Art Center College of Design supplemental essays

• Prompt 1Required200 words max

  Your path here

  Describe the path that has led to your choice of major/program and why you believe an ArtCenter education will further your educational and career goals.

  How to approach it

  This prompt wants the origin story and the proof, not your resume. Pick the moment the interest became yours. Show one or two things you did about it on your own. Let the school see how you think when nobody assigns the work.

• Prompt 2Required400 words max

  Lived Experience

  ArtCenter believes that our community is enriched when our classrooms are filled with individuals with different lived experiences and points of view. Tell us how your lived experience informs your point of view as a creative and as an individual. Have you encountered challenges associated with what makes you unique and, if so, how have you addressed these challenges?

  How to approach it

  Here, specific beats important. A small, true community described from the inside beats a broad label. Write it as someone who was there, not as an observer. End on what you carry into a campus, not on a moral.

These prompts are program-specific.

They apply only if you’re applying to the named program or school.

• Game DesignRequired400 words max

  Why Game Design

  Why do you want to be a game designer?

  How to approach it

  This is a why-us prompt. The trap is describing the school back to itself. Rankings and a pretty campus read as filler. Name two or three things you’d actually use. A program, a professor’s work, an open curriculum. Then tie each one to something you’ve already done.

• Interaction DesignRequired400 words max

  Interaction Design's Future

  Describe the innovations you think will happen in Interaction Design over the next five years. Describe why you think these innovations will occur and how you see yourself working in the field of interaction in the future.

  How to approach it

  Goals prompts fail when they stay noble and vague. Pick one real problem you care about. Connect it to something you’ve already touched in real life. Make the goal clear enough that a reader could disagree with it. Specific beats impressive.