Santa Clara University is a private, mid-sized Jesuit university in Santa Clara, CA – which is near big hubs like San Francisco and Silicon Valley. The university has churned out countless big-name political leaders, like Gavin Newsom, Janet Napolitano, and Leon Panetta, as well as tons of business leaders like Brendan Eich, creator of JavaScript, and David Drummond, former CLO of Google. SCU has an acceptance rate of around 50%, and is known for their business and engineering programs.
Their supplement hasn’t changed from last year, but let’s dive in to give you a step by guide on how to master these essays.
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)*
Santa Clara wants to know why you want to go there, but also what your values are. It’s probably a good idea to get a feel for what a Jesuit education entails and what their values are before you get started.
Start with an origin story that leads to the declaration of your major. If you want to study Management & Entrepreneurship within the business school, talk about what makes you interested in management and/or entrepreneurship. Yes, we get that “making money” is a popular answer here but try to dig a skosh deeper, please. Are there particular businesspeople who have inspired you? When did they inspire you? Or maybe it wasvyour own experience starting a business with your friends. After you tell the story, declare the major and move to the next chunk: the evidence.
So you told them you want to study business, but *why Santa Clara* for business? Time to convince them you’ve done your research (because you have) and have deduced that SCU is the only place you can achieve your dream of running whatever Google turns out to be in 20 years. Find a few upper level classes that fit into the niche you want to build, so if practicing and developing ethical practices is your jam, you could talk about 178. Business and Human Rights or 181. Conscientious Capitalism. Next, pick a professor that is doing research in your selected field and talk about how working with them will help you expand your knowledge in the field and help you progress towards your goals.
End the essay by connecting you and your mission back to Santa Clara and their mission. They have a lot of focus on social justice and service to others, both of which are big points in a Jesuit education. How do you see SCU’s values, connections, and opportunities helping you become a “leader 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)*
Okay, no high school student has the plan that’s going to stop global warming or end any major world conflicts, so we strongly suggest not writing about anything global and sticking to something incredibly local. Preferably, one you’ve been involved in and have taken steps to address.
This essay will be easier to write if you pick something you truly care in, even if it’s small. If your big issue is climate change, maybe you could pick something smaller, like your fight to help increase the bus routes in your city. Talk about how you started taking the bus to reduce your carbon footprint, but realized large swaths of your city were inaccessible to those who take the bus.
If you can connect this story back to your academic interests, even better. For the end of the essay, take it back to the classes you’d take at SCU, and how those would prepare you to continue this fight even after you graduate.
The Santa Clara University supplement is not insanely long, but it will require you to do your research and think deeply about what you care about (more like c(l)ara-bout) (so sorry). These are relatively short, so have someone help you identify what can be cut and edited and try to keep the prose to a minimum. Good luck!
If you need help with your Santa Clara supplement or with any of your other applications, reach out to us today.