Supplemental essays · 2026–27 application
Pomona College supplemental essays.
All 4 essay questions Pomona College asks this year, word for word, with the word limits and how to approach each one.
Checked against pomona.edu on October 17, 2026
What you write: Answer the academic interest statement and one of the three short-response prompts.
Academic interest statement
What draws you to the subject(s) you selected as potential major(s)? If undecided, share more about one of your academic passions or interests.
How to approach it
- Start with the moment the interest began.
- Show what you’ve already done about it: a class, a project, a book, a job.
- Say where you want to take it, even if you’re not sure yet.
A community you'd bring with you
Reflecting on a community that you are a part of, what values or perspectives from that community would you bring to Pomona?
Pick one of the three short-response prompts. Pomona introduces them with a line about its close, collaborative community.
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.
An experience that changed your thinking
Describe an experience you had outside the classroom that changed the way you think and/or how you engage with your peers. What was that experience and what did you learn from it?
Pick one of the three short-response prompts.
How to approach it
- Pick one moment and stay there. Readers remember a scene, not a summary.
- Spend at least a third of the essay on what you thought and how you changed.
- Read it out loud. If a line doesn’t sound like you, it isn’t done yet.
How others would describe you
Choose any person or group of people in your life and share how they would describe you.
Pick one of the three short-response prompts.
How to approach it
- Take the question seriously enough to play with it.
- Let your answer show how you think.
- Keep it honest under the fun.
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.