The University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences
Follow a clear step-by-step framework to write essays that highlight your academic interests and fit with the university.
The College of Arts and Sciences
The flexible structure of The College of Arts and Sciences’ curriculum is designed to inspire exploration, foster connections, and help you create a path of study through general education courses and a major. What are you curious about and how would you take advantage of opportunities in the arts and sciences? (150-200 words)
Step 1: Pick one core curiosity, not a shopping list
Choose a single throughline question/tension that can support a path of study. Think: “I keep noticing…” or “I can’t stop wondering…” or “I want to understand why…”
Good curiosity is specific enough to investigate and broad enough to connect fields.
Step 2: Attach 2–3 academic lenses to that curiosity
Show you understand arts-and-sciences exploration by naming the lenses you’d use (not a dozen majors). For example: one humanistic lens + one social-science lens, or one quantitative lens + one ethical lens. The point is “connections,” not “I like everything.”
Step 3: Give one proof point that you already learn this way
One compact line: a self-driven project, a paper you took further, independent reading, a community issue you analyzed, something you built or researched. This keeps your curiosity from sounding imaginary.
Step 4: Turn “flexible curriculum” into a concrete plan
Pick 2–3 types of opportunities and state what you’d do with them (verbs, not praise):
- general education courses as deliberate “test labs” for new angles
- seminars / discussion-based classes for argument-building and synthesis
- research or independent work to produce something (a study, thesis direction, project)
- interdisciplinary pathways (pairing a major with a complementary cluster of courses)
Each item should be “opportunity → action → output.”
Step 5: Use a tight 150–200 word shape
- 35–50 words: your central curiosity (as a question/tension)
- 80–110 words: lenses + proof point + how you’d explore through gen ed and the major
- 30–40 words: what you hope to build toward (skills, methods, and a tangible direction)
Step 6: Avoid
- “I’m curious about many things” with no anchor
- career-only logic as the main reason
- listing opportunities without saying what you’d do
- empty adjectives (“vibrant,” “world-class,” “endless options”)
Step 7: Quick drafting templates (pick one)
Template A: “I’m curious about ___ because ___. I’ve pursued it by ___. In college, I’d use ___ (lens 1) and ___ (lens 2) by taking ___ and ___, then deepen it through ___ (major path). I’d take advantage of ___ (opportunity) to produce ___ (output).”
Template B: “The question I keep returning to is ___. It connects ___ and ___. I’ve already ___. With a flexible curriculum, I’d explore it through ___ courses, then commit to ___ as my major focus, using ___ to build ___.”
