Adrianne is a Senior Admissions Counselor and TV/film director, producer, writer, and actress currently based in LA. She uses her experience in multiple disciplines to help students achieve their personal and academic goals.
Welcome to the Emory University supplemental essay prompts for the 2025-2026 application cycle! Here’s everything you need to know.
(You can refer to the Emory University website if you want to see how exactly they’re presenting their essay prompts for this year.)
In addition to your Personal Statement, please answer two additional short answer questions, one about your academic interests and one to help us get to know you better. We encourage you to be thoughtful in your responses and not stress about what the “right answer” might be, as there really isn’t one.
Table of Contents
Academic Interests
What academic areas are you interested in exploring at Emory University and why? (200 words recommended length)
This is a pretty typical “Why Major” question blended with a “Why College” prompt, so get ready to do your research. Dig into your department of choice, and find specific classes, professors, and research opportunities that appeal to you. Connect it to the work that you’ve already done, both in your classes and extracurriculars. How can you build on that work at Emory specifically? And don’t forget to address the “why” when mentioning what resources appeal to you — specificity is your friend here (as per usual with all of your college essays).
Getting to Know You
“Community” can mean many things — it can mean your school, your family, your friends, your sports team, your dance class, and much, more more. With so many options, though, you must choose one meaning that’s most important to you and a community in which you’ve had a meaningful impact. Did you see a problem and start a community service effort? Did you teach and mentor younger students? Did you contribute something to a club or summer camp that no one else could’ve?
This doesn’t mean you have to have started a non-profit or raised millions of dollars for charity; you undoubtedly have contributed to your community in many small ways, likely on a daily basis. So, pick one of those ways, and choose an experience that demonstrates that impact in a recognizable way. Show the reader why this will help you contribute to your future communities… like at Emory.
Reflect on a personal experience where you intentionally expanded your cultural awareness.
This essay prompt (and others like it) is one of the biggest traps in college essay writing — and to top it off, they’re not giving you a lot of room to write this. Most students reading this will think back about that one time they went to a cultural event or engaged with someone from a different background. Your response to this, though, should steer clear of the typical standard conclusion that this single act means you “appreciate diversity.” An effective response here will go beyond and discuss a more refined notion of the journey that is learning about another’s culture. It’s a challenging prompt, but an effective essay that maturely discusses what culture encompasses will demonstrate intellectual vitality and the capability to be a very successful future leader.
Emory University’s unique mission calls for service to humanity. Share how you might personally contribute to this mission of service to humanity.
This question is daunting, and it’s hard to answer it without sounding like Miss America. It might be wise to steer clear of this choice unless you have a very strong response to it from the jump. But similar to the community question, how do you define “service to humanity”? Take it from a big concept to small examples in your daily life, and paint a picture of how these experiences will help you serve humanity — whatever that means to you — in the future.
Also, make sure you look up Emory’s full mission statement, since they’ve sort of referenced it here themselves. You could incorporate some of their other language in your answer (i.e., “thinking beyond oneself”) — don’t just copy and paste it, but integrate it in a way that feels personal to you.
In a scholarly community, differing ideas often collide before they converge. How do you personally navigate disagreement in a way that promotes progress and deepens meaningful dialogue?
This question of navigating differences and disagreements with others has been a very popular one this year, and it’s understandable why, given the general political and economic turmoil of the past few years. So, these schools are looking for students who can engage in productive conversation with each other about meaningful and even difficult topics. Those are the people who will leave Emory and make a difference in the world.
The key factor in answering this prompt well is self-awareness — you want to present yourself as someone who can understand and learn from another person’s point of view. Have you had a problem with another person and reached a peaceful, empathetic resolution? Have you had an experience like this that has changed your mind and perspective? Then, reflect on that experience, and describe how it will help you in future debates and conversations with others. But remember, you want to portray yourself as open-minded and thoughtful above all else.
As always, college consultants are here to help. Don’t hesitate to reach out.
