Here's an example of the NYU supplemental essay!


The essay question might say “Why NYU?” but the admissions office is really asking “Why should we admit you?”. Keep this in mind when you formulate your response and make sure your essay highlights individual qualities that fit NYU.
After all, the NYU essay prompt asks “What motivated you to apply to NYU?”, and not “What motivated you to apply to college in New York City?”. A solid strategy in approaching this NYU supplemental essay, then, is to center your essay around NYU. This might seem obvious. However, you’d be surprised how many students realize after the fact that their completed NYU essay revolves around the city of the school and not the school itself. To recap, the NYU application essay you submit should be thoroughly researched. After familiarizing yourself with NYU’s and , you should include specific details related to your program of interest in your “Why NYU” essay. If it’s relevant to your essay you may also want to write about specific NYU and . Completing the NYU supplemental essay can seem daunting, but don’t let the NYU essay prompt discourage you from applying. At the end of the day, the NYU essay prompt is not intended to trip you up. Rather, view the NYU application essay as an opportunity to further introduce yourself to the admissions team. Use this NYU supplemental essay guide to help you approach the NYU application essay with confidence. Before and during your NYU essay writing process, make sure to spend some time reading over our “Why NYU” essay examples. Use the feedback from former admissions officers included with each NYU essay as guiding criticism for your own draft. While your experiences are going to be different than what is outlined in the “Why NYU” essay examples, your reasons for wanting to attend NYU should be just as clear as you read in the sample essay. Your NYU supplemental essay should be written in your own voice. Instead of trying to sound impressive or academic, just prioritize sounding like yourself. With that being said, there’s no room for curse words or other inappropriate languages in your college admissions essays. #2: Read through the course catalog and look up professors in departments you're interested in. As the , you don't have to go overboard in stating exactly what course you want to take with what professor at what time, but you should demonstrate that you're aware of what kinds of things you will be able to do and learn while at NYU

Essay Example 2: Diversity at NYU

#5: Remember that while you should make it clear why you want to attend NYU with your essay, you don't need to agonize for hours over it. Ultimately, other parts of your application (including your test scores and grades/course rigor, letters of recommendation, and personal statement) are more important factors to your acceptance than your NYU supplement essay is. You just need to show that you've done at least a little research into NYU and why you want to apply there in particular.

Essay Example 3: “NYU is creative and determined”

Every student can benefit from , especially if their goal is to gain admission to a school as competitive as NYU. If you’re interested in learning how to take your NYU supplement application essay to the next level, our team is here to help.

Why To Submit the Optional NYU Essay

For example, if your extracurriculars deal with creative writing and your high school courses are mainly in literature, picking a STEM major, simply to impress the admissions committee will likely raise red flags. In cases like this, you may want to talk about the ways that an NYU education will help you find your academic area of focus. Your “why” may not be as clear, but you can still write a successful “Why NYU” essay that focuses on what draws you to the unique community at NYU.

How To Answer the 24/25 NYU Supplemental

Overall, this writer creates a descriptive, if somewhat haphazard, narrative that successfully demonstrates to the NYU admissions committee why they would be an excellent fit for the school.

Hence, your ‘Why NYU?’ essay’s flow should be like:

Show and name your values. At the start of the second paragraph, we understand that this individual is committed to restorative justice. In your essay, lean heavy into the values that underlie your efforts. Peep this to identify what’s most important to you—one of the best ways you can tell NYU about yourself.

Ready to write your NYU supplemental essays? Today, we’ll cover:

In the 2023-24 admissions cycle, NYU received nearly 120,000 applications. That was a record-breaking figure for the university, as was the all-time low acceptance rate of 8%. To put these numbers in proper context, consider for a moment that in 1991, NYU had an acceptance rate of 65%. At the start of the Obama presidency, NYU still only received 37,000 total applications. These numbers lead us to the topic of this blog, the NYU supplemental essay.