Featured Supplemental Essay Prompt For Carnegie Mellon University Applicants:

Consider your application as a whole. What do you personally want to emphasize about your application for the admission committee’s consideration? Highlight something that’s important to you or something you haven’t had a chance to share. Tell us, don’t show us (no websites please). (300 word maximum)

Successful Supplemental Essay Example From Our Accepted Alumni Student:

Since I have lived in the United States, I have grown up in 500-square-foot condos.

In New Jersey, I had neighbors below me, blasting merengue music, which I soon found myself humming along to.

In my current home, I would hear Caribbean soca music to my right and smell Ms. Rizzo’s “Sunday Sauce” enticing emanating through our shared hallway to my left. I heard babies crying, conversations—and even heated arguments—through our shared walls.

To others, taking the stairs to my condo after a long day of school, studying, and tennis may seem like a task, but this condominium complex has enriched my life in priceless ways.

From the little kids who I play with at the park to the bodybuilders that coach me in the community gym, I have everything I could ask for.

As an only child with only one parent, I had always wished for a sibling to keep me company. However, thanks to the 7-year-olds that play foursquare outside almost every single day, that void has always been filled.

On the other hand, my condominium taught me maturity at an early age. I would help my favorite neighbor, Mrs. [Name], with advice on activities to enroll her children in. I would play badminton with a crew of men all in their 60’s, and gain valuable life lessons from them.

But the thing that I am most thankful for is the ability to communicate cross-culturally and think through multiple lenses. Through interacting with people from all over the world, I have learnt various values as well as religious practices. I have celebrated holidays ranging from Hanukkah to Diwali to Saint Patrick's Day.

I still hear soca music playing, can nearly taste the “Sunday Sauce,” and have merengue stuck in my head. I wouldn’t have it any other way.