Santa Clara University is a mid-sized Catholic university of Silicon Valley. They attract students driven to build things, from launching businesses to designing products to developing new ways of seeing the world. Half of students are from California, but admitted students also represent 50 states and over 65 countries. Undergraduates can attend the College of Arts & Sciences, the Leavey School of Business, or the School of Engineering. The overall first-year acceptance rate is .
Santa Clara offers a grab bag of admissions options. You can apply Early Action, Early Decision I, Early Decision II, or Regular Decision. We highly recommend taking an early admissions pathway, either binding or non-binding, as Santa Clara prioritizes applicants who prioritize them. If you are hoping for a GPA boost in the first grading period of senior year, though, you may need to wait for the regular decision deadline.
The university is also , meaning that you don’t have to submit SAT or ACT scores if you don’t have to. That doesn’t mean that you should immediately stop studying, though. Strong test scores underline an impressive application, so we advise our students who are applying to Santa Clara to achieve (and submit) an SAT of over 1410 ACT of 32+. About of all recently admitted applicants submit scores. Santa Clara also has minimum academic requirements that applicants must meet to be considered for admission. to ensure that you will meet these requirements.
In this post, we’ll be focused on something that isn’t quantifiable — the supplements. The Santa Clara supplements offer you an opportunity to spotlight pieces of yourself that don’t show up on a transcript or in a score report. So, let’s get into it.
We help driven students get into great schools. Learn more.
The Santa Clara University supplement has three questions and one additional option — but remember that nothing is really optional. While you may be able to apply without checking every box, optional isn’t optional if you want to get in. Every supplement requires a thoughtful response and a well-developed strategy to ensure that you are sharing your best self with the application readers.
Why are you interested in pursuing the division or major selected? (50 words)
This one is super short. Fifty words isn’t much to work with. Only two or three sentences, in fact. So, you have to make these sentences work for you. Do this by sharing a micro-story that highlights a specific piece of the subject you are thinking of studying in college. Maybe it is a formula you are fascinated by, or a theorist that a professor at Santa Clara happens to be a leading expert in. By tying what you love academically to what Santa Clara offers you will help them envision you on campus and in the classroom.
At Santa Clara University, we value our diverse and inclusive community. Our campus learning environment is enriched by the lived experiences of people from different backgrounds. What people, places, events, or circumstances have shaped the individual you are today and how you could contribute to our community? (150- 300 words)
This is a classic supplemental prompt. They want you to share what makes you, you. We advise our students, though, to focus on only one place, event, or circumstance that has shaped them. If you try to pack too many life events in here, it will end up sounding like confusing list. By focusing on one thing, you have the ability to build a strong narrative that immerses the reader in your background. Remember, too, that they also want to hear how you would contribute to Santa Clara. We like to weave this all together through one narrative thread.
For example, maybe you have been volunteering with your local community center since childhood. You have developed relationships with members of the community you would never have met otherwise, and have first-hand knowledge of how societal and economic challenges impact the local community. You could write this supplement about working in a specific area of the community center, and then propose engaging with similar work at Santa Clara. Look up a student group you’d join to do this so that you can be as specific as possible.
At Santa Clara University, we push our students to be creative, be challenged, and be the solution. Think about an ethical dilemma that you care about that our society is currently facing. This can be something happening in your local community or more globally. How can an SCU education help you prepare for and address this challenge? (150- 300 words)
The second long supplement for Santa Clara is all about identifying an issue and proposing how you would address it through your education. While they say that the ethical issue you choose could be close to home or more global in scale, we highly recommend selecting something that you have personal experience of to focus on.
For example, you could write about disaster relief and coastal community bounce-back in the face of climate change through the lens of flooding issues in your hometown. This would be personal — should your town support redeveloping spaces likely to be damaged again? — while also having a broader perspective. Be specific about how Santa Clara would support you in studying and addressing this issue by citing a specific major, a few classes you are especially excited for, and a professor you would love to learn from.
Resume
Santa Clara also invites you to upload a resume. We have specific resources on how to write your strongest resume, and we highly recommend checking them out.
The Santa Clara application gives you ample opportunity to share who you are beyond your grades and scores, and you can even spotlight the activities that are most important to you and relevant to what you want to study. Remember to give yourself plenty of time to work on these supplements. Taking your time with drafting and editing makes a huge difference on admissions outcomes.
Getting into a top school requires top strategy. Get yours.