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Waterloo  /  Essays  /  Prompt 2

Waterloo: Passion / interest

~900 characters / ~150 words

Tell us about a passion or strong interest of yours. How did you become involved, what have you learned about yourself, and how will you apply this at the University of Waterloo?
What it’s really asking

One genuine interest, the story of how you got into it, and what it taught you about yourself. It does not have to be academic, but it does have to be real and reflected on.

Why they ask it

This question tests authenticity and self-awareness. Waterloo says it wants the meaningful things outside your schoolwork, so it is checking whether you can take one interest and say something true about how it shaped you, then tie it forward.

Three ways in
Choose detail over prestige

Pick an interest you can describe in specific detail, even a small or unusual one, over an impressive-sounding one you barely do.

Tell the origin honestly

Say who or what got you started and roughly how long you have stuck with it, which makes the interest believable.

Close with a forward link

End with one concrete way the interest will show up in your life at Waterloo, in a lab, a team, or your study habits.

✕  Weak opening

“My greatest passion is helping others, which is something I have always cared deeply about.”

✓  Strong opening

“I have repaired bicycles in my garage every weekend for three years, and the bikes taught me patience my report cards never did.”

✦ Annotated example · Repairing bikes, and learning to slow down. Written by EssayLens to teach, not a real applicant’s essay. Tap a highlighted line →
My passion is fixing bicycles, which started by accident when my own chain snapped two miles from home and I had no money for the shop. I watched repair videos until I could rebuild a drivetrain, then volunteered at a community bike co-op that gives refurbished bikes to newcomers. 1I have tuned over eighty bikes there in eighteen months. 2What I learned about myself surprised me. I am impatient by nature, but a wheel will not true if you yank the spokes, 3so the work forced me to make small adjustments and check after each one. That patience is a skill, not a personality trait, and I can build it. 4At Waterloo I will bring the same method to engineering: diagnose carefully, change one variable, measure, repeat. I also intend to keep wrenching, probably at a campus repair collective, because teaching someone to fix their own ride is the part I like most.
  1. 1Shows the origin honestly (necessity, not a noble plan) and then real, ongoing involvement. Authenticity is exactly what Waterloo asks for.
  2. 2A concrete count gives the 'strong interest' claim measurable weight.
  3. 3Names a genuine flaw, which reads as honest rather than self-congratulatory.
  4. 4Turns the anecdote into a transferable insight, the reflection Waterloo's prompt explicitly requests.
Stuck? Start here
  • What is one interest I actually spend time on every week, not just admire?
  • What got me started, and roughly how long have I stuck with it?
  • What does this interest reveal about how I think or work?
Before you submit
  • My interest is described with specific, concrete detail, not just named.
  • I included a real insight about myself, not a generic virtue.
  • I connected the interest forward to life at Waterloo.

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