Swarthmore College has released its supplemental essay prompts for the Class of 2031. Students applying during the 2026-2027 application season must respond to two prompts, each 250 words, one probing personal identity and another probing a topic of academic or extracurricular interest. While these essay topics are pretty standard fare for elite college applications, that doesn’t mean you should be asleep at the wheel. Here’s how you can strategically respond to these prompts to put your best foot forward on your Swarthmore application.

2026-2027 Swarthmore College Optional Essay Prompts

1. Swarthmore College maintains an ongoing commitment of building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive residential community dedicated to rigorous intellectual inquiry.

All who engage in our community are empowered through the open exchange of ideas guided by equity and social responsibility to thrive and contribute as bridge builders within global communities.

Our identities and perspectives are supported and developed by our immediate contexts and lived experiences – in our neighborhoods, families, classrooms, communities of faith, and more.

What aspects of your self-identity or personal background are most significant to you? Reflecting on the elements of your home, school, or other communities that have shaped your life, explain how you have grown in your ability to navigate differences when engaging with others, or demonstrated your ability to collaborate in communities other than your own. (up to 250 words)

This prompt offers students from underrepresented minority backgrounds a chance to express how difference has shaped their lived experience, specifically in engaging with people whose backgrounds or perspectives differ from their own. In other words, this prompt is a direct response to two things: the Roberts Loophole, an exception to the 2023 SCOTUS ruling outlawing Affirmative Action, and the unsettling spread of campus antisemitism in recent years.

If, for example, you are an underrepresented minority student, you can absolutely still benefit from affirmative action by articulating how your racial or religious difference has informed your lived experience, but via a specific anecdote about engaging with a community other than your own. But even if you’re not an underrepresented minority, this prompt is intentionally open-ended. You can also use it to showcase your ability to consider the other side of the ideological aisle with grace and perspective, or your capacity to engage in disagreement that doesn’t divide.

No matter how you spin it, just be sure to stay true to the cardinal rule of college application essays: show, don’t tell! So don’t simply state you were profoundly shaped by a political disagreement in which you came to common ground. Demonstrate this fact with a compelling anecdote!

2. Swarthmore’s community of learners inspire one another through their collaborative and flexible approach to learning. Swarthmore students are comfortable with intellectual experimentation and connection of ideas across the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and interdisciplinary studies through a liberal arts education.

Tell us about a topic that has fascinated you recently – either inside or outside of the classroom. What made you curious about this? Has this topic connected across other areas of your interests? How has this experience shaped you and what encourages you to keep exploring? (up to 250 words)

This prompt is a perfect example of one that implicitly inches you towards reflecting on your singular hook. And what’s your singular hook, you ask? It’s the specific pursuit that has shaped your high school career, that one “thing” that makes you tick and you’ve devoted the most time to over the last four years. It could be a subject of academic interest, a cause you frequently volunteer your time to, an art form you’ve honed, you name it. 

Either way, it should be leveraged in this response to illustrate you have big intentions to get involved on Swarthmore’s campus through your pursuit of this hook. While you need not cite specific examples of opportunities at Swarthmore related to this pursuit, you should leave your reader with the impression that you have no plans of letting your curiosity die once on campus.

Ivy Coach’s Assistance with Your Swarthmore Supplemental Essays

If you would like to optimize your odds of admission to Swarthmore by submitting essays that instill faith in the Swarthmore admissions committee and cause them to root for your case for admission, fill out Ivy Coach’s complimentary consultation form, and we’ll be in touch with an outline of our college counseling services for seniors.