Bucknell pushes boundaries. Bucknell University combines a liberal arts methodology with professional programs, something that almost no other college of a similar size is doing, and definitely not in as hands-on a way. Home to 3,700 undergraduate students and rooted in Lewisburg, PA (a town they describe as: “…you won’t get stuck in traffic, but you won’t run out of things to do, either.”), Bucknell has three undergraduate colleges, the College of Management, the College of Engineering, and the College of Arts & Sciences, and 65 majors. Students have access to research opportunities from day one, for example Bucknell is the only undergraduate college with a Primate Center where you can study animal behavior, and the acceptance rate is 32.6%.
Bucknell prioritizes adventurousness in their students, and looks for applicants who will explore beyond the confines of a singular subject or area of focus. It makes sense, then, that they are also test-optional, so applicants can choose whether to submit their SAT or ACT test scores. We recommend students only submit their scores if they are really good, as it’d be worse for your application to stand out for having low scores attached to it than no scores attached to at all. Regardless of whether you submit test scores, though, you’ll have to do the Bucknell supplement. We break it down below to give you a leg up.
If you interested in combining a liberal arts education with the resources of a research university, send us an email. Bucknell may be your perfect fit.
As you approach your Bucknell application, you need to be really careful and specific with your application to ensure that you end up where you want to be, and that you will have the options that you want to have access to as a student at Bucknell. There are three colleges for undergraduates, The College of Arts & Sciences, College of Engineering, College of Management, and transferring between the schools is extremely rare at best and not an option at all in most situations. So, you must apply to the undergraduate college you want to attend. You cannot do an internal transfer into the College of Management, which grants a BS in Business Administration, and very few students internally transfer into the College of Engineering each year. Basically, think hard about where within Bucknell you are applying because it really matters.
Despite all of these details, the supplement is the same regardless of which college you apply to — and there is only one question.
Please explain your interest in your first-choice major/undecided status and your second-choice major (should you opt to list one) and why you would choose Bucknell University to pursue your interest(s). (250 words maximum)
How you answer this supplement will differ depending on if you are expressing interest in one or two majors, as the amount of room you have to play with outside of explicitly stating what you want to study will change based on whether you are talking about one potential course of study, or two. And how much room you have impacts everything because word counts rule the world when it comes to supplements, but we’ve got your back!
Whether you are going to share one or two majors, you will need to explain what it is about Bucknell that you’re attracted to. They want to know about how Bucknell meshes with your academic interests, not whether you like the landscaping on campus. So, start by gaining a deep understanding of the Bucknell academic program, and the core ideologies that that ground their program. For example, the idea of “guided discovery” is central to how Bucknell works, and the “writing across the curriculum” program prioritizes the written word regardless of course of study. There are also extensive undergraduate research opportunities available to students from nearly day one.
Once you’ve identified what it is about the big picture of Bucknell’s academic program that you’re excited about, it’s time to get specific.
If you are only listing one major, identify the major, two classes, and one professor and why you’d like to study under them.
If you are listing two majors, identify one class per major and one professor per major. Ideally, these majors should be related to each other so that what you share outside of these details makes sense, and one of the majors doesn’t appear to be floating in mid-air without context or framing.
Now that you have what you like about Bucknell academically and the details on what you want to study, you need to wrap all this information up in a story that illustrates a commonality between how you think and study — and what you care about — and what Bucknell prioritizes.
This story could have taken place in a classroom, in a summer program, our outside of school altogether. What really matters is that it both relates to what you are spotlighting about Bucknell overall and what you are hoping to pursue academically.
Structure the supplement with the story as intro, then details on Bucknell’s academic program, and then what you want to study, before circling back to that introductory story.
If you are applying to Bucknell, chances are that you’re a driven self-starter who wants to be surrounded by other high-performing students. We love that for you, and want to help you get in.
If Bucknell sounds like it might be your dream school, send us an email. We help students get into the best colleges in the country.