Successful BU Essay Examples That Worked

This article will cover some of our successful BU essay examples that worked. These cover the main BU “Why Us” essay, the additional comments section, and the Kilachand Honors essay. We’ll also be covering why these essays worked.

But, before we get to the main guide, it’s important to note the school’s acceptance rate. Here is what the official website has to say about how many students they accepted into the class of 2026.

“…Over the past decade, BU’s admittance rate has dropped from 46 percent in 2012 to 14 percent in this year’s admissions season.”

BU Official Website

The ever-increasing demand for Boston University is something that has changed the face of the admissions process. No longer can one get accepted into BU with strong grades and test scores alone. In order to truly get accepted into BU for any major, even those less impacted, it is crucial to have strong essays that help you stand out amongst the rest of the admissions pool.

If you cannot forge strong admissions essays that can help you stand out, it is very unlikely that you will be accepted into the school. BU’s admissions rate rivals that of many top schools. So, it’s safe to say many of the applicants you’re competing against will have strong essays that were worked on by other editors and college advisors as well.

If you don’t want to fall behind, don’t let your BU essays be your downfall. You can contact us for a free phone consultation, and our professional admissions advisors and consultants can help you strengthen your essays.

With that out of the way, let’s get to the guide.

Table of Contents

  1. Successful BU Essay Examples That Worked
  2. Why These Essays Worked

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Successful BU Essay Examples That Worked

What about being a student at Boston University most excites you? * 250 words

“When my family would ask the same question during dinner for the millionth time, “which school are you applying for?”, I would brace myself for the incoming responses I knew would come. 

“Oh, Boston University. Good Choice. I hear it gets cold there, though.”

“[Name], your uncle says that they are at the top of (arbitrary ranking statistics); that must be very good for your reputation!”

“[Name], if you make it in I can brag to all my friends that you were accepted!”

Despite my plans to attend Boston University for Biology, I’ve found the support behind my decision to be shallow and surface level. I appreciate a new meteorological setting, and I don’t mind friendly family competitiveness. 

However, there is something about BU that grips me. It has the keys to something that keeps me up at night and makes my imagination run wild with ideas. 

BU is the perfect place for me to start Restore.io: a project advocating affordable reconstructive surgery for those who can’t afford it.  

However, I cannot launch Restore.io yet. I would first like to collaborate with other like-minded individuals such as those in BU’s Socially Responsible Surgery Committee and the Division of plastic and reconstructive surgery. 

This initiative is something I’ve never done before. I’m still young. It can fail. I can be a fool. Or, it could be incredible. Regardless, until I attend BU, it will be just that: a sleeping plan waiting to launch at a moment’s notice.”

BU “Why Us” Essay That Worked

Additional Information (optional): Please use this space if you have additional information, materials, or writing samples you would like us to consider.

“I’ve no space to fit in any purple prose. I wish there were more I could say about how Boston University is my dream school. However, I felt it would be too presumptuous to assume that statement could stand on its own. 

That is why I wanted to talk about one of my other reasons for applying: it would be impossible for me to refuse acceptance from BU. I have dreams and aspirations of attending BU to actualize my goal of becoming a plastic surgeon. However, I also want to have a fulfilling academic experience that allows me to become a complete person and not just an academic. 

The school’s resources are perfect for that. Everything from its programs to the student culture, to the honors program has made this school my top choice. 

It’s not just that BU is my top choice, though; it’s that rejecting an acceptance from BU would be enormously illogical. Should I be accepted into BU, I can assure that I will both accept and make the most out of the school that can best fulfill my aspirations.”

BU Additional Info Essay That Worked

Kilachand question 1: What about the Kilachand Honors College resonates with you, and how would Kilaachand’s curriculum fulfill your academic, creative, intellectual, and/or professional goals? 

In Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra, Zarathustra witnesses a man with a giant ear. The general public deemed the giant-eared man a genius, but Zarathustra thought him a deformity: someone with too much of only one thing, and not enough of everything. 

As an aspiring plastic surgeon, my initial response was to think, “well, that’s a bother; if only he could get a procedure to normalize it”. That was the value-free proposition, though. After having spent my nights under the bed diving into the rabbit hole that is Existentialist literature, I found that everything in life started to feel much more profound. 

In fact, it wasn’t just literature. The world of the liberal arts has brought color to my life in a truly vital way. 

I remember reading books in English courses like Running in the Family and finding it impossible to see the ‘work of genius’ behind the book when my instructors were lecturing about it. Then, right when I try to read into the book through my own curiosity, Micheal Ondaatje suddenly becomes a profound thinker. 

For once, upon diving into the world of liberal arts, I feel like I “get it”. 

If I weren’t just treating the liberal arts like any other class with tests and vocab quizzes, if I truly pursued its valuable wisdom, I could become a more fully developed person. Without it, I would have an incomplete philosophy. My being would not be whole. 

Kilachand resonates with me because I don’t want to become that: a giant ear. 

I know, as someone who pursues a future career in plastic surgery, that there is more to an education than just the career technicalities. For me, to be educated is to learn all the intricacies that would make my being complete. I aspire to become a whole person, and that may mean exposing myself to aspects of the liberal arts that I never explored the emphasis for. 

I would love to explore just how deep the roots of systemic racial oppression truly entangle our modern society, instead of just learning the basic statistics in textbooks. I would love to fall deeper into the rabbit hole of how critical thinking and logic through literature could affect important future decisions. I would love to break the STEM stereotype of lacking creativity, and open doors to understanding the arts in a way that I never could have with my current curriculum.

Kilachand’s curriculum contains classes that fulfill exactly that. One of its courses, KHC HC 501 People in Process: Lives & Works, is a class that fits nicely both in time and content. Since it takes place in my senior year, I wouldn’t have to fear my academic courses taking over my final year. It would help pepper my final academic season with worldly questions of ethics and morality that challenge my critical thinking and articulation for speech. 

To have courses covering not just the importance of access to education, healthcare, and gender equality in the workplace, but also the critical writing that comes with proving its importance is a skill I would not like to lose due to a hyper-focus on STEM. 

In short, Kilachand would ensure my academic experience at BU is complete. I can become a whole person, and not just a hyper-specialized giant ear.”

BU Kilachand Honors Essay That Worked

Why These Essays Worked

Separated Paragraphs and Diversified Sentence Structure

With so many applicants looking to apply to BU every year, and the quality of essays increasing over time as a result, standing out from the crowd is a must. So, don’t make your essays into one big block of text. It’s not only unsightly and in bad taste for and writing piece. It makes it harder for admissions officers to see every point you’re trying to make.

When you read what our applicant had written, you’ll notice that we recommended they separate the paragraphs. This separation makes it easy for admissions officers to read through the whole essay without actually having to go back again and try to comprehend each sentence.

This is crucial. Admissions officers don’t have forever to read what you’ve written. So, getting their attention and retaining it in that small window of time is what will help you secure a better chance of getting accepted. Messing this up and not separating your essay into the right amount of paragraphs with the proper spacing can make or break your admissions chance.

Yes, dramatic. We know. But, maintaining your reader’s attention ensures they’ll at least have you on their radar instead of just putting you in the “just like other students” bucket.

If you look at these essays, you’ll also notice the applicant had a diversified sentence structure. This means they didn’t just end every sentence at the same length. They changed the length of certain paragraphs and certain sentences to be short or long. This helps ensure admissions officers don’t think you’re just droning on and on. The use of different punctuation such as the semicolon, the colon, the comma, and the em dash also helps in showing the admissions officers that you can use different punctuation to achieve different effects in tone and message.

Flow of Speech

Don’t be choppy.

It’s common for applicants to just throw all their ideas into one page when they’re in the brainstorming phase. Unfortunately, students will be so concerned with the topics that they’re writing about that they forget whether the flow of their writing works.

What typically ends up happening is students will write all they can in one paragraph, bite off more than they can chew, and end up with sentences that are very choppy. The sentences and paragraphs do not flow or transition between one another in a smooth manner.

The essays shown above properly transition between ideas by following the proper logical thought processes from one idea to another. Take the first BU “Why Us” essay for instance. In it, the applicant moves from their parents’ desires to their disagreement, to their personal desire for BU, to his future aspirations at BU.

To make sure your essays have the right flow and smooth transitioning between ideas, we would recommend listing out your ideas in bullet points. Write out what your ideas are, then write it in essay format. separate each major idea and give it its own paragraph. Once the individual ideas are separated into their own paragraphs, you should be able to smooth the flow between them by writing in sentences that weave together their commonalities.

Articulating Their True Intent in the College Essay

One of the strongest things one could do for their college essay is to speak honestly and from the heart.

Yeah, we know. It’s cliche and sounds like a storybook thing to do. But, if you really think about it, there is a lot of utility in this. The college admissions process is perhaps one of the most disingenuous academic processes to exist. One must brag about nonprofits they “started”, clubs they “founded”, startup businesses they “bootstrapped”, and grades they “earned” through “hard work”. Sure, some of it is real. However, here at PenningPapers, we’ve seen our fair share of falsehood from students.

That’s why it’s very helpful to be honest and truthful about the way one feels in the admissions process.

In these essays, we made sure our client spoke from the heart. They would lay out everything they thought in bullet point form, then open themselves up to be vulnerable with their emotions. So, maybe their parents didn’t really understand BU deeper than the surface level. The applicant uses this to show what he is truly thinking in his mind. He weaves together prose that articulates what is going on in his head.

“When my family would ask the same question during dinner for the millionth time, “which school are you applying for?”, I would brace myself for the incoming responses I knew would come.

This paragraph insinuates the subtle difference between them and their parents. The applicant shows that both they and their parents are interested in the school, but there is a line drawn between them on why they should get accepted. This is later articulated when they say this.

However, there is something about BU that grips me. It has the keys to something that keeps me up at night and makes my imagination run wild with ideas. 

Just like our client here, you need to articulate what your feelings and intent in attending BU are. What is it that made you fall in love? How does it help you achieve your dream? How does the school’s ability to help you achieve your dream make you feel? What makes it exciting? What does that excitement feel like?

It’s often the case that students are too afraid of opening up about what that excitement and desire for BU feel like. Don’t be afraid. Once you open up and demonstrate that genuine vulnerability to the admissions officers, they will know you’re aligned with the truth. After all, that beats out being disingenuous.

If you have any other questions about how to write the BU essays, don’t be afraid to schedule a free phone consultation. Our professional college admissions advisors and consultants know the best techniques and strategies to help you carve your essays into something that will help you stand out amongst the rest of the admissions pool. You can also get help with schools other than just BU alone!

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