What does it really take to get into UPenn? In addition to a strong Common App essay, you’ll need to make sure that your supplemental essays are hitting all the key points that will make you stand out to an admissions reader. Before you start writing, the first thing you’ll want to do is understand UPenn’s core values– what’re they really looking for in a student?
1. Intellectual curiosity and interdisciplinary thinking
At Penn, intellectual curiosity is built into the structure of the university. With its One University Policy, Penn makes it easy for students to take courses across all four undergraduate schools (The Wharton School, the School of Nursing, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Penn Engineering School), blending fields like business and biology, or nursing and design. Penn also has numerous programs that allow students to pursue dual degrees, like the Huntsman Program, where students obtain a dual degree in international studies and business– combining classes in languages, liberal arts, and business. No matter which major you choose, Penn students are expected to ask big questions and seek out connections across traditional academic boundaries, constantly reshaping how they think and learn.
2. Community engagement and collaboration
Community is central to the Penn experience, both within campus and outside of it in the surrounding Philadelphia area. Through initiatives like the Netter Center for Community Partnerships and academically based community service (ABCS) courses, Penn encourages students to be actively engaged citizens. Inside the classroom, students are expected to collaborate and participate in group projects, as well as student-led clubs and organizations. Whether it’s working on developing a new business venture with Wharton classmates, or solving a problem set with peers in the Engineering School, collaboration is a key part of the Penn experience.
3. Practical impact and service
At Penn, you’ll often be asked to think about real-world applications and how your learning can drive change. The Penn Compact’s focus on inclusion, innovation, and impact speaks directly to this value. Students frequently engage with policy, startups, nonprofits, or healthcare systems through the various connections that Penn’s four schools have to real-world outlets for student participation. Programs like the Civic Scholars Program allow students to connect deeply with service opportunities over their four years of undergraduate and blend their service with public policy or social research.
How to Write the UPenn Supplemental Essays (2025-2026)
Write a short thank-you note to someone you have not yet thanked (150-200 words)
This essay is looking for how you interact with your mentors, peers, and the broader community around you– checking to see how you’ll align with Penn’s emphasis on community engagement and collaboration. In order to craft a compelling answer, try to follow these guidelines:
- Pick a person who helped you grow; remember, this essay should show others new sides of you. While you’ll want to explain how this person influenced you, be careful about striking the right balance between highlighting their role, and then connecting it back to yourself and your journey.
- Center the essay on how you changed and the role this person had in that. One way to avoid falling into the trap of forgetting to talk about yourself– remember, this is your own application (not the person you’re thanking) – is to hone in on how this person affected a part of your growth and development. Pick a specific experience that will demonstrate this growth.
- Conclude by linking that growth to what you will contribute at Penn. What new insights has this person allowed you to see? While you don’t want to spend too many words on this, especially given the next supplemental essay prompt, do make sure to include at least 1-2 final sentences that show you thinking about the future and the role you’ll have as a Penn student.
How will you explore community at Penn, and how will you shape it? (150-200 words)
Like the previous essay, this prompt is seeking to understand how you interact with the communities around you. However, whereas in the previous prompt, you focused in on a single person, here, you’ll want to highlight more of how you’re going to connect your past to your future at Penn. Here are some more tips on how you can fine-tune your response:
- Connect your existing passions to two or three specific Penn resources. You’ll want to demonstrate that you not only know and understand Penn’s offerings, but also that you know how to use them and maximize your impact on campus. Avoid generalizations, and with each resource that you mention, explain how you, specifically, will use it.
- Trace a clear thread from past experience to future campus engagement. If you’ve already been interested in entrepreneurship and want to pursue more at Wharton, tie together a club you participated in to the student organization you want to join at Penn.
- Show the unique perspective you’ll offer those communities. This is how you’ll be able to avoid sounding like you’re just name-dropping. Instead, focus on what your skills are, or what you want to learn more about.
School-specific prompts
Because you’ll be applying to one of the four schools, each school will ask you to complete its own specific prompt. While these prompts differ from each other, you can approach them with a similar goal in mind: demonstrate specific, focused interest in the school and the major/subject you intend to pursue there. While interdiscplinarity is important at Penn, the four school system also means that you’ll be surrounded by a community of students with similar goals and aligning interests. How will you take advantage of that? Why is that kind of focused environment important to you? Make sure to connect this back to the specific goals you want to accomplish in the future within your chosen major.
Conclusion
Good luck on your draft! As long as you keep in mind the core values that define UPenn, your supplemental essays will stand out as you demonstrate how you’ll be able to be a valuable addition to the UPenn community in the future.
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Curious about how to write the rest of your supplemental essays? Check out more advice here on how to write essays for top schools like Columbia, Princeton, and Yale.
About Kelsey
Kelsey Wang is an essay consultant at Essay Cafe with a B.S. in Data Science and a minor in Creative Writing from Stanford University. She approaches essay editing from both a data perspective (applying successful patterns from hundreds of essays read) and a creative perspective (making each individual student stand out) and has personally helped students get into top schools like Princeton, Yale, Brown, UCLA, Duke, Stanford, Columbia and many more.