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Writing the Why NYU Essay

College Essays

If you're applying to New York University, you'll need to submit both the regular Common App materials as well as the NYU supplement, which includes a short essay. At its heart, the NYU essay prompt asks you to answer a single straightforward question: why do you want to go to NYU?

In this article, we'll fully analyze the "Why NYU?" essay prompt and what successful essays need to accomplish. We'll also go over potential topics to write about and look at the essay that got me into NYU's College of Arts and Science.

First, however, we'll begin with a quick discussion of why schools ask students to write "why this school?" essays

feature image credit: Sagie /Flickr

Why NYU Essay 2023 Update

NYU has discontinued the "Why NYU" for the 2022-2023 admissions cycle . That means there won't be an NYU-specific writing supplement provided as part of the Common Application process. 

However, students can submit an optional 250-word response as part of NYU's additional questions section. This response deals with students' perspectives on diversity. Here's the prompt for 2023-2024: 

We are looking for peacemakers, changemakers, global citizens, boundary breakers, creatives and innovators. Choose one quote from the following and let us know why it inspires you; or share a short quote and person not on our list who inspires you, and include why.

“We’re used to people telling us there are no solutions, and then creating our own. So we did what we do best. We reached out to each other, and to our allies, and we mobilized across communities to make change, to benefit and include everyone in society.” Judith Heuman, 2022 NYU Commencement Address

“I encourage your discomfort, that you must contribute, that you must make your voice heard. That is the essence of good citizenship.” Sherilynn Ifill, 2015 NYU Honorary Degree Recipient

“You have the right to want things and to want things to change.” Sanna Marin, Former Prime Minister of Finland, 2023 NYU Commencement Address “It’s hard to fight when the fight ain’t fair.” Taylor Swift, Change, Released 2008, 2022 NY Commencement Speaker

Share a short quote and person not on the list and why the quote inspires you.

What's the Point of "Why This School" Essays?

While the Common App essay gives students a chance to showcase something of who they are that might not be evident elsewhere in their application, the "why [school]?" essay allows students space to explicitly state why they are such a good match for the school.

Presumably, if you're applying to the school, your test scores, grades, course rigor and curriculum, extracurriculars, and volunteer experience all put you at least somewhat in line with other students at the school.

The "why this school?" essay is your opportunity to discuss not just why you could excel at the school, but why you are a good fit (and why you want to go there).

"Why this school" essays are also a useful way for schools to judge student interest in a school (which can indicate whether or not a student will attend if admitted). Based on students' "why this school?" essays, colleges can distinguish students who are specifically interested in attending that school from students who clearly applied just because of the school's location or ranking

Writing a strong "why [school]?" essay not only gives you another instance to showcase your writing and reasoning skills, but also tells the school that you care enough to invest time in researching what makes them special. It signifies that you have put in the time to realize whether or not you're a good fit. (And, it secondarily shows that having put in that time, you're more likely to attend if admitted than someone who just wrote some generic statements about why they want to attend college ).

For a more in-depth look at what schools hope to get out of your "Why [This School]?" essays, read this article .

Why NYU Essay Prompt, Analyzed

Here's the complete NYU supplement essay prompt for 2021:

We would like to know more about your interest in NYU. What motivated you to apply to NYU? Why you have applied or expressed interest in a particular campus, school, college, program, and or area of study? If you have applied to more than one, please also tell us why you are interested in these additional areas of study or campuses. We want to understand - Why NYU? (400 word maximum)

Besides the standard "what motivated you to apply to [school]?" question that almost every "why this school" essay asks, the NYU prompt gives you one extra nudge for what to focus on in your essay.

Specifically, NYU wants you to talk about what's drawn you to "a particular campus, school, college, program, and/or area of study?" (or, if you're drawn to more than one, why you're drawn to each campus/school/college/program/area of study).

Keep in mind that you should be discussing all of this in the context of NYU . Obviously, if you're interested in NYU because of one of their 10 undergraduate schools, then that's particular to NYU, but the same goes for their campus locations, programs, and areas of study.

For instance, if you're passionate about studying theater, you wouldn't just write that you want to attend NYU because you love theater and NYU has a theater program and is in New York, a city that has theater; that description could apply to half a dozen schools. Instead, you'd go into the details of what attracts you about specific classes and professors at Tisch, or other opportunities that are unique to NYU (ability to do certain kinds of projects, the potential for interdisciplinary collaboration, etc).

This prompt also hints at a few different directions you can go with your "Why NYU" essay:

Why have you expressed interest in a particular campus, school, college, program, or area of study? If you have applied to more than one, please also tell us why you are interested in these additional areas of study or campuses.

If you're already certain of what you want to study in college or have a " spike ", you'll want to go the "particular" route in your essay . This means mentioning specific classes, professors, programs, or how you see NYU supporting your future career/academic plans.

On the other hand, perhaps you're not at all sure what you want to study in college (AKA me in high school). In that case, you'll shape your essay more around how you believe going to NYU will allow you to explore many different avenues to find your passion .

Finally, if you already know that you want to spend time abroad during college in a place where NYU has a campus, you can emphasize your interest in continuing to receive an NYU-level academic education while living in another country .

Potential "Why NYU?" Essay Topics

Earlier, we briefly touched upon some topics that you might write about in your essay, including specific courses/teachers/programs and study abroad opportunities.

We're now going to take those broad topic categories and go into a little more depth for how to write about them in your "Why NYU?" essay.

Colleges/Programs

NYU has the following 10 undergraduate schools, colleges, and programs:

• College of Arts & Sciences
• Gallatin School of Individualized Study
• Liberal Studies
• Meyers College of Nursing
• School of Professional Studies
• Silver School of Social Work
• Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
• Stern School of Business
• Tandon School of Engineering
• Tisch School of the Arts

Because there are so many different undergraduate programs within NYU, it's a good idea to identify which program(s) you're applying to and why in your NYU supplement essay.

Since you'll need to decide on a program before applying to NYU anyway, you might as well use the time you spend reading about each college to figure out if there are any programs within particular colleges that call out to you.

For instance, if you're interested in the intersection of different fields (like psychology and computer science, or biology and philosophy/ethics) and are self-motivated to create your own program of study, you should talk about that in your application to the Gallatin School of Individualized Study. If you've spent the last 12 years devoting all your extra time in and out of school to theatre and want to attend a conservatory with opportunities to go see live theatre, then write about that in your application to Tisch.

Courses/Professors

NYU is a world-renowned university for a reason, and it's not just because of its immense real estate holdings; it has a wide variety of courses and professors renowned in their fields. If one of the main reasons you're drawn to NYU is for its academics, then this is a good topic to get into in your supplemental essay.

Flip through the online course catalogs and read about professors in departments you're interested in. Are there any classes you really want to take (that seem particular to NYU)? Or any professors you absolutely have to study with?

You don't need to go so far as to read the professors' research or anything like that (unless you're super excited by it!), but doing even a little research into the courses and professors you'd be learning from and mentioning it in your "Why NYU?" essay will go a long way toward showing the admissions officers that you're serious enough about NYU to check out its specifics.

Extracurricular Opportunities and School Traditions

If there's an extracurricular at NYU that you've been particularly involved in during high school (or are excited to start getting involved in at college), you can write about it, as long as you're clear about why it's something unique to NYU.

In a similar vein, you can also try reading through some of the campus-wide events offered throughout the year and see if there's anything special about them that speaks to you.

NYU Essay: Topics to Avoid

The "Why NYU" essay prompt makes it pretty clear that you should focus your 400 words around a specific college/program/area of study.

What you absolutely should avoid is gushing about NYU's location (whether you're applying to the New York campus or not).

Back when I applied to NYU, the "why NYU?" essay prompt was even more blunt about not centering your essay around New York City:

"Many students decide to apply to NYU because of our New York City location. Apart from the New York City location, please tell us why you feel NYU will be a good match for you."

If New Yorkers have heard it all and seen it all before, NYU admissions officers have certainly read any and all paeans you could care to write to New York City.

It's fine to write about how being in New York gives you access to opportunities relevant to your course at NYU (e.g. you can get amazing internship opportunities for journalism and theatre there that you wouldn't be able to get anywhere else). However, you need to be clear to center your essay around the program at NYU, with the New York location (and its opportunities) being an added bonus.

Unless you have a unique take on why NYU's location is so important to you (e.g. your grandparents used to live in a building that was demolished to make way for Bobst law library and you were brought up on vengeance that has since turned to adoration), stay away from NYU's location in your explanation of why you want to go there.

Brainstorming for the Why NYU Essay

Before you start to narrow in on what angle you'll take in your "Why NYU?" essay, you should first examine your reasons for applying to NYU. By "examine," we don't just mean "list your reasons"—we mean you need to go a few levels deeper into each surface reason that occurs to you.

For example, this is the list of reasons I had for applying to NYU (roughly in order of importance):

• My test scores and grades/course rigor make it likely I'll get in
• NYU has lots of good schools and programs
• It's easy enough to get from NYU to my family, transportation-wise

On the face of it, none of these reasons are very compelling. If I'd just gone on to write my "Why NYU?" essay (or in those days, essays) with those three bullet points, I doubt I would have been accepted.

Instead, I went deeper with each reason to see if there was anything there I could mine for the NYU supplement essay.

Surface Reason 1 : My test scores and grades/course rigor make it likely I'll get in.

• One level deeper : I'm applying to NYU as a safety school, because I'm pretty sure I'll get in there, even if I don't get in anywhere else, and I'd want to go there if I got in.
• Should I write about this in my "why NYU" essay? Definitely not. No school wants to hear that it's a safety (even if it's a safety you would be fine with attending because it's still a good school).

Surface Reason 2 : NYU has lots of good schools and programs.

• One level deeper : I'm extremely undecided about what I want to study—I know that I'm interested in English (Creative Writing), Math, Neuroscience, Chinese, and Music, but I might end up deciding to study something entirely different in college. It's important to me that I go somewhere that I'll have the opportunity to explore all of my interests (and develop more), which I can do at NYU.
• Should I write about this in my "Why NYU" essay? This reason is definitely promising, although I'll need to do more research into the particular programs and courses at NYU so I can namedrop (and in the process, double-check that I'm right about being able to study all these things there!).

Surface Reason 3 : It's easy enough to get from NYU to my family, transportation-wise.

• One level deeper : My parents want there to be good transportation options for me visiting home (or them visiting me). NYU's location (New York City) definitely makes that possible (there's easy access to planes, trains, buses, rental cars, fixed-gear bikes…).
• Should I write about this in my "Why NYU" essay? Probably not. The prompt asks me about why I've expressed interest in a particular campus, school, college, program, and/or area of study, not a geographic area. Plus, it's not like there aren't plenty of other New York schools. I maybe could throw in this reason if I'm running short on things to say, but as it is, it looks like my second reason is going to be the best bet for the "Why NYU?" essay.

Why NYU Essay Sample

Below, I've created a "Why NYU?" essay example that draws verbatim from what I used in my (successful) NYU application. (The essay requirements were slightly different then, with different word counts, so I had to expand a little upon what I originally wrote.)

I feel NYU would be a good match for me because of the number and kinds of programs it has. I am very interested in a variety of subjects, and NYU seems to encompass everything. In fact, I'm applying to the College of Arts and Sciences because I can’t specify my interests any more than that at this time. I have so many things that I want to learn that I can’t imagine limiting myself before I even enter college.

Take Chinese, for example. I'm learning Mandarin now (and have been for the last five years), but I would also like to learn Cantonese. There are not many other schools that offer Cantonese classes that can boast trips into Chinatown as part of the curriculum! Furthermore, I am excited by the possibility of studying abroad at NYU Shanghai. I'd not only be able to go to China for a semester for a year and immerse myself in the language and culture, but I'd be able to do so with the continuity of being on an NYU campus, even halfway across the world.

The music theory program in the College of Arts and Sciences also really interests me. I've picked up some theory here and there, but I haven't had all that much formal training. I'm also really intrigued by NYU's early music ensemble and the chance to explore different modes and tunings. At the other end of the spectrum, while I've written a few pieces on my own and taught myself a little bit about MIDI, I have not really had a chance to experiment very much with computer/electronic composition, and would really like to use those Steinhardt facilities that would be available to me at NYU to help remedy this.

Finally, I cannot stress enough how important reading and creative writing are to me. Because of how much the two feed into one another, I'm excited by NYU's Reading Series and the potential to be able to attend organized events for interacting with other writers outside the classroom.

The opportunity to expand my Chinese language abilities beyond Mandarin (and have the chance for practical application) is what first intrigued me; the chance to explore computer music and get my hands on NYU's facilities was the next breadcrumb; but the breadth and depth of the courses for writing lure me in even more, until I can resist no further.

This essay isn't necessarily the best piece of writing I've ever done. However, it still effectively conveys my desire to attend NYU because I mention a few key reasons I want to attend NYU:

• The variety of courses available . I began by stating that I'm undecided and part of what attracts me to NYU is the opportunity to get to do lots of different things. I then go on to discuss several different examples.
• Specific NYU opportunities . I looked up various courses, events, and opportunities offered by different departments and mentioned a couple of them specifically (the Reading Studies program for creative writing, Cantonese classes, studying abroad in China).
• While I did mention a New York City thing (going into Chinatown), it was linked with something that's relatively NYU-specific (the opportunity to study Cantonese as well as Mandarin).

Tips for the Why NYU Essay

To wrap up, we've summarized our top four tips for writing the "Why NYU?" essay.

#1: Look over the descriptions of the different schools/programs. This will help you figure out both which one you want to apply to as well as what makes those schools interesting for you to apply to.

#2: Read through the course catalog and look up professors in departments you're interested in. As the NYU Admission blog states , 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

#3: Look into whether there are any extracurricular activities or NYU traditions that particularly appeal to you--and explain why they matter specifically to you.

#4: Avoid writing odes to New York City. If there are particular opportunities you're interested in that are only available in New York (e.g. internships at the American Museum of Natural History, research into immigration history at Ellis Island) you can mention it, but don't lean too heavily on the location.

#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.

And if along the way you find that you don't really have a super good reason that's getting you excited to apply to NYU? It might be worth reconsidering whether or not you should apply there.

What's Next?

Have a bunch more college-specific supplement essays to write? Be sure to check out our overview of the "why this college" essay .

Looking for application tips for other selective schools? Read our complete guides to the University of California system and to the Georgetown application .

Should you apply early or regular decision to college? Find out the pros and cons of early decision in this article . ( And read up on the distinctions between early decision, early action, and the different kinds of each here. )

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Laura graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College with a BA in Music and Psychology, and earned a Master's degree in Composition from the Longy School of Music of Bard College. She scored 99 percentile scores on the SAT and GRE and loves advising students on how to excel in high school.

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The Admissions Strategist

Why nyu how to write the nyu supplemental essay (examples included).

After much consideration, you’ve decided to apply to NYU. Why NYU? You don’t know where to start. This post will help take you from start to finish.

This past application cycle proved to be historic and selective. While the school admitted the largest number of international students as well as the largest percentage of African-American and Latino students in 16 years, the NYU acceptance rate dropped to 28% , its lowest acceptance rate since 2001.

NYU (short for New York University) is a private university located in the heart of New York City, with satellite campuses found in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai.

• Offering over 230 areas of study and 2,700 courses across 17 schools, NYU ensures that there’s something for every student.

While NYU may not be impossibly difficult to get into, it’s become more selective.

This means you’ll need to spend some extra care and attention on your application, especially on the supplemental essay “Why NYU?”

NYU Essay Requirements

Every freshman applying to NYU will have to write the standard Common App essay. Otherwise known as your personal statement, we created an entire Common App guide so you can write the best essay.

When you’re applying to NYU, you’ll need to write one supplemental essay.

• The supplemental essay has a 400-word limit and requires that you express your interest in NYU as artfully and concisely as possible.

This guide will walk you through the question and tips for crafting your essay to help you put your best foot forward!

So, let’s get to it: Why NYU?

Step 1: Read the question and break it down.

This is an extremely important step! A question like this one, with several parts, requires that you understand and address the entire question in your 400-word response.

Let’s walk through the question breakdown together.

“We would like to know more about your interest in NYU”

Translation : Why do you want to attend NYU? You have thousands of other choices in schools, and you used one of your choices on NYU. Why?

“We are particularly interested in knowing what motivated you to apply to NYU and more specifically, why you have applied or expressed interest in a particular campus, school, college, program, and/or area of study.”

This is a meaty one, so let’s break it down into two parts.

“We are particularly interested in knowing what motivated you to apply to NYU…”

Translation: We want to know more about you as an individual.

• What is it about you that makes you think NYU is a good choice?
• Are you a good fit for NYU? If yes, tell us why

“We are particularly interested in knowing….why you have applied or expressed interested in a particular campus, school, college, program and/or area of study.”

Translation:  Why are you interested in what you’re interested in, and why did you apply to the school that has your chosen major?

For example, if you’re interested in acting, tell us why you’re interested in acting and why you’re applying to the Tisch School of the Arts.

“If you have applied to more than one, please tell us why you are interested in each of the campuses, schools, colleges or programs to which you have applied”

Translation : If you have more than one interest and want to pursue more than one major or degree, please tell us why and help us to make sense of your interests.

For example, if you want to study Acting (Tisch School of the Arts) and Computer Engineering (Tandon School of Engineering), we want to know how your interests fit together and why you want to do both.

“You may be focused or undecided, or simply open to the options within NYU’s global network; regardless, we want to understand – Why NYU?”

Translation: You understand that NYU has a global network, right? Tell us why you want to come to our school.

If you are unsure of what exactly you want to study, rejoice!

Click above to watch a video on the NYU Essay.

NYU is saying that you don’t need to have your major all figured out. You just need to have a clearly articulated interest in NYU.

Think about the issues and the questions that interest you.

• Maybe you wonder about the way our dress (fashion) sustains or challenges the way we see world culture (anthropology)?
• Consider, then, how NYU could help you explore anthropological questions about fashion.

Click deeply into NYU’s website to find an avenue – a school, a program, or even a class – that will help you pursue this interest. You don’t need to commit to a career, or even a major, but you do need a good sense of the questions that guide you. Even if you’re uncertain, lean into a vision for your future.

Your supplemental essay isn’t binding, so you can operate in hypotheticals.

• If you’re interested in economics, imagine yourself as a business student.
• What type of business student would you be?
• Would you care about sustainability?
• Would you have other social or ethical concerns?
• What kind of career would this prepare you for?

And, in case you didn’t notice, they highlighted that they have a “global network.” This is important information, and the next step will tell you why.

Get personalized advice!

Step 2: research nyu’s values and special traits..

If you’ve decided to apply to this school, then you’ve likely already done your homework. Just in case you haven’t, study their website.

From studying the website, you can gain a clear sense of the school’s values, what they look for in an applicant, and if you share similar values.

Even if you’re uncertain, pretend that you’ve “fallen in love with the school,” and focus on the particulars of your new infatuation. To extend the metaphor, the application process is a kind of courting in which you make the first move.

• If you’re interested in digital media, research programs like the Brooklyn Experimental Media Center.
• Describe how its resources will convert your interests into an abiding passion or a career orientation.
• A good rule of thumb for “Why This College” essays is that you should have several names (in capital letters) of particular programs at the university.

This research will help you immensely in answering the “Why NYU?” question.

If they have blogs and/or social media accounts, look through those to get a feel for the school. Bonus points if you are able to visit, because an on-campus visit (especially during a regular weekend when they’re not trying to impress you) is the best way to determine what a campus feels like, what their culture is like and what they truly value.

Here’s a great way to research NYU’s values and traits:

• NYU has an online magazine called NYU Q for prospective students. You can find the online magazine by clicking  here . NYU Q showcases the interesting people, places, and things that make NYU special.
• A quick look through the NYU Q site illustrates that NYU as a campus deeply values building a global community with people from diverse backgrounds, geographic locations, academic interests, and life experiences.
• You can find out that NYU boasts of having a higher number of international students than any other campus (their international student population is  20% ). They also have three international campuses and a robust study abroad program.

Additionally, because the question asks you specifically, “Why have you applied or expressed interest in a particular campus, school, college, program and/or area of study,” you owe it to yourself to become familiar with the culture of the particular school or college to which you’re applying, and even the department of the major you’re interested in studying.

It’s important to ensure you aren’t picking NYU for generic traits. Generic traits are dangerous to mention in your essay because they can be applied to any college campus.

Here’s a useful checklist to make sure you are highlighting the special elements of NYU:

• Don’t say NYU is the “perfect” place for you. Perfection is impossible to achieve, and the admissions officers are well aware.
• Instead, pick five elements of NYU (departments, professors, events, on-campus groups) that appeal to you. Picking real names and titles forces you to perform research and stay specific.
• Your “Why NYU?” essay should not be a retelling of your Common App essay. Use this opportunity to pair NYU with your values and personality (covered later in this piece).
• Make sure your essay couldn’t be true of any other school. This demands that you do your research and dive deep into the school’s website.
• Make sure you never write about how you want to attend school in New York City. There are dozens of universities both in and near NYC, so this reason is cliche and tiresome.

Still having trouble? Ask yourself these questions to help you find specific elements of NYU that you find appealing:

• What are classes I’d like to take?
• What are some questions I’d like to ask in these classes?
• Name some on-campus groups and activities that I’d like to participate in.
• What are NYU-sponsored events I’d like to attend?
• Which academic department at NYU do you want to study in? And what are the department’s noteworthy achievements?
• What is my ideal major or double major at NYU?

The admissions officers at NYU want to see that you are well-informed about what they are offering, and that you’ve thought hard enough about whether or not you would be a good fit.

You want to mention, for example, that you’re interested in the Tisch School of the Arts. You also want to go a step further and describe how you’re excited, perhaps, about their internship opportunities and classes on animation.

You can’t determine if you’re a good fit if you haven’t done your research.

Under the Academics tab is a full listing of NYU’s academic programs, schools and colleges, and other academic offerings. Make sure you click through to find your particular school and major.

Step 3: Free-write

The worst thing you can do as you’re writing your response is to agonize over every single word at the beginning of the process.

• Instead, just start writing.
• For each question they ask, write down whatever comes to mind and don’t hold back.
• Use our translation to each question to simplify what you should be writing about.

It’s through answering these questions in an unrestricted flow that patterns can emerge.

Be sure to  write down any memories that come up   – even the bad ones! The refining will come later, but for now, put all the words you can on paper.

They key here is to organize your thoughts. This task seems farcical, but it’s important to perform because “Why NYU?” is such a broad question that countless thoughts will fly through your mind at first read.

• Find stories that embody your personality.
• Record stories that highlight your sense of grit.
• Write stories that personify your wonder and curiosity.

Perform this task three times. You want at least three stories. The more stories, the more options you have.

Step 4: Brainstorming Powerful Essay Ideas

Once again, you never want to write about how much you want to live in New York City. There are plenty of schools that share NYU’s geographic location. Furthermore, there are thousands of students who want to live in a city as diverse, resource-rich, and historic as New York City.

Your goal is to set yourself apart from the rest of the applicants. Your story will help you do this.

Dig deeper.

Write down what you care about. What…

• …makes you happy?
• …makes you angry?
• …bores you to death?
• …are you inspired by?

Don’t hold back here either. Be completely honest with yourself.

In the college admissions process, you may be able to lie to yourself, but it’s hard to lie to the college admissions committee. It’s not worth the risk.

Be honest about what you care about, and it will shine through in your essay. Once you’ve come up with your list, look through your research from Step 2. What does NYU care about? Perhaps, you’ve learned that they care about the arts, curiosity, intercultural exchange, and open-mindedness.

• … care about the arts? Are you curious?
• …enjoy learning from and learning with people from cultural backgrounds different from yours?
• …consider yourself to be open-minded?

Why, or why not? Once again, the key here is to be honest.

Dig deeper. Explore your values, memories, interests, and hobbies.

• Is there a setback you’ve learned from? Is there a challenge burned into your memory?
• What issues are you passionate about?
• What are you endlessly curious about? Do you love reading about a particular subject?
• What talents do you want to offer the world? Is there a specific reason you want to share your gift with the world?
• What drives you? Deep down, is there something that makes your blood flow and brain click?
• Are there special items in your house that hold sentimental value to you?

All told, think about anecdotes: What stories from your life have inspired your interests and passions. Think about lessons learned, personal themes, and the challenges and setbacks that made you who you are today.

Students often say that their anecdotes aren’t interesting. That’s fine!

What matters is how you explain them within the context of your experiences. That means you should be honest and specific about your experiences. Authenticity goes a long way for the Why NYU essay.

Step 5: Picking an Effective Essay Premise

Look over your free-write responses, and pick up particularly interesting memories that are related to your values and tell a story.

Almost everyone likes a good story.

• Review your free-writing document. Find memories that highlight an important aspect of your personality or values.
• Find a common thread between each of your stories and one or two values per story.
• Match one of NYU’s values or special traits with each story.
• Structure your essay around these three parts.

College admissions officers have to read hundreds of applications a day, and the ones that stand out are the ones written in the form of a good story.

The good news is that you don’t have to be J. K. Rowling or John Green.  The best stories are authentic  (that means they are true to who you are), descriptive (you help the reader experience your experience with their own senses), and clear (the reader understands exactly what you’re trying to say).

Talk about your experience, how that relates to your values and NYU’s values, and, most importantly, how your experience has impacted your choice of NYU as a potential college.

It’s likely your “Why NYU?” essay will flow as such:

• This is a story that highlights an important aspect of who I am.
• This value connects to the story.
• It just so happens this value connects with NYU’s special value.
• And that’s why I’m a great fit.

Remember the million-dollar question: Why NYU?

And then rethink the question: Why am I a good fit for NYU?

Why NYU Essay Example Outline

Here’s an excellent outline of a Why NYU essay. Before reading the outline, keep in mind that you have many options for crafting this essay.

What counts is telling an effective story.

• As such, one way to tell an effective story is to start your essay with an anecdote.

Your anecdote can begin with one of the following:

• A quote from someone that helps you preface your story
• Cold hook: Something almost random that captures the reader’s attention
• Bold statement: A statement that your story will support with details
• Obvious statement: A line that makes the reader say, “Yes, of course. Why would you say something that obvious?” This is the segue to the next part of your essay.

Once you add your anecdote, frame it with details immediately. You have 400 words to work with, so get right into your essay. Your anecdote should comprise 10-15% of your essay.

Once you get into your essay, explain the actions you took to pursue an interest. This should comprise 30-40% of your essay.

• What are you interested in?
• Describe the action steps you took to further your passion and take initiative.

Then, spend the rest of your essay discussing the resources at NYU that will help you accomplish your goals and sharpen your skill set. You can mention examples of the following:

• Fellowships
• Internships
• Professors and their classes
• On-campus groups
• Study-abroad programs
• New academic initiatives
• Externships

Without further delay, here’s what a good Why NYU essay would look like:

• You grew up in a lower-income household and can recall a conversation with your sibling about how your family couldn’t afford health insurance.
• Disappointed in our country’s health care options, you were inspired to volunteer in clinics, where you learned more about bloat and inefficient business processes within insurance companies. This adds to costs for would-be consumers like your family.
• You shadowed a doctor during your junior year in high school to learn about technologies that could be provided at scale for low-income citizens.
• This is why you want to study at NYU Stern: to engage in NYU-sponsored internships both in the city and abroad that will help you learn more about healthcare technology at scale.
• You then want to establish a startup with the help of a specific professor, who will advise you with raising capital, hiring talent , and pivoting when necessary.

Step 6: Get Critiques & Make Revisions

An English teacher, your favorite teacher (which may or may not be your English teacher), and a friend who is always honest are great choices for additional readers.

A great English teacher knows the mechanics of the English language very well and will be honest with you about how your essay looks and sounds.

• Bad punctuation is a death knell, and awkward words and phrases could move your essay from the “wow we’ve got to take him/her” pile to the “snooze/meh” pile.

Pick an English teacher with whom you have a good/neutral relationship, and approach them with the utmost respect and humility.

• Remember, they don’t have to read your essay. They’re doing you a favor.
• Ask them to mark it up for you, if they have time, and to give their honest thoughts and opinions.
• If they really like you, they may do this several times. After the process is said and done, be sure to send them a thank you card.

Your favorite teacher may not be your English teacher, but they’re just as valuable because they usually have a really good sense of your likes, dislikes, as well as your authenticity. In other words, they can tell if you’re lying or trying to be something you’re not.

You need someone who knows you well and can tell you if you’re being honest in your essay. Your favorite teacher may also be able to remind you of things about yourself that you’ve forgotten.

• Let’s face it, when you’re taking 6-8 classes a quarter among all of your other responsibilities, you might lose a memory or two.
• A friend who is always honest with you is infinitely better than a friend who just wants you to be happy/flattered.

Pick a friend who isn’t afraid to tell you that your writing is terrible, or that you could have worded things a little better.

You need as much constructive criticism as possible while crafting a college essay that is authentic and compelling.

Step 7: Final read-throughs

If possible, do your final readings at least 24-48 hours after your last revision , in order to give your brain a break.

Make sure to read your essays out loud, just in case you have a typo in there that you and your other readers missed.

Two final read-throughs should be sufficient for assurance sake, but any more than that, and you could end up making yourself a bit anxious.

Trust yourself and trust the process. When you’re done, let go and submit.

Why NYU Essay Examples

We’ve provided some examples of Why NYU essays. Please remember to never plagiarize – we take this quite seriously.

These Why NYU essay examples are here to provide you with a visual on what a good essay looks like. Your essay should look different.

A version of Why NYU by a student:

Se-mi-llas de Es-pe-ran-za y A-mor. These were the words written on the school wall I visited as a member of The Hillsdale Effect an organization that fundraises microloans for businesswomen. Seeds of Love and Hope. During my six days in Guatemala, I had the opportunity to speak with students, teachers, and businesswomen about the struggles they face every day. My journey in Central America not only shaped my college and career goals, but they have also guided the direction in which I want to use my skills. Semillas de Esperanza y Amor is a school that brings in street children and offers them a free education. I asked one student, a young girl, about her aspirations. To my greatest surprise, she wanted to study at Guatemala’s only public university to become a doctor and return to her village to help her community. Afterward, a teacher explained that despite the students’ aspirations, a college education would be financially out of reach for their parents. This was a call to action. Later, I spoke to a local organizational director, who described an application they had tried to develop that would allow the businesswomen they serve to connect with business educators. Unfortunately, due to the lack of a strong Internet connection in some regions and the overall complexity of the user experience, the application failed. It was abandoned by all the local directors, who no longer saw it as a beneficial endeavor. To me, this seemed like a lost opportunity. If done right, the application could radically simplify communication and make the loaning process more effective. Which would then allow more women to participate in the program to empower themselves, transform their businesses, and help their children get an education. I want to dedicate my education to building technology that makes a social impact. My passion for international affairs has allowed me to help people in a drastically different community than my own. And by pursuing a computer science education at NYU while also participating in one of the multitude of study abroad programs offered, I know I will be able to develop the technical and global skills that will allow me to construct technology that will break the cycle of poverty, allowing little girls like the one I met to make their dreams come true.

Here’s another example of the Why NYU essay from the same student:

“Comienzo! Alto!” As the young students and I kicked the soccer ball back and forth on the Guatemalan field, I peered toward their village, San Mateo Miltas Alpas, and envisioned change. Change to improve infrastructure and help the businesswomen of their community. This is why I want to study computer science at NYU. In high school, I have been a leading member in The Hillsdale Effect, an organization that fundraises microloans for businesswomen in Guatemala. Our goal is to empower women entrepreneurs in hopes of breaking the cycle of poverty. I was given the opportunity to travel to Guatemala on a study tour and meet the individuals we were helping. When visiting a local headquarters in Antigua, the director explained how microloans are processed through their office: Business educators working for the organization contact their users. The educators then utilize a smartphone application to simplify the rest of the communication process between the businesswomen and educators. Unfortunately, due to the lack of a strong Internet connection in some regions and overall complexity of the user experience, the application failed. It was abandoned by all the local directors, who no longer saw it as a beneficial endeavor. I quickly realized I wanted to construct my own application that would connect the educators with the users. Of course, my application would need minimal service, and its simpler interface would be accessible from anywhere in the country. By utilizing images and multiple audio explanations, the language barrier could be broken, allowing individuals of any age or background to use the application. My goal is to integrate the solutions to these problems into a new application. After studying computer science at NYU, I want to apply my learned skills to build the Internet infrastructure of villages around the world. Furthermore, I want to partake in one of the multitude of study abroad programs offered so I can again travel to developing countries and learn more about the various benefits technology can provide in addressing infrastructure needs. This past year, we broke our school fundraising record, earning over $8,000 in two weeks for the businesswomen of Guatemala. As I look forward to the conclusion of high school, I know I can do more by learning at NYU. As my coding skills improve, I want to use them to go back abroad and do my part to build communities, like San Mateo Miltas Alpas.

From a student who wants to go to NYU to study public health:

As a Lacinda First Aid Team leader, I applied my interest in public health within my school community. During weekly shifts, I supported the nurse by patrolling the fitness center and common areas for ill students. After initiating partnerships with other school clubs, my team and I organized informational health fairs and visits from physicians, pharmacists, physical therapists, and surgeons. I trained noncertified members and supplied bandages, heating pads, and antiseptic swabs to injured students. My training culminated during competitions, where I treated patients in unconscious victim, heart attack, stroke, and choking simulations. NYU’s College of Public Health provides students with opportunities to blend academic rigour with clinical experience, just as I delved into my zeal for helping others as a member of the First Aid Team. As a global public health major, I would complete an Experiential Learning course where I would step out of the classroom using a tactile approach. Then, I would take Health and Societies in a Global Context to learn how factors such as age, gender, culture, and race impact health on a global scale. I could take this knowledge to engage in team-based learning, where I would address the severity of mental illness on NYU’s campus. Learning to tackle problems as a team is a vital skill, especially when working closely with public health organizations. A project that captivates me is the Applied Global Public Health Initiative led by Dr. Chris Dickey. As a future program member, my goal is to discover improvements for the universal health coverage policy of the World Health Organization and the development of online public health programs. Under Dr. Dickey’s tutelage, I would apply my newfound knowledge to create an interactive fellowship experience that promotes collaboration with experienced NYU professionals while tackling issues that impact vulnerable communities. This work would create tools that better manage health accessibility to all. One day, I would like to become involved with Doctors Without Borders. NYU gives me the optimal resources combined with engaging experiences to work toward my goal. I believe a person’s health is the fundamental pillar of stability and sustainability; thus, I want to dedicate my time to improving both on a global scale. I aim to work in developing countries to spread the knowledge I acquire through internship opportunities, projects, and stimulating curriculum. NYU offers an immersive academic experience while supporting its students through personal growth and innovation.

Written by another student who wants to study health:

A year ago, my grandmother was a fiery, sharp-witted woman. Since then, a progressive neurodegenerative disease called Lewy body dementia (LBD) has caused her to deteriorate rapidly. Due to medical complications and worsening of symptoms, she has been forced to transition in and out of residential, rehabilitative, and hospital facilities, resulting in a constant battle to adjust to new environments. Witnessing my grandmother’s downward spiral has opened my eyes to the inadequacies of our healthcare system, fueling me to seek solutions.  At NYU, I will make progress towards an LBD cure by studying neural science and develop evidence-based policies to improve dementia patients’ lives through my public policy studies. This double major will allow me to absorb the scientific understanding necessary to create effective legislation, as will embarking on a health policy summer internship in Washington, D.C. where I can network while fusing my scientific and policy interests . The unique neural science major at NYU will fulfill my fascination with the brain’s function, while providing a strong natural science foundation. I am enthusiastic about elective courses, like Learning and Memory , w here I can examine memory formation and the pathophysiology of dementia. It will be thrilling to apply my classroom-based knowledge during a summer research project at the Center for Neural Science, ideally working alongside a faculty member to develop my own LBD-focused research project. With the Alzheimer’s Disease Center located on campus, I can frequently attend special events like the Alzheimer’s Disease Lunch and Learn series, supplementing my studies with current brain research and furthering my journey towards my desired career.  While neural science will develop my understanding of LBD, public policy will teach me the skill of employing legislation to solve issues that face dementia patients. I am eager to immerse myself in five health policy electives, in addition to classes such as Medical Ethics , where I can engage with peers that are passionate about patient rights. The Senior Seminar experience will allow me to utilize knowledge from both of my majors, honing in on a pressing policy issue facing dementia patients today.  Neither in life nor in academics have I stayed within a confined box. NYU’s liberal arts education promotes exploration, making it the perfect place for me to pursue my bursting passions. 

Final Why NYU essay example:

As a Macona First Aid Team leader, I applied my interest in public health within my school community. During weekly shifts, I supported the nurse by patrolling the fitness center and common areas for ill students. After initiating partnerships with other school clubs, my team and I organized informational health fairs and visits from physicians, pharmacists, physical therapists, and surgeons. I trained noncertified members and supplied bandages, heating pads, and antiseptic swabs to injured students. My training culminated during competitions, where I treated patients in unconscious victim, heart attack, stroke, and choking simulations. NYU’s College of Public Health provides students with opportunities to blend academic rigour with clinical experience, just as I delved into my zeal for helping others as a member of the First Aid Team. As a global public health major, I would complete an Experiential Learning course where I would step out of the classroom using a tactile approach. Then, I would take Health and Societies in a Global Context to learn how factors such as age, gender, culture, and race impact health on a global scale. I could take this knowledge to engage in team-based learning, where I would address the severity of mental illness on NYU’s campus. Learning to tackle problems as a team is a vital skill, especially when working closely with public health organizations. A project that captivates me is the Applied Global Public Health Initiative led by Dr. Chris Dickey. As a future program member, my goal is to discover improvements for the universal health coverage policy of the World Health Organization and the development of online public health programs. Under Dr. Dickey’s tutelage, I would apply my newfound knowledge to create an interactive fellowship experience that promotes collaboration with experienced NYU professionals while tackling issues that impact vulnerable communities. This work would create tools that better manage health accessibility to all. One day, I would like to become involved with Doctors Without Borders. NYU gives me the optimal resources combined with engaging experiences to work toward my goal. I believe a person’s health is the fundamental pillar of stability and sustainability; thus, I want to dedicate my time to improving both on a global scale. I aim to work in developing countries to spread the knowledge I acquire through internship opportunities, projects, and stimulating curriculum. NYU offers an immersive academic experience while supporting its students through personal growth and innovation.

Conclusion: Why NYU?

You did it! You made it through all 7 steps.

By now, you understand the importance of breaking down the essay questions and putting them in your own words, researching the school, reflecting on your own values, and finding places of commonality between your values and the school’s.

In order to get to your story, you need to let yourself write without restriction. In addition, you know the importance of crafting a coherent narrative and having several people read through your work.

Hopefully, you have written a superb essay in response to NYU’s question.

Remember that you are more than enough, and all the support you need is out there if you would look for it.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us. We wish you all the best on your applications!

Learn how we can help you with college and career guidance! Check out our YouTube channel!

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How to Write the NYU Supplemental Essay

NYU has long been a top choice school for many students. New York University’s application volume has now reached a new level. Last year, more than 100,000 students submitted applications, marking a new record for the college.

Consequently, it’s no surprise that gaining a seat at NYU is exceptionally competitive. To boost your admissions odds, you must ensure that each component of your application presents you in the best possible light, including your NYU supplemental essays. Read on to learn what you can do to make sure your writing sets you apart for all of the right reasons.

How to Write the Why NYU Essay

If you think you only need to worry about your personal statement, think again. Supplemental essays matter , particularly at highly competitive colleges like NYU where students are applying amidst tens of thousands other applicants.

One of the most important questions you will need to answer as part of the NYU supplemental essay process is about the college itself. Many schools include a supplemental essay question that asks the applicant why they are choosing to apply to their institution. They ask this question because they want to gauge an applicant’s level of interest in attending their university. They also hope to get to know the applicant and understand the potential impact they could have  on campus.

The “Why Us” essay topic is an opportunity to demonstrate your in-depth knowledge of the college to which you are applying. Rather than generic statements, make sure you tailor your arguments to NYU specifically by referencing classes you’re interested in taking , professors you wish to study with, and on-campus clubs that you’re eager to join . Avoid reusing or recycling this response from your other applications, even if you see a similar short essay prompt. You want to make sure each response is as school-specific as possible.

When it comes to writing a “Why Us” essay for NYU specifically, you’ll need to make sure your response stands out, especially since the college recently received 105,000 applications for first-year admissions . The more you research and tailor your answer to the college, the more compelling your response will be. Keep in mind that the best answers really break the question down into two parts: “Why are you applying to NYU?” and “What are you interested in studying at NYU?”. There are a few different ways that you can go about including both of these components in your answer.

Approach #1: The ‘3-5 Unique Opportunities’ Strategy

You can also identify 3-5 opportunities that are specific to NYU and connect each one back to your long-term career and personal goals. This approach can work well at a large school like NYU, where there are plenty of unique opportunities for students to highlight.

Approach #2: The ‘One Value’ Strategy

The third strategy for this NYU supplemental essay question is to choose one value that relates to you and to the college and to focus on it. Find a way to discuss how the college’s ethos aligns with your own values. Then, weave in specific NYU opportunities that interest you and relate to this value.

Approach #3: Mix and Match

You can also take a hybrid approach by choosing a central theme to focus on, incorporating a few reasons why NYU is the best school for you to pursue this focus. Make sure to back up your argument with specific facts and examples.

How to Stand Out in Your NYU Supplemental Essays

Pinpoint your specific interest.

Make sure you’re writing about your interests and passions. At this point in the application process, most students are aware of how important extracurriculars are for college , but it’s worth reiterating: admissions officers will affirm prospective students who have become specialists or experts in something. When it comes to talking about your passions, don’t be shy in your NYU supplement essay.

Discuss Relevant Opportunities

Admissions officers should walk away from your essay with a belief that NYU is a place you will thrive. The best way to do that is by highlighting school-specific learning and development opportunities that align with your passions and interests. Call out classes, research programs , and internships that intrigue you to make your point.

Be Comprehensive

When you’re writing the NYU supplemental essay, it’s best to go into detail. Be specific about the academic programs and opportunities at NYU that interest you and make sure you support all of your arguments with stories and examples when relevant.

Connect Those Details to Your Values

Admissions officers already know that NYU is a great college. Instead of reiterating that, aim to connect some of NYU’s key differentiators to your own values and interests. Explain what about the school excites you and articulate why you’re committed to attending. This is one of the best tips for supplemental essays that you can apply to every college you’re applying to.

Top 3 Common Mistakes When Writing the NYU Essay

When you’re writing your NYU supplement essay, avoid making the following common mistakes:

Mistake #1: Focusing on the Basics

There’s nothing wrong with mentioning the school’s location or size, but that shouldn’t be your main reason for wanting to attend NYU. There are plenty of other schools in New York City which will make that argument less impactful. Instead, focus on specific opportunities that only NYU offers.

Mistake #2: Using Inappropriate Language

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.

Mistake #3: Thinking This Is a ‘Why Them’ Only 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.

Why NYU Essay Examples

Want to see what a top-tier essay looks like? Check out the following essay written by an IvyWise student who was accepted during the 2021-22 admissions cycle and is currently attending NYU:

Walking through the streets of New York City with my mother, I always enjoyed listening to her stories about her experiences at NYU. As she pointed out her favorite places to study, I could envision myself there as well, thriving in the epicenter of a dynamic global environment. I would love to join NYU’s College of Arts and Science and delve into my academic interests in sociology and law while being immersed in the energetic and spirited community of the city itself.

I have always been fascinated by how human beings interact with their surroundings and how those interactions affect social structures. The variety of classes available in the Department of Sociology is incredibly enticing. I am excited to take Sociological Theory and learn about the foundational theories that have shaped the discipline and use those theories as a lens to study modern-day society. I am particularly interested in social justice and inequality, and the unique minor in law and society perfectly aligns with this interest. Being able to take a class with Professor David Garland, an expert in the American death penalty and the differences between Western European and American prison sentences, would be especially intriguing for me. 

I would also enjoy attending the sociology workshops the department sponsors. The Crime, Law, and Deviance workshop exemplifies how NYU graduate students and faculty are at the forefront of studying the social impact of crime. Additionally, as an international student, I appreciate NYU’s wide range of study away programs. The fact that I can study abroad in Florence and continue my study of sociology and the legal system in The Politics of Organized Crime: Italian Mafia in a Comparative Perspective is especially appealing as it would also allow me to reconnect with my Italian roots.

I am looking forward to connecting with my peers socially as well. The French Club and the Italian Club will help me meet other students who perhaps share my cultural background. I can also satisfy my creative side by joining the Guitare Fingerstyle Club. Additionally, as a maths aficionado, I would enjoy attending the lectures hosted by the Mathematics Society.

NYU’s unmistakable metropolitan grounds welcome undergraduates to take advantage of all the city brings to the table. From the sociology classes on campus to the astonishing displays at the MoMA and the unique energy of the NYC streets, I’m eager to take everything in!

For another successful essay example, see the following written by an IvyWise student who was accepted to NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts:

What has always struck me as an essential aspect of NYU Tisch is its openness of mind, the way it radiates diversity and acceptance, whether in terms of education or culture. From its stylistic variety to the vibrancy of its community, NYU Tisch is rooted in difference and harmony. I consider such open-mindedness to be vital, not only to my personal development, but to the prosperity of society in a broader sense.

NYU Tisch’s undergraduate dance curriculum appeals to me as a program that values individuality, whose design encourages independence and singularity. Courses in the likes of Creative Research in Dance put the artist at the centre of their creation, which I believe is fundamental to artistic growth. Those values resonate with my creativity, my tendency towards non-conformism, and my constant desire to experiment with new visions.

In addition to this, I am captivated by the progressive spirit that NYU Tisch displays, both artistically and ideologically. It gives the impression of being set in motion by an elemental belief in the necessity of growth and renewal. I deeply relate to this belief, and strive to maintain balance between my creative and critical sides, in order to cultivate a permanent state of self-reflection.

Furthermore, I am strongly attracted to the multi-dimensional vision of dance that NYU Tisch offers. Its undergraduate program is all-encompassing, encircling physical training, theoretical studies, creative experimentation and performance. I found myself especially drawn to the Core Curriculum, Art in the World/ The World through Art, for I am fascinated by the mutual influence of art and society. Certain courses have also sparked my interest by the way they envision dance under less traditional angles, such as the studies of Acting or Music Theory and Composition.

Additionally, I have a profound admiration for the abundance of opportunities that NYU Tisch offers, not only through its prestigious program, but also through the inspiring energy of the New York scene. Every corner of the city, from the illustrious Broadway to the most obscure basements, seems loaded with talent and creativity. The hypnotizing intensity of the city calls out to my driven character, to my determination to achieve what my mind is set on, regardless of the difficulty.

I see NYU Tisch as a place that could fulfill me personally, for the architecture of its undergraduate dance program deeply resonates with my creativity, values and ambitions.

How IvyWise Can Help You With Your NYU Supplemental Application Essay?

Every student can benefit from college admissions assistance , 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.

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NYU Supplemental Essays 2023-24 Prompt and Advice

August 17, 2023

In the 2022-23 admissions cycle, NYU received over 120,000 applications. That was a record-breaking figure for the university (13% more than the previous year!), 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 into the topic of this blog, the NYU supplemental essay.

(Want to learn more about How to Get Into NYU? Visit our blog entitled:  How to Get Into NYU  for all of the most recent admissions data as well as tips for gaining acceptance.)

Clearly, standing out as an applicant to NYU was a heck of a lot easier a generation or even a mere decade ago. For the Class of 2027, the median SAT score for an admitted applicant was 1540 , meaning that even a standardized test score in the 99th percentile won’t do much to separate you from the hordes of equally credentialed applicants.

Although it only has one prompt, NYU’s essay still affords applicants an opportunity to illustrate what makes them uniquely qualified for admission. Below is NYU’s supplemental essay for the 2023-24 admissions cycle. We then follow with College Transitions’ advice on how to craft a winning composition.

2023-2024 NYU Supplement Essays

This is a new prompt for the 2023-24 admissions cycle. It’s optional, but we highly encourage anyone who would like to be a serious contender (which, if you’re taking the time to apply, hopefully you are) to answer it.

We are looking for peacemakers, changemakers, global citizens, boundary breakers, creatives and innovators – Choose one quote from the following and let us know why it inspires you; or share a short quote and person not on our list who inspires you, and include why. (250 words)

• “We’re used to people telling us there are no solutions, and then creating our own. So we did what we do best. We reached out to each other, and to our allies, and we mobilized across communities to make change, to benefit and include everyone in society.” Judith Heuman, 2022 NYU Commencement Address
• “I encourage your discomfort, that you must contribute, that you must make your voice heard. That is the essence of good citizenship.” Sherilynn Ifill, 2015 NYU Commencement Address
• “If you know how to fly but you never knew how to walk, wouldn’t that be sad?” Lang Lang, 2015 NYU Honorary Degree Recipient
• “You have the right to want things and to want things to change.” Sanna Marin, Former Prime Minister of Finland, 2023 NYU Commencement Address
• “It’s hard to fight when the fight ain’t fair.” Taylor Swift, Change, Released 2008, 2022 NYU Commencement Speaker
• Share a short quote and person not on this list, and why the quote inspires you.

NYU Supplemental Essay (Continued)

This prompt—and its options—are incredibly open-ended, offering you the power to decide why a particular quote inspires you (note that there are no guiding questions or proposed directions for any quote). As such, read through the quotes provided and note which one you continue returning to. When you read that quote, what do you want to do ? What type of change do you want to affect? Does it encourage to create or innovate? How so? Moreover, does it remind you of an experience you’ve had, a challenge you’ve overcome, or a belief you hold? Perhaps it calls to mind an aspect of your background or perspective. Or, it could speak to a particular social or political cause that is important to you. Alternatively, you can even choose your own quote if none of the above resonates with you.

The strongest responses will look to the future while also incorporating past personal experiences or influences. For example, perhaps the second prompt inspires you to continue seeking out experiences that challenge you. “Why is that?” NYU will want to know. Perhaps, earlier this year, you went out of your comfort zone to speak up at a school board meeting about your school district’s book ban policy, ultimately meeting & agreeing to continue working with a group of fellow students who also opposed the policy.

Finally, given that this is NYU’s only supplemental essay, you can also incorporate how you plan to seek out specific experiences or resources at NYU.

How important is the NYU supplemental essay?

NYU deems four elements as “very important” in evaluating a candidate. These are: the rigor of your secondary school record, class rank, GPA, standardized test scores, and talent/ability. The NYU supplemental essay is considered to be “important” alongside letters of recommendation, extracurricular activities, and character/personal qualities.

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In conclusion, if you are interested in working with one of College Transitions’ experienced and knowledgeable essay coaches as you craft your NYU essay, we encourage you to  get a quote  today.

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How to Ace the 2024-2025 NYU Supplemental Essay

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New York University is located in the heart of the city that never sleeps, New York City! Due to its ideal location in the Big Apple, NYU has an acceptance rate of 13% . Your NYU application will need to impress if you want to gain an education in NYC!

NYU applicants are offered the opportunity to submit an optional essay to better showcase who they are. NYU states that students who do not submit the optional essay will not be penalized in their admissions review process. Students who are set on NYU might want to take this extra step to impress. Keep reading to learn how to ace the NYU supplemental essay question!

Don’t miss: Top New York scholarships

The NYU supplemental essay prompt

In a world where disconnection seems to often prevail, we are looking for students who embody the qualities of bridge builders—students who can connect people, groups, and ideas to span divides, foster understanding, and promote collaboration within a dynamic, interconnected, and vibrant global academic community. We are eager to understand how your experiences have prepared you to build the bridges of the future. 

Maximum of 250 words.

How to respond to the NYU optional essay prompt 

Wow, that is a lot to cover in less than 250 words! Obviously, NYU is asking students to show that they are uniters and not dividers of their fellow humans. This might seem overwhelming if you feel like you don’t have any impressive experiences to share. However, the smallest deeds can move mountains, so share what you have authentically experienced as a person who strives to connect others for the common good.  

NYU specifically asks the following questions in an add-on section of the prompt:

Please consider one or more of the following questions in your essay:

•  What personal experiences or challenges have shaped you as a bridge builder?
• How have you been a bridge builder in your school, community, or personal life?
• What specific actions have you taken to build bridges between diverse groups, ideas, or cultures?
• How do you envision being a bridge builder during your time at our university and beyond?

What stands out about those NYU questions is just how specific they are. To answer the main question, you will need to “get real” and share any specifics about a time you brought people together. Fear not if you don’t have a personal story to share as a successful bride builder! If you cannot talk authentically about such experiences, share how you would like to become a bridge builder during your college years and beyond. Perhaps you have faced certain things in life and know from experience how to build bridges but have not yet branched out to do so.. Now is your chance to shine!

Additional resources

As a student working on college applications, you’ve got a lot on your plate. Fortunately, we have resources to help you through every step of the way. Check out our guides on how to write an essay about yourself , how to respond to the Common App prompts , and how to write 250 and 500 word essays. We can also help you decide how many schools to apply to and how to find safety, reach, and match schools .

If you’re wondering whether to send test scores to test-optional schools , we’ve got a guide for that as well. And once you start hearing back, we can help you create a college comparison spreadsheet to make your college choice. Finally, check out our free scholarship search tool to help fund your education and keep all of your college options open. Good luck!

Other colleges to consider

• Boston University (Boston, MA)
• Barnard College (New York, NY)
• Columbia University (New York, NY)
• University of Chicago (Chicago, IL)

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Frequently asked questions about the New York University supplemental essay

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How to write the new york university essays, updated for 2023-2024, question 1 .

We are looking for peacemakers, changemakers, global citizens, boundary breakers, creatives and innovators – Choose one quote from the following and let us know why it inspires you; or share a short quote and person not on our list who inspires you, and include why.

Explanation:

Although NYU gives you the option not to answer this supplemental question, we highly recommend that you take advantage of the opportunity to tell the school a little more about yourself.

That being said, the key to writing a strong supplement is choosing a quote that allows you to shed more light on your values, accomplishments, and the reasons why NYU is a good fit for you.

You should also highlight how you fit into one of the roles the university mentions they are looking for at the beginning of the prompt: a peacemaker, changemaker, global citizen, boundary breaker, creative or an innovator. How do you fit into one of these categories? Does one of the quotes provided mirror that which inspired you to take on that role?

As you write your essay, be sure to both explain why the quote you choose inspires you, and shed light on one of your own related values or accomplishments.

A strong NYU supplemental essay might look something like:

Quote 1: “We’re used to people telling us there are no solutions, and then creating our own. So we did what we do best. We reached out to each other, and to our allies, and we mobilized across communities to make change, to benefit and include everyone in society.” Judith Heuman, 2022 NYU Commencement Address”

“Drumroll please…We raised $220,000 for this year!”

Since the beginning of my sophomore year, I’ve had the pleasure of working alongside 24 of my peers to host an annual gala to raise funds for ALS research laboratories. Our group has carried on the work started ten years ago by our peers, who sprung into action when they learned of their teacher’s diagnosis.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis has no cure, and to this day, 5,000 people learn of their own diagnoses annually.

So, in Heumen’s words, we work to enact change, and we do it as a community by collaborating with local vendors, restaurants and businesses, both local and national, to secure the monetary donations, raffle items, decorations, and food and beverages necessary to host a successful gala. Every summer, two of us travel to Northwestern to partake in the Feinberg Institute’s ALS research—funded in part by our efforts.

Cold calling and soliciting donations from businesses in an effort to raise funds was daunting at first, but it ultimately brought me out of my shell. Last year, planning the gala as a Junior Lead taught me the importance of delegation, and working alongside my mentor at the Feinberg last summer, I learned the power of sheer dedication in the face of a problem for which no solution is in sight.

Heumen’s words reflect that which I have most loved about fighting for a cure alongside my peers: when communities work together in pursuit of a goal that supersedes their personal gain, far-reaching positive change is possible.

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NYU Supplemental Essays 2023-24

Nyu supplemental essays.

New York University, also known as NYU , is in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan. NYU is not only one of the best universities in New York but one of the world’s most elite schools. With the NYU acceptance rate at 13%, NYU is highly competitive , meaning you need a stellar NYU essay when applying. Finely crafted NYU supplemental essays will almost certainly make or break your admissions hopes for NYU.

Are you wondering how to get into NYU? NYU considers various components of your college application; you should understand how these requirements are evaluated. Most students know about high school transcripts and letters of recommendation, but have you thought about the NYU supplemental essays? NYU supplemental essays are designed to gather additional information that the admissions committee is most interested in. In this guide, we will cover NYU supplemental essays, NYU essay prompts, and NYU admission requirements.

New York University Essay: Quick Facts

Nyu essay: quick facts.

• NYU Acceptance Rate: 13%
• Early Decision I: November 1
• Early Decision II: January 1
• Regular Decision: January 5
• The New York University application is hosted exclusively on the Common App.
• The Common App allows students to submit supporting documents on the Common App. Review a list of supporting documents here .
• You can also submit your documents directly to the NYU admissions office. 
• After you submit your application on the Common App, you can check the status of your application on the NYU Admissions website . 
• 1 required Common App personal essay. 
• 1 optional NYU supplemental essay. 
• New York University Essay Tip: In addition to the Common App personal essay, NYU has one optional NYU essay. While this essay is optional, this is your chance to give the admissions committee more evidence of your writing skills and who you are.

Please note that essay requirements are subject to change each admissions cycle, and portions of this article may have been written before the final publication of the most recent guidelines. For the most up-to-date information on essay requirements, check the university’s admissions website. 

Does NYU have supplemental essays?

The NYU admission requirements include one optional supplemental NYU essay. But don’t be fooled by the “optional” label. Even though this NYU essay is not required, completing the optional NYU essay can be beneficial to your holistic application review. Essayless applications aren’t penalized, but you are missing out on a valuable opportunity to add additional context to your application. NYU supplemental essays are highly recommended for any student serious about getting into NYU.

To understand how the admissions committee reviews optional NYU supplemental essays, it is important to understand holistic application reviews . A holistic application review considers the metrics, attributes, and experiences of applicants in its admissions decisions. Holistic review does not assign numeric weights to your transcript, essay, or letters of recommendation. Instead, this approach looks at the collective story between all your application materials.

Holistic reviews understand that you’re much more than your GPA and your SAT scores. Admissions committees are interested in what makes you unique. One of the best platforms to showcase your unique experiences and point of view is your NYU supplemental essays. You can tell the admissions committee who you are and what you value in your own words.

What happened to the Why NYU essay?

Essay guides from years past go in-depth about the “why NYU” essay, but not this year. In fact, changes to the NYU essay prompts are common, as with many universities. Each year, admissions offices make updates to their admissions applications based on their goals. For instance, NYU—like many other schools—continues to be test-optional this year, so don’t fret if you don’t have standardized test scores .

This year the “why NYU” essay was removed, and another NYU essay was added. The essays for each application cycle are announced on August 1 st . This gives you plenty of time to read through the NYU essay prompts and prepare your NYU essay. Preparation and research are essential! Having a solid understanding of why you are interested in a college allows you to prepare a more intentional application.

Even though the “why NYU” essay is no longer one of the required NYU supplemental essays, don’t discount it. There are still some important takeaways from the “why NYU” essay that you can apply to other NYU supplemental essays. Writing a strong “why school” essay requires you to do your research and explore exactly why you would be a good fit for that institution.

Being able to articulate why you are a good fit in your NYU supplemental essays is critical. To set yourself up for success, make sure you thoroughly research NYU and why you want to attend. Later, we will discuss how to incorporate the same approach used in the “why NYU” essay into your other NYU supplemental essays. 

NYU Common App Essay

The Common Application is one of the largest college application platforms. There are thousands of colleges that use the Common App, including New York University. The Common App allows students to apply for multiple institutions using the same platform. The New York University essay portion is separate and discussed further down.

One of the application components that is common to all colleges on the platform is the Common App personal essay .  Also called the personal statement, this essay will go to NYU and any other colleges on your Common App portal. The Common App personal essay must be a minimum of 250 words and a maximum of 650 words. All applicants using the Common App write according to the same requirements. 

The Common App instructs students to choose one of the personal essay prompts below. These prompts allow you to write about yourself, your personality, and your values through thought-provoking topics. The prompts usually change slightly year-to-year, but the intention behind them is the same.

The personal essay prompts are very broad which gives applicants the opportunity to discuss anything they are interested in. There is no “best” prompt to choose. You should choose the prompt that most resonates with you and shows off your writing skills. There is even an option to submit an original piece of writing on any topic you choose. However, while the prompts ask about experiences or topics, you should ultimately reveal something of yourself in your essay.

2023-2024 Common App Personal Essay Prompts

Here are the Common App prompts for this application cycle:

Common App Essay Prompts

Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. if this sounds like you, then please share your story., the lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. how did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience, reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. what prompted your thinking what was the outcome, reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. how has this gratitude affected or motivated you, discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others., describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. why does it captivate you what or who do you turn to when you want to learn more, share an essay on any topic of your choice. it can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design..

After choosing a Common App prompt, you should carve out several weeks to review and revise your essay. Since this is the only required essay,  you should view it as a critical piece of your college application. After all, New York University and all of the other colleges you apply to will be reading your personal essay.

Many students spend all their energy on trying to come up with a unique topic . Remember that what’s most important is not what you say but how you say it and what you reveal about yourself. What makes your essay unique is your unique point of view. You should channel the words, details, and stories that feel most authentic to you. This is how you stand out . 

Other articles cover this year’s Common App essay in more depth—our main focus is the NYU essay. Keep reading to learn more about the NYU supplemental essays. 

NYU Supplemental Essay

Although there is no longer a “why NYU” Essay, students may answer another supplemental New York University essay. While this New York University essay is optional, answering it can show your interest in NYU and bolster your application.

Considering the 13% NYU acceptance rate, a successful NYU supplemental essay may decide if you get into NYU . Supplemental essay prompts are designed for the admissions committee to learn additional details about the applicant. Choosing to answer an optional essay is just another opportunity to put your best self forward for the committee.

Check out the optional NYU essay prompts below. Then, we’ll discuss how to go about choosing the best NYU essay prompt for you.

NYU Essay Prompt for 2023–2024

We are looking for peacemakers, changemakers, global citizens, boundary breakers, creatives, and innovators – choose one quote from the following and let us know why it inspires you, or share a short quote and person not on our list who inspires you, and include why., 1. “we’re used to people telling us there are no solutions, and then creating our own. so we did what we do best. we reached out to each other, and to our allies, and we mobilized across communities to make change, to benefit and include everyone in society.” judith heuman, 2022 nyu commencement address, 2. “i encourage your discomfort, that you must contribute, that you must make your voice heard. that is the essence of good citizenship.” sherilynn ifill, 2015 nyu commencement address, 3. “if you know how to fly but you never knew how to walk, wouldn’t that be sad” lang lang, 2015 nyu honorary degree recipient, 4. “you have the right to want things and to want things to change.” sanna marin, former prime minister of finland, 2023 nyu commencement address, 5. “it’s hard to fight when the fight ain’t fair.” taylor swift, change, released 2008, 2022 nyu commencement speaker, applicants may also share a short quote and person not on this list, and why the quote inspires them. of course, they may also choose not to answer the question at all., choosing a quote for your nyu supplemental essay.

The optional NYU essay gives students several quotes to choose from. With so many options, you are probably wondering what quote you should choose. Let’s think about how to approach this prompt and the quotes it gives you.

First, identify the quotes that most resonate with you—choosing several is fine. You can consider how each quote relates to your background and life experiences. You may even find some commonalities between you and the person quoted. No matter what draws you to a specific quote, it is critical that you find a quote that best suits you. While no quote is bad, there are undoubtedly some quotes that will feel more relatable to you than others. 

As an exercise, you can choose your top two quotes and brainstorm NYU supplemental essays about them. This includes making an outline, adding details you’d like to incorporate, and deciding on the structure of your NYU essay. Don’t forget about incorporating why you would be a good fit for NYU. This can be done explicitly or subtly by drawing parallels between your personal values and the institution’s values. 

Like the Common App personal essay, if you don’t love any of the quotes, you can always choose your own. If you go this route, consider the quotes provided as inspiration. Each of these quotes encourages you to think critically and explore your thoughts and beliefs beyond the surface. The NYU admissions team chose these quotes for a reason. They can be great clues to the type of information that NYU is hoping to gather through the NYU supplemental essays. 

How long should the NYU supplemental essays be?

The NYU supplemental essays have a maximum word count of 250 words. Typically, that results in two to three paragraphs. There is no minimum word count for the NYU supplemental essays. Students should focus on addressing the prompt in its entirety instead of focusing solely on how long the essay should be. If you’ve said everything you wanted to and haven’t hit the word limit, don’t sweat it. There are great 100-word NYU supplemental essays and other NYU supplemental essays that use the entire word limit. No matter how long your NYU supplemental essays are, you should feel confident that you addressed the prompt fully.

What does NYU admissions look for in essays?

Are you wondering how to get into NYU with a strong essay? NYU supplemental essays continue to be an important part of your admissions application. A strong NYU essay allows the admissions committee to envision you on the campus of NYU. To best answer your NYU essay prompts, applicants should have a strong understanding of NYU’s mission and values.

NYU’s history is steeped in innovation and trailblazing. NYU alumni are often change agents and pacesetters in their respective fields. NYU also values global education—many NYU alumni go on to contribute to the global community in their discipline. If you read through past and present NYU essay prompts, you will see evidence of these values.

#1: Can you contribute to NYU?

The first thing NYU is looking for is you! The admissions committee uses the Common App essay and NYU supplemental essays to get to know you as a person. They are interested in your interests, motivations, experiences, and unique point of view. Your NYU supplemental essays are your chance to be your most authentic self.

Even though this prompt is not a “why school” essay, you should be finding parallels between NYU’s and your own personal values. Writing about your passions and motivations should answer the question “Why NYU?” for the admissions committee. Ultimately this allows them to see you on their campus making contributions in the classroom and beyond. 

#2: Did you answer the prompt?

Second, you should always be sure that you are answering the NYU essay prompts in their entirety. The reader should walk away feeling as though you fully understood the NYU essay prompts and presented an organized and structured response. Thorough planning, drafting, and revising can make sure your essays are logically sound and comprehensible.

Don’t discount style in conveying your answer to the prompt. One of the best ways to get your message across is by adding in detailed descriptions and anecdotes. Your essay should feel inviting and authentic. Sometimes describing the sound, smell, and feel of a moment can help invite the reader into your world. 

#3: Does your NYU essay highlight you ?

Finally, your NYU essay is less about testing your spelling and grammar and more about producing a compelling narrative. Many high school students are overly concerned with impressing the admissions committee with large words and complicated concepts. While the quality of your writing, grammar, and spelling are important, these elements are seen as a baseline.

Certainly, the admissions committee is looking for writing that is at the college level. But more than that, your perspective, tone, and language should be authentically yours. You should focus on communicating your unique viewpoint and values by answering this prompt. This is what will truly set you apart.

What is the application deadline for NYU?

NYU has three deadlines to choose from: Early Decision I, Early Decision II, and Regular Decision. The NYU application deadline for Early Decision I is November 1 st and the NYU application deadline for Early Decision II is January 1 st . The final NYU application deadline, Regular Decision,  is January 5 th . There are pros and cons to each NYU application deadline, so it is important to find out which NYU deadline is best for you.

Regular Decision

First of all, Regular Decision is the typical deadline for college applications. Most students apply through Regular Decision, meaning more time to prepare but a much larger applicant pool. 

Obviously, having more time can be a great asset if you need to work on your essays more. Furthermore, some applicants may benefit from their first-semester senior grades being available at the time of their application review. These students may also have additional time to retake standardized tests.

On the other hand, the larger applicant pool in Regular Decision means a lower chance of admittance. Another downside of applying for Regular Decision is you won’t receive your admissions decision until April 1 st . This leaves students with limited time to decide where they will enroll in the fall. 

Early Decision at NYU

The Early Decision I and Early Decision II plans are binding admissions offers. Should a student be admitted during either Early Decision round, they are expected to enroll at NYU. The ED I deadline is very early in the senior year. However, these students benefit by finding out their admissions decision on December 15 th .

Students aiming for ED I should be prepared to begin working on their application and NYU supplemental essays on August 1 st . ED I applicants should also note that the committee will only see what senior year courses they are registered for and not their final grades. If your grades weren’t great through junior year, ED I may not be for you.

The Early Decision II application deadline is later than Early Decision I. Many ED II applicants applied to other selective schools early but were not admitted. Like Regular Decision, ED II’s later deadline gives applicants more time to revise NYU supplemental essays or take tests. ED II applicants are notified of their admissions decision on February 15 th .

How to choose your application strategy

Both early rounds have smaller applicant pools than Regular Decision, which may be a plus. At the same time, early applicants typically have very strong NYU supplemental essays, so it’s a more competitive environment. Nevertheless, early admission rounds often have higher acceptance rates than Regular Decision. Furthermore, there is the fact that these are binding—you must be certain you want to attend NYU. If a binding application is not the right plan for you, you can of course apply Regular Decision.

No matter what application plan you choose, the importance of your NYU supplemental essays remains the same. Starting your NYU essay early is critical to having enough time to properly review and revise your work. You should also work in enough time to let a trusted teacher or college advisor review your essay and share feedback. 

For more insight into what NYU is looking for in its students, check out this video below from NYU Admissions:

More NYU Essay Resources from CollegeAdvisor

CollegeAdvisor is here to help you learn more about NYU admission requirements and how to get into NYU.  As you are preparing to write your NYU supplemental essays, review this guide of example NYU supplemental essays and why they worked. While these essays answer old NYU essay prompts, they may provide inspiration for other college essays.

NYU supplemental essays are just one component of your New York University application. In addition to guides about how to get into NYU, CollegeAdvisor also hosts weekly webinars like this NYU panel webinar . We also have a wealth of Common App resources, covering everything from extracurriculars to recommendation letters .

NYU Supplemental Essays – Takeaways

Are you still wondering how to get into NYU?

Here are some NYU essay takeaways to help you write strong NYU supplemental essays. 

• NYU requires the Common App essay and has one optional supplemental essay. Serious applicants should complete the optional NYU essay.
• Even though the “why NYU” essay is no longer on the application, strategies for approaching that essay still apply. You should always incorporate why you are interested in the school in your NYU supplemental essays.
• The Common App personal essay is just as important as your NYU supplemental essay, especially because it goes to every school on your final college list ! 
• Both the Common App personal essay and the optional NYU supplemental essay have a maximum word count. You don’t have to reach that maximum word count, but you must answer the prompt in a thorough and structured way. 
• There are no bad quotes to choose for your NYU supplemental essay, but some may better fit you than others. 
• If the Common App essay prompts or NYU supplemental essay quotes don’t appeal to you, come up with your own. Just make sure you are sharing the same type of insight that the given prompts are requesting. 
• Pay close attention to the application deadlines to make sure you have ample time to write your NYU supplemental essays.
• Focus less on trying to impress the admissions committee and more on being your authentic self in your essay. 

We know that the low NYU acceptance rate can be intimidating—highly selective schools are daunting in the college application process. But we’re here to help, with articles and webinars and even one-on-one advising. Take advantage of all the resources on CollegeAdvisor.com to help you put your best foot forward.

This essay guide was written by Chelsea Holley. Looking for more admissions support? Click here to schedule a free meeting with one of our Admissions Specialists. During your meeting, our team will discuss your profile and help you find targeted ways to increase your admissions odds at top schools. We’ll also answer any questions and discuss how CollegeAdvisor.com can support you in the college application process.

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NYU Supplemental Essay Examples

Perusing NYU supplemental essay examples will greatly help you with your own essay writing. There is nothing quite like being able to see how somebody else has composed their essays to help you with your own.

Expert college essay tips can really help you with how to start a college essay , and you can even study specifically with supplemental college essays , but being able to read samples will be particularly useful to you.

In this article, you will see sample prompts for NYU’s supplemental essay prompts, as well as a small tips section on formatting and requirements.

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Article Contents 10 min read

Essay Prompt #1: Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

Sometimes I feel like my country doesn’t belong to me, or even my life some times. I live in a suburb of New Jersey, and in my particular area, I’m one of the only Black kids around. All of my friends are white.

None of this is necessarily a problem – I love my friends dearly – but it doesn’t change the fact that I get a daily dose of, “Hey, you’re different!” just from walking out the front door. If that wasn’t enough of a punctuation point on the whole racial imbalance of my particular life, I get to do things like switch on the news, or read any headlines, so it seems, on any given day just to get an underline or two added to the way I am distinct from my peers.

I have sat with my friends at a comedy show and had the comic tell racially charged jokes. I can feel them look to me. “Is that funny?” say their darting, peripheral glances, and I know that I have a choice to make; I can laugh or not. If I laugh, it’s funny. If I don’t, they’ll be offended for me. Even if the joke just wasn’t funny – not offensive, just not worthy of a chuckle – they might get offended for me. I love my friends, and they clearly have my back, but man alive, is this wearying sometimes.

“Go back to where you came from!” the racists shout to me, and I think, “Jersey? Where I came from is a ten-minute bus ride.” Nonetheless, I persistently receive this abuse and wonder if it’s all worth it. Maybe I should explore my roots. My grandparents came over from Senegal. It’s not as if Senegal couldn’t use another bright, idealistic student to try and improve its quality of life. Senegal is still coughing from colonialism, the boot having only been removed from its neck since 1960.

That feels like giving up, though, so I’ll stay – just to show those racists who the real patriot is, I suppose.

As I look toward my future, I think about where I come from – as a person, not "Jersey."

I come from a place that feels like home until the world outside makes me feel like I don’t belong. But my family, my friends, my suburb feels welcoming. I want to take that and expand it. It sounds like a pipe dream. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could put all this garbage of animosity and prejudice behind us? Well, why not?

Figuring out how to write a college essay is a bit of a process in and of itself, but following the examples above and the format below should really help you.

Most NYU supplemental essays are between 500 and 700 words. You don’t want to go too long, or you’ll risk becoming tedious; remember that the admissions committee will be reading more than 200,000+ essays from their recently reported 105,000 applicants. With those numbers, making your essay run for pages and pages just seems cruel.

As for the format itself, we encourage you to stick to a standard essay writing format:

• an opening paragraph that sets everything up, which should be headed by an attention-grabbing “hook” sentence;
• the body of the essay, containing two or three main points over a few paragraphs, during which you will explore your main ideas;
• finally, a concluding paragraph which wraps everything up.

Polish up your opening paragraphs by reading some college essay introduction examples .

You’re applying to an academic institution, so keep the tone on the formal side, avoiding slang and other types of suspect vernacular. The differences between a standard essay and your application essays is that the latter are written in the first person because you are telling your story. You can be freer with opinion – and you don’t need citations, of course!

The biggest requirement, and what you should focus on the most, is showing your best qualities to the admissions committee and making sure that you stand out. Consider these essays a way to “get to know you,” almost like a written interview before the in-person interview you hope to get.

If you follow these tips and construct your essay with patience, thoughtfulness, and skill, we are confident that you will get that interview.

Wondering how to navigate your applications?

Constructing a supplemental essay is a long process and can feel intimidating. We hope that reading these examples will make you feel a lot less intimidated and more confident about going forward with your application. If you need an extra boost, a college essay review service can really help you refine what you have written. Remember to put in the work, go after what you want, and seek help where you need it.

NYU doesn’t post a limit on their website. From year to year, application requirements might vary. Pay attention to any instructions in your application package and make sure you stick to the limits that NYU sets. Never go above the limit, remember to include spaces in character count restrictions, and more than anything, remember that brevity is the soul of wit: a shorter essay – well-written – will be more effective than a rambling one.

Spend some regular, quality time with your essays over the course of 6-8 weeks. That might sound like a lot, but going from brainstorming your way through the blank pages to putting the final polish and spell-checked version into your application should take time. Remember that you’ll almost definitely need to do multiple drafts and re-writes – ideally receiving good, reliable feedback between those drafts.

There are no rules that say you do, which means you don’t have to. Still, remember that these essays will be (mostly) about you, so the first person is understood to be in play and will be the most convenient way to convey your story to the applications committee. Use the storytelling perspective that best suits your essay, of course, but don’t feel the need to try something different just because you can.

It’s your work, so yes.

Make sure that you answer the prompts, though. Whoever wrote them was meticulous about the wording; therefore, you need to answer the exact wording of the prompt. If your recycled essay answers a similar question but one that is nevertheless slightly different, you need to edit your essay to fit the new prompt. That might be a minor tweak or a complete overhaul. Make sure you scrub or exchange any NYU-specific lingo from essays you use for another school.

Not formally, but you are being judged and evaluated based on your essays. That’s not to say that you’re being scored necessarily, just that what you write really matters.

Don’t worry about grades or points; worry about effort and results.

NYU has them, so if you want in to New York University, then yes, you’re looking at some supplemental essay writing.

They can, but they are often very similar from one year to the next. Institutions aren’t radically shifting the kind of students they want from year to year. So, there might be a bit of a change-up, but you will usually find very similar prompts.

No. You should highlight yourself in ways that the admissions committee will appreciate enough to bring you in for an interview. Highlighting a skillset you have, qualities you have, or academics are great, but there is no one element in that list that is required to be included in your essay.

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New York University (NYU) 2024-25 Supplemental Essay Prompt Guide

Early Decision: Nov 1

Regular Decision Deadline: Jan 5

New York University (NYU) 2024-25 Application Essay Explanations

The Requirements: 1 essay of 250 words

Supplemental Essay Type(s) : Community , Diversity

In a world where disconnection seems to often prevail, we are looking for students who embody the qualities of bridge builders—students who can connect people, groups, and ideas to span divides, foster understanding, and promote collaboration within a dynamic, interconnected, and vibrant global academic community. We are eager to understand how your experiences have prepared you to build the bridges of the future. Please consider one or more of the following questions in your essay: 

What personal experiences or challenges have shaped you as a bridge builder , how have you been a bridge builder in your school, community, or personal life , what specific actions have you taken to build bridges between diverse groups, ideas, or cultures , how do you envision being a bridge builder during your time at our university and beyond.

NYU aims to admit students who will be active participants in and contributors to a dynamic and inclusive campus culture, so all of these prompts focus on the idea of community in a different way. The first one asks you to describe your background and what has made you into a person who can bring others together. The second asks you to describe concrete ways you have built bridges in your life so far. The third asks you to describe actions you’ve taken in a more expansive way; rather than in your personal life, focus on broader cultural or ideological bridges. The last prompt asks you to think about how you will foster collaboration once you’re admitted to NYU. Note that you can talk about any number of these questions in your final essay. Maybe you’ve volunteered at your church’s food pantry every other weekend since you were in middle school or canvassed for political candidates that you believe will generate positive change for generations to come. Whatever your example(s) may be, don’t be afraid to touch on what those experiences meant to you as well as the work you hope to do in the future (hopefully around NYU’s campus!).

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3 Strong NYU Diversity Essay Examples

New York University (NYU) is an extremely selective school, so it’s important to write strong essays that help your application stand out. In this post, we’ll share some essays real students have submitted for NYU’s Diversity prompt and outline their strengths and areas of improvement. 

(Names and identifying information have been changed, but all other details are preserved.)

Note: Looking at examples of real essays students have submitted to colleges can be beneficial to get inspiration for your essays, but you should never copy or plagiarize from these examples when writing your own essays. Colleges can tell when an essay isn’t genuine and will not view students favorably if they plagiarize. 

Read our NYU essay breakdown to get a comprehensive overview of this year’s supplemental prompts.

NYU Diversity Prompt

The following essays respond to this prompt:

NYU was founded on the belief that a student’s identity should not dictate the ability for them to access higher education. That sense of opportunity for all students, of all backgrounds, remains a part of who we are today and a critical part of what makes us a world class university. Our community embraces diversity, in all its forms, as a cornerstone of the NYU experience. We would like to better understand how your experiences would help us to shape and grow our diverse community. Please respond in 250 words or less.

This is the classic Diversity Essay , which asks students to share what makes them unique. While diversity is most commonly associated with ethnicity, culture, and identity, keep in mind that it also encompasses:

• Interests, hobbies, and talents
• Perspectives, values, and opinions
• Experiences
• Personality traits

With that, let’s dive into the student examples!

Example 1 – Life as an Indian-Muslim

Growing up in America as an Indian-Muslim, I am constantly reminded of my minority status. As a child, the only outlet I had from this feeling was traveling back to India; the secluded family farm welcomed me with the pungent aroma of Indian spices and the constant chatter of relatives always brought me comfort. However, as governments changed and the anti-Muslim sentiment in India grew, an insecurity in my identity began to form. Loud riots exploded and brutal attacks on Muslim families made it clear that I was no longer welcome in a country which once felt like home. Living in a world which never regarded me as part of the majority led me to turn to writing as the cornerstone of my cultural expression. 

Reporting through the general and Islamic publications at NYU, including the Aftab Arts and Literature publication, is how I plan to use my seven years of prior experience in journalism to shape the diverse community at NYU. It is imperative that I not only raise a voice of representation for the miniscule percentage of Indian-Muslim students, but also give the larger NYU community unbiased reporting on Muslim concerns. Being a voice for Muslims in the media is essential to combating Islamophobia, especially since 9/11, as media propaganda has instilled a deadly bias against Muslims.

At NYU, where almost every country in the world is represented, I will be able to learn about other unique cultures and expand the community by educating on my own.

What the Essay Did Well

This student does a great job of answering this NYU-specific Diversity Prompt , specifically through their clear, engaging structure.

The prompt is two-pronged. Students must describe:

1) their diverse background or experience, and 

2) how their diverse background or experience will improve the community at NYU. 

In this essay, the student answers the first question in their first paragraph and the second question in their second paragraph. They connect the paragraphs with a strong transition sentence that takes us from their past experiences to the future experiences they hope to have at NYU: “Living in a world which never regarded me as part of the majority led me to turn to writing as the cornerstone of my cultural expression.”

On a smaller scale, the first paragraph is structured by a beautiful narrative arc. This student struggled with cultural expression growing up, so they enjoyed traveling back to India where they felt comfortable, but then Indian political activity made India less comfortable, and ultimately they turned to writing, rather than a place, as their preferred form of cultural expression. Their story is easy to follow, yet detailed, with compelling lines like “the pungent aroma of Indian spices and the constant chatter of relatives always brought me comfort” ensuring the reader doesn’t lose focus.

In addition to providing an engaging essay scaffolding, this student does a great job of making themself seem engaging by sharing their thoughts on the Indian-Muslim experience. Their reflections on the Indian government’s views on Islam, and the relationship between media, 9/11, and Islamophobia are brief by necessity, but nonetheless show this student has strong critical thinking skills, and would have a lot to teach their peers at NYU. 

Finally, the student explains in concrete terms why they would be a valuable addition to the NYU community. In the sentence “Reporting through the general and Islamic publications at NYU, including the Aftab Arts and Literature publication, is how I plan to use my seven years of prior experience in journalism to shape the diverse community at NYU,” they both subtly reference their past accomplishments and paint a picture of how they’ll use NYU’s resources to continue building on those achievements. 

What Could Be Improved 

While this essay is both personal and compelling, there are two changes the student could make to take their writing to the next level.

Firstly, the student’s topic is emotional, but they don’t express much emotion in their writing. For example, they write “the only outlet I had from this feeling was traveling back to India,” but we are left wondering what “this feeling” was.

Some small adjustments could help readers better understand the student’s emotions. For example, they could change their first sentence to “Growing up in America as an Indian-Muslim has been painful, which has made me feel conflicted about my minority status” or “Growing up in America as an Indian-Muslim has been isolating, which has made me resent my minority status.”

Additionally, as they write about the effect of the anti-Muslim attacks in India on their cultural identity, they could add a sentence describing their emotions. For example:

“Loud riots exploded and brutal attacks on Muslim families made it clear that I was no longer welcome in a country that once felt like home. At the same time, the country that is my home has always been fond of profiling my family as terrorists, when they are the ones who force us to live in constant fear. Living in a world that never regarded me as part of the majority led me to turn to writing as the cornerstone of my cultural expression.”

Secondly, because the student does such a great job of responding to the prompt in their first two paragraphs, the concluding sentence “At NYU, where almost every country in the world is represented, I will be able to learn about other unique cultures and expand the community by educating on my own” is unnecessary. We are already convinced that they will expand the NYU community. Instead, these words can be reallocated to adding sentences with emotional valence.

Example 2 – Santa’s Not Real!

When I was four, my parents told me that Santa wasn’t real. This wasn’t shocking because I was Jewish, and my parents never perpetuated the idea that an old man snuck into our house to deliver presents. But, in December 2009, they gave me paramount instructions. I could not tell any of my friends the truth about Santa. The innocence of my pre-K peers was in my hands, so I promised never to reveal this colossal secret. However, every Christmas, I would feel isolated from my Christian friends. Annually, I was told how terrible it was that I didn’t celebrate.

For a while, I felt terrible too, and the isolation only persisted as I got older. At thirteen, I began fasting for Yom Kippur, so I would miss that day of school. However, my teachers would always manage to schedule a test that I would be forced to miss. This was infuriating. But, in the heat of my anger, I realized something. My Southern community wasn’t targeting Jewish people. They were just ignorant of cultures different from their own.

This realization made me value the importance of celebrating cultural diversity. No one should ever feel isolated because of their differences.

This essay does a great job of drawing us in with its first sentence. To most American readers, the sentence “When I was four, my parents told me that Santa wasn’t real” is intriguing. Finding out that Santa isn’t real is a universal experience that binds most of us, so we want to know why this student was told at such a young age. 

Another strength of this essay is the student’s charming use of language. For example, the student cleverly describes Santa: “my parents never perpetuated the idea that an old man snuck into our house to deliver presents.” Similarly, the sentence “The innocence of my pre-K peers was in my hands” is funny.

Lastly, this student does a good job of pointing out their identity. While admissions officers have access to the name of this student’s high school, without being specifically reminded that the student grew up Jewish in the South, they likely would not have put that together. The sentence “My Southern community wasn’t targeting Jewish people” brings attention to this student’s complex identity.

The main issue with this essay is that it does not flow. This is attributable to a lack of structure.

The student begins with the Santa anecdote, which is explored for four sentences (more than a “hook” normally gets), but oddly, does not turn into the focus of the essay. Instead, the student abruptly moves to discuss other experiences when they felt isolated due to being Jewish. For this anecdote to be effective, the student needs to do one of two things: focus it or connect it. 

With the “focus it” method, the student would finish the Santa anecdote, then use the rest of the essay to reflect on how the anecdote shows their values or approach to diversity. This could look like:

“When I was four, my parents told me that Santa wasn’t real. This wasn’t shocking because I was Jewish, and my parents never perpetuated the idea that an old man snuck into our house to deliver presents. But, in December 2009, they gave me paramount instructions. I could not tell any of my friends the truth about Santa. The innocence of my pre-K peers was in my hands, so I promised never to reveal this colossal secret. Unfortunately, my pre-K self was chatty and didn’t understand that the Santa secret would hurt my friends if I told them, and I ended up telling Natalia Huckabee. Natalia’s mom called my mom and explained the importance of us respecting each other’s differences and my mom was mortified. 

Since then, it has been very important to me that I respect the beliefs of people around me and that they respect my Jewish identity… “

For the “connect it” method, the student would shorten their Santa anecdote, connect it to other anecdotes about feeling isolated, then reflect on how that isolation affects their worldview. This would look like:

“My Jewish parents never perpetuated the idea that an old man snuck into our house to deliver presents. Actually, at the ripe age of four, they sat me down and told me that Santa wasn’t real. In that same sitting, they gave me very specific instructions: I could not tell any of my friends the truth about Santa. I just had to say that Santa didn’t visit Jews. 

Each year, I was told a million times how terrible it was that I didn’t get presents from Santa. Each year, I missed four to seven tests for Jewish holidays. Each year, I… “

Either way, the anecdote should be followed by reflection. Currently, this student’s introspective musings feel surface-level and are not compelling. They include “For a while, I felt terrible too” and “This was infuriating.” 

Similarly, the conclusions they draw about the importance of diversity lack nuance and do not show a capacity for deep thought. These include “I realized something. My Southern community wasn’t targeting Jewish people. They were just ignorant of cultures different from their own” and “No one should ever feel isolated because of their differences.” 

Dedicating a few sentences specifically to deep reflection would allow the student to explore their identity with more authenticity and would help admissions officers get to know them.

Lastly, this student completely fails to answer a core element of this prompt: “ We would like to better understand how your experiences would help us to shape and grow our diverse community.” The student does not say anything about NYU, the NYU community, or how they will contribute to the NYU community.

For any Diversity Essay , it is extremely important to write about how your diversity shapes your outlook and actions. Specifically with this prompt, the student should forecast how their diversity would play out at NYU. They could describe their plans to start a club, participate in a specific research initiative, or get involved with activism. 

Example 3 – Doc McStuffins

“The Doc is in, and she’ll fix you up!”   

Why was it okay for McStuffins to be both black and intelligent in her world, but it was so rare in mine? Based on assumption, I was shoved into intervention groups without proper assessment, causing me to avoid participation in class. At least until I discovered my true passion — Biology.  

While my teachers discouraged me from STEM, my ever-curious mind gravitated towards it, yearning to learn more. I memorized each detail of what I was given, grinning as I recited cell systems and organelles. I now hold an internship investigating DNA editing technology (CRISPR), working to alter DNA of ailments through laboratory work and qualitative analysis. Somehow, seeing a 7-year-old girl wipe jam off a frantic doll, convinced it was bleeding, motivated me to dive head-first into the world of science.

Diversity in science is incredibly significant, but how can there be diversity if non-conventional scientists are discouraged? NYU values the importance of diversity, making it the school for me. At NYU I will join Blackademics and, I will form a podcast for women of color to talk about their experiences with commonly faced educational setbacks. As someone encouraged by seeing representation, I deeply understand the excitement that seeing someone like you doing “atypical” things can bring. Through NYU courses like Intergroup Dialogue, I will hold a similar influence that Doc McStuffins had on me towards others. 

This is an example of a hook-done-right. The essay starts with a quote from the Doc McStuffins theme song, which (whether you’re familiar with Doc McStuffins or not) reads as sweet and endearing. Then, she uses a provocative question to connect the quote to her own experiences, which serves as a transition to the bulk of the essay, which is about her experiences.

This student centers her essay around a specific theme: representation. A common error in college essay writing is the failure to stay focused, but she successfully uses her theme to anchor her essay. Her hook is about representation , her setbacks are about representation , and she wants to get involved in specific NYU activities to improve representation . 

Lastly, and extremely importantly, this student thoroughly answers the prompt. She is asked how her diverse experiences will improve the NYU community, and she explains how her experience growing up as a young, Black woman — interested in STEM but shut out from STEM — will motivate her to work towards equal representation at NYU.

This student’s main area for improvement has to do with her integration of the Doc McStuffins hook. Simply put, Doc McStuffins is referenced too much in her later paragraphs. With a limited word count, every sentence is a resource, and the majority of sentences should go toward a student’s values and personality.

Here, we would suggest that “Somehow, seeing a 7-year-old girl wipe jam off a frantic doll, convinced it was bleeding, motivated me to dive head-first into the world of science” be replaced with a sentence describing the student’s emotions about her success in STEM. Throughlines are great, but connecting every paragraph back to your hook is repetitive.

Additionally, the aforementioned sentence is not easily digestible. Unless your reader is extremely familiar with Doc McStuffins, it will probably take them a minute to figure out who the 7-year-old girl is and what jam blood has to do with anything. This same issue presents itself in the sentence “Based on assumption, I was shoved into intervention groups without proper assessment, causing me to avoid participation in class,” which is hard to understand.

Read through your essay to ensure that all of your sentences make sense, no matter the knowledge level of the person reading. Run your essay by friends and family, and specifically ask them to flag areas that they think might be confusing.

Where to Get Feedback on Your Essay 

Want feedback on your NYU diversity essay before you submit? That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays. 

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How to cite ChatGPT

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We, the APA Style team, are not robots. We can all pass a CAPTCHA test , and we know our roles in a Turing test . And, like so many nonrobot human beings this year, we’ve spent a fair amount of time reading, learning, and thinking about issues related to large language models, artificial intelligence (AI), AI-generated text, and specifically ChatGPT . We’ve also been gathering opinions and feedback about the use and citation of ChatGPT. Thank you to everyone who has contributed and shared ideas, opinions, research, and feedback.

In this post, I discuss situations where students and researchers use ChatGPT to create text and to facilitate their research, not to write the full text of their paper or manuscript. We know instructors have differing opinions about how or even whether students should use ChatGPT, and we’ll be continuing to collect feedback about instructor and student questions. As always, defer to instructor guidelines when writing student papers. For more about guidelines and policies about student and author use of ChatGPT, see the last section of this post.

Quoting or reproducing the text created by ChatGPT in your paper

If you’ve used ChatGPT or other AI tools in your research, describe how you used the tool in your Method section or in a comparable section of your paper. For literature reviews or other types of essays or response or reaction papers, you might describe how you used the tool in your introduction. In your text, provide the prompt you used and then any portion of the relevant text that was generated in response.

Unfortunately, the results of a ChatGPT “chat” are not retrievable by other readers, and although nonretrievable data or quotations in APA Style papers are usually cited as personal communications , with ChatGPT-generated text there is no person communicating. Quoting ChatGPT’s text from a chat session is therefore more like sharing an algorithm’s output; thus, credit the author of the algorithm with a reference list entry and the corresponding in-text citation.

When prompted with “Is the left brain right brain divide real or a metaphor?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that although the two brain hemispheres are somewhat specialized, “the notation that people can be characterized as ‘left-brained’ or ‘right-brained’ is considered to be an oversimplification and a popular myth” (OpenAI, 2023).

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

You may also put the full text of long responses from ChatGPT in an appendix of your paper or in online supplemental materials, so readers have access to the exact text that was generated. It is particularly important to document the exact text created because ChatGPT will generate a unique response in each chat session, even if given the same prompt. If you create appendices or supplemental materials, remember that each should be called out at least once in the body of your APA Style paper.

When given a follow-up prompt of “What is a more accurate representation?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that “different brain regions work together to support various cognitive processes” and “the functional specialization of different regions can change in response to experience and environmental factors” (OpenAI, 2023; see Appendix A for the full transcript).

Creating a reference to ChatGPT or other AI models and software

The in-text citations and references above are adapted from the reference template for software in Section 10.10 of the Publication Manual (American Psychological Association, 2020, Chapter 10). Although here we focus on ChatGPT, because these guidelines are based on the software template, they can be adapted to note the use of other large language models (e.g., Bard), algorithms, and similar software.

The reference and in-text citations for ChatGPT are formatted as follows:

• Parenthetical citation: (OpenAI, 2023)
• Narrative citation: OpenAI (2023)

Let’s break that reference down and look at the four elements (author, date, title, and source):

Author: The author of the model is OpenAI.

Date: The date is the year of the version you used. Following the template in Section 10.10, you need to include only the year, not the exact date. The version number provides the specific date information a reader might need.

Title: The name of the model is “ChatGPT,” so that serves as the title and is italicized in your reference, as shown in the template. Although OpenAI labels unique iterations (i.e., ChatGPT-3, ChatGPT-4), they are using “ChatGPT” as the general name of the model, with updates identified with version numbers.

The version number is included after the title in parentheses. The format for the version number in ChatGPT references includes the date because that is how OpenAI is labeling the versions. Different large language models or software might use different version numbering; use the version number in the format the author or publisher provides, which may be a numbering system (e.g., Version 2.0) or other methods.

Bracketed text is used in references for additional descriptions when they are needed to help a reader understand what’s being cited. References for a number of common sources, such as journal articles and books, do not include bracketed descriptions, but things outside of the typical peer-reviewed system often do. In the case of a reference for ChatGPT, provide the descriptor “Large language model” in square brackets. OpenAI describes ChatGPT-4 as a “large multimodal model,” so that description may be provided instead if you are using ChatGPT-4. Later versions and software or models from other companies may need different descriptions, based on how the publishers describe the model. The goal of the bracketed text is to briefly describe the kind of model to your reader.

Source: When the publisher name and the author name are the same, do not repeat the publisher name in the source element of the reference, and move directly to the URL. This is the case for ChatGPT. The URL for ChatGPT is https://chat.openai.com/chat . For other models or products for which you may create a reference, use the URL that links as directly as possible to the source (i.e., the page where you can access the model, not the publisher’s homepage).

Other questions about citing ChatGPT

You may have noticed the confidence with which ChatGPT described the ideas of brain lateralization and how the brain operates, without citing any sources. I asked for a list of sources to support those claims and ChatGPT provided five references—four of which I was able to find online. The fifth does not seem to be a real article; the digital object identifier given for that reference belongs to a different article, and I was not able to find any article with the authors, date, title, and source details that ChatGPT provided. Authors using ChatGPT or similar AI tools for research should consider making this scrutiny of the primary sources a standard process. If the sources are real, accurate, and relevant, it may be better to read those original sources to learn from that research and paraphrase or quote from those articles, as applicable, than to use the model’s interpretation of them.

We’ve also received a number of other questions about ChatGPT. Should students be allowed to use it? What guidelines should instructors create for students using AI? Does using AI-generated text constitute plagiarism? Should authors who use ChatGPT credit ChatGPT or OpenAI in their byline? What are the copyright implications ?

On these questions, researchers, editors, instructors, and others are actively debating and creating parameters and guidelines. Many of you have sent us feedback, and we encourage you to continue to do so in the comments below. We will also study the policies and procedures being established by instructors, publishers, and academic institutions, with a goal of creating guidelines that reflect the many real-world applications of AI-generated text.

For questions about manuscript byline credit, plagiarism, and related ChatGPT and AI topics, the APA Style team is seeking the recommendations of APA Journals editors. APA Style guidelines based on those recommendations will be posted on this blog and on the APA Style site later this year.

Update: APA Journals has published policies on the use of generative AI in scholarly materials .

We, the APA Style team humans, appreciate your patience as we navigate these unique challenges and new ways of thinking about how authors, researchers, and students learn, write, and work with new technologies.

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

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