University of Kansas
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University of Kansas’s 2024-25 Essay Prompts
SELF Engineering Leadership Fellows Essay
The mission of the Madison (Al) and Lila Self Engineering Leadership Program is to develop passionate engineering and computer science graduates who are strongly goal-oriented and who bring the business skills and vision needed to guide the technology-based corporations of tomorrow. Describe how your personal vision aligns with the mission of the SELF Program.
SELF Engineering Leadership Fellows Short Response 1
Leadership, entrepreneurship and business are three points of emphasis for the SELF Program. Choose one of these and discuss specific actions that you might take and how you see yourself growing in this area during your time in the SELF Program and beyond.
SELF Engineering Leadership Fellows Short Response 2
Discuss an activity you are currently involved in and explain how it helped you realize that you wanted to pursue opportunities such as those offered by the SELF Program.
Select-A-Prompt Essay
Essays should be intellectually curious, thoughtful, well-organized, proofread, and limited to 500 words. We will evaluate the quality of your writing and your ability to provide an expansive yet focused response to one of these three prompts:
Option 1
Physicist Albert Einstein said: “It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.” Drawing from your formal and informal educational experiences, assess the truth of Einstein’s statement, then discuss how you plan to nurture your curiosity at KU and in the honors program.
Option 2
KU graduate and NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara shared that seeing the planet from the International Space Station gave her “a sense of urgency to come back down to Earth and play a part in making it better.” What plans for college and beyond do you have for making our planet or society better? How have your experiences and background helped to ignite these aspirations?
Option 3
The University Honors Program highly values interdisciplinarity. Tell us about two of your contrasting academic interests or passions and the ways they interact. How do you plan to continue exploring and interweaving them at KU as a member of the honors program?
Select-A-Prompt Essay
Please upload your responses to all three questions as a single Word or PDF document and limit your total word count to 1,200 words combined. Convey the factors that shaped you and demonstrate skills of clarity and brevity when you answer each of these three questions:
Option 1
List no more than five items — clubs and organizations, employment, community service, awards and recognition, extra-curricular interests, personal or family obligations — in descending order of significance, with the most significant item first. For each, explain your role, time commitment, length of involvement, and responsibilities.
Option 2
How have your experiences affected your sense of who you are and what you hope to accomplish in college? There are no wrong answers.
Option 3
Honors students make the most of available opportunities. Based on course availability at your school, how did you select the classes you took? Is there anything you want the admissions committee to know about your transcript?
