The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university. As its name suggests, it’s in Boulder, Colorado and about 29,000 undergraduate students attend the school. It’s a big school in a city setting, and students at Boulder love the outdoors. The most popular majors are computer science, psychology, and integrative physiology. The acceptance rate is around 80%.

At the University of Colorado Boulder, no two Buffs are alike. We value difference and support equity and inclusion of all students and their many intersecting identities. Pick one of your unique identities and describe its significance. (250-650 words)

Full disclosure, we have mixed feelings on this prompt. Essays that mention the word “identity” can be anxiety-inducing because they tend to make students feel that their job is to prove that they are unique by exclusively talking about their race, religion, ethnicity, political beliefs, grandparent’s voyage to America on a boat, sexual orientation, etc. But if you really think about it, we can’t always pinpoint how our unique characteristics came to be. They just exist. The good news here is that Boulder does not mention where your identity should stem from. They just want to get to know you better, and in fact the first sentence suggests that the school is not taking themselves all too seriously.

Starting this essay with a mindset of “I am _____ (enter fact about your background,) which means that I am definitely ________(enter adjective) is not the way to go. You don’t have to come from a certain background to possess a specific characteristic.

But this essay IS asking you to explain one of those characteristics, the prompt is just written in a strange way. In order to get down to what your identity really is, think small. Think about identity in a micro sense. Make a list of things that make you, you. Think about the things you care deeply about, your hobbies, your family traditions, your routines, the things that you do with your friends, random (and non-school related) things that interest you, small communities that you’re involved with, food, and anything else that comes to mind.

When brainstorming internally, we discussed the following identities:

• Only child

• The chef for our entire family

• Technology master of our house (meaning that we teach our parents how to set up a new computer)

As you can see, the topics that we came up with are light and perhaps even funny. That’s what you’re looking for. Once you look over your own list, find a topic that will allow you to shed light on a personality trait that doesn’t appear elsewhere on your application. Did you tell them that you cook yet? Did you tell them that you’re really into gardening? Does Boulder know that you have a much older sibling that you rarely see, but have a special bond with? This is your chance to tell them.

It is also worth mentioning that there is no need to talk about any part of your identity that is triggering or upsetting to you. Like we said before, keep it light. If you’ve experienced trauma, we’re really sorry. And that should be addressed in the Additional Information section of your application. But this space is not meant for a trauma essay. Keep in mind that the reader of your essay is reading hundreds of these a day, and we’re willing to bet that they would love a bit of levity in their day.

If you need help brainstorming and getting on track with the application process, contact us here.