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Princeton  /  Essays  /  Prompt 4

Princeton: More About You (Three Short Answers)

50 words each

Please respond to each question in 50 words or fewer. (1) What is a new skill you would like to learn in college? (2) What brings you joy? (3) What song represents the soundtrack of your life at this moment?
What it’s really asking

Three quick, low-stakes questions meant to hear you as a person. Princeton says there are no right answers and to be yourself. The skill answer can be playful or unexpected; the joy answer should be specific and true; the song answer is about what the choice reveals, not how cool the song is.

Why they ask it

After all the formal essays, these let readers picture the actual human who would live in their residential college. They reward personality, specificity, and restraint far more than ambition or polish.

Three ways in
Pick a small skill

For the skill, choose something small and genuine you have never had time for, not a humblebrag.

Zoom in on joy

For joy, focus on one concrete moment or sensation rather than a category like "my friends."

Let the song reveal

For the song, choose one that lets you say something honest in a line or two; the why matters more than the title.

✕  Weak opening

“What brings me joy is spending time with my family and friends and making memories together.”

✓  Strong opening

“Joy is the exact second the bread comes out of the oven and the kitchen window fogs up.”

✦ Annotated example · Three quick takes: skill, joy, line. Written by EssayLens to teach, not a real applicant’s essay. Tap a highlighted line →
New skill to learn. I want to learn to sail: to read wind and current well enough to make a small boat go where I intend without an engine. 1It appeals to the same part of me that loves proofs, strict rules where patience and observation beat brute force. Also, I want to be on the water. 2What makes me happy. The forty seconds after I text a hard math problem to my younger brother and watch the typing bubble appear, vanish, appear, then arrive as a wrong answer delivered with total confidence. 3His nerve makes me laugh every time, and lately he is right more often, which makes me happier still. 4A favorite line. "The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper." 5I taped it inside my locker freshman year because it treats attention as a skill you can train, not a gift you are born with. It is the most hopeful sentence I know.6
  1. 1Answer one. Picks a concrete, slightly unexpected skill and starts with the vivid version of it rather than the word alone.
  2. 2In 50 words, one honest reason that reveals how the applicant thinks (the link to proofs) plus a plain human desire. It does not over-explain.
  3. 3Answer two. A tiny, specific, true scene beats a category like family or music. The texting-bubble detail makes it instantly visual and a little funny.
  4. 4The joy lands because it is about a real person and a relationship, which is what Princeton wants to glimpse in these small windows.
  5. 5Answer three. Picks a quotable, non-cliche line (avoids the overused commencement-speech quotes admissions readers see constantly).
  6. 6The why is short and personal and shows a worldview. In a 50-word answer, one true reason for choosing the line is enough; resist the urge to interpret it fully.
Stuck? Start here
  • What small, ordinary thing have you genuinely never had the time to learn?
  • Can you name a 10-second moment of joy so specific that only you would write it?
  • Which song would make you say something true about your life right now if someone asked why?
Before you submit
  • Is each answer under 50 words and free of filler?
  • Did you choose specific detail over impressive-sounding generality?
  • Do the three answers reveal three different things, not the same vibe repeated?

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