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Dickinson  /  Essays  /  Prompt 1

Dickinson: The curiosity question

50 words or less; optional

What topic or idea could you write or converse about endlessly?
What it’s really asking

Dickinson wants to see what genuinely fascinates you when no one is grading you. This is one of three optional short answers (50 words or less each); you may answer any, all, or none. Older or third-party versions phrase it as an 'internet rabbit hole,' but the official Dickinson wording is what you should answer.

Why they ask it

A liberal arts college built on curiosity and interdisciplinary thinking is testing whether you are intrinsically motivated. The specific topic matters far less than the energy and texture of how you talk about it. They are checking whether you light up about ideas.

Three ways in
The unprompted rant

The thing you explain to friends without being asked, the subject they gently tease you for bringing up too often. That is your topic.

The oddly specific niche

A narrow corner you know too much about: a sport's obscure rulebook, a band's full discography, how tide charts work. Narrow beats broad here.

The unresolved question

Something you have never settled and keep circling back to. An open loop in your head shows curiosity better than mastery does.

✕  Weak opening

“I am deeply passionate about a wide range of intellectual topics, especially science and history.”

✓  Strong opening

“Why do escalators have brushes along the sides? I have asked three engineers and I am still not satisfied.”

✦ Annotated example · Why bridges hold. Written by EssayLens to teach, not a real applicant’s essay. Tap a highlighted line →
I could talk forever about why bridges stay up. 1Not the math, exactly, 2but the idea that a suspension cable is just a chain flipped upside down, 3that tension and compression are the same argument told from opposite ends. 4I keep wondering what else in my life 5is secretly a chain I've turned over without noticing.6
  1. 1Opens with a concrete, slightly unexpected object rather than a grand abstraction, signaling genuine curiosity in a tiny space.
  2. 2Quick aside narrows the focus and sounds like a real person thinking aloud.
  3. 3Specificity over polish: one precise, real engineering insight does more work than a list of interests.
  4. 4A vivid, original turn of phrase shows the applicant actually thinks about this, not just lists it.
  5. 5Pivots from the object outward, widening a small topic into a habit of mind.
  6. 6Closes by reusing its own image, landing the curiosity as something the writer carries everywhere.
Stuck? Start here
  • What did you most recently look up just because you wanted to, with nothing riding on it?
  • What do your friends roll their eyes at you for explaining?
  • Is there a question you have never gotten a satisfying answer to?
Before you submit
  • Is the topic specific enough that no other applicant would write the exact same sentence?
  • Does my energy come through, not just my information?
  • Am I under 50 words with zero filler?

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