The University of Richmond is a private liberal arts school in Richmond, Virginia. It’s on a suburban campus with about 3,200 undergrads, most of whom live on campus. The school emphasizes research for its student body and while it’s small, it’s a Division I school. The acceptance rate is 28%. Below are some tips for diving into the supplement:
Please select one of the following prompts to address (350-650 words)
Tell us about the most unusual talent you have, and how you have made it useful.
This is a fun one and a good opportunity to flesh out a part of your personality not present elsewhere in your application. We like that. It will make you more three-dimensional to an admissions staff whose only way to get to know is on a piece of paper. Use this as an opportunity to tell a story with a beginning, middle, and end. It shouldn’t be something big and life-altering. It can be a very simple (funny, if possible) story about a really specific, unusual, and hopefully kinda weird talent you have.
Spiders are essential to the ecosystem. How are you essential to your community or will you be essential in your university community?
We like to help our students develop an academic niche over the course of high school. We highly recommend positioning yourself as an expert in something very specific. Use this as an opportunity to connect the dots between you and Richmond and talk about how Richmond is the best place for you to further develop your academic area of expertise. Start out by talking about the origin story of your academic area. This shouldn’t be a big deal existential story. It can be as simple as you did a report on a particular subject (for example, Chinese Studies) in 8th grade and got hooked. Use this as the vehicle to explain how you’ve been essential to your community visa-vis-academics. Don’t repeat things that are already present on your resume. Talk about a report or project you did alongside a teacher in that subject matter, for example. Then talk about how you intend to build upon that expertise at Richmond. Identify the upper-level courses in a particular major you intend to take or research from a particular professor you’d like to help with. Then, discuss the relevant extracurriculars.
Please share one idea for actions or policies that you think would begin to address an issue of racial or social injustice.
While social and racial justice are incredibly important themes (that are also important to this school nestled in the heart of the former Confederacy) …we don’t recommend choosing this one. The point of the supplement is to allow a school to get to know a part of your personality and your academic pursuits. We hope that your academic and personal pursuits in life incorporate a commitment to making a difference, but that might be challenging to get into in 350-650 words. Often, students will just end up pontificating in response to prompts like these. If you must choose this one, get really specific. Pick a particular policy issue, like housing discrimination and talk about one very specific response to this facet of systemic racism or social injustice.
Need help with your supplement? Reach out to us. We’re great at helping students develop standout essays.