Davidson College, located in Davidson, North Carolina, is an extremely small, private, liberal arts school (fewer than 2,000 undergraduates). It’s competitive to get into, with last year’s admit rate falling at just below 17%. Davidson has two essay prompts this year which are relatively straight-forward. Let’s dive in.
PROMPT 1
There are just under 4,000 4-year colleges and universities in the United States. Being as specific as possible, what interests you most about Davidson College (250-300 words)
Yes, you guessed it. WHY DAVIDSON! This is a shorter one, which makes it hard. Plus, you need to make sure that there is very little to zero overlap between what you address in your “Why Davidson?” prompt and your “What interests you?” prompt (below).
We’ve written a lot about our formula for the “Why X School?” essays, but the most obvious thing remains true: provide your origin story and prove you did your research. You should begin with a brief little story about *how* you became interested in what you want to study in college. Keep it extremely brief because Davidson has made it clear that this essay is about THEM! They want to feel special! So, then go into your academic interests, your major(s) and minor(s) of interest and WHY you can really only study what you want to study at Davidson. With this wording, it’s clear that they want to know that you have done a ton of Davidson-specific research, and they want you to get into the nitty-gritty. We are talking about mentioning specific professors and faculty members, specific and UNIQUE classes or majors, and how they relate to your interests. Some interesting majors to start researching may be Educational Studies, Global Literary Theory, Interdisciplinary Studies, or their Humanities Program.
It’s always good to round these essays out with a couple of items that are truly unique to the school that you want to engage with, whether it be research opportunities or consortiums, extracurriculars that highlight something specific, or some focus that Davidson has that is literally nowhere else to be found. Get searching!
PROMPT 2
Davidson encourages students to explore curiosities in and out of the classroom. What is a topic, activity or idea that excites you? Tell us why. Examples may include hobbies, books, interactions, music, podcasts, movies, etc. (250-300 words)
We encourage you to highlight something a bit more creative and *outside of the classroom* here. Your “Why Davidson?” response should really focus on your academic interests, and while this is related, we think this should spotlight something a bit lighter and more reflective of a burgeoning interest. Perhaps you’re contemplating tacking on a Gender and Sexuality Studies minor because you’ve discovered and have been working your way through Alok Vaid-Menon’s “The Man Enough” podcasts and books and cannot get enough. You’ve started a deep dive into understanding the constantly evolving nature of toxic masculinity and can’t wait to re-watch Fight Club with a totally new lens. Linking a burgeoning and exciting interest to the thing that you most want to do in your free time. Think about what’s the last YouTube or Wikipedia rabbit hole that you went down? What book did you recently read that made you lose track of time and miss your piano lesson? There’s a story there. Tell it.
PROMPT 3
If you would like to submit your resume (optional), please do so here.
You should probably do this, because, why not? No resume? We got you.
Call or email us if you need help. This isn’t easy! We’re here.