Prompt: Please submit a short essay (250 words or fewer) that describes your academic interests and the ways you believe Honors Carolina can help you pursue them.
Essay:
Simply put, my academic interests range wide and deep. Through rigorous coursework and a small collaborative class environment, Honors Carolina can help me pursue an invested learning in interdisciplinary studies such as Health, Communications, and Classics. With prior experience as a student research assistant that emerged in statistical data and published a conference paper, Honors Carolina’s class on ‘Medicine, Literature, and Culture’ taught by Professor Jane Thrailkill fulfills my piqued curiosity in the Health Humanities. Here, I will immerse myself in the interactive lectures offered and partake in inclusive discussions to discuss a perspective of healthcare in terms of cultural evolution. In addition to more cumulative research, I plan to enhance my outreach and communication. As an invested communication director for non-profit organization clubs and my local athletic organization, Professor Xinyan Zhao’s ‘Digital Marketing and Advertising’ is an enticing class that can further promote my knowledge on the strategic planning of advertising, taking my communication skills to a higher level. Beyond just the classes and people in North Carolina, I am thoroughly invested in the Robinson Honors Fellowship for second year students which allows me to merge my love of research and Roman culture. As a lover of Classic literature from Homer to Virgil to Cicero and an active participant in the Junior Classical League, I would love to discover all the beauty of Rome’s landmarks brought to life in one trip. Ultimately, the variety of classes, research opportunities, and programs offered by Honors Carolina withstands the academic environment and challenge I desire in order to become a more enlightened and helpful citizen in society.
Tips for writing:
Be concise. Get straight to the point for supplementals. As much as a backstory and rhetorical flourishes seem great, ultimately, the supplemental’s limited word count will be the death of you. I would suggest leaving all the expressive flourishes for your college essay that allows more room for words. Here, in the supplemental, I researched extensively on the specific college and the ways I could see myself there. All of the information I found online, and usually hunting for information that pertains to me would take hours. I suggest you set a good amount of time for the supplementals and first start with an outline before writing: what information about the college do you want there? What information do you want to tell them that was not highlighted before in your application? Since supplementals are unique for each school, I made sure to show my interest in the specific college. Furthermore, I set this supplement out like an essay with three points about three of my different interests. I thought this made it a lot neater and the admissions officer would have an easier time understanding all my interests with the ways I would partake in them at their school. At the end, I recommend finishing with a summative statement of your points that also looks toward future career or personal goals. All the best! Bon Voyage!