How to Write the Vanderbilt University Essay

 Vanderbilt University Excerpt

by Sarah O'Neill, Coatesville, Supreme Editing

According to Vanderbilt admissions (via the website):


“Vanderbilt fosters an innovative living and learning environment for students to explore their passions, engage in academic research with world-renowned faculty, and build lasting connections within a diverse and dynamic student community.”


Personal essay: At this point we know what kind of student you are, how good of a test taker you are, and what types of things you have been involved in on your campus and in your community… So what else do you think we should know about you?  The personal essay is your chance to answer that question. Regardless of which prompt you select, we are looking at this portion of your application to learn more about what skills, character traits, points of view, or life experiences you would bring to the Commodore community.


In history, the types of students admitted consisted of: people who are highly research driven as it drives at the heart of producing something concrete for the university. This intellectually passionate place requires very high scores standardized-wise which means academics are important. 

INTERESTINGLY, if you look at the pattern of submitted and admitted ESSAYS for this one, it ALWAYS mixes the particular extracurricular/work with something intellectual. Take a look at this approach. Just thoughts here to subconsciously connect you + school. 


Supplemental Essay Example: 

I have always loved books like A Beautiful Mind and Fermat’s

Enigma, not only because they provide illuminating portraits of the greatest

mathematicians of our time, but also because they incite me to develop my

interest in numbers and probability. From another book, Moneyball, I

derived my inspiration to solve practical problems using mathematics. The

spirit of analysis allowed me to apply mathematics to the basketball court

and football field, discovering weaknesses in our opponents.



by Sarah O'Neill, Coatesville, Supreme Editing



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