Lafayette College supplemental essays
Yes, but every one is optional. Lafayette College prints one supplemental essay in 2026-27 and requires none of them. Common App. Personal statement required (250-650 words).
That is one supplement plus the Common App personal statement: two pieces of writing in all. Early Decision closes November 15, 2026, Early Decision II closes January 15, 2027 and Regular Decision closes January 15, 2027. The prompts carry this limit: 20-200 words. Every Lafayette College prompt is printed on this page in full, with its word limit and who has to answer it, checked against the college’s own admissions page.
Deadlines
| Round | Date |
|---|---|
| Early Decision | November 15, 2026 |
| Early Decision II | January 15, 2027 |
| Regular Decision | January 15, 2027 |
Checked against admissions.lafayette.edu/apply. Confirm on the college’s own page before you submit.
The essays, 2026-27
Optional · 20-200 words
Why Lafayette?
Short answer. Paste it on the homepage and we will read it.
Your Lafayette College checklist
One supplement, optional. The first deadline, Early Decision, is November 15, 2026.
- Common App personal statementRequired250-650 words
- SupplementOptional20-200 words
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
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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 Lafayette College’s own prompts is on the Lafayette College essay review page.
Getting into Lafayette College
Lafayette College admits 31.4% of applicants. The middle 50% of enrolled students scored 1350-1500 on the SAT and 31-33 on the ACT.
About 1 in 3 applicants are admitted, at a college of 2,757 undergraduates.
| Enrolled students | 25th | Median | 75th |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAT total | 1350 | 1430 | 1500 |
| SAT reading and writing | 670 | 710 | 740 |
| SAT math | 680 | 720 | 760 |
| ACT composite | 31 | 31 | 33 |
What SAT score do you need for Lafayette College?
A 1500 puts you in the top quarter of the students who enrolled, a 1430 at their midpoint, and a 1350 at the bottom quarter, meaning one in four enrolled students scored below it. The same three points on the ACT are 31, 31 and 33. 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 Lafayette College?
- Lafayette College sets no minimum. Among students who enrolled, the middle 50% scored 1350-1500 on the SAT: a 1350 sits at the 25th percentile, 1430 at the median and 1500 at the 75th. A score at or above 1500 is a clear strength in the application; below 1350 it is the part of the file the rest has to make up for. These are the figures Lafayette College reports to the US Department of Education, released in the College Scorecard of 2026-09-17.
- What ACT score do you need for Lafayette College?
- The middle 50% of enrolled students scored 31-33 on the ACT, with a composite of 31 at the median. There is no cutoff: a quarter of the enrolled class scored below 31. Reported by Lafayette College to the US Department of Education, College Scorecard release of 2026-09-17.
- What GPA do you need for Lafayette College?
- 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 Lafayette College is either reading that college's own Common Data Set or estimating. What the reported data does say is that Lafayette College admits 31.4% 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 Lafayette College?
- Lafayette College admits 31.4% of the people who apply, which is about 1 in 3 applicants. Numbers inside the reported range put you in a real position here, and the application itself decides the rest.
What Lafayette College 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.
Lafayette College essay questions, answered
- Does Lafayette College have supplemental essays?
- Yes, but every one is optional. Lafayette College prints one supplemental essay in 2026-27 and requires none of them. Every prompt is printed in full on this page. Word limits: 20-200 words.
- How many essays do you write for Lafayette College in 2026-27?
- One supplement, plus the Common App personal statement.
Schools with similar admit rates
Lafayette College admits 31.4% of applicants. The colleges either side of it in our set by admit rate, most selective first, each with its own prompts and deadlines: Trinity College (CT) (29.3%), Kenyon College (31.0%), Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly SLO) (31.3%), William & Mary (34.1%), Oberlin College (34.2%), Mount Holyoke College (36.0%).