University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) 2024-25 Supplemental Essay Prompt Guide

University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) 2024-25 Application Essay Question Explanations

The Requirements: 2 essays of 500-700 words each for Honors College applicants only

Supplemental Essay Type(s): Oddball

The following prompts are for Honors College applicants only:

Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve – anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution. Your essay must be between 500 and 700 words. It will be evaluated on a combination of style, grammar, imagination, and substance. 

This is your opportunity to not only show admissions that you’re paying attention to the world around you, but also demonstrate your passion, creativity, and vision. Your answer to this prompt should be three-fold: first, describe a problem that troubles you; second, describe why you feel strongly about it; and third, describe how you have solved or might solve this problem. Start by brainstorming a few problems or challenges—big and small—that bother you or impact your life in some capacity. Maybe you’ve worked to combat body shaming in your local ballet school and have successfully changed the teachers’ approach through sustained campaigning and education. Perhaps you’re passionate about combating the rampant wildfires in your state through modernized forestry and logging methods as well as sustainable park management. If you’re feeling stuck, ask yourself: What kind of mark would you like to leave on the world? How do you think you can positively contribute to a cause that is important to you? Be sure to describe why the issue you’ve chosen resonates with you so deeply. Perhaps you’re wheelchair-bound, and grappling with accessibility (or lack thereof) is part of your daily life. Maybe your family is from Ukraine and the ongoing war there continues to trouble you. Be as descriptive as possible about the problem and your connection to it, showing how imaginative you can be with your solutions. 

If you could invent a new word, phrase, or device, what would it be? How/when would you use it? Your essay must be between 500 and 700 words. It will be evaluated on a combination of style, grammar, imagination, and substance. Do not use the same essay you submitted for the Shared Information portion of the application.

This open-ended prompt gives you a chance to show off your creativity in whatever realm suits you best. If nothing springs to mind immediately, think about ideas you wish English had a word for or handy gadgets that would make your daily life easier. Has there been a time you were frustrated by your inability to accomplish something easily? How could a new invention solve this for you? Maybe you’d invent glasses that can zoom in with just a blink to help you read road signs while you’re driving your younger sister to her soccer games. Perhaps you would invent teleportation so you could travel easily to visit your dad across the country any time. Maybe you wish English had a word like the German sturmfrei to describe the feeling of having the whole house to yourself while your parents are away. Try to think of something that reveals a new aspect of your personality, activities, or interests that admissions won’t see elsewhere in your application. With 500-700 words to play with, you have plenty of space to wax poetic about your creation and how you would use it!