Santa Clara University is a mid-sized Jesuit school located in--you guessed it--Santa Clara, California. Near Silicon Valley and San Francisco, Santa Clara is a particularly smart choice if you’re hoping to work in either of those areas. Santa Clara is consistently ranked as one of the most beautiful schools in America--it surrounds the famous Mission Santa Clara de Asís, one of the finest examples of Spanish Colonial architecture in California. Santa Clara has an acceptance rate of 53.7%, and will ask you for two supplemental essays when applying.
Briefly describe what prompted you to apply to Santa Clara University. Based on what you know about SCU and our Jesuit mission to educate citizens and leaders of competence, conscience, and compassion, how do you envision your life at SCU and beyond? (Maximum 200 words)
This boils down to a simple “Why Santa Clara,” with the twist that they’d like you to connect to their mission and values. Take our usual advice for “Why ___” essays--use an origin story that connects to your major, but connect yourself back to their values at the end. Choose a major that you’re interested in from their list, and try to think of a narrative that will explain how you made that selection.
If you’re excited about Electrical Engineering, write about the time you made a hydroelectric generator from an old water pump. Tell them about how you were inspired by a trip to the Hoover Dam, and how you used that inspiration to win your school’s science fair. Write about how you made the generator--take them through step by step and finish the story with a success. Tell them how you used the generator to power a lightbulb, and how you were inspired to continue tinkering with electronics.
Then transition to stating your major and explaining why you want to study it at Santa Clara. Show them you want to study it by writing about two specific upper-level courses you’d like to study there. Find these courses by searching through their bulletin for options in your major.
If you’re that EE student, write about how you’d like to take ENGR 110, Community Based Engineering Design, because of the focus on project management and prototyping. Continue by writing about your interest in ELEN 361, Nanoelectronics, because of how you see nanotechnology as the way of the future. Then write about a professor you’d like to study with: you could talk about how you’d like to work with Professor Mahmud Rahman on Microelectronics.
Finish the essay by connecting yourself and your goals to Santa Clara’s stated mission. Talk about how you’d benefit from a compassionate education, how you’d be able to mature as a leader and person under Jesuit tutelage. Write about any specific connections you have to the school, any parts of the mission that stand out to you. Try as best you can to illustrate how you align with Santa Clara’s desire to create the leaders of tomorrow.
At SCU, we push our students to be creative, be challenged, and be the solution. Think about an ethical dilemma that you care about that our society is currently facing. This can be something happening in your local community or more globally. How can an SCU education help you prepare for and address this challenge? (150-300 words)
Most students mess this one up by tackling a problem too large: you’re not going to solve global warming overnight, and SCU doesn’t want to hear how you’d solve the civil war in Syria. Instead, you’ll want to think about a specific, local problem that you’ve tried to help out with. If you can connect the local problem to a larger one, even better. Start small though--you’re better off writing an essay about your work in a community garden than you are writing one about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.
First, try to identify a suitable local issue. Try to think of something you’ve been involved in, something that you truly care about--if you’re interested in whatever you choose, this essay will be much easier to write. If you grew up in California’s Central Valley, where you’ve witnessed the brutal effects of droughts on local agriculture, you could think about your work on your school’s aquaculture farm.
You can write about how you joined the aquaculture club because you thought there’d be goldfish, and how you eventually came to understand the importance of sustainability when driving through burnt-out fields that had been green in previous years. Write about how these local conditions inspired you to be part of the solution, how you worked at your club to find a more water-efficient way to grow lettuces and fruits.
Try to tie this into your academic interests--if you’re that potential EE major, write about how you designed better sensors to measure indices of water quality and nutrients to ensure better crop production. Write about how you’d like to continue working on this problem, how the courses you’d take at SCU would prepare you to tackle it on a larger scale. Finish this essay by stating how you’d like to use you education in the future to address your chosen issue.
Santa Clara’s supplements are tricky but not impossible. In order to get placed in the “yes” pile, these supplements require some deep thinking and a creative approach.
If you have any questions, or sections of the supplements that you’re stuck on, contact us here.