North Carolina State University (NC State), the flagship STEM campus of the UNC System, supports their diverse student body in both research and leadership. NC State’s accomplished alumni include comedian Zach Galifianakis, quarterback Philip Rivers, and SAS CEO James Goodnight. Hoping to join their ranks? First, you’ll need to nail your NC State supplemental essays. Let’s dive in.
North Carolina State University 2025-2026 Prompts
Required Essay Prompts
- Explain why you selected the first choice academic program above and why you are interested in studying this at NC State. (250 words or fewer)
University Honors Program Applicants Prompt
- Think about a time when your curiosity led you to not just learn, but to act. How did you learn more, and what tangible steps did you take as a result of what you learned? What insights about yourself, others, or the world did you take away from this process of learning and doing?(600 words or fewer)
General Tips
The NC State supplemental essays could all benefit from your taking the time to show, rather than tell, the reader your perspectives. What exactly does “show, don’t tell” mean in the context of the college essay, though? Here are three ways.
1. Narration
Instead of telling your reader that you’ve grown as a person, it can be more helpful to compose a narrative showing how you’ve grown. Was there a particular hardship you went through that made you the person you are today? Share that story with the reader, and you’ll have succeeded in composing a narrative.
2. Specificity
This point is often the easiest to grasp of the “show, don’t tell” paradigm but the hardest to implement. Many students feel like they have to get abstract and philosophical in their college essays in order to demonstrate their intelligence and thoughtfulness to the reader. However, this strategy only works when the student has specific views to share with the reader. Most of the time, a concrete, specific essay is more effective.
What does this mean in practice? For instance, instead of writing an essay about your general ideas concerning grief, compose an essay grounded in your unique experience of grief. When writing a description, try to use adjectives that are tangible or visible, versus abstract (e.g., “colorless” instead of “boring,” “noisy” instead of “annoying”). Implementing this strategy will make your essay more vivid.
3. Repetition
This is the point that surprises students the most. Although you want to avoid writing a repetitive essay, some repetition can, when implemented correctly, be very effective. The most classic way to implement repetition in an essay that shows instead of tells is to make a point at both the beginning and ending of the essay.
Ever notice the similarities between introductory and concluding paragraphs in essays? This is due to the repetition of the author’s thesis statement, motivation, and/or argument in both sections of the essay. This rhetorical strategy allows the essay to become more cohesive while also subliminally showing the reader that the essay is consistent from beginning to end.
With that said, let’s break down the NC State supplemental essays.
NC State University Required Essay Questions
NC State requires two or three short essays for all applicants. The third short essay is only required for applicants who select a second choice academic program, and the prompt is identical to that of the first choice academic program. In addition, students applying to the NC State University Honors Program are required to answer an additional prompt.
Explain why you selected the first choice academic program above and why you are interested in studying this at NC State. (250 words or fewer)
In this essay prompt, you should describe what you want to study at NC State and why you want to study this subject, specifically at NC State. Note that there is an identical prompt for your second choice academic program, if you have one. Because the prompt is the same, we’ll just discuss it once in this article. Now, let’s break it down.
You are asked to share the following three pieces of information:
- what you want to study.
- why you want to study this subject/these subjects.
- how NC State specifically is a great place for you study this subject/these subjects.
You can take your response to this prompt in a few different directions. For instance, you could focus on a specific program or course that you would like to get involved in while at NC State. Then, explain how NC State’s unique opportunities fit with your academic interests.
Alternatively, you could focus on the unique career outcomes of students in your prospective major. Then, move on to discuss how your dreams align with those outcomes. To take things in a third direction, you could start with describing your academic interests. Then explain how your chosen department would support your pursuit of those unique opportunities.
You may have noticed a common theme in this breakdown so far: specificity. Half the battle with this particular essay is doing thorough and thoughtful research into the programs at NC State that interest you. That way, you can explain why NC State specifically is the school for you. NC State considers applicants’ demonstrated interest (according to the Common Data Set). Thus, this essay provides an opportunity for you to demonstrate your interest in NC State.
In other words, taking the time to understand the opportunities available to you at a school not only helps you write your essays but also helps show the admissions officers how you will fit into their school. Perhaps your fit is not obvious or your interests are an atypical blend of disciplines. Alternatively, maybe you’re worried that your academic interests won’t stand out from the crowd. Whatever the reason, doing your research and being specific in your supplemental essay will go a long way toward emphasizing to the admissions committee that you’re a great candidate for their school.
NC State University Honors Program Required Essay Question
Think about a time when your curiosity led you to not just learn, but to act. How did you learn more, and what tangible steps did you take as a result of what you learned? What insights about yourself, others, or the world did you take away from this process of learning and doing?(600 words or fewer)
This prompt requires a few pieces of information. Let’s break each one down.
- Describe the event, realization, or project that sparked your curiosity.
- Explain how that curiosity led to action.
- Be specific and share with the reader what action you took.
- Explain how you deepened your understanding of the topics and questions underpinning the event, realization, or project that sparked your curiosity.
- Reflect upon this experience. If desired, share some of the philosophical or personal lessons you learned.
What this looks like in practice will be different for everyone. It’s important that you make self-motivated actions the focus of this essay. A project required for school or prompted by an authority figure or friend is insufficient.
In addition, specific details are key. Your essay needs to describe your own unique experiences in such a way that they can only apply to you. If you want to write about how your interest in web design led you to build websites for various people in your community, you need to explain what kind of community you come from and why you were motivated to help your fellow community members, versus any other group. Moreover, you’d want to clarify what kind of websites you were designing and what impact they had on your community.
Grounding this essay in a narrative structure could help you organize your thoughts. Consider opening the essay in media res (in the middle of things) with narration about your experience taking action. Then, go back and explain how you got to that point. Along the way, share how you developed the curiosity that sparked this action. For example, if your curiosity to understand how vaccines work was sparked by the pandemic and led to you pursuing an internship as a lab assistant in a biochemistry lab, you could start your essay with your lab assistant experience and later return to the origins of your curiosity.
If you need help polishing up your NC State supplemental essays, check out our College Essay Review service. You can receive detailed feedback from Ivy League consultants in as little as 24 hours.
