University of Kansas
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University of Kansas’s 2023-24 Essay Prompts
SELF Program Short Response 1
The mission of the Madison A. and Lisa Self Engineering Leadership Program is to develop passionate engineering and computer science graduates who are strongly goal-oriented and who bring the business skills and vision needed to guide the technology-based corporations of tomorrow. Explain your own mission and vision, and specifically how you envision embodying the characteristics sought by the SELF Program in your academic career and beyond.
Select-A-Prompt Essay
Please upload your responses to all three questions as a single Word or PDF document and limit your total word count to 1,200 words combined. Convey the factors that shaped you and demonstrate skills of clarity and brevity when you answer each of these three questions:
Option 1
List no more than five items — clubs and organizations, employment, community service, awards and recognition, extra-curricular interests, personal or family obligations — in descending order of significance, with the most significant item first. For each, explain your role, time commitment, length of involvement, and responsibilities. Transfer and current students only need to provide three items.
Option 2
How have your experiences affected your sense of who you are and what you hope to accomplish in college? There are no wrong answers. Transfer and current students do not need to answer this question.
Option 3
Honors students make the most of available opportunities. Based on course availability at your school, how did you select the classes you took? Is there anything you want the admissions committee to know about your transcript?
Select-A-Prompt Essay
Essays should be intellectually curious, thoughtful, well-organized, proofread, and limited to 500 words. We will evaluate the quality of your writing and your ability to provide an expansive yet focused response to one of these three prompts:
Option 1
Author Kurt Vonnegut said, “a step backward, after making a wrong turn, is a step in the right direction.” Tell us about a specific moment when you reversed course. What insights about yourself did you gain? How will you apply them to your time at KU?
Option 2
Author Octavia Butler, whose “Parable of the Sower” is this year’s KU Common Book, said that “habit is persistence in practice.” Where in your life have you shown persistence? What meaningful habits resulted, and how will your specific KU plans benefit from them?
Option 3
Part of KU’s mission is to “build healthy communities.” Share a community you’ve been part of. Thinking beyond just physical health, what did (or did not) make that community healthy? How will your college plans reflect that experience and contribute to KU’s mission?
SELF Program Short Response 2
The SELF Program’s primary goal is to develop passionate future engineering leaders in business, industry, and entrepreneurship. Keeping that in mind, tell us why you are interested in becoming a SELF Fellow and what are one or two unique contributions you believe you might make to the SELF program over the course of your involvement.
SELF Program Short Response 3
Describe one or possibly two accomplishments, or activities that you participate in, that best highlight your readiness to become a SELF Fellow. Explain how they do so.
Select-A-Prompt Essay
Essays should be intellectually curious, thoughtful, well-organized, proofread, and limited to 500 words. We will evaluate the quality of your writing and your ability to provide an expansive yet focused response to one of these three prompts:
Option 1
Author Kurt Vonnegut said, “a step backward, after making a wrong turn, is a step in the right direction.” Tell us about a specific moment when you reversed course. What insights about yourself did you gain? How will you apply them to your time at KU?
Option 2
Author Octavia Butler, whose “Parable of the Sower” is this year’s KU Common Book, said that “habit is persistence in practice.” Where in your life have you shown persistence? What meaningful habits resulted, and how will your specific KU plans benefit from them?
Option 3
Part of KU’s mission is to “build healthy communities.” Share a community you’ve been part of. Thinking beyond just physical health, what did (or did not) make that community healthy? How will your college plans reflect that experience and contribute to KU’s mission?
Select-A-Prompt Essay
Please upload your responses to all three questions as a single Word or PDF document and limit your total word count to 1,200 words combined. Convey the factors that shaped you and demonstrate skills of clarity and brevity when you answer each of these three questions:
Option 1
List no more than five items — clubs and organizations, employment, community service, awards and recognition, extra-curricular interests, personal or family obligations — in descending order of significance, with the most significant item first. For each, explain your role, time commitment, length of involvement, and responsibilities. Transfer and current students only need to provide three items.
Option 2
How have your experiences affected your sense of who you are and what you hope to accomplish in college? There are no wrong answers. Transfer and current students do not need to answer this question.
Option 3
Honors students make the most of available opportunities. Based on course availability at your school, how did you select the classes you took? Is there anything you want the admissions committee to know about your transcript?
Common App Personal Essay
The essay demonstrates your ability to write clearly and concisely on a selected topic and helps you distinguish yourself in your own voice. What do you want the readers of your application to know about you apart from courses, grades, and test scores? Choose the option that best helps you answer that question and write an essay of no more than 650 words, using the prompt to inspire and structure your response. Remember: 650 words is your limit, not your goal. Use the full range if you need it, but don‘t feel obligated to do so.
Option 1
Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
Option 2
The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
Option 3
Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
Option 4
Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?
Option 5
Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
Option 6
Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?
Option 7
Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you‘ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.
