Groningen: University College Groningen motivation video (four prompts)
3-5 minute video; all four prompts required
University College Groningen asks for a 3 to 5 minute motivation video answering four mandatory prompts (verbatim): "Please introduce yourself." / "What are your academic interests and/or aspirations?" / "What motivates you to study Liberal Arts and Sciences and why are you drawn to UCG specifically?" / "What are you proud of and/or passionate about?"
What it’s really asking
Who you are, what you want to study, why a broad Liberal Arts and Sciences degree at UCG specifically suits you, and what genuinely drives you.
Why they ask it
UCG is a small, interdisciplinary honors-style college, so it selects for fit with an open, self-directed, broad curriculum. The video lets the Board of Admissions hear your actual voice and judge whether you will thrive choosing your own path across disciplines rather than following a fixed track.
Three ways in
Answer all four prompts in order
Take the four questions one at a time, clearly, so the board can follow you and sees you respected the instructions.
Name what UCG specifically offers
For the third prompt, point to its interdisciplinary structure, project-based learning, or small cohort, and connect that to how you like to learn.
Sound like yourself
Speak naturally to the camera rather than reading a polished script word for word. The board wants to hear a real voice.
✕ Weak opening
“Hi, my name is Alex and I have always been a very curious and passionate person who loves learning about everything.”
✓ Strong opening
“Hi, I'm Alex. I came to Liberal Arts because I could never pick between biology and philosophy, and at UCG I would not have to.”
[Please introduce yourself.] Hi, my name is Mira Okonkwo. I am eighteen, I grew up between Lagos and a small town in the east of the Netherlands, and I am recording this from the desk where I do most of my arguing with myself. 1Most days you will find me reading something outside my lane: a physics explainer one evening, a translated novel the next. I am the person in the group who asks the annoying second question.
[What are your academic interests and/or aspirations?] My academic interests sit on a hinge between language and data. 2I am fascinated by how the words we choose quietly shape decisions, in courtrooms, in clinics, in the news. Last year I scraped two hundred headlines about the same protest from different outlets and counted which verbs each used: protesters demanded, clashed, or simply gathered. 3The verbs alone told you the politics. My aspiration is to keep doing exactly that, but rigorously: to study linguistics and statistics together and eventually work where language meets policy. I do not want to pick one half of my brain.
[What motivates you to study Liberal Arts and Sciences, and why are you drawn to UCG specifically?] That refusal to pick is exactly why Liberal Arts and Sciences fits me, and why I am drawn to UCG and not just to any broad degree. 4I looked closely at how UCG is built around real-world themes and a capstone Project that forces you to apply your major to something concrete, in a small cohort where tutors actually know your name. I have studied alone for a long time. 5What I want now is a room of people who will take my scraped-headlines project, poke holes in it, and make it better. The combination of breadth and a tight, demanding community is the specific thing UCG offers that I have not found elsewhere.
[What are you proud of and/or passionate about?] What I am most proud of is small and unglamorous. 6Two years ago I started a weekly homework hour for younger kids at our community centre. Attendance was three children and a lot of empty chairs. I almost quit. 7Instead I changed one thing: I asked each kid to teach the group one thing they had just understood. Now it is fifteen kids who explain fractions to each other better than I can. I am passionate about that exact moment when someone realises they actually understand something. 8If I am lucky enough to join UCG, that is the energy I want to bring into every seminar room. Thank you for watching.
- 1A video script should sound spoken, not written. Short, natural sentences and a concrete physical detail make it feel like a real person talking, which is what an admissions panel watching forty videos responds to.
- 2Directly signals which of the four mandatory prompts is being answered. Because all four are required, explicitly naming each one keeps the video readable and proves none were skipped.
- 3Evidence, not adjectives. A small self-run project with a real number shows genuine intellectual habit far better than saying I am passionate about media.
- 4Answers the two-part prompt fully, and crucially explains UCG specifically. Naming the actual institution and its features is the strongest possible fit signal.
- 5Shows research into UCG's distinctive structure (themed curriculum, project, small cohort) rather than generic praise. This is the move that separates a targeted video from a recycled one.
- 6Choosing a humble, specific pride point over an obvious trophy reads as authentic and self-aware, which is more memorable to a panel than a list of achievements.
- 7Admitting near-failure makes the eventual point land honestly. Vulnerability plus persistence reads as maturity on camera.
- 8Ties the passion back to learning and teaching, which quietly reinforces fit for an academic community without restating it. Ending on a vivid image gives the video a clean, warm close.
Stuck? Start here
- What two different fields am I genuinely torn between, and what does combining them let me do?
- Which specific features of UCG (interdisciplinary tracks, small cohort, project work) match how I actually like to learn?
- What is one real thing I have made or done that I am genuinely proud of and can describe in 20 seconds?
Before you submit
- Did I answer all four prompts, in order, within 3 to 5 minutes?
- For the UCG prompt, did I name specific things the college offers rather than generic praise?
- Do I sound like a real person talking, not someone reading a script?
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