Jennifer Page sitting at table writing in her notebook.

Personal Essay

The personal essay portion of our application for admission is perhaps the best place to truly tell your story, to tell who you are and what is important to you.

While spelling and grammar is important (yes, use spell-check!), we truly value your honesty and authenticity. Personal essays should be between 300 and 500 words (roughly a half of a page to a page of typed writing). If you want to get the process started you may submit your personal statement in advance of your application by emailing it (as an attachment or just in the body of the email) to admission@houghton.edu.

Personal Essay Prompts

Describe one of the major goals you have in life and discuss how a Christ-centered, educational experience at Houghton would help you accomplish that goal.

Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.

Please describe your faith perspective and how you see yourself contributing to and benefiting from the Houghton University community.

Reflect on a person or experience that had a positive impact on you in an unexpected way. How has this affected or motivated you?

The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

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