The University of Richmond is a smedium-ish (that’s small and medium combined, btw) private liberal arts college located in Richmond, VA. Fans of schools like UVA, UNC, Tulane, Wake Forest, SMU, Emory, Rice, and other elite southern institutions often find themselves adding Richmond to their list as well. With one of the most famously generous financial aid departments in the country (60% of students receive aid), the University of Richmond has increased their accessibility to students around the world. Speaking of, they’re also test optional this year. For the Class of 2027, Richmond had a 23% acceptance rate, with a large majority (66%) of those students coming from the ED and EA pools.
Richmond has a pretty straightforward supplement this year. You choose one prompt out of three and write an essay about it. However, they have these insanely annoying word count limits, 350-650, which we feel like they could have narrowed. We don’t necessarily think you should write a whole other Common App, so for once, you don’t have to hit the word limit. Don’t lowball it either though. Let’s discuss:
Prompt 1: You have a platform to create change. What is an action or policy you might propose to address an issue of social injustice in your school or local community, or on a national or global scale? (350-650 words)
Okay first of all, you’re 17, so we know you have a lot of really grand ideas about how to save the world (we love that for you), but maybe chill for a sec. To us, “on a national or global scale,” is kind of an afterthought here, and we think you should stick to the school/local community part. We also want you to tread a little carefully here, because if this just turns into a 500-word rant about your school, that also doesn’t suuuper look good. We recommend using this essay to talk about something actionable you’re already doing but then expand to talk about what more you want to do with the thing you’ve already done.
Tell us a tale, spin us a yarn! Write a story about how you started a GSA at your school, but want to implement fundraising for homeless LGBTQ+ youth in the neighborhood. If you work with homeless youth in your free time, maybe you have an idea on how to increase housing access in your town. Maybe you founded a nonprofit that’s interested in the nexus between climate and racial justice, and you want to start a vegan food festival to attract more people to the cause. We want to point out the ‘social injustice’ part, which means they’re not really looking for stories about animal shelters or bake sales for running a 5k for breast cancer research, as much as we love all of those.
Prompt 2: Tell us about a time you learned something unexpected. What did you learn, and what happened next? (350-650 words)
“What did you learn, and what happened next?” Bro, just give ‘em a story, they’re literally begging you to write a story here. This might be our favorite one, because it just gives you so much more space and freedom to explore a side of yourself they’re not seeing in your application.
Unexpected here can be a lot of different things, like maybe you learned about some cool science-y thing you could do in your kitchen so you immediately unleashed your Bill Nye. Or maybe you stumbled upon a Wikipedia page that led you down a rabbit hole you’re still stuck in (for us, it was the dazzle camoflauge to anti-facial recognition makeup pipeline). Did you have a super niche obsession as a kid? Talk about it! We’ve all seen the TikToks, so were you an Egypt kid, a Titanic kid, or a Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire kid? It can be something less whimsical, it could be a sobering factoid or news of a sudden cross-country move, but whatever it is, tell them a story. Bring them into the ‘Eureka!’ moment with you and take them along as you dive into action.
Prompt 3: Richmond welcomes students from various backgrounds, perspectives, and lived experiences. What is at least one way you will contribute to our community that is not already mentioned in your application? (350-650 words)
As we foretold in our Affirmative Action post, a lot of colleges have either been adding or changing their basic ‘community’ essay to allow students to reflect on their backgrounds. We advise approaching this like your standard community essay – which again, will be a story. Are you sensing a theme here? We love stories!
Community can be a lot of things. It can be an organized community, like a club, online space, or your place of worship. It can also be a peer group, like your friends, family, coworkers, or neighbors. This essay asks how you will contribute to Richmond, so we recommend thinking of a community that you’re a part of that you could continue to be a part of (or start) at Richmond. It can be small or large. Perhaps there is a family tradition rooted in your culture that you do before dinner, and you want to share that with your roommates. Maybe you started a glass recycling plant in your hometown with your friends and you want to start a student-led recycling plant at Richmond. For some of you, the same thing you would write for Prompt 1 could work here, especially if you follow our advice of Writng Local (it’s like Shop Local but for college essay prompts).
The University of Richmond prompts are fairly simple, and they let you really tell a story, which we love. Once you finish your first draft, just go sicko mode on edits. Really edit it to shreds. Then, after you’ve done that a few times, double-check your grammar, punctuation, and flow to make sure it’s polished and ready to go.
Need help with your Richmond app? We got you, reach out today.