The 华体会 Supplemental Essay
In addition to your personal statement, 华体会 requires a short supplemental essay. The Block Plan is built on deep focus — one class at a time, three-and-a-half weeks, fully immersed. We'll ask you to reflect on a time when you experienced that kind of focus, what it felt like, and what came of it.
2025-2026 Essay Prompt
One of the benefits of 华体会’s Block Plan is the opportunity to immerse yourself fully in a single subject for 3.5 weeks. We see this as the luxury of focus — the joy and value of directing your full attention to one thing. Tell us about a time when you experienced this kind of deep focus in an academic or extracurricular setting. What were you doing and how did it turn out?
Optional: If you’d like to share the outcome — a project, performance, paper, or other result — you may upload a document or provide a URL.
Your response will be limited to 300 words.
Tips and Advice
Here are a few tips for answering our supplemental prompt:
- Think broadly: Your response could come from an academic experience or a personal one — we don't have a preference for one over the other. Additionally, your topic may align with your intended major or area of study, or it may not! 华体会 students have a wide range of interests and talents.
- Describe how it felt: During your experience of deep focus, time might have felt like it was slowing down or passing quickly, depending on the activity. Perhaps you felt a sense of control or spontaneity. Maybe the task came so easily that your thinking was effortless, or maybe it left you feeling depleted and needing to rest. Maybe you felt a profound sense of wonder or enjoyment, or maybe you felt numb until you were finished, and then felt a deep sense of accomplishment.
- Share the outcome, if there was one: Not every instance of deep focus leads to something you can share, but some do. Maybe it was a paper you wrote after spending hours researching one paragraph from a novel you were assigned in English class. It could be a photo of the bike you spent the weekend rebuilding. There's no pressure to share a result but, if you want it, the option is there.
- The story is the most important part: Whatever your experience was, we want to hear about what pulled you in, and what it felt like to stay there. The story is more important than the outcome.
The guidance below can help you with any supplemental essay you write, for any college application:
- Get to know the college: Having a deep understanding of the institution you're applying to will help you write a strong supplemental essay, because you'll know how your values align with the institution's values.
- Be specific: You probably have several short essays to write for a variety of institutions, but take the time to customize your response to the colleges where you're applying.
- Be authentic: Admission readers want to better understand who you are as a student and community member. Share what is true to who you are.
- Proofread: Take the time to carefully review your response before you submit. Read it out loud, ask a friend or family member to take a look, and don't rush!