How to Write The University of Wisconsin-Madison Supplemental Essay

Of all the colleges I've visited, University of Wisconsin-Madison stands out in terms of beauty, opportunity, and politically active students. I'm 0% surprised you've decided to apply. 

But when it comes to their "Why Us?" essay... they are definitely on the longer side, with a 650-word limit.

That's... as long as your entire personal statement! 

So what are you even supposed to say? In this post, I will walk you through different ways to approach this essay and stand out among the crowd.

Let's start with the prompt:

Tell us why you decided to apply to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition, please include why you are interested in studying the major(s) you have selected. If you selected undecided please describe your areas of possible academic interest. (you may enter up to 650 words).

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Here's the first thing to keep in mind:

650 words is a limit, not a goal.

If you can say everything you want to need to say in 500 words, that's totally fine. (Though, honestly, I wouldn't go any shorter than that unless you've got a VERY good reason.) Just make sure that you sufficiently:

Demonstrate that you have done your research and are applying to UW-Madison for a reason (or several reasons).

If you haven't clearly done research on the school, they might assume you're applying because it's a good school (and will probably be a waste of space once you arrive on campus).

They might assume you're applying as a fall-back or safety school -- decreasing your odds of acceptance. If they read your application and get the idea that you will only attend UW-Madison if you don't get in anywhere "better," they won't accept you. Admissions officers have a business to run and a reputation to protect. If their yield (the percent of students who choose to enroll after having been offered admission) drops, their "rankings" drop. Schools don't want that. So they will only accept you if they think you actually​ want to go there.

Hence this essay requirement. 

On that note, another, non-writing piece of advice: 

If you live within an hour or two of the school and you haven't signed up for a campus tour, you may as well not even bother applying.

Remember: their goal is not only to accept the best candidates, but also to maximize their yield. If you live driving distance from the school and you haven't even bothered to visit... they will take this as a sign you're not that interested. 

​If you haven't, schedule a tour immediately. 

Follow the admissions team on Instagram. Ask Bucky a question. SHOW them with your actions, not just your words, that you are interested. 

If, for some crazy reason, you live that close and you seriously can't visit... Take the virtual tour. Download brochures. Join the mailing list. 

After you've done that and it's time to get back to writing...

Show why you are a good fit for them by connecting your greatest strengths (and weaknesses) to their resources and opportunities.

This 650-word essay is about more than doing research. It's about helping me picture you as a motivated, successful student on my college campus. 

It is super important to do your research... But as an admissions officer, I already know how incredible my student-teacher ratio is, and how amazing my undergraduate research opportunities are. 

You need to remind me why you are amazing, in a way that connects directly back to UW-Madison. If you have a supplemental essay you've already worked on with a great hook sentence or opening paragraph, you can even use it to start this essay.

And, remember:

It's a little strange to say you're interested in a certain major(s) if you've had the opportunity to begin taking classes in that field... and haven't.

For example, if you say you want to major in Computer Science, but computer science is offered at your high school and you haven't taken it, I'm going to be a little skeptical.

But, obviously, a major like Art History​, Nanotechnology, Entrepreneurship, Developmental Psychology, etc., is probably not something you will have had the opportunity to study already.

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So, with those things in mind, let me walk you through how I would approach this essay. 

Say I'm interested in something like psychology or linguistics, though I haven't had the opportunity to directly study either... I have taken (and excelled in) Latin and Greek. (Note: the beginning of this essay is adapted from How to Write Your University of Michigan Essays.)

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Tell us why you decided to apply to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition, please include why you are interested in studying the major(s) you have selected. If you selected undecided please describe your areas of possible academic interest. (you may enter up to 650 words).

“GUM? HOW DARE YOU!? I’LL RIP YOUR TONGUE OUT!”


A familiar voice fills the corridor as I sprint to Greek. If I hurry, I’ll make it before Dr. Morgan locks the door, refusing entry to latecomers.

Welcome to the Exeter Classics Department.

Anyone who’s studied a dead language would agree that that the field attracts a certain… type. We’re all weirdos. That’s why I love it.

Moreover, Latin and Greek are the hardest classes I’ve ever taken. Imagine taking this entire essay, removing the punctuation, and putting the words in a blender. Translating the resulting smoothie would be a single night of homework.

Fortunately, my algorithmic thinking style has helped me excel, even while being berated by 80-year-old scholars in checkered bow ties. This helped me build academic confidence and cultivate a disciplined, analytical approach to problem solving.

I've considered studying Classics at UW-Madison--with opportunities like the Ruth M. Kuhlman Undergraduate Scholarship and the Gertrude E. Slaughter Summer Study Scholarship, I’ll have countless opportunities to bring "dead" languages to life.

Moreover, while reviewing some of the department faculty, I realized some real-world applications of these languages. For example, Professor Alex Dressler views them as an "evolving canon of texts and methods" that can redefine modern readers’ understanding of sexuality, art, and politics. Similarly, Professor Laura McClure studies women of the ancient world--quite possibly the first feminists in history! Her research could be one small piece of the infamous nature vs. nurture problem.

However, reading about the interdisciplinary applications of Latin and Greek have sparked curiosities I previously didn't know existed. Comparing the systematic, rigorous way I approached The Aeneid to the way a child--or a computer!--learns language skills, I can now see myself thriving in the Language & Cognitive Neuroscience Lab.

But, being the kind of person who gets up at 5am for optional field trips to study estuary ecology and collects bugs to image in her school’s scanning electron microscope, just for fun, I wasn’t content to wait until next year to start learning more about psychology and linguistics. I went to the library and ordered a copy of What The F: What Swearing Reveals About Our Brains, Our Language, and Ourselves.

I expected to learn about social science… but beyond that, I also learned about fMRI, microscopy, and sentiment analysis. I learned just how integral technology is to advancements in both humanities and the social sciences. I now feel that, in order to be relevant in humanities and social science, I need a basic command of computer science.

So began my research on UW’s Computer Science Certificate. I quickly learned it’s designed exactly for someone like me, who wants to broaden career and graduate school prospects through a digital toolkit.

So… at least that much is settled. Whether I bring my coding and analytical skills to Classics, Linguistics, or Psychology is to be determined--a fact about which I’m quite excited. I believe there is no better place to begin college Undecided than UW, because only Madison offers Undergraduate Research Scholars program (URS), a research program designed specifically for first-year students. By getting involved in research right away, I can begin learning what these disciplines entail beyond the classroom.

As if these reasons weren’t compelling enough to convince me to apply, may I present a few items from my #BuckyList:

1. Get political--on the most politically-active campus in the world! (It still amazes me that campus is walking-distance from the State capital!) 

2. Swim in two different lakes on the same afternoon.

3. Have a slice of mac-n-cheese pizza. (Seriously! How is that even a thing?)

4. Learn to sail on Lake Mendota.

5. Learn even more about the psychology of swearing… by attending a Badger hockey game!

6. Study abroad!

7. Participate in a FIG--hopefully Scientific Critical Thinking, which will make me a better student, but also a better newspaper reader, debater, and voter.

8. Food carts, JUMP AROUND, and so much more!

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Or... say I'm a student who has taken AP Biology and other science electives, and who has pursued science through scuba training, including Underwater Naturalist, Rescue Diver, Oxygen Administrator, and Lionfish Hunter certifications. (This is adapted from a sample Stanford essay.)

(Note: I did much of this training through a summer abroad program called ActionQuest. Many well-meaning parents, friends, and teachers will tell you not to write your essay about a service or teen travel trip. They are wrong, though: there are no bad essay topics. There are only bad essays. Read more about how to write an epic service trip essay.)

Tell us why you decided to apply to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition, please include why you are interested in studying the major(s) you have selected. If you selected undecided please describe your areas of possible academic interest. (you may enter up to 650 words).
​

Hermione: [plopping a large book on the table] I checked this out weeks ago for a bit of light reading.

Ron: This is light?

Growing up, I used to walk to the local library after school when my mom worked late. There, I would--quite literally--fill a garbage bag with books and read the whole haul over the next week or two.

Even so, I always found this exchange between Ron and Hermione to be a little over-the-top.

UNTIL.

I completed my first summer at ActionQuest, a Caribbean sailing and scuba diving camp that got me hooked on biology, ecology, and even chemistry.

Upon returning to Exeter that fall, I marched to the library and ordered a copy of the Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving. Which I promptly read, cover-to-cover, then pestered my science teachers about how difference principles we were studying in class applied to scuba chemistry, coral reef reproduction, and biodiversity.

The next summer, I returned to ActionQuest, where I completed my Rescue Diver, Oxygen Administrator, Underwater Navigator, Underwater Naturalist and Search and Recovery training. I also earned my Lionfish Hunter certification, and quickly began spearing as many of this devastating invasive species as possible. Over the next few weeks, I single-handedly killed over a hundred lionfish. Part of me felt pride as I fought back against this toxic assailant. Part of me felt hopeless, because I knew I’d barely made a dent in the problem.

Even if I killed every lionfish in the Caribbean, all the reefs are going to be dead soon, anyway, according to this year’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

UNLESS.

We all make a change. Beyond switching to greener products and eating less meat, I am committed to preserving our world’s reef system.

Starting right now, because there is no time to wait.

At UW, I will begin on day one by enrolling in Major Transitions in Evolution, a First-Year Interest Group program, which I will take a step further by concurrently taking Botany 265: Rainforests and Coral Reefs. This will immerse me in new knowledge and methodologies for studying diverse ecosystems and examining major past transitions in this history of life.

Armed with this knowledge, I can begin contributing to research through Undergraduate Research Scholars (URS), a research program designed specifically for first-year students. My goal would be a position in the Center of Rapid Evolution (CORE), which investigates rapid-timescale problems like global warming, extinctions, and invasive species--in other words, some of the biggest problems facing society today.

Of course, when I tell my friends this, perhaps after a game of pickup basketball or during a break from an epic songwriting sesh, their natural (and reasonable) objection is:

“If you want to save the ocean, why would you go to school in a landlocked state?”

The way I see it, growing up in the muggle world didn’t stop Hermione from becoming the brightest witch of her age. And growing up on a sheep farm in the landlocked state of Iowa didn’t stop me from becoming obsessed with the ocean. Rather, it forced me to become an expert at finding opportunities to pursue this interest--a skillset I’ve used throughout high school, and plan to continue using at UW.

Not that I’ll have to try that hard. Beyond the vast research opportunities at CORE, [list a few opportunities to study reefs or professors who are studying it; then mention a summer research or travel grant that would get me in the water].

And when I’m not busy saving the coral reefs? You’ll find me religiously checking items off my #BuckyList, which currently includes:

1. Get political--on the most politically-active campus in the world! (It still amazes me that campus is walking-distance from the State capital!

2. Swim in two different lakes on the same afternoon.

3. Have a slice of mac-n-cheese pizza. (Seriously! How is that even a thing? I MUST KNOW.)

4. Learn to sail on Lake Mendota.

I can’t wait to get started!

​​

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This essay ran a bit long, so now I'm faced with a choice. What stories and examples should I cut? I might go with the Harry Potter references, to keep the focus on me, but I could also cut some of the dive certifications that are less relevant to my goals and essay. (They will all be listed in the Activities Section, anyway.)

But one part I wouldn't cut is justifying why someone like me would want to go to school in the Midwest. If there is any glaring weakness or weirdness in your application, I believe you're better off addressing it head-on than... hoping they don't notice? 

(Just don't sound excuse-y. No one likes that. Don't blame a bad teacher. Blame yourself for not adapting to her teaching style more quickly. Or whatever. Take accountability, show that you've learned, and move on.)

And, finally, don't forget to have fun! With all its lakes and school spirit and arboretums and events, University of Wisconsin-Madison is one of the funnest possible schools to research... and, hopefully, attend! Whether you enjoy chess or Smash Brothers or sand volleyball, don't be afraid to let your fun side show.

​***

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