Written by
Raj Hamlai
How the Georgetown Essays Fit Together
Before we go prompt-by-prompt, it helps to understand the overall “job” of your Georgetown essays:
Activity essay: Shows what you do regularly and what that reveals about your character.
Personal/creative essay: Shows who you are as a person—identity, values, voice, and how you think.
Special talent/skill response: Adds one more specific angle that might not appear elsewhere.
School-specific essay: Connects your interests and goals to Georgetown’s programs and mission.
Read them as a portfolio: each piece should do something different. If two essays tell the same story, you are wasting space you could use to show another side of yourself.
Momentum often works with students to map out this “portfolio” before drafting, so that each Georgetown essay has a clear role and nothing feels repetitive.
Activity Essay (All Applicants)
Prompt summary: Briefly discuss the significance to you of the school-year or summer activity in which you have been most involved.
What this prompt is really asking
Georgetown is not just asking, “What do you do?” The real questions are:
What do you show up for consistently?
How has this activity shaped you and the way you move through the world?
How have you contributed to others through this activity?
This is less about prestige and more about depth.
Strong topics for the Georgetown activity essay
Good choices often include:
A job or family responsibility (tutoring siblings, working in a restaurant, caregiving)
A long-term club or sport where you took on responsibility
An artistic or creative commitment (theatre, music, design, writing)
A summer research program or internship
Community service you led or helped sustain
The best topics give you stories and growth, not just titles and awards.
Common pitfalls to avoid
Try not to:
Choose an activity only because it “matches” your intended major but you do not actually care about it.
Recycle a generic sports essay that could apply to thousands of students.
Summarize your entire resume—this is a focused deep dive into one activity.
Spend all your words describing what the activity is instead of what it has meant to you.
How to approach this essay
Aim for a short, focused narrative:
Start inside a specific moment in the activity (a shift, a rehearsal, a practice, a meeting).
Zoom out to show how that moment reflects what the activity has taught you or how you have changed.
End with a concise reflection on how this activity shapes the way you will show up at Georgetown.
Keep the tone grounded and concrete. Georgetown values humility, reflection, and a sense of responsibility.
Example snippet (not a full essay)
The bakery opens at 5:30 a.m., but my shift starts at 4:45, when the ovens still sound like distant thunder and the display cases are empty. Sliding trays of conchas into place, I have learned to translate between three languages—Spanish at the prep table, English at the register, and the unspoken language of regulars who only nod before reaching for their usual order. What began as a way to help my family with bills has become my quiet classroom in patience, dignity, and what it means to serve a community one small interaction at a time.
If you are stuck between two activities, a quick strategy session with Momentum can help you map which stories fit best here versus in your other Georgetown essays.
Personal or Creative Essay “About You” (All Applicants)
Prompt summary: Georgetown asks for a personal or creative essay that best describes you and reflects your background, identity, experiences, and talents.
What this prompt is really asking
This is the heart of your Georgetown essays 2025–26. Georgetown wants to know:
Who are you beyond your transcript and activities list?
What perspectives or experiences will you bring to campus?
How do you make sense of the world and your place in it?
Unlike the activity essay, this one should feel bigger and deeper—less about what you do and more about who you are.
Strong directions for this essay
You have a lot of freedom. Common strong approaches include:
Identity and home: Languages, cultures, family roles, migration, traditions, or a place that shaped you.
Intellectual curiosity: A question, problem, or fascination you keep returning to (not just “I like math”).
Bridge-building: Times you translated between communities, generations, or viewpoints.
Resilience with reflection: A challenge you faced and how it changed your outlook or priorities.
Creative voice: A piece built around art, music, making, or a particular way you express yourself.
The essay should feel like it could only have been written by you, not by “a strong student.”
What to avoid
Rewriting your Common App personal statement word-for-word.
Turning this into another “Why Georgetown” essay (you have space for that later).
Sharing trauma without showing agency, support, or growth.
Listing achievements in paragraph form instead of telling an actual story.
Overly abstract philosophy with no concrete scenes or people.
How to shape this essay
You do not need a rigid “template,” but most strong essays:
Anchor in one central thread (identity, question, value, or conflict).
Use 2–3 specific scenes that show you living that thread.
Include thoughtful reflection—what you realized, changed, or chose.
Hint at how this connects to the kind of student and community member you will be.
Momentum frequently works with students at this stage to test different ideas against Georgetown’s prompts and decide which story fits best here versus other applications.
Example snippet
At my house, dinner is a three-language negotiation. My grandmother insists on Arabic, my parents slip into French when the conversation turns serious, and my little brother only answers in English. I grew up as the unofficial translator, not just of words, but of worries, jokes, and unspoken tensions. When my grandmother’s stories about Damascus collided with my brother’s questions about climate change, I started keeping a notebook of their conversations, sketching diagrams to connect water shortages, war, and the price of lemons at our local grocery store. Somewhere between the steam of mint tea and the blue glow of my brother’s Chromebook, I realized that my “role” in the family was not to choose a side, but to build bridges where they did not exist yet.
“Special Talents or Skills” Short Response (All Applicants)
Prompt summary: Please elaborate on any special talents or skills you would like to highlight.
What this prompt is really asking
Georgetown is giving you a chance to show one more dimension of yourself:
What do you do unusually well or in an unusual way?
How did you develop this skill or talent?
What does it reveal about how you approach life and other people?
This can be serious or light as long as it feels honest and specific.
What to avoid
Simply listing several skills without depth.
Overinflating something minimal to sound dramatic.
Repeating a talent already fully explored elsewhere in your Georgetown essays.
Writing about something you cannot actually back up if asked.
How to approach it
In about a short paragraph or two:
Start with a quick, concrete example of you using the skill.
Explain how you learned or strengthened it.
Reflect briefly on why it matters—to you, to others, or to your future work.
Example snippet
I can hear a song once and play it back on the piano, wrong notes and all. Perfect pitch sounds glamorous, but most days it means my dishwasher beeps in an A-flat that will not leave my head for hours. Still, this odd little skill has become my favorite way to take care of people. I transpose my grandfather’s favorite songs into easier keys for his fading voice, arrange pop ballads for my school choir, and improvise melodies that match my friends’ moods when they sit beside me after a hard day. What started as a party trick has turned into my quiet way of listening closely and answering with music when words fall short.
If you are unsure whether a talent “counts,” the answer is usually yes—as long as you can write about it with specificity and sincerity. That is something Momentum can help you assess quickly.
School-Specific Georgetown Essays 2025–26
In addition to the shared prompts above, you will write one longer essay for the Georgetown school or program you are applying to. Each version is a different take on the same core question:
Why this field of study, and why pursue it at Georgetown, given its mission and opportunities?
Below, you will see how to approach each school’s Georgetown essay prompt with examples.
College of Arts & Sciences (CAS)
Prompt summary: Explain your interest in studying in the College of Arts & Sciences. If you are drawn to sciences, math, or languages, name and discuss your intended major.
What this prompt is really asking
What genuinely excites you intellectually?
How has that interest grown over time?
Why is the liberal arts environment at Georgetown the right place to pursue it?
CAS is looking for students who see connections across disciplines and want to develop as whole people, not just specialists.
What to avoid
Saying you “love learning” without concrete examples.
Basing your answer on rankings or prestige.
Recycling a generic “Why this major” essay with only the word “Georgetown” swapped in.
Example snippet
My favorite questions refuse to stay in one department. A poem about polluted rivers in my Spanish class sent me into hydrology reports, indigenous land rights cases, and even medieval flood myths. I want a college where following one thread might lead me from a theology seminar to a data lab to community work on the Anacostia River. In the College of Arts & Sciences, the chance to weave environmental science with literature, ethics, and community-based research in Washington, DC would let me treat every syllabus as a map instead of a checklist.
Momentum often helps students applying to CAS identify the specific “thread” that ties their different interests together so this essay feels focused, not scattered.
Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS)
Prompt summary: Describe your motivations for studying international affairs and devoting your undergraduate years to future global service.
What this prompt is really asking
Which global issues or regions do you actually care about, and why?
How have your local experiences opened your eyes to international questions?
Why do you see yourself committing to service and leadership in a global context?
SFS is not just looking for students who like travel or international news. It wants students ready to wrestle with complexity and responsibility.
What to avoid
Vague statements about “making the world a better place” with no details.
Treating international affairs as glamorous travel rather than serious work.
“Savior” narratives about fixing other countries.
Example snippet
My interest in refugee policy started at the tutoring table in our local library, where I spent Tuesday nights helping a middle-schooler from Afghanistan decode social studies worksheets about borders and “national interests.” Hearing her confusion about why lines on a map seemed to matter more than families pushed me to read beyond the textbook, from resettlement reports to op-eds on asylum caps. At the School of Foreign Service, I hope to study the intersection of human security and international law, pairing language study with coursework in history and economics so I can someday help craft policies that treat families like hers as more than numbers on a spreadsheet.
McDonough School of Business
Prompt summary: Describe your motivations for studying business at Georgetown.
What this prompt is really asking
How did you become interested in business in the first place?
What kind of impact do you want to have through business?
Why is McDonough, with its emphasis on ethics and global perspective, the right environment?
McDonough wants students who see business as a tool for responsible leadership, not just profit.
What to avoid
Overusing buzzwords like “innovation” and “disruption” without concrete examples.
Treating business as purely theoretical with no lived experience or observation behind it.
Example snippet
I first learned about margins from the back of my mother’s food truck, calculating how many plates we had to sell to cover the cost of parking near the stadium. But I also watched her quietly hand free meals to construction workers on days the heat index was dangerous. At McDonough, I want to study finance and operations not only to build sustainable small businesses like hers, but to explore social impact investing and worker-centered models that make generosity part of the business plan, not an afterthought.
If you are not sure how to connect your current experiences to a future in business, a conversation with Momentum can help you uncover angles you may be overlooking.
School of Nursing
Prompt summary: Explain the factors that have influenced your interest in studying Nursing at Georgetown.
What this prompt is really asking
Why nursing specifically, rather than medicine in general or another health field?
How have your experiences with caregiving, health, or illness shaped your goals?
Are you ready for the realities of nursing—clinical work, emotional labor, advocacy?
Georgetown’s nursing program is rooted in cura personalis: caring for the whole person.
What to avoid
A vague “I want to help people” essay without specific experiences.
Writing as if nursing is a backup plan for medical school.
Overly graphic or sensational medical details.
Example snippet
On the nights my aunt’s chemo ran long, the nurse who mattered most was not the one with the quickest IV start, but the one who pulled up a chair and asked about her roses. I started volunteering on that oncology floor expecting to deliver magazines; instead, I learned how vital it is to read a patient’s silence, to explain lab results without jargon, and to advocate when they are too exhausted to ask. Georgetown’s emphasis on caring for the whole person, combined with early clinical experiences and the chance to study health equity in Washington, makes me eager to train as the kind of nurse who can manage both the medication chart and the human being attached to it.
School of Health
Prompt summary: Explain what influenced your interest in studying health at Georgetown, specifically in Global Health, Health Care Management & Policy, or Human Science.
What this prompt is really asking
Which health major are you drawn to, and why?
How do you think about health: as biology, systems, policy, or global interconnectedness?
How will you use this degree to improve health outcomes for real people?
What to avoid
Being vague about which major you want and why.
Making the essay entirely about your own or a relative’s illness without stepping back to bigger questions.
Ignoring disparities, equity, or policy aspects when they are clearly relevant.
Example snippet
During the pandemic, I watched my father’s blood pressure readings spike and fall with the hours he could or could not miss from his warehouse job to visit a clinic across town. That experience pushed me beyond memorizing the renin-angiotensin system; I wanted to understand why a city full of hospitals could still leave working-class patients with impossible choices. At Georgetown’s School of Health, I hope to major in Health Care Management & Policy, pairing courses in epidemiology and health economics with internships in Washington that examine how policy can make sure a missed shift never has to be part of someone’s treatment plan.
McCourt School of Public Policy (Undergraduate)
Prompt summary: Describe your motivations for studying public policy at Georgetown and committing your undergraduate years to public service, including the two-campus experience.
What this prompt is really asking
Which policy areas do you care about most, and why?
How have you already started engaging with civic life, advocacy, or policy problems?
Why do you want to dedicate yourself to public service, not just politics as spectacle?
What to avoid
Treating policy as simply arguing about current events.
Listing every Washington opportunity you can think of with no personal connection.
Being noncommittal about service or impact.
Example snippet
When my school board voted to close the only elementary school in our neighborhood, the decision looked efficient on their spreadsheet and catastrophic in our group chats. Translating parents’ concerns into public testimony, mapping new bus routes, and watching how one vote reshaped daily life convinced me that policy is not abstract—it is whether a seven-year-old walks ten minutes or boards a 4:45 a.m. bus. At Georgetown, I want to study data-driven education policy, splitting my time between quantitative coursework and the policy organizations in Washington that are wrestling with decisions like the one that changed my street.
Environment and Sustainability (Earth Commons)
Prompt summary: Describe your motivations for studying environment and sustainability at Georgetown to create positive change in the world.
What this prompt is really asking
Which environmental questions or problems keep you up at night?
How do you see the connections between science, policy, ethics, and communities?
How will you turn concern into sustained, informed action?
What to avoid
Broad “save the planet” language without detail or direction.
Treating sustainability as a trend rather than a long-term commitment.
Ignoring social and economic dimensions of environmental issues.
Example snippet
My city’s hottest neighborhoods share two things: few trees and high percentages of low-income residents. After mapping temperature data for a science fair project, I could no longer see summer as just beach season—it was also ER season for neighbors without air conditioning. I want to study how policy, ecology, and urban design can work together to cool cities without pushing people out. Georgetown’s environment and sustainability program, with its mix of fieldwork, ethics, and partnerships in Washington, would give me the tools to turn my color-coded heat maps into strategies that change who feels safe walking outside in July.
Bringing Your Georgetown Essays Together
As you draft your Georgetown essays 2025–26, keep asking:
Does each essay show a different side of me?
Do my stories reflect the values Georgetown emphasizes—intellectual curiosity, service, care for others, reflection?
Would an admissions reader feel they understand not just what I have done, but who I are becoming?
If you can answer yes to those questions, you are on the right track.
If you would like support choosing topics, refining your language, or making sure your Georgetown essay prompts are working together strategically, Momentum College Prep can guide you through that process.
Want expert feedback on your Georgetown essays? Schedule a free consultation with Momentum College Prep.
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