Belmont University

1. Background, identity, interest, or talent: Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
2. Facing adversity: The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
3. Challenging an idea: Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
4. Gratitude: Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?
5. Personal growth: Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
6. Intellectual curiosity: Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?
7. Topic of your choice: Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you've already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

The Common App enforces the length inside the application.

1. Consider the five following individual identity descriptors: creator, doer, explorer, change agent, seeker. Choose one of these five descriptors that best encapsulates your core identity. Provide 2-3 concrete examples of how the descriptor you chose reflects your identity. How might this core identity translate into action as a scholar-global citizen at Belmont University? And how do you hope to develop your core identity during college?
2. Reflect on a recent transformative learning experience. The learning experience can be something directly related to the classes you have taken or to experiences you've had outside the classroom. The experience does not need to be academic in nature, but it should demonstrate how you were transformed in the process.
3. Belmont's Global Honors Program is a community of students who hunger for knowledge. What's a topic you haven't had an opportunity to learn about in high school that you are excited to learn about in college? Why do you yearn to know more about this particular topic?

Only if you select the Belmont Global Honors option in your application.