The University of Wisconsin–Madison, home of the Badgers since 1848, is known as a formidable research institution with high expectations for their applicants. Their storied alumni include Senator Tammy Baldwin, astronaut Laurel Clark, author Joyce Carol Oates, naturalist John Muir, and many others. Looking to become a Badger? First, you’ll need to write your UW-Madison supplemental essays. Let’s dive in.
University of Wisconsin–Madison’s 2024-2025 Prompts
UW-Madison asks for two essays, but you might only need to complete one of them. The first prompt is only applicable to students applying through the Universities of Wisconsin Application. So, if you’re applying through the Common App, you only need to worry about the second essay. The second essay is required for all applicants.
Note that although the essays can both extend to 650 words, the admissions team recommends planning for a 300-500 word essay. Keeping your essay(s) concise, at least in the initial draft(s), could enable you to add extra details in your later drafts if needed. Without further ado, here are the prompts for the UW-Madison supplemental essays:
Universities of Wisconsin Application Essay:
- Each student is unique. Please tell us about the particular life experiences, talents, commitments, and/or interests you will bring to our campus.
Required Essay for All Applicants:
- Tell us why you would like to attend 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.
General Tips
Both of these essays permit more words than the average college essay. Apart from the Common App personal essay, which has the same word count maximum of 650 words, most college essays tend to be less than 500 words, with most required to be less than 300. Therefore, the UW-Madison supplemental essays present some challenges, but also some freedoms.
With longer supplemental essays, students tend to either have trouble writing too much, or not writing enough. To tackle the first problem, it can be helpful to restrict yourself to a smaller word count for the first draft. Then, if you later realize anything essential is missing, you have the space to add it in. In order to keep the word count down, focus on avoiding passive voice, cutting down on your conjunctions (use punctuation marks instead), and using more concise verbs. For instance, “I thought” is more concise than “I was thinking.” Little changes like this one can help your whole essay shrink to fit the space it’s allotted.
To tackle the second issue of not writing enough, look for areas where the reader might have questions. If you have a description in your essay, make that description more vivid. If you jumped through a narrative, consider providing more of the interim steps. Remember, though, your essay can be 300 words without any penalty. As long as you comprehensively answer the question asked by the prompt, you’ll be okay.
Universities of Wisconsin Application Essay
Each student is unique. Please tell us about the particular life experiences, talents, commitments, and/or interests you will bring to our campus. (650 words or fewer)
You choose: would you prefer to answer this essay prompt or complete a Common App personal essay? If you choose to write the Common App personal essay, skip ahead to the next prompt. Note that the latter is a more flexible option. Your Common App personal essay can be used for thousands of different college applications. That said, the admissions team at UW-Madison don’t maintain a preference for one essay over the other. The choice is yours.
If you choose to answer this prompt, you can approach it pretty similarly to how you would a Common App personal essay. In this particular essay, you have the opportunity to show who you are as a person. Specifically, you could write about an accomplishment you’ve achieved, a challenge you’ve overcome, an extracurricular you’ve pursued, an academic interest you hope to pursue at UW-Madison, etc. In other words, you’ll want to write about who you are, so that the reader knows who you’ll be at UW-Madison.
It’s advisable to focus on just a few life experiences, talents, commitments, and/or interests you possess, or even just one of these, versus listing answers to all of the above. Note that the prompt uses the wording “and/or.” This implies that you need not touch upon every item in the list provided.
When beginning this essay, you may want to start with an outline. You could write a narrative essay about a life experience you’ve had or a time when your talent(s) shone. Alternatively, you could describe a challenge you’ve overcome in order to pursue your commitments or interests. Most importantly, whether the topic of your essay is big or small, it should be meaningful to you.
University of Wisconsin–Madison Required Essay
Tell us why you would like to attend 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. (650 words or fewer)
This is your “Why University of Wisconsin-Madison?” essay. For this kind of essay, research is your friend. First, identify your prospective area(s) of study. Then, look up specific courses, professors, programs, and other opportunities in your department(s) of interest that will be available to you if you attend UW-Madison. Next, identify any non-academic reasons that UW-Madison is a school on your college list. These reasons should be specific to UW–Madison. Lastly, structure your essay around these details that you have researched.
Ideally, your essay does not merely list the opportunities at UW-Madison to you. Instead, your essay goes a step further and expresses why these opportunities excite you and how these opportunities will help you achieve your goals. Your reasons for applying to UW-Madison should have some unique elements. Without any unique elements, the admissions team might not see why UW-Madison is a better fit for you than another school. In other words, you might leave the reader feeling that you are not eager to attend UW-Madison and excited about the education they offer.
Specificity is important in this essay. By sharing why you specifically would like to attend UW-Madison, and your specific reasons for wanting to attend, you demonstrate interest. According to UW-Madison’s Common Data Set, their admissions team does not track each student’s level of interest in attending the University. Therefore, this essay might be your only opportunity to show the UW–Madison admission team how excited you are to attend. Bring your passion for UW–Madison and your well-researched, specific pieces of information to this essay, and you’ll do great.
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