Emory University has released its supplemental essay prompts for the 2024-2025 admissions cycle. In addition to The Common Application’s Personal Statement, applicants to Emory’s Class of 2029 are asked to respond to two short-answer essay prompts: one of 200 words and a second of 150 words. So, what are this year’s prompts? Let’s dive in!

2024-2025 Emory Essay Topics and Questions

Academic Interests Essay Prompt

It’s recommended that students write about 200 words to respond to the first prompt, which is required:

What academic areas are you interested in exploring at Emory University and why?

This prompt is a hybrid question: Why Major and Why College. For the first part of the essay prompt, it would behoove applicants to articulate to Emory’s admissions committee why they wish to study what they wish to study by sharing the origin story of their interest in this discipline. The origin story should always take place during a candidate’s high school years. Too often, students focus on stories that stem from their childhood.

For the second part of the essay prompt, it’s all about capturing specifics about why Emory is the place to pursue this course of study. Too many applicants choose to name-drop professors and list classes in Why College essay prompts when they should instead capture the enduring specifics of a course of study at a school — the research, the programs and institutes, the design of the curriculum, and more. If a sentence in this second half of the essay can apply to another school, it should be deleted.

Getting to Know You Essay Prompts

Applicants must also write a response to one of the following four essay prompts in a recommended length of 150 words. Last year, there were six essay prompts to choose from, but these four were among them (with some slight word changes).

1. Which book, character, song, monologue, or piece of work (fiction or non-fiction) seems made for you? Why?

We would always prefer students showcase their intellectual curiosity in a short answer like this one. As such, choosing to write about a book (one that ideally is not required reading in classrooms around the world) is always preferred to choosing a song, film, or television series. Wouldn’t it be nice to showcase to Emory’s admissions committee that an applicant reads for pleasure?

2. Reflect on a personal experience where you intentionally expanded your cultural awareness.

Emory’s admissions committee wants to see that applicants have convictions but are also malleable to changing those convictions when presented with differing viewpoints. That’s the beauty of attending a school with a liberal arts curriculum and a diverse student body like Emory. The anecdote an applicant shares in this response should thus showcase the student’s intellectual curiosity as well as open mind.

3. Emory University’s core mission calls for service to humanity. Share how you might personally contribute to this mission.

Too many college applicants feature activities in their Common Application activities section that make it seem like they’re trying to impress admissions officers with what good citizens they are. Too many college applicants think that by volunteering for a lot of hours, it’ll showcase their humanity. But that’s simply not how elite college admissions works. Admissions officers want to see a depth of involvement related to a student’s hook. If a student is interested in political science, let’s see how they serve their community by addressing unlevel sidewalks on the streets of their town.

In short, in this answer, it would behoove applicants to tell a small story here — ideally backed up with an activity in their activities section — that shows how they’re acting locally, even if they are thinking globally. 

4. Emory University has a strong commitment to building community. Tell us about a community that you have been part of where your participation helped to change or shape the community for the better.

Here’s Emory’s community essay. In the wake of the United States Supreme Court ruling outlawing Affirmative Action, many universities included community or background questions on this year’s application — to capitalize on the loophole Chief Justice John Roberts penned in the majority opinion.

In that opinion, Chief Justice Roberts wrote, “Nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.”

Students need not be underrepresented minorities to answer this essay prompt. They can instead focus on their faith, hometown, fellow mathematicians, or just about anything so long as they showcase small moves they made to make these groups they consider community stronger.

Ivy Coach’s Assistance with Emory Essays

If you’re interested in optimizing your case for admission to Emory, complete Ivy Coach’s free consultation form, and we’ll be in touch to outline our college counseling services for applicants to the Class of 2029.