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Brandeis: Myra Kraft Achievers Program

250 words

This is a program to guide you toward adjusting to the rigors and challenges of the college experience with a small cohort of peers. What strengths will you bring to the group, and in what areas will you benefit from the strengths of others?
What it’s really asking

For applicants to the Myra Kraft Achievers Program. Brandeis wants honest self-awareness: what you offer a tight cohort, and where you will genuinely lean on others. Both halves matter.

Why they ask it

The prompt rewards humility and reciprocity. Students who only list strengths miss the point; the program is about mutual support, so naming a real area of growth is a feature, not a weakness.

Three ways in
Prove one strength

Pick one concrete strength tied to a moment you actually showed it, not an adjective.

Name a real growth area

Name a place where you genuinely struggle, framed as something a cohort could help with.

Make it two-way

Show you understand the group as reciprocal: you give and you receive, on purpose.

✕  Weak opening

“I am a hard worker, a strong leader, and a team player who always helps others succeed.”

✓  Strong opening

“I am the person who reorganizes the group chat into folders; I am also the person who has never once asked for help on a math problem, even when I needed it.”

✦ Annotated example · The note-taker who needs a map. Written by EssayLens to teach, not a real applicant’s essay. Tap a highlighted line →
In every group I have ever joined, I become the person who writes things down. Not the loudest voice, not the first idea, but the one who catches what someone said three minutes ago and says, wait, that was actually the answer.1On my robotics team, I was the kid who kept the shared document. When two designers disagreed, I did not pick a side; I wrote both proposals in their own words until each could see what the other was protecting.2Half our conflicts dissolved the moment people felt accurately quoted. I will bring that to the cohort: the patience to make sure no one's point gets lost in the noise, and the habit of taking everyone seriously enough to repeat them back.3But I am genuinely bad at starting. I overthink the first move, the first email, the first raised hand, and I have lost opportunities to people who simply began before they felt ready. I want to learn from peers who walk into a room and start, who treat a blank page as an invitation rather than a verdict.4I am also aware that I read situations through a fairly narrow window, one suburban high school, one set of assumptions about how things work. A small group of people who grew up differently is the fastest correction I can imagine. I would rather have my assumptions challenged in September by a friend than in June by a failure.5So here is the trade I am offering. I will keep the map of what we have all said and make sure no one gets erased in the rush. In return, I am asking the group to teach me how to take the first step before I am certain. I think that is a fair exchange, and I think it is the whole point of a cohort.6
  1. 1Names a specific, credible strength right away rather than listing adjectives. It is unusual (synthesizing, not leading) which makes it believable and memorable for a cohort program.
  2. 2Backs the strength with a concrete example and a transferable mechanism (accurate paraphrase reduces conflict).
  3. 3Translates the example into an explicit promise to the small cohort, which is exactly the contribution the program asks applicants to name.
  4. 4Answers the second half honestly with a real, specific weakness instead of a humblebrag. Vulnerability signals self-awareness and a true willingness to rely on others, which the cohort model depends on.
  5. 5Connects personal growth to learning across difference, echoing Brandeis's values of intellectual independence and community without naming them as buzzwords.
  6. 6Closes by framing the cohort as a reciprocal exchange, directly fulfilling the prompt's two-part structure (what you give, what you gain) in the student's own confident voice.
Stuck? Start here
  • What is one strength I can prove with a specific story rather than an adjective?
  • Where do I genuinely struggle in ways a supportive cohort could actually help with?
  • When have I both led a group and depended on it, and what did that teach me?
Before you submit
  • Did I answer both halves, what I bring and where I will benefit, with equal honesty?
  • Is my strength shown through a real moment, not just asserted?
  • Does my weakness sound genuine and specific, not like a humblebrag?

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