Mount Holyoke is a private liberal arts college (and a historically women’s college) located in South Hadley, Massachusetts. MoHo, as its students and alumni affectionally call it, is the oldest of the Seven Sisters (7 women’s colleges in the northeast). This sister describes itself as being “gender diverse” and is committed to “equal access to opportunity.” It’s also part of the Five College Consortium, offering classes at other nearby schools. The acceptance rate is 38%.
Submission of the Writing Supplement is OPTIONAL.
Word to the wise: If you want to go to Mount Holyoke, the supplement is certainly not optional. Don’t be arrogant. Do the work.
Please select one of the three prompts below. Your essay should be between 250-400 words.
1. Tell us why you are interested in attending Mount Holyoke College.
We tell all our students to develop an academic niche throughout high school. This should be a very specific area of expertise you flesh out over time reflected by your extracurriculars and classroom pursuits. The more specific, the better. (i.e.: computer science vs. science). Start off by writing about the origin story of this interest. This should be simple. Maybe you did a project on machine learning in the 8th grade and became fascinated with the subject. Next, do a deep-dive into the school’s academic offerings. Land on the major that best correlates to your academic niche and tell them why you want to be in that program. Talk about a few upper-level courses you’d want to take within the major and possibly a professor and their research. Next, discuss the relevant extracurricular offerings. Make sure to write a conclusion. You can mention the location, too.
2. If you had a superpower, what would it be and how would you use it?
We love this prompt! You’ll get extra points here for creativity. Don’t write about flying, time travel, or invisibility. A school that’s asking a unique question like this is looking for students with unique responses.
3. What role has social media played in your engagement with a particular issue, whether local or global?
It might be tempting to go with the topical, political one. And if you’re someone who wants to attend Mount Holyoke, you might be compelled to do it. But we don’t think this is the best question to answer when there are two others you can really shine with. But if you insist…and if you didn’t know about a particular issue and were educated on social media, and then (this is really important) took action you can answer this question.
We often tell our kids they can get a great sense for the school by looking at its supplement. Mount Holyoke is the perfect embodiment of that idea. The questions are as interesting as the students who attend. So, if you’re not connecting with the questions, then perhaps it’s not the place for you. If you are, however, this one should be fun for you.
Need help writing your college supplement? Call us. We’re experts at helping students connect the dots between their capabilities and a school’s offerings.