Boston College Supplemental Essay Prompts & Writing Guide 2025-2026

Start with a vivid, concrete scene that pulls the reader directly into your tradition. Don't simply announce what your tradition is; instead, show it through sensory details, dialogue, and specific moments that make the tradition feel alive. For example, if you're writing about a family dinner, describe the smells of the food, the specific jokes your relatives tell, or the particular table where you sit together. This narrative approach helps admissions officers experience the tradition with you rather than just learning about it intellectually. With 400 words, you have enough space to paint a genuine picture, so use the opening to immerse the reader in a particular moment before you step back to explain the broader significance.

Beyond the vivid storytelling, this essay is fundamentally about revealing your values and what matters to you. Boston College, as a Jesuit institution, deeply cares about understanding how candidates contribute to community and what principles guide them. So while you tell your story, make sure you address the second part of the prompt directly: explain why this tradition actually matters to you personally and how it brings your community closer together. What do people learn from participating in it? What bonds does it create or strengthen? Consider whether the tradition connects to your identity, your family's heritage, your faith, or your relationships with others. The most compelling responses show genuine reflection about the tradition's impact, not just surface-level appreciation. This is your chance to show that you think deeply about how humans connect with one another through shared meaning.

Finally, consider bringing your essay full circle by subtly indicating how you might carry these values forward at Boston College. You don't need to force an explicit connection to the university, but admissions officers want to see that you're a community-building person who values tradition, reflection, and togetherness. If your tradition embodies values like compassion, intellectual curiosity, service, or belonging, hint at how those same values would shape how you engage on campus. This signals that you understand BC's mission centered on personal formation, reflection, and service to others, and that you see yourself as someone who will contribute to that community in meaningful ways.

Remember: admissions officers will read hundreds of essays about family dinners, religious holidays, and sports team traditions. What sets yours apart is not the tradition itself but the depth of your reflection and the authenticity of your voice. Choose a tradition that genuinely resonates with you, and then spend your writing time showing, not just telling, why it matters.

This prompt sits at the heart of Boston College's Jesuit philosophy; the admissions committee is not just asking for a story, but asking you to demonstrate your capacity for intellectual dialogue, humility, and growth through exchange with others. The key insight is that BC values curiosity and the ability to engage meaningfully with people who think differently from you. Your essay should show that you don't just have opinions; you're willing to sit with complex ideas and be changed by listening. The conversation partner you choose should be someone who has genuinely shaped your thinking, someone whose perspective challenged you to reconsider or deepen your understanding of a topic that matters. Avoid choosing a family member if possible; instead, think of a mentor, teacher, a coworker from an internship, a coach, someone from a volunteer experience, or even someone you met unexpectedly whose ideas stuck with you. The specific relationship matters less than the intellectual substance of what you discussed together.

To make your essay vivid and compelling, ground it in a specific moment or series of moments rather than summarizing your entire relationship. Start by pulling the reader into a scene, a real conversation, with sensory details and dialogue if possible. Show how the conversation unfolded, what your perspective was at the start, what this person said or asked that challenged you, and how your thinking shifted. Don't aim to resolve the issue perfectly or claim you've now agreed on everything; the most honest essays acknowledge that you and your conversation partner may still disagree, but you walk away with a deeper appreciation for complexity. For example, if you discussed ethics around artificial intelligence with a computer science teacher, describe the actual exchange rather than just telling the reader you talked about AI ethics. Paint the picture of where you were, what prompted the discussion, the specific question they posed that made you pause, and how you thought about the problem differently afterward. Use concrete language that sounds like your genuine voice rather than flowery or overly formal writing.

Finally, connect this growth to BC itself. The prompt invokes Father Himes' vision of university as sustained conversation among the best possible conversation partners, which is fundamentally what BC wants to cultivate. In your reflection, hint at how you're excited to continue these kinds of dialogues on campus, and show that you understand this is a community where intellectual humility and openness to other perspectives are valued. You're not just passing through a campus to earn credentials; you're joining a community of thinkers committed to exploring profound questions together. Your essay should signal that you're ready to find new conversation partners at BC and that you'll bring both conviction and genuine curiosity to those exchanges. This is ultimately what the admissions committee is assessing: Can you listen? Can you think? Can you be changed by engaging with others?

This essay is about identity and vulnerability, not about minor personality quirks or surface-level labels. Boston College wants you to discuss a time when someone reduced you to a narrow narrative, often tied to your nationality, ethnicity, appearance, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, or other substantive aspects of who you are. This is a serious prompt that deserves serious reflection. Many admissions officers at BC note that essays responding to this prompt should not be cute, funny, or dismissive of the Adichie talk; they should demonstrate that you have genuinely engaged with her central thesis about how reductive stories limit our ability to see people as whole, complex human beings. If you cannot identify a meaningful experience where someone defined you by a narrow assumption, one of the other four BC prompts may be a better fit.

In your essay, focus on three key elements: first, provide specific context about who defined you and how they did so, grounding your response in a particular moment or pattern of interaction rather than broad generalizations; second, explain the concrete challenges this definition created for you, whether emotional, social, academic, or professional; and third, show your agency in how you responded to, resisted, or overcame this narrow narrative. Boston College's admissions team is looking for evidence of your growth and resilience, not just your suffering. Consider how you took action, changed your environment, educated others, or shifted your own perspective as a result of this experience. Did you challenge the assumption directly? Did you pursue opportunities that proved the stereotype wrong? Did you find community with others who understood your complexity? The essay should move from challenge to resolution, ending with a reflection on what you learned about yourself, others, and the world.

Finally, connect your insight back to Boston College's Jesuit values and mission. The Jesuit tradition emphasizes the dignity of each person and the importance of "conversation partners" who challenge our limited perspectives and help us see the full humanity in others. You might briefly explain how your experience reinforced your commitment to engaging in the kind of rigorous, respectful dialogue that Boston College fosters, or how you now approach others with greater curiosity about their full stories. Keep your essay to 400 words, use vivid and honest language, and let your voice convey your genuine reflection on how this experience changed you. Avoid the temptation to turn this into a complaint or a sermon; instead, show rather than tell through specific moments, dialogue, or actions what you learned and how you grew.

When responding to this prompt, avoid the trap of simply inventing a catchy phrase or abstract concept. Boston College's admissions team wants to understand what your core values actually are and, more importantly, how they show up in your life through concrete actions and decisions. They are not testing your creativity in wordsmithing but rather your capacity for self-reflection and your ability to connect that reflection to meaningful contribution. The key is to choose a "Be" that already guides your everyday choices, not one that sounds impressive on paper. Consider your top values from your broader application: Is there one you haven't fully emphasized elsewhere that could work here? A value that has led to your growth and that could genuinely enrich the BC community?

Start your essay with a vivid, personal story that demonstrates your "Be" in action before you even name it. Rather than launching into abstract explanation, pull your reader into a specific moment where this value clearly shaped how you thought, felt, or acted. For example, if your "Be" is hope, you might open with a scene of working through a difficult problem when everything felt uncertain, showing how staying open to possibility changed the outcome. Only after grounding the essay in that concrete experience should you name your "fourth Be" and explain what it means to you in your own words. This structure shows admissions officers that your value is not merely something you claim to hold but something that actually directs your behavior and judgment. As Boston College emphasizes in its Jesuit mission, the university seeks to combine reflection and self-discovery with action; your essay should demonstrate this same integration by proving your "Be" is a lived practice, not a theoretical ideal.

The second half of your essay should create a bridge between your personal growth and how your "fourth Be" will enrich the Boston College community itself. Think about which existing BC programs, traditions, or courses align with this value and mention them specifically. For instance, if your "Be" connects to service, you might reference PULSE or other community engagement opportunities. If it relates to intellectual curiosity and questioning assumptions, reference relevant philosophy or theology courses. This part shows that you have done your research and are genuinely excited about contributing to BC's reflective, service-driven culture. Boston College's Jesuit identity centers on cura personalis (care for the whole person) and solidarity with others, so make sure your "fourth Be" connects to these broader institutional values. Your essay should leave the reader convinced that this new value would not only support your own formation as a person, mind, body, and spirit, but would also strengthen the community you would join.

Finally, remember that authenticity and introspection will always outshine clever phrasing. Admissions committees can sense when an applicant is being genuine versus performing. Choose a "Be" that reflects who you actually are, not who you think Boston College wants you to be. Your essay should feel introspective yet forward-looking, revealing both how this value has shaped you so far and how you intend to live it out at BC. With only 400 words, every sentence must earn its place, so eliminate filler and generic language. Let your distinctive voice and thoughtful reflection do the work of setting you apart from other strong candidates.

Boston College's Human-Centered Engineering program sits at the intersection of technical problem-solving and genuine human impact, so your essay needs to reflect that duality. Rather than proposing a sweeping global solution, focus on a specific, tangible societal problem whose scope feels achievable within four years and realistic for an engineer to meaningfully address. Think smaller than "world peace" but larger than a purely technical fix. For example, instead of "climate change," consider "sustainable access to clean water for underserved communities" or "designing affordable prosthetics for developing nations." The HCE program itself emphasizes three core areas: environment, health, and energy. Drawing one of your societal concerns from these domains shows you've done your homework and understand the program's focus areas. This specificity demonstrates you're not just applying to any engineering program; you're applying to this particular engineering program because its values genuinely align with yours.

Boston College is deeply rooted in Jesuit principles, which means admissions officers are looking for evidence that you understand what "serving the Common Good" actually means in practice. Don't simply state that you care about a societal problem; show how your past experiences have led you to care about it. Have you witnessed this problem firsthand in your community, your family, or through volunteering? Did a personal project, internship, or research experience clarify your passion? Ground your essay in a concrete moment or experience that reveals why this particular problem matters to you, not just why it matters abstractly. This humanizes your motivation and makes your commitment feel genuine rather than performative. The admissions team doesn't expect you to have all the answers; they want to see that you've begun asking serious questions and that you're motivated to take action.

The final and most critical part of your essay is explicitly connecting the HCE curriculum to your goals. Rather than vaguely mentioning that the program will help you, demonstrate specific knowledge of courses, projects, or pedagogical features that will equip you to tackle the problem you've identified. Reference actual HCE offerings like the collaborative design studio, interdisciplinary coursework, or the emphasis on integrating humanities and ethics with technical skills. If possible, mention specific faculty work or program initiatives that resonate with your goals, just as you would in a strong "why school" essay. The HCE program's weekly reflection sessions, for instance, are designed to help engineers think critically about the societal implications of their work; this is exactly the kind of detail that shows you've researched deeply. By weaving together your personal motivation, your understanding of the problem's scope, and your knowledge of how HCE will specifically prepare you, you'll demonstrate that you're not just technically capable but intellectually and ethically ready to be an HCE Eagle.