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Western: Scholar's Electives essay

175-200 words

Why are you interested in The Scholar's Electives Program? Also list two to three specific research topics that you might like to explore with your Faculty Mentor in the second year research course. (175-200 words)
What it’s really asking

This short essay tests whether you actually want a research-driven path and whether you can name real, specific questions, not vague fields. It rewards intellectual specificity over enthusiasm.

Why they ask it

Scholar's Electives is a small, research-focused enrichment program with its own February deadline. The essay is the main filter for intellectual fit, and naming concrete research topics is the single clearest signal that you belong in it.

Three ways in
Name real questions, not fields

List two or three genuine research questions you could imagine pursuing, not broad subjects like biology or history. Specificity is the whole test.

Anchor curiosity in something real

Connect one current interest (a class, a book, a project you actually did) to the topics you list so they feel earned rather than invented for the form.

Explain why mentored research fits you

Show why a deep, mentor-led model suits how you actually like to learn, which answers the why-this-program half directly.

✕  Weak opening

“I have always been passionate about learning and exploring new ideas across many different fields.”

✓  Strong opening

“I want to test why some city bike-share systems collapse at rush hour while others self-balance.”

✦ Annotated example · Scholar's Electives: from curiosity to research. Written by EssayLens to teach, not a real applicant’s essay. Tap a highlighted line →
I am drawn to Scholar's Electives because my curiosity has always refused to stay inside one department. 1In Grade 12 I wrote a history paper on quarantine policy during the 1918 influenza pandemic, then found myself reading epidemiology models to understand why the policies worked or failed. The program's structure, replacing breadth requirements with the freedom to follow exactly that thread, matches how I already learn. 2What attracts me most is the second-year research course and the chance to work closely with a Faculty Mentor while I am still learning how to ask a researchable question, not just answer assigned ones. 3Three topics I would want to explore: first, how historical public-health communication shaped compliance during epidemics, comparing 1918 with 2020; second, the mathematics of misinformation spread on social networks, treating rumour like a contagion model; and third, the ethics of predictive algorithms in public health, where a useful forecast can also entrench bias. 4These questions sit between history, mathematics, and ethics, and no single major would let me pursue all three. 5Scholar's Electives would give me both the latitude to chase them and a mentor to keep me rigorous while I do.6
  1. 1Opens by naming the program's defining feature, interdisciplinarity, in the applicant's own terms rather than flattering the school, which signals genuine fit fast within a tight word count.
  2. 2Gives concrete evidence of self-directed, cross-disciplinary work (the 1918 paper leading into epidemiology) instead of claiming to be 'passionate'. Western rewards evidence over adjectives, and this proves the trait.
  3. 3Shows self-awareness by framing himself as still learning to form questions, which reads as mature and honest rather than overselling, a tone admissions readers trust.
  4. 4Delivers exactly the three specific, researchable topics the prompt demands, and they visibly connect back to the opening anecdote, giving the essay a coherent intellectual through-line.
  5. 5Explicitly ties the topics back to the program's interdisciplinary premise, closing the logical loop the prompt set up.
  6. 6Ends by naming the two things the program uniquely offers (latitude plus mentorship), echoing the prompt's own language and landing the essay cleanly at target length.
Stuck? Start here
  • What is a question you have genuinely wondered about that a mentor could help you research?
  • Which class, book, or project first sparked that question, and what did you do about it?
  • What two or three distinct angles could one core interest split into?
Before you submit
  • Did you name two to three specific research topics, not broad fields?
  • Is your interest tied to something concrete you have already read or done?
  • Did you explain why mentored research, not just any program, suits you?

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