Washington University in St. Louis is a private research school located in—you guessed it—St. Louis, Missouri. WashU The acceptance rate for the class of 2025 was 13% and the total undergrad population is about 7,700. WashU is a competitive school known for its research opportunities, business school, and pre-med program, among others. Here are some tips:
Please tell us what you are interested in studying at WashU and why. (200)
This prompt can be read another way: “Why WashU?” We always advise our high school students to develop an academic area of expertise throughout their four years. This should be something highly specific for example, entrepreneurship or computer science. In this prompt, draw the connection between your academic area of expertise from high school and what WashU has to offer. Identify the major or program that most closely aligns with your academic niche. Talk about the upper-level classes you’d be most interested in taking and also bring up the most relevant extracurriculars. Finally, write a conclusion in which you mention the location.
Then, WashU has a number of program-specific supplements.
Danforth Scholars Program
1. The Danforth Scholars Program is looking for students with a strong commitment to community and demonstrated initiative in leadership and service. Please share an example of your personal experience as a leader that would clarify why you would be a good fit for this community of scholars. (Maximum 150 words)
150 words is not very many. We recommend first identifying the best example you have that shows your leadership or problem-solving abilities. We also recommend that you think small. 150 words is so few that you don’t have time to go into detail. Tell a story with a beginning, middle, and end. Try not to regurgitate something that’s already present elsewhere on your application (like your resume). If it is already somewhere else, make sure to expand.
2. Write an essay on the following: What matters to you? (Maximum 250 words)
This one gives you a bit more room and is very similar to Stanford. Start off by making a list of all of the things that matter to you. We’re looking for broad concepts like “family and community” and smaller things like “lemons and mulitple kinds of salt in the kitchen.” You can go one of two routes in this essay: you can write about one thing or you can write about many things. We usually air on the side of being lighter in essays, which means we’d write about a lot of things. This can be a serious response or a playful one, but it should demonstrate your personality and who you are.
Ervin Scholars Program
1. The Ervin Scholars Program is open to only U.S. Citizens, permanent residents, and undocumented or DACA students living in the U.S. Describe a high school or community activity in which you have taken initiative. What were the challenges and outcomes? What did you learn? (Maximum 150 words)
This is not dissimilar from the Danforth essay above, so our same advice applies: go small. Our only main tip is that we recommend refraining from breaking this into three parts. Instead, you should tell a story (again, with a beginning, middle, and end) about a time in which you took control and things went well.
2. Review the biography of Dr. John B. Ervin and the four Program Pillars. How have you demonstrated your commitment to the ideals of the Program? Please provide 1-2 specific examples. (Maximum 250 words)
No tricks here. Read about the Four Pillars and pick 1-2 examples. Make sure you tell a story in your response and have it be as specific as you can.
Rodriguez Scholars Program
1. Describe a high school or community activity in which you have taken initiative. What were the challenges and outcomes? What did you learn? (Maximum 150 words)
This one is also the same as the others above, just rephrased. Take another crack at it with a story. Again, don’t just break this up into three parts. Tell a story that implicitly answers all the questions posed here.
A note to colleges: when kids see multiple question marks, they think multiple paragraphs. We know you don’t want to read an essay that ends with “From this experience I learned…” so if possible, please try to write better questions.
2. Consider the biography of Annika Rodriguez and reflect upon your commitment to bringing diverse groups together and/or celebrating the cultures of diverse peoples. How do you demonstrate this commitment? How do your service activities demonstrate your dedication to the ideals embraced by the Rodriguez Scholars Program? (Maximum 250 words)
Here we recommend you tell a story about a time you brought people together. You have a lot of space so set the scene. Where were you and who were you with? Let the story be specific and make sure it includes a beginning, middle, and end.
The WashU supplement can be long and complicated if you’re applying to any of the given programs. If not, it’s short and to the point, which is sometimes even scarier. You need to get who you are across to WashU if you want to be part of the small 13% who get accepted. Follow our steps and you’ll be successful.
Need help with a scholarship essay? Call us. We’re great at helping students write excellent essays.