How should I approach the University of Rochester supplemental essay for 2025-2026?

For this essay, it's crucial that you show the reader your place within a community you either currently inhabit or imagine you will inhabit in the future.

Start the essay by depicting yourself within such a community in a manner that reveals how you interact with other members there. From there, explain what this community means to you and how it has facilitated your growth and the development of your identity. Next, cite specific clubs, research opportunities, and electives you plan to take at Rochester, and explain how these opportunities will tangibly benefit your community. Make sure to name names, such as specific research institutes and professors.

To conclude this essay, show the reader exactly the type of concrete impact you wish to create in your community by leveraging the specific opportunities you listed.

It's vital that the reader can clearly visualize the impact that your education at Rochester will have on a community you inhabit. Make sure there is meaningful contrast between the "before" (how you currently present yourself in the community you inhabit) and the "after" (how you will use your Rochester education to help your community). If you stick with a hypothetical community you'd like to join, then still strive for a striking before-and-after narrative, where the "before" is also hypothetical. If you can find room, discuss a strong personal reason why the particular form of progress you'd like to see in your community matters so much to you.

Ideally, always choose a community you actually inhabit; using a hypothetical community you'd like to join later should be a last resort. If you don't want to resort to a hypothetical community, simply focus on your peers who share your academic interests, or even your family.