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DePauw  /  Essays  /  Prompt 1

DePauw: The leadership growth prompt

100 words (optional)

DePauw's mission is to prepare the leaders the world needs; in what ways do you intend to enhance your leadership strengths during your time at DePauw?
What it’s really asking

How will you grow as a leader at DePauw specifically? They want a forward-looking answer: one leadership skill you want to develop and the concrete DePauw resource that will help you develop it. This is the only first-year supplement. Note that the Honor Scholar Program is a separate application with its own roughly 500-word essay (four options on AI, public health, the writer's task, or a New Orleans photograph), so apply there only if you are pursuing that program.

Why they ask it

DePauw builds its identity around producing leaders, so this prompt tests whether you see college as a place to be shaped, not just a credential to collect. At 100 words it also tests whether you can be specific and disciplined. Readers learn more from what you choose to focus on than from any single claim you make.

Three ways in
Lead with a real weakness

Name a leadership flaw you actually have (you avoid conflict, you do too much yourself, you struggle to delegate) and pair it with a DePauw resource that addresses it.

Connect an interest to a named program

Tie a real interest to a specific DePauw offering: a Winter Term project, the Bonner Scholars service track, a research lab, an ensemble, or a living-learning community.

Work backward from senior year

Picture who you want to be by graduation, then identify the one skill that gets you there and write the essay around closing that gap.

✕  Weak opening

“I have always been a natural born leader, and DePauw will help me continue my journey of leadership.”

✓  Strong opening

“I can run a meeting; I cannot yet sit quietly while someone slower than me finds the answer.”

✦ Annotated example · From quiet organizer to spoken voice. Written by EssayLens to teach, not a real applicant’s essay. Tap a highlighted line →
I lead best behind the scenes. As our robotics team's logistics person, I built the spreadsheets and never the speeches, 1which is why I freeze when I have to defend an idea out loud. 2At DePauw I want to grow that missing half through the Hartman House and a Pulliam media fellowship, 3spaces built to make organizers like me argue, pitch, and be questioned in public. 4I plan to start small, pitching one project a month until the freeze loosens, 5I do not want to lead more. I want to lead out loud.6
  1. 1Opens with honest self-awareness instead of a brag. DePauw rewards self-awareness, and naming a real limitation upfront earns trust fast.
  2. 2Identifies a concrete growth edge. This signals forward motion, the prompt's core ask, rather than presenting a finished highlight reel.
  3. 3Names specific DePauw programs. This demonstrates real research into the school, which it explicitly rewards over generic flattery.
  4. 4Ties the named programs back to the exact skill gap, showing the fit is reasoned, not decorative.
  5. 5Adds a concrete, modest plan. A small, repeatable step reads as believable growth rather than an overnight transformation.
  6. 6Closes on a crisp, memorable line that restates the growth arc in the applicant's own voice, no filler to pad the count.
Stuck? Start here
  • What is one leadership habit of yours that quietly holds your group back?
  • Which specific DePauw program, course, or community could fix that habit, and why that one?
  • Who do you want to be as a leader by graduation, and what is the one skill standing between you and that person?
Before you submit
  • Is at least 70% of the essay about the future, not past accomplishments?
  • Did you name a real DePauw program, course, or community accurately by its actual name?
  • Could this essay only have been written about DePauw, or would it work for any school?

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