Supplemental essays · 2026–27 application
Bowdoin College supplemental essays.
All 2 essay questions Bowdoin College asks this year, word for word, with the word limits and how to approach each one.
Checked against bowdoin.edu on October 17, 2026
What you write: Both essays are optional, up to 250 words each.
The rest of the Bowdoin Supplement is short questions (testing, how you heard about Bowdoin), not essays.
Optional: The Offer of the College
Which line from The Offer resonates most with you?
The Offer of the College is Bowdoin's 1906 statement of its values; read it on Bowdoin's site.
How to approach it
- Name things you could only find at this college: a class, a professor, a program, a tradition.
- Tie every detail to something true about you.
- Swap test: if another college’s name fits your sentence, it’s too general.
Optional: navigating difference
If you wish, you may share anything about the unique experiences and perspectives that you would bring with you to the Bowdoin campus and community or an experience you have had that required you to navigate across or through difference.
How to approach it
- Say plainly what the community is.
- Show your place in it with one real scene.
- End with what you’d bring to campus.
Want a mentor on your essays?
Clarity Prep members get a mentor who reads every draft with them, knows their whole application and checks in every week until it’s done.