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How to Write the Lafayette College Essay 2024-2025
Lafayette College, located in the College Hill neighborhood of Easton, Pennsylvania, provides the classic northeastern liberal arts experience. With a curriculum that promotes a broad base of knowledge, Lafayette teaches students to approach problems from various perspectives, strengthening their critical thinking skills.
Writing effective supplements will be crucial to impressing admissions officers and securing your spot. Read on for all the best tips and tricks for crafting a successful supplemental essay that will ensure you stand out from the crowd.
Read this Lafayette essay example written by a real student to inspire your own writing!
Lafayette College Supplemental Essay Prompt
Why lafayette (20-200 words).
Ah, the classic “why this college” supplement . With prompts like these, the key is to identify specific offerings on Lafayette’s campus that speak to your unique interests and aptitudes. Make sure to mention several logistical characteristics, professors, courses, extracurriculars, etc. and relate them directly to your personal goals.
Perhaps you want to conduct research through Lafayette’s EXCEL Scholars program, which will connect you with a professor so you can find STEM mentorship and engage with original scientific literature. Maybe you want to join the Lafayette College Democrats in preparation for your political career. Whatever your passion, the key to this part of answering the prompt is thorough research. Don’t speak about academic offerings in broad terms or name drop professors for the sake of it. Rather, figure out what is unique to Lafayette’s programming, and tie it back to your own goals and interests. For example:
“I want to attend Lafayette because they have a good biology department, and I’m really interested in the more scientific aspects of medicine.”
This is not a good response because it says little to nothing about Lafayette’s actual biology department. While it tells admissions readers a bit about you, it doesn’t indicate that you actually cared enough about the school to look deeply into their offerings. Instead, try something like:
“I look forward to taking BIOL 110 on Edible Ethics, where I will not only explore the science behind food production and consumption, but also the ethical issues surrounding these fields. As an environmentalist and anti-food waste advocate, I hope to gain knowledge from this course that will allow me to engage in concrete change.”
This is better because it shows not only that you’ve looked into Lafayette’s offerings, but also that you’ve thought about how that relates to your interests and drawn a clear connection between the two. Additionally, this provides more specificity and substance. You should strive to be as detailed as you can within the word count while also covering all bases that serve as reasons behind your applying to Lafayette. In a situation like this, word count is currency, and you’ll have to spend carefully.
The more you’ve delved into Lafayette’s offerings, the broader of a base you’ll be able to pull from when answering this question. Admissions officers will be able to tell that you’ve done your research, so you’d better get to work sleuthing around the website! Beyond that, as long as your response answers all the requisite components of the question, and it does so with clarity and detail, you’ll be in good shape with this prompt.
Where to Get Your Lafayette Essay Edited For Free
Do you want feedback on your Lafayette essay? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays.
Need feedback faster? Get a free, nearly-instantaneous essay review from Sage, our AI tutor and advisor. Sage will rate your essay, give you suggestions for improvement, and summarize what admissions officers would take away from your writing. Use these tools to improve your chances of acceptance to your dream school!
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Lafayette College’s 2023-24 Essay Prompts
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.
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.
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?
Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
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?
Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
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?
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.
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