Many graduate schools invite one or more supplemental essays as part of their application. Thses statements may be a required element of the application or they may be optional. Schools should provide a clear prompt and perhaps a word count. But sometimes, it can be hard to understand exactly what these “extra” statements are looking for and how they relate to the personal statement.
Emory’s “Statement on Building Collaborative and Respectful Graduate Communities”
The Laney Graduate Schoola school that offers advanced degrees. Important! Some schoo... More at Emory University requests a supplemental statement called “A Statement on Building Collaborative and Respectful Graduate Communities.” The statement may be optional or required depending on the program to which you intend to apply. Chemistry requires this statement.
Read the full prompt for the statement here. (It’s item #6.)
Just like the personal statement, this statement prompt isn’t a trick. But it may require some interpretation. The good news is, that’s exactly the point. The prompt uses words like:
- holistic
- core values
- intellectual engagement
- integrity
- lived experience
I would personally be surprised if all of these words instantly bring a clear definition to mind. These words and phrases don’t have one, exact, correct meaning. That’s important. You might be tempted to think you don’t know what they mean, but that might actually be you recognizing something real about important and contextually dependent words.
That doesn’t mean the possibilities are endless. Most complex concepts have a core meaning you can infer based on how and when they appear in language. Google is going to be your friend here. Or a good thesaurus. Discussing what one of these words or phrases mean to you can be a great way to attack this brief statement. From there, you can use all the same advice as for a personal statement — be specific and tell the truth.
Another good tactic is to explore the website of both the school and program to learn how they talk about the keywords in your prompt. The word “engagement” appears four times in the LGS prompt:
- “intellectual engagement“
- “engage and collaborate across differences”
- “more engaged, aware, and equitable”
- “your engagement with the graduate schoola school that offers advanced degrees. Important! Some schoo... More community”
If you visit our department website, there is a blurb at the bottom of the home page that also uses this word. In fact, it once again appears four times:
- engage in their work”
- “the engagement of student representatives”
- “Student Advocacy for Full Engagement (SAFE)”
- “a fully engaged chemistry community”
This is one example of where our website tells you something about how our specific Chemistry department defines “engagement.” You don’t have to speak directly to our programs and organizations, but you might be able to connect these examples to your own academic and personal experience to find meaningful details for your statement.
Read the prompt. Research the words you don’t know. It’s not a trick.
Other supplemental materials
Supplemental statements can cover a lot of things. Here are some non-Emory examples:
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: The graduate application at UIUC asks for both an “Academic Statement” and a “Personal Statement.” The Academic Statement varies by program and addresses a specific set of questions about your motivations and background. The personal statement then focuses more on the kind of content Emory is asking for in the “Building Communities” statement.
- MIT: MIT’s graduate application asks for both a statement of objectives and a personal statement. The former is more focused on goals for the time you will spend in grad school, while the latter focuses on personal development.
What if I get it wrong?
The prompts for supplemental essays can, frankly, be confusing. Many schools receive hundreds of applications each year from students with different language and cultural backgrounds and with a broad range of life experiences. A concept like “engagement” or “integrity” is culturally bound and often quite personal. Attempts to explain what type of discussion is being asked for can be difficult. Avoid stress by keeping two things in mind:
- A good faith effort counts: Even if you respond to the prompt in a different way than the admissions committeethe group of faculty that agree to advise a student’s rese... More expected, you are still getting an opportunity to speak to them in your own voice. If what you say resonates, it honestly does not matter very much if it was exactly what was being asked.
- Repeating yourself is okay: There is no need to carefully parcel out information across multiple statements. Repeating yourself is allowed — it’s even smart! If something important is relevant across statements, mention it again (vary the language if you can!)
If there’s a theme to this entire series, it might be this: potential graduate scholars are generally smart, driven people with a perspective that matters. You don’t have to be prefect — at anything — for that to come across.