robust quality within the research and the why us aspect. So prompt two, this is the getting to know you one. I love and hate this essay at just 150. I feel like you write two sentences and you're done almost and you're halfway. And so you really, really want to make sure that you are efficient and are covering everything you want to cover in a very, very tight space. I always tell students, I mean, honor your process always, but I always tell students to kind of write what they want to write and then come down for the most part, can really see kind of where the essay is going and the trajectory of the essay. When it's all written versus like making these edits as you're going in your mind when you're writing. So like, you know, you are almost at 140. So you're going to stop, but maybe the most interesting aspect of what you're going to say about the reflection about who you are in an interesting kind of reflection, critical thinking aspect is going to be missed out on because it was going to be word 160. But really the first two sentences are really long and you can edit that out. So think about writing everything, say everything that you want to say and then you can cut it out. So here are the options. The first option is reflect on a personal experience where you intentionally expanded your cultural awareness. I would consider the sense of culture here to be expansive. It could be ethno-cultural, it could be kind of like your cultural background and you in a moment where you kind of sought out a diverse experience, but it could also be a different form of community, a different kind of idea of how people come together and for why this kind of lends itself to, to the community essay for Michigan in case you are applying to both. I have a couple videos on Michigan if you want to kind of see those. So yes, you could write about kind of where your family is from and kind of how you diverged from that norm, from that kind of comfort in an experience and what that taught you, but it could be in other ways too. So for example, I read about a student who spoke Haitian Creole at home, family immigrated from Haiti when she was a baby basically, but at home they speak Haitian Creole and she was volunteering at an elderly facility and she would speak Haitian Creole to the patients that spoke Creole, but then she also started kind of like taking, it was like a dual lingo, it was like an app that she would practice for Spanish and so she started kind of really sparking conversation with patients at the elderly facility in Spanish and then she kind of like someone called in sick and she led the bingo in kind of Spanish and kind of working with like the Spanish letters and numbers and stuff and how that was both gratifying and terrifying. And she showcased a little bit about who she is culturally and kind of how she uses that to connect with patients with diverse patient populations in the US but then also how she embraced diversity and continued to kind of find opportunities to connect with people different than who she was. I've seen students who missed their flight connection and rode a bus with classical musicians and how they were kind of, and she's only kind of like an avid guitar hero fan so it was kind of like a funny quirky type response but she was learning about just the kind of community of musicians, what musicians kind of as an identity feels like, the diligence, discipline and then kind of learned a thing or two about a specific instrument. So it doesn't have to be very specific. It doesn't have to be very serious or kind of about your ethno-cultural background but it could be a moment where you were kind of out of place a little bit and how you find, how you ground yourself in commonality, how you find, you bridge those differences in a way that helps you create belonging for yourself but then also helps create belonging for other people. And so that's very interesting and that's key, I think, with this response. How do you kind of go into a situation that quote unquote is kind of foreign to you and how do you make kind of common bonds and how do you forge those in real time and maybe even how you kind of aspire to do that in college? Option two is, when was the last time you questioned something you had thought to be true? For me, this is the slipperiest of them all just because it could go many different ways. Sometimes students feel like these essay, I mean, some of these essay questions are really good, right? Like they are very, very direct, very specific and could get you vulnerable very quickly, right? But you want to kind of think about strategy. You are writing this not as a deer diary, not as a pen pal experience. You are writing this for admittance, right? For admissions in a prestigious university. So you want to showcase your best self, you want to really stand out in the most positive of light, always learning, always growing, always deepening your wisdom. So something that you questioned before, it should not be about politics, about religion. I thought my dad loved me, but then we went through this big fight. I would not touch any of these kinds of very delicate and very slippery topics. First disclaimer, honor your truth. I only give you advice on kind of how you should be maximizing these moments of your application where you are mic in hand, you are speaking directly to the admissions committee, right? So I honor your truth. I'm not saying anything is wrong. I'm just saying it could be read and interpreted in a way that doesn't really showcase you in a positive light. And at the end of the day, you are writing this not to leave it kind of stored safely in a diary. You are writing for college admissions, right? So you're writing for adults to be reading and learning about who you are. So make sure that everything you're writing is reflecting that and it's reflecting your best self in my opinion. So I would go two ways with this. Either super light-hearted who invented the question mark, bonus points for anyone who knows the movie that I am referencing, comment it below. But something super light-hearted like that, I feel like there are very interesting and very creative responses to this question specifically in YouTube videos that I've seen on Emory. So you should definitely check out what's above and below me in the search kind of as you're scrolling. But very light-hearted, keep it kind of on the surface from a content seemingly on the surface from a content perspective, but that it showcases your intellectual kind of curiosity. Your kind of compulsion to question and to really get at a deeper answer. Or something that is more serious and personal to you, but that is not political and not offensive in any way, no matter who reads it. And that's the tricky part, right? We are writing to an ideal reader who we don't know their specific political affiliations, their beliefs on blended families, their anything that could potentially be delicate or sensitive. And so you want to kind of think about to tread that line. Prompt 3 is if you could witness a historic event past, present, or future firsthand, what would it be and why? So Prompt 3 is probably one of my favorites in the sense that it allows you to showcase a few dimensions of who you are in one response. And remember this is super short so you can't get into too much. But what I would want you to think about is maybe holistically, what is your main essay talking about? If it's talking about a pickleball tournament, if it's talking about your ambitions to one day code something amazing, if it's talking about your cultural background, whatever it's talking about, maybe you do something else here. If it's in the sense of like complimentary information. So if it's doing identity, maybe you're doing service and leadership here or you're doing an intellectual pursuit that you've been kind of tinkering with beyond the classroom for years. I've read essays on how they want to meet the first family to colonize Mars. How they want to meet the first wife of some dictator and that kind of family is a played a pivotal role in their moving to the United States or their family, her grandparents moving to the States. If you pick something in the future, I would consider making a case real quick as to why you think it's going to be historic. So that's something kind of to consider because in many ways, if you pick something that is from the past, it has been that historicity has been settled, right? And so you're picking for the most part things that are engraved in history. Do you have a question for your supplements? Comment below in case I can help you out. So the next option is share about a time you were awestruck. This is interesting. I like this one, but it really leaves a lot of room for misinterpretation. I don't know in the sense of like, when I read a lot of these, when I work with students on a lot of these, it tends to remain on a superficial passive level. So like I am in awe of XYZ, but then they don't really kind of go into how they have actively engaged or intentionally engaged in learning more about it and demystifying the experience. So you want to kind of maybe consider talking about how you know about black holes, how you know about coding, how you know about kind of HIV research, what you've done to kind of demystify the topic. So you maybe you're talking about, maybe you established why it causes awe in you, why it sparks an awesome reaction to you, then what you have done to kind of demystify or deepen your interests and your passion in this topic. So then the last one is which book, character, song, monologue, or piece of work, fiction or nonfiction seems made for you and why. I enjoy this one, but I'm kind of a book English major nerd. So it kind of works for me, but make sure that if you do choose this one, that you think strategy. So pick a book, pick a song that showcases an aspect of yourself that you really want to share with them. If it's so obscure or if it's so kind of in the moment relevant, but your connection is really just that you love that song, that you replay it in the gym, then is it too face value and is it missing kind of that moment to be sharing something aspect of who you, like some fundamental aspect of who you are. So identity, leadership, community service, intellectual curiosity, those kinds of big kind of ideas are you taking advantage and picking something that not only you relate to, but that showcases an interesting dimension of who you are to make your application a little bit more well-rounded. I hope you found this video helpful and please, if you did, give us a like, share with your friends, and I will see you soon. Thank you so much. Bye.