Davidson is a southern school in North Carolina with classic liberal arts vibes more often seen in the northeast or on the west coast. So, if you want a mild climate for much of the year and a community-focused and highly academic elite liberal arts experience, Davidson may be a perfect fit. Loads of other students agree, and admissions has become extremely competitive. The acceptance rate for the Class of 2028 was only .
Now, if you are serious about Davidson this next stat is the most important. The early decision acceptance rate for that same year was just over 30%, or more than double the overall acceptance rate. Now, this can be a little misleading as it includes students enrolled through special programs like Questbridge as well as recruited athletes, but even with those applicants in the mix it tells us that Davidson heavily prioritizes ED applicants.
It's also important to know that Davidson is for first-year applicants, so you aren’t required to submit an ACT or SAT score as part of your application. This doesn’t mean you should skip taking the tests, though, or give up on a higher score. While students do get into Davidson without submitting test scores, about 50% of accepted students do submit scores. Strong test scores underscore a strong application, so we advise our students to aim to be able to submit an SAT of 1480+ or an ACT of 32+, based on .
In this post, we’re going to break down the most important qualitative tool in your application that can make the difference between an acceptance and a rejection — and that you have control over at this stage in the game. You can’t change what classes you’ve taken or what your teachers will say about you in recommendation, but you can shift the narrative through well-written supplements. That’s what we’re going to work on here.
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The Davidson supplement isn’t onerous, but it also isn’t easy. They ask specific questions that require significant work — and fairly lengthy responses. This means that you need to start early, and give yourself time to work through a variety of ideas before settling on your strongest approach. We’ll help you skip the first few rounds of brainstorming by helping to guide you towards your best approach below.
There are just under 4,000 four-year colleges and universities in the United States. Being as specific as possible, what interests you most about Davidson College? (250-300 word limit)
Davidson knows that you have lots of schools to pick from, and if you are applying to Davidson — especially if you are applying Early Decision — they presume that there is a specific reason why. In this prompt, you need to share that with the application readers. However, it also needs to be through a filter. Davidson is a college, not a social experiment. They don’t want to hear about how fun it seems or how great the landscaping is. Complimenting the architecture doesn’t impress them, and neither do generic academic-focused answers that could have been copied over from any other “why us?” supplement prompt.
Instead, they want specifics. Start, then, with research. Find the specific name of the major you are considering, a professor within the major that you would love to study under (and why), two courses within the major — and beyond the introductory level — that you would love to take, and a possible minor or program, like study abroad, that you’d love to pursue. You should also identify an aspect of the Davidson approach that is particularly attractive to you.
How you deliver your research is just as important as what you want to share. We like to package this supplement in a story, framing what you want to do at Davidson, and why you want to be there, within an education-focused experience that illuminated your path. End the supplement by circling back to this story that you started with, providing a neat close to a strong supplement.
Davidson encourages students to explore curiosities in and out of the classroom. What is a topic, activity or idea that excites you? Tell us why. Examples may include hobbies, books, interactions, music, podcasts, movies, etc. (250-300 word limit)
This prompt is super fun for us. We love anytime a school invites you to share what you are enthusiastic about, but we can’t imagine why one would choose to write a response about a podcast or a movie, unless they are looking to study film — except that you would have already said that in the previous supplement and that would make this response redundant and thus a flop. Don’t write about a hobby or the media you consume, write about a passion (for the record, Love Island is not a passion).
First, take something you love immensely. It could be academic or totally not academic, just pick something authentic to you. Then zoom in. Then zoom in further. Zoom in as far as you can go and identify one little facet of the thing and write about that. For example, maybe you love wakeboarding. Don’t write about wakeboarding. Do write about putting wax on your wakeboard and the impact it has on friction and then be a super science nerd about friction.
Or maybe you love reading fiction. Don’t write about reading, a specific genre or author, or even a trope. Write about your favorite punctuation mark. Ours is the em dash. You could write about it versus the hyphen versus the en dash. Yes, the en dash is a thing and you see it all the time and probably never knew it had its own name.
Whatever you write about here should like in some way to what you want to study, but that link can be very loose. If could even be more thematic than direct. Like if you want to study math you could find the math within something else you love without ever using the word ‘math’.
A successful response to this prompt makes it your own. And, through that, highlights a key piece of what makes you tick.
The Davidson supplement is fun, light-hearted, and we honestly love it. So, get writing.
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