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Early Action: Nov 1
Regular Decision Deadline: Jan 15
The Requirements: Why
Supplemental Essay Type(s): 2 essays of 250 words; 1 optional essay of 250 words
This prompt gives you a chance to geek out about your intended major. Do you and Statistics have some unfinished business? Are you planning to get a jump on your pharmaceutical career with a major in Biological Sciences? Whether your goals are intellectual, professional, or somewhere in between, your reasoning should be grounded in what NC State has to offer. If you’re interested in law, make sure you talk about a program they actually offer: Criminology, perhaps. Get ambitious and aim to answer these two key questions: What do you absolutely love about your intended major? Why is NC State the ideal place for you to study it? Think about what excites you about the department at NC State—professors, classes, guest speakers, alumni—and dig deep to show how NC State will help you achieve your goals.
Admissions understands that you haven’t got it all figured out yet. And that’s okay! A lot of very successful people have leapt in and out of various disciplines or have even found common ground where they overlap (think philosophy and economics or agriculture and business). You’re allowed (encouraged, even!) to have many interests, and admissions wants to know where your strengths lie. Just like for the last question, do your research, so you can clearly identify specific aspects of NC State’s program that appeal to you.
This prompt is incredibly similar to the Common App’s Prompt #2, which asks applicants to recount a time when they faced a challenge, setback, or failure. Our advice is similar: isolate an incident of trial in your life and illustrate how you learned from it. Writing about a difficult time in your life requires both vulnerability and perspective, and instead of focusing on the barrier or obstacle you were up against, we recommend spending most of the words at your disposal on how you rose to the occasion to overcome the challenge at hand. This is your opportunity to show admissions that you are a developing, maturing young adult with resilience and work ethic. If you had a drop in your grades during your sophomore year, this is the place to explain what happened and why you won’t let that define you. As you zero in on a key moment, ask yourself the following questions: What healthy coping mechanisms or communication skills did you develop? Who, if applicable, did you choose to lean on and why? What did you learn about yourself? How will you approach difficult situations moving forward? Of course, this prompt will not be applicable to all students, so don’t feel like you need to submit an essay here if you don’t have an obvious story to tell.
This prompt isn’t just about your academic interests; it’s about how you pursue your passions, so try to come up with a specific example of projects or activities that grabbed your attention and refused to let go. Focus on a subject that sparks your curiosity, a specific concept that has infiltrated your browser history (or TikTok FYP since we all know we build our algorithms brick by brick), or an experience that has burned itself into your brain. When was the last time you went down an internet rabbit hole trying to research something? When were you extremely motivated to solve a problem or create something new? What was the last fact or skill you learned outside of school that truly captured your imagination? Which book or poem altered the way you think about your place in the world? Next, consider what about the event, activity, or realization inspired your pursuit of further knowledge and describe what you did to acquire it. Did you seek out an internship related to your subject of interest or download software to help you develop related skills? Regardless of what floats your boat, NC State is aiming to bring self-motivated, deep thinkers into their Honors Program. Admissions officers want to know that you’ll be eager to contribute to lively class discussion and maybe conduct research in your latter years on campus, so show them why you’ll be a valuable addition to any classroom setting.
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