Brandeis is a private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts. About 3,600 undergraduate students attend the Boston adjacent school that is known for its strong liberal arts program and attracting students who are interested in social justice work. The acceptance rate hovers around 30%. Their supplement is broken down below:
Please include a short response to one of the three prompts below (250 words or fewer).
Why would you like to attend Brandeis?
If you’ve been working on your supplements for a while, you might be getting sick of this question. Whatever you do, don’t copy and paste your response from another school. Brandeis will know, right away, that you’re applying on a whim and didn’t spend any time on your supplement. Your response should include the following:
1-2 sentences that explain your academic interest
Your intended major at Brandeis
1-2 upper-level classes you’d like to take and why
A professor you’d like to work with and why
An extracurricular activity
But wait, it’s not that simple. Read over everything that you’ve gathered. Then, double-check that your classes are not entry-level (those are not Brandeis specific) and go over your reasoning for everything. The facts are the facts, and your “whys” are your opportunity to humblebrag and pitch yourself as the best-matched student Brandeis could ever dream of.
There has to be a narrative flow to your response. You can achieve this by relying on details about your past experiences to show how you’ll be contributing to the community at Brandeis. Yes, you’re going to college to learn. But they’re also looking for passionate students who are already digging into their interests, those who will bring energy and enthusiasm to campus. If you visited campus, you can include that here but it should not be the primary lens through which you tell your story. Go back to that time when you decided what you want to study, and write down everything you’ve done that is related to your desire to major in X. From there, craft a story with a beginning, middle, and end. This long-standing prompt can work for you as long as you ensure that you’re checking off every box.
Justice Brandeis once said, “if we would guide by the light of reason, we must let our minds be bold.” Tell us about something bold that you’ve recently done.
Petition to stop starting prompts with quotes! “Tell us something bold that you’ve recently done” would have worked just fine.
This is actually a great question because of its range. There are a lot of things that are bold. One of our writers just swapped out chicken for salmon in a secret family recipe, which is bold. If you organized a protest in your hometown, that is not particularly fond of demonstrations, that is definitely Bold. See? You can take this one in so many directions.
We are defining bold as anything that disrupted a system, big or small. One word of caution – if you’re going to write about something big, make sure that you actually had some sort of role. The protest example works because the fictitious person organized the protest. Simply going to a protest? Not very bold.
This question might seem overwhelming. Think hard. It is not easy to get into Brandeis, so you have to take risks. If you can’t already tell, this is our favorite option from this set of three prompts.
There are approximately 171,476 words in the English dictionary. Pick your favorite and tell us why you picked it.
Unless you’re really drawn to this prompt, don’t do it. We would also be remiss not to mention that UVA has been using this prompt for at least two years. Give credit!
The thing with this prompt is that choosing a word is actually a slightly fun exercise. But attaching a meaningful essay to that prompt is no easy feat. If you must move forward with this one, put down the SAT flashcards. Humor is probably your best bet, but humor writing is difficult. Don’t throw away a chance to explain another side of your personality in a potentially failed attempt to be funny.
Whatever prompt you choose, make sure that you edit it multiple times. Think about the qualities you want to show Brandeis and craft meaningful responses from there.
We know how stressful this process can be. Contact us here if you need help.