Howard University supplemental essays
Yes, but every one is optional. Howard University prints two supplemental essays in 2026-27 and requires none of them, plus more depending on your college or program. Common App. Personal statement required (250-650 words).
Early Decision closes November 1, 2026, Early Action closes November 1, 2026 and Regular Decision closes February 1, 2027. Every Howard University prompt is printed on this page in full, with its word limit and who has to answer it.
Deadlines
| Round | Date |
|---|---|
| Early Decision | November 1, 2026 |
| Early Action | November 1, 2026 |
| Regular Decision | February 1, 2027 |
Checked against admission.howard.edu/undergraduate/first-year. Confirm on the college’s own page before you submit.
The essays, 2026-27
This college does not publish its questions.
Howard does not print its questions on its own site. Two essay guides list these two; Howard’s own page says there is one. Open your application and write the questions it actually shows you.
Optional · 500 words (CollegeVine); “500 words max” (College Essay Guy)
Diversity of all kinds is important to enriching the educational experience at Howard University. Please share with us anything in your background or lived experience that has shaped your perspectives and how that would contribute to the classroom and community at Howard.
Accessed via the Writing section of the Common App.
Get a free read on this essayPaste your draft, see the verdict before you pay.No draft yet? Pick a topic for this promptOptional · 500 words (CollegeVine); “500 words max” (College Essay Guy)
Please describe the major you intend to study and how you hope to use your Howard education to support you in achieving your passions and goals. Please address your first-choice and second-choice major selections.
“Why this major” essay. Requires addressing BOTH first-choice and second-choice majors. CONFLICT: Howard's own site says there is only ONE optional supplemental essay; both publishers list two. See notes.
Get a free read on this essayPaste your draft, see the verdict before you pay.No draft yet? Pick a topic for this promptRequired (BS/MD and BS/DDS joint-degree applicants only) · not published
Applicants to the BS/MD & BS/DDS programs will also be required to submit an additional essay for the respective program via the Writing section of the Common App.
This is Howard's own description of the requirement, not the prompt text. The actual BS/MD and BS/DDS prompt wording is NOT published anywhere I could reach; it appears only inside the Common App. Do not invent it.
Your Howard University checklist
Two supplements, all optional. The first deadline, Early Decision, is November 1, 2026.
- Common App personal statementRequired250-650 words
- Supplement 1Optional
- Supplement 2Optional
- One program-specific promptOnly if you apply to the college or program it names. All printed in full above.
It saves these rows to your essay manager, where each one carries a status you set yourself and the prompt stays attached to it. Add your other schools and they land on the same page, in deadline order. Nothing written yet? The topic quiz is free as well.
Free: this page, the checklist, the essay manager and the topic quiz. Paid: a written review of a finished draft, $49 an essay.
Paste your essay for a free read
Have it in a document? or drop one here (Word, PDF, or Text).
Not sure what a review is? What an AI college essay review can and cannot do, and what a college essay grader leaves out. What the read checks against Howard University’s own prompts is on the Howard University essay review page.
Getting into Howard University
Howard University admits 41.3% of applicants. The middle 50% of enrolled students scored 1090-1320 on the SAT and 22-28 on the ACT.
About 1 in 2 applicants are admitted, at a college of 10,108 undergraduates.
| Enrolled students | 25th | Median | 75th |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAT total | 1090 | 1210 | 1320 |
| SAT reading and writing | 560 | 620 | 670 |
| SAT math | 530 | 590 | 650 |
| ACT composite | 22 | 25 | 28 |
What SAT score do you need for Howard University?
A 1320 puts you in the top quarter of the students who enrolled, a 1210 at their midpoint, and a 1090 at the bottom quarter, meaning one in four enrolled students scored below it. The same three points on the ACT are 22, 25 and 28. A quarter of an enrolled class scoring under the 25th percentile is not a rounding error, so a score below the range is a reason to strengthen the rest of the application rather than a reason not to apply.
US Department of Education, College Scorecard (2026-09-17). Percentiles describe students who enrolled, not everyone admitted. SAT totals are the reading and math bands added together, which is how every source in this market reports them and is an approximation of about 10 to 20 points, because the two sections are correlated.
- What SAT score do you need for Howard University?
- Howard University sets no minimum. Among students who enrolled, the middle 50% scored 1090-1320 on the SAT: a 1090 sits at the 25th percentile, 1210 at the median and 1320 at the 75th. A score at or above 1320 is a clear strength in the application; below 1090 it is the part of the file the rest has to make up for. These are the figures Howard University reports to the US Department of Education, released in the College Scorecard of 2026-09-17.
- What ACT score do you need for Howard University?
- The middle 50% of enrolled students scored 22-28 on the ACT, with a composite of 25 at the median. There is no cutoff: a quarter of the enrolled class scored below 22. Reported by Howard University to the US Department of Education, College Scorecard release of 2026-09-17.
- What GPA do you need for Howard University?
- The honest answer is that the federal data behind this page does not contain one. Colleges report their admit rate and their enrolled students' test scores to the Department of Education; they do not report a GPA distribution, so any site quoting an exact average GPA for Howard University is either reading that college's own Common Data Set or estimating. What the reported data does say is that Howard University admits 41.3% of applicants, and the more selective a college is, the closer to the top of the class its admitted students sit and the more the strength of your course load counts alongside the number itself.
- How hard is it to get into Howard University?
- Howard University admits 41.3% of the people who apply, which is about 1 in 2 applicants. Numbers inside the reported range put you in a real position here, and the application itself decides the rest.
What Howard University costs after grant aid, by family income, from the same federal data.
Sort your whole college list into reaches, targets and likelies, or find colleges that fit your GPA and test scores. Both are free and neither needs an account.
Howard University essay questions, answered
- Does Howard University have supplemental essays?
- Yes, but every one is optional. Howard University prints two supplemental essays in 2026-27 and requires none of them, plus more depending on your college or program. Every prompt is printed in full on this page. Word limits: not published.
- How many essays do you write for Howard University in 2026-27?
- Two supplements, plus the Common App personal statement. Some applicants write more, depending on the college or program.
Schools with similar admit rates
Howard University admits 41.3% of applicants. The colleges either side of it in our set by admit rate, most selective first, each with its own prompts and deadlines: University of Rochester (40.1%), University of Central Florida (40.1%), Brandeis University (40.5%), University of Tennessee, Knoxville (41.6%), North Carolina State University (41.7%), Dickinson College (42.1%).