Short Essays for Common and Coalition Application Applicants
Students applying to Yale through the Coalition Application or Common Application should respond to the essay prompts below. Responses are limited to 250 words and are intended to help the Admissions Committee learn more about the applicant.
- Yale’s extensive course offerings and vibrant conversations beyond the classroom encourage students to follow their developing intellectual interests wherever they lead. Tell us about your engagement with a topic or idea that excites you. Why are you drawn to it?
- Respond to one of the following prompts:
- Reflect on your membership in a community. Why is your involvement important to you? How has it shaped you? You may define community however you like.
- Yale students, faculty, and alumni engage issues of local, national, and international significance. Discuss an issue that is important to you and how your college experience could help you address it.
- Tell us about your relationship with a role model or mentor who has been influential in your life. How has their guidance been instrumental to your growth?
Applicants submitting the Coalition Application: In addition to responding to the prompts above, upload an audio file, video, image, or document you have created. The upload should complement your response to one of the prompts. Above your response, include a one-sentence description of your upload. Please limit uploads to the following file types: mp3, mov, jpeg, word, pdf. Advanced editing is not necessary. Uploads provided via the Coalition Application will be reviewed by the Admissions Office only. Review the Supplementary Material instructions for material that may be evaluated by Yale faculty.
Engineering Essay
Applicants submitting the Coalition Application or Common Application who select one of Yale’s engineering majors will also respond to the prompt below in 250 words or fewer:
Please tell us more about what has led you to an interest in this field of study, what experiences (if any) you have had in engineering, and what it is about Yale’s engineering program that appeals to you.