Lafayette College is a small private liberal arts school in Easton, Pennsylvania. Lafayette is known for its strong academics, emphasis on study abroad, and a storied football rivalry with nearby Lehigh University. If you’re interested in a small school experience — Lafayette has 2,610 students — but don’t want to miss out on some seriously exciting games, Lafayette may be a perfect fit. The acceptance rate is about 28%
Lafayette has two supplemental questions, but both are embedded in the general questions section — not in a designated supplement section. This underlines the importance of looking through every piece of each application, rather than putting the colleges without distinct supplements off until the last minute.
There’s a difference between being busy and being engaged. Lafayette comes alive each day with the energy of students who are deeply engaged in their academic, co-curricular and extracurricular explorations. In response to the prompt below, keep it simple – choose one activity and add depth to our understanding of your involvement.
What do you do? Why do you do it? (20-200 words). The response to this question is optional.
When we read this question, we shout an uproarious “BOOM!” Not out loud, because that would be weird. But we really love how Lafayette’s admissions team chose to go with a twist on the typical “tell us about one of your activities,” prompt. Before we go into how to structure your answer, though, it’s important to emphasize that this is not actually optional. It says it is, and you could leave it blank, but that would be a very silly idea so please don’t do it.
Now back to the question.
“There’s a difference between being busy and being engaged.” This tells you what they are looking for in your answer: long-term deep engagement and genuine commitment to an activity, whether it is academic, athletic, artistic, or a form of employment. Once you have picked the right activity, you need to address the ‘why.’ The ‘why’ is critical. If your parents signed you up for an activity and you didn’t want to go at all, but you fell in love with it and never stopped, that’s perfectly ok. If your parents are still forcing you to do it and you’d rather quit, that’s not as awesome. There needs to be passion driving your commitment to the activity you choose to focus on. Pragmatism is great, but passion isn’t always cut and dry. It’s ok and good to bring emotion in here. There should be a fire in your belly, and the application reader needs to feel it.
Students identify Lafayette as an excellent fit for countless reasons. In your response, be deliberate and specific about your motivation for applying to Lafayette.
Why Lafayette? (20-200 words)
There is not a ton of space in this prompt to say everything we are going to tell you to stay, so you’ll need to be clear and concise. When answering a question like this, there are some questions within the question that you need to keep in mind. What do you plan on majoring in? What professor are you most excited about studying under? What are one or two classes you’d like to take? Do you have an idea of something you’d like to minor in? And what is an extracurricular you’d love to be involved with?
At the same time, you need to tie your story to the Lafayette story — the academic experience and the collegiate community.
And the end of each supplement, the reader should see you at the college already. It should feel like you are a match made in higher education heaven. If you do a good job communicating why Lafayette is right for you, you’ll ace it.
Feeling stressed? Drop us a line. We’re here to help students find their perfect-fit schools, and then get in.