Washington and Lee is a small liberal arts school in Lexington, Virginia. W&L is also home to the Williams School of Commerce, Economics, and Politics for those students who are interested in studying business within the framework of a liberal arts school. The acceptance rate hovers around 19%. Their supplement is broken down below:
Please describe how you have familiarized yourself with Washington and Lee University and what aspects of W&L's community are most exciting to you. (250 Words)
When working on this with TKG clients, we approach this as classic “Why Us” prompt. In other words, “Why do you want to go to Washington and Lee, and what aspects of the school are you most excited about?”
The tricky thing about this prompt is the length. Once you start writing, you’ll notice that you don’t have the space to go into serious depth about everything that you love about the school. For that reason, we suggest hyper focusing on a few things:
A brief origin story about how your academic interests came to be.
1-2 classes (but probably one) at Washington and Lee that will help you achieve your **hyper-specific academic goals**
A professor who you’d like to do research with
A club you plan to join.
Let us discuss specificity, the main requirement of this supplement. You should start by figuring out what you want to major in. You can find the list here. Let’s say that you’re applying to Washington and Lee to study journalism. Get as specific as possible! Instead of writing that you’re broadly interested in both digital and print journalism, write about the first time you realized that video is changing the nature of how we process the news. Or about the Journalism summer program you did at Emerson. Vagueness will not work here, so spend as long as it takes writing a (brief) origin story that speaks to your passion.
At this point, you’ve used half of the word count. Make a mental note that you’re going to need to come back and edit things. While you’re on the homepage of your major, find 1-2 classes you want to take. Then, identify your reasons for wanting to take them. For example, your reasons for wanting to take “Beyond Google and Wikipedia” might be your continued work on a long-form journalism piece for a literary magazine that requires in-depth research. “Reporting on the Economy” might be a good fit for a student who is interested in both journalism and business.
You’ll also find a list of professors on the homepage of your major. Don’t be afraid to stalk them on various websites until you find someone whose expertise aligns well with passion projects that you’re finished with, or are currently working on. Write about how you’d be a valuable member of the research team by explaining how you can help them out.
The last aspect to address is how you plan to spend your time outside of the classroom. Click here to find a list of clubs and student organizations. Look through the list until you find something is similar to the activities that you did in high school. It doesn’t have to relate to your major, but it has to be a logical extension of your high school resume. Write about your desire to join the club, and what you’ll be bringing to the table.
We have worked on this supplement quite often and the “hard facts” are usually at least 450 words long. It might seem daunting to cut things down, but it’s possible. Start by removing anything that is even slightly redundant, and then streamline the rest. Make sure that there’s a narrative flow to your response – your essay should not read like a regurgitation of Washington and Lee’s course catalogue. Instead, tie information about yourself and W&L offerings together in a way that shows you’re a perfect fit for the school.
Please describe an aspect of your life outside of school that is important to you, such as an extracurricular activity, a job or a family responsibility. How does your involvement impact you and those around you? (250 Words)
We love to see schools acknowledge the fact that jobs and family responsibilities are just as important as extracurricular activities. We also love schools that are not named after confederate generals.
Anyway, W&L made this change last year and we suggest taking advantage of it. If you have a job or a family responsibility that means a lot to you, something will likely come to mind here. This is a perfect opportunity to write about a meaningful family responsibility that you have that might traditionally be overlooked during the college process. Perhaps you take care of your siblings after school while both of your parents are at work or drive your grandparents around every other Sunday so that they can run errands. And if you have an actual job, which many high school students overlook, you should definitely consider writing about that as well. There are so many benefits of getting a **paying** job, and we’re willing to bet that centering your response about a work experience will be the road less taken.
If you’re going to write about an extracurricular activity, don’t write about the same one as you wrote about in the first prompt. We suggest highlighting an activity that speaks to a personality trait that you have not shown in other aspects of your application. Just make sure that you’re addressing this part of the prompt: how your involvement impacts you and those around you.
Whatever you decide to write about, your response should be framed as a story. Do not write “I take care of my siblings; therefore I possess leadership qualities.” Instead, paint a picture! Maybe you start at the beginning of the day, or during a particularly challenging or rewarding moment on the job. After reading your essay, W&L should have a clear idea (think: a day in the life) of what it’s like to take on your job or responsibility.
Washington and Lee’s supplement is no longer optional, which means that all applications will be submitting responses to the questions this year. If you want to stand out, we suggest starting to write them now.
Need help writing and researching? Contact us here.