Bryn Mawr College is one of the seven sisters colleges, an elite group of women’s liberal arts colleges. The school used to be Quaker, however, is now not religious. You do need to be a woman to apply to Bryn Mawr. In recent years, they have become more inclusive. They started accepting trans women and intersex individuals in 2015. They are part of the Tri-College and Quaker Consortiums, partnerships that allow Bryn Mawr students to take classes at Haverford, Swarthmore, and The University of Pennsylvania. They tend to have an acceptance rate in the mid-high 30s, however, they have not published one recently.
Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences in the space below. (Minimum 50 words, Maximum 100 words) *
Don’t overthink this, just tell a story about one of your extracurriculars. The rule of thumb is to choose one that’s important to you. If you are not sure, choose an activity that you hold a leadership position in or spend a lot of time doing. Once you select an activity, tell a short story about a moment you are proud of. Maybe it was pitching an idea at your internship, maybe it was rallying the volleyball team after a bad loss. Just explain what happened and do it fast, there are not a lot of words here.
As you prepare to join a new college community, reflect on your role as a community member throughout the past four years. What legacy do you hope to leave behind?*
Something to note with this question there isn’t a word count. This is because they ask you to upload it as a document. We generally find it annoying when questions don’t have word counts. Mostly because it can cause some anxiety in students when they think, “how much should I write?” Our advice, give yourself a 500-word limit. This should be long enough to explain yourself, but not long enough for the reader to find your essay a chore to read. That being said, if you end up with like 510 words, don’t beat yourself up. But if you end up with 1000 words, like maybe do some edits.
That being said, this essay shouldn’t be that hard. You should think about the communities you are a part of. Sometimes our students think that a “community” needs to be a religious or ethnic community, but a community can be anything. It can be a sports team, a group of friends, a family unit, a club, etc. Once you have chosen the community you want to talk about, tell a story that is meaningful to you. The story should show what you have given to your community and that gift is the basis for your legacy.
If you wish to submit your résumé, you may upload it here. (Optional)
While this is optional, we suggest you do it. You are going to be asked for a resume over and over again while applying for college. If you don’t have one make one. If you don’t know where to start, we got you, check out our guide to resumes here. And please please please, keep it to one page. CEOs keep it to one page, you are 17, you can too.
Why are you interested in Bryn Mawr?* (250 words)
We see this question all the time. So often, we have a bit of a formula. You can read it in depth here, but let’s go over it quickly. The first thing you need to do is introduce an academic passion of yours that relates to your intended major with a short personal story. For example, if you want to study Creative Writing, maybe your story is about writing a short story and getting it published in the local paper. After you have told your story, relate it to your academic passion and say how you want to study it at Bryn Mawr.
Once you have stated your major, back up your interests with specifics of the program at Bryn Mawr. You should include 2 higher-level classes and a professor you want to work/do research with and why. You can also mention anything particularly interesting to you academically at Bryn Mawr (think honors, specific opportunities, concentrations, etc.) The majority of this essay should be academic so really get into what is exciting to you about Bryn Mawr academically.
After you have explored academics, talk about an extracurricular on-campus opportunity that you want to get involved in. We suggest naming a club that connects to something that you already pursue. For example, if you are on your high school’s debate team, you could talk about joining Bryn Mawr’s Speach and Debate Club or their Mock Trial team. If you choose something that connects to what you already do, you have an opportunity to talk about yourself which is always a good thing in these essays.
If you have time, you can also speak to traditions, the location, the consortium status, etc. However, maybe the best thing to bring up if you have time is why you are excited to go to a Women’s College (specifically Bryn Mawr.) You don’t need a formal conclusion, but you should leave the reader with the idea that Bryn Mawr is the best school for you and that you would be an asset to Bryn Mawr.
Bryn Mawr’s application isn’t tricky, but it is a little long. Make sure you give yourself time to answer all of their questions. This is not a supplement that is going to go well if you try to do it the night before. Really, no supplement will, but maybe that’s beside the point.
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