Writing the Macaulay Honors Essays

Are you applying to colleges in the City University of New York (CUNY) system? Are you a high-achieving student with a strong GPA, impressive extracurriculars and ambitious career goals? Macaulay Honors College might be the right fit for you!  

Macaulay Honors College is a highly selective program within the CUNY system that offers extensive financial and academic support to all admitted students. Each Macaulay student receives a tuition scholarship, a free laptop computer and personal advisors to help them reach their academic potential.

So, how do you get into Macaulay?

First, you need to complete your regular CUNY application, indicating your intention to apply to Macaulay Honors College. Then comes the tough part: the essays.

Macaulay requires two essays of approximately 500 words each. For each essay, you have two prompts from which to choose.

Essay 1: Personal Reflection

Option 1: Describe an experience that either demonstrates your character or helped to shape it.

This is essentially your basic personal statement. If you’ve already written a personal statement for your other applications, you can easily adapt it for this essay prompt. However, remember that this essay is ~500 words, so you will most likely have to edit down your personal statement which has a 650 word limit. Choose the most important parts of your personal statement: the parts that really demonstrate who you are.  This essay is all about focus! Don’t try to tell the reader everything about yourself. Instead, focus on one experience and aspect of you. You still have another essay to write, so you’ll get a chance to say more.

Option 2:  Reflecting on your experience and aspirations, discuss how your life will differ from your parents’ lives. Provide concrete evidence to illustrate your position.

Yes, of course you love your parents and yes, of course they helped shape you, but this is your chance to show your uniqueness. Think big in this essay. What are your wildest dreams and aspirations? If you could do anything, what would you do? You want to show that you can stand on the foundation your parents helped build and grow beyond it. One note about this essay: even though the prompt says “provide concrete evidence,” don’t approach this as an academic essay. You’re not proving a thesis, but simply using your real experience to demonstrate how you differ from your parents.

Essay 2: Social Issues

Option 1: Pick a story of local, national, or international importance from the front page of any newspaper.  Identify your source and give the date the article appeared. Then use your sense of humor, sense of outrage, sense of injustice – or just plain good sense – to explain why the story engages your attention.

With all of the polarization in the country, it is probably best to stay away from anything too political. You don’t know the opinions of the admissions officer who will read your application, so you want to be sure you’re giving your thoughts without offending anyone.

My general advice is to try to find an article that is closely aligned to your own interests that way you can explain “why the story engages your attention.” For example, if you are interested in becoming a doctor I may choose an article on healthcare, if you are interested in fashion an article on fashion and so on.

(Some counselors point out that the story should come from “the front page of any newspaper,” so that may present challenges on more niche topics, but I would still recommend trying to go in that direction.)

Option 2:  Given the confluence of crises that we face today, what have you learned about yourself, your family, and your community?

This essay is a bit tricky because you have to speak to both large-scale issues and small-scale effects. Don’t get caught up in explaining all aspects of the crises we are facing as a society, nation, planet, etc. Rather, introduce the issues you’ll be talking about in your opening paragraph or two, then focus on how you and your community have been affected by and are dealing with those issues. If you’ve already written the optional COVID essay for your Common App, you could certainly adapt it for this prompt.

Get in touch if you’re looking for some extra help with your Macaulay essays or the college admissions process in general.