Guide to Intellectual Engagement College Admissions Essays Sarah O'Neill Chester County Coatesville Supreme Editing

 Sarah O’Neill Chester County Coatesville Supreme Editing

Tell us about your engagement with a topic that excites you.

This is the place to show off your love of learning! Schools might ask about your interest in a specific subject, but they might also ask more generally about how you learn about the things that interest you.

Example Prompts

Yale’s extensive course offerings and vibrant conversations beyond the
classroom encourage students to follow their developing intellectual interests wherever they lead. Tell us about your engagement with a topic or idea that excites you. Why are you drawn to it? — Yale University

The Stanford community is deeply curious and driven to learn in and out of the classroom. Reflect on an idea or experience that makes you genuinely excited about learning. — Stanford University

What They’re Actually Asking

● What interests you and why?
● How do you learn new things?
● What kind of student are you inside of the classroom? Outside of the classroom?
● Are you motivated to read and learn new things outside of class?
● Do your interests relate to your future career? If so, how?

Example Essay

I never expected to become a tortoise expert, but over the past two years, I’ve learned everything from dual breeding seasons to shell scute identification. As an aspiring environmental scientist, I had my first up-close-and-personal experience through volunteering at the SWFL Conservancy Wildlife Hospital. At the Conservancy, I nursed baby animals, learned about their natural diets, and handled their tortoises,
which had to be monitored during their afternoon grazing time.

After my experience with the Conservancy, I was hooked. During the pandemic, I called twenty different local environmental science organizations in search of a summer
internship. Finally, I struck gold with the researchers at the Naples Preserve: alongside researcher Becky Speer, I collected, weighed and examined Florida Gopher Tortoises in order to monitor the health of local populations.

Nowadays, I consider myself a defender of the natural world. I’ve started
attending community planning meetings in my town; I can’t vote or speak at meetings as a 17-year-old student, but I’ve witnessed Collier County council members abandon conservation efforts in the name of capitalism. I also began volunteering at the Rookery Bay Environmental Learning Center, feeding native fish, answering questions, and educating
visitors.

Now, when I walk around the Everglades, I instinctively plead and weed out invasive Rosary Pea seeds and identify active tortoise burrows. In the meantime, I will be returning the favor to the tortoises who started it all, fighting for the preservation of their habitats in this fast-changing world.

What Should I Write About?

First, think about what interests you. Some ways to explore this:
- What do you learn about in your free time?
- What are your hobbies or interests?
- If you could be an expert in one topic, what topic would that be?
- What topics do you find yourself teaching others about?
- Have you ever gotten very invested in a school assignment? On which topic? You should pick a topic that you’re significantly invested and intellectually engaged in.

Some examples of intellectual engagement:

- Reading books or articles, watching documentaries, listening to podcasts
- Getting involved in related clubs, communities or volunteer groups
- Conducting, or participating in, research
- Being an active participant in relevant class discussions
- Taking electives or additional classes
- Working on independent projects
- Related hobbies or interests
- Entering competitions
- Teaching others

For example, a student who loves marine biology could talk about their love of nature documentaries, their experience volunteering at their local aquarium, and their experience tutoring local middle school students in biology. A note Intellectual engagement prompts often have a lot of overlap with “why major” prompts, and you may be able to adapt essays from one prompt to the other. The “Why Major” essay guide and its examples may also be useful to you as you write essays for intellectual engagement prompts.

Brainstorming

1. Which things do you spend your time learning about? For most prompts, these can be academic or non-academic topics. List at least 10 (yes… 10!) of your areas of interest, and get specific.

- classical music
- physics
- robotics
- fountain pens
- evolutionary biology

- gardening
- dinosaurs / natural history
- game design
- ballroom dance
- tabletop roleplaying games

2. Pick the topic you have the most to say about, the topic most relevant to your application, or your most interesting, specific, unique, or unusual topic. (I think that all of the topics listed as examples above could make for interesting essays!)

3. List the ways in which you engage with or learn about this topic.

tabletop roleplaying games

- I watch YouTube videos on how to improve as a Dungeon Master
- I’ve read 3 books on game design in the past year
- I took an acting class to improve my character voices
- I got advice from my creative writing teacher on how to construct a
long-form story campaign
- I run a Dungeons and Dragons game for middle school students at my
local library as an after school volunteer activity
- I sent out surveys to my players asking for feedback on my performance
as a Dungeon Master

4. Think about an experience that made you genuinely excited about this topic. This can be the first time you became interested in this topic, or it can be another important experience.

Running the conclusion to a two-year Dungeons & Dragons campaign, and
successfully impressing my players with a twist villain reveal!

5. Why does this topic interest you?

I love the combination of acting, creative writing, and game design. It’s an
opportunity for me to create my own world and expand my creative horizons.

6. Do you want to continue learning about or exploring this topic in the future? In college? If so, how?

Though I don’t plan on Dungeons and Dragons being part of my professional life, it’s made me interested in game design as a career. I would be interested in studying game design as a minor in college.

Example Outline

Part 1: Introduce your topic. One great way to get into this is to describe how you first became interested in the topic, or to start with a scene related to your experience with the topic.

I’ve always had a keen interest in reading and writing. Last year, I read many novels in English class that caused me to think deeply, including The
Handmaid’s Tale, Woman Warrior and The Chronicle of Death Foretold. As I read, I felt deeply empathetic to the changing fates of the women in the novels, and the books gave me a lot of food for thought about the statuses and rights of women.

Part 2: Tell us how you’ve engaged with or learned about the topic. Why is this topic important or interesting to you?

For my final English 11 assignment, I wrote a paper on the similarities and differences between the status of women in The Handmaid’s Tale and the status of women in Woman Warrior. This gave me an opportunity to think deeply about how the status of women has changed over time, in different places and in different cultures. The discussions I had in class helped me discover what I know now is only the tip of the iceberg of the feminist movement. Inspired by what I had learned in class, I started seeking out more books about feminism, finding new favorite authors like Chizuko Ueno and Raewyn Connell. With the help of these books, I gained a more systematic understanding of the feminist movement. The rights we have now were not easily given to us, but were the result of many women’s conscientious thoughts and lifelong efforts.

Part 3: Talk about how you currently involve yourself in the topic and how you will continue exploring the topic in the future. Impressed by the spirit of one feminist predecessor after another, I wanted to make my own contributions.

As a victim who has experienced domestic violence, I created a video about the subject, using drawings to relay a personal narrative. I hope that through my efforts more people will pay attention to this issue. Additionally, I founded a school club with my friends called the Domestic Violence Awareness Club, holding meetings every week to discuss international feminist issues. We give speeches and presentations during school meetings on topics like healthy relationships and female activists, and we successfully raised more than a thousand dollars to donate to the public benefit organization One Love. Although our actions may seem insignificant, I believe these seemingly small activities can lead us to a future we want.

Thank you for Reading!

Sarah O’Neill Chester County Teacher Coatesville Supreme Editing