Application Essay Prompts for 2023-2024

The 2024-2025 Application Essay Prompts will be posted in fall 2024.

Question One

The state of English-related studies is “in flux” (in transition, flexible, fluid, evolving, influenced by tradition while innovating beyond conventions). Describe a key moment in your own academic or professional life when you recognized yourself or your situation as being in flux. How did you respond, and what were (or might be) the outcomes of this situation?

Question Two

Carl Phillips’s collection Then the War has been described as “the next step in [a] meaningful process of self-discovery for both the poet and his reader.” What work of literature has been a “step” in the process of your own self-discovery? What have you learned and how does this knowledge inspire you as you look to the future?

Question Three

As Sigma Tau Delta celebrates its centennial in 2024, we reflect on the past 100 years. What one literary work, person, or event from this time period has most influenced the world, and in what ways has that event, author, or text affected you?