Providence College supplemental essays
Yes, but every one is optional. Providence College 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 Early Decision II closes January 15, 2027, with the rest in the table below. The prompts carry these limits: 250-500 words, 150-300 words. Every Providence 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 1, 2026 |
| Early Action | November 1, 2026 |
| Early Decision II | January 15, 2027 |
| Regular Decision | January 15, 2027 |
Checked against admission.providence.edu/apply/review-process. Confirm on the college’s own page before you submit.
The essays, 2026-27
Optional (choose 1 of 2) · 250-500 words
Providence College values each student’s willingness to embrace and learn from those with different viewpoints. How will your unique background positively impact others at Providence College?
Get a free read on this essayPaste your draft, see the verdict before you pay.No draft yet? Pick a topic for this promptOptional (choose 1 of 2) · 250-500 words
Providence College thrives on the energy of those who seek. How will you contribute to our vibrant campus life and intellectual culture in the years ahead?
Get a free read on this essayPaste your draft, see the verdict before you pay.No draft yet? Pick a topic for this promptOptional (Nursing program applicants only) · 150-300 words
Please share more about the experiences, skills, or talents that have led you to want to become a nurse, and how these will contribute to the community at Providence College and to your career as a nurse.
Available on the applicant portal after the Common App is submitted. Due Nov 9 for EA/ED I applicants, Feb 1 for RD/ED II applicants.
Get a free read on this essayPaste your draft, see the verdict before you pay.No draft yet? Pick a topic for this prompt
Your Providence College checklist
One supplement, optional. The first deadline, Early Decision, is November 1, 2026.
- Common App personal statementRequired250-650 words
- Supplements 1 and 2Optional250-500 words each
- 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 Providence College’s own prompts is on the Providence College essay review page.
Getting into Providence College
Providence College admits 50.9% of applicants. The middle 50% of enrolled students scored 1250-1390 on the SAT and 29-32 on the ACT.
About 1 in 2 applicants are admitted, at a college of 4,229 undergraduates.
| Enrolled students | 25th | Median | 75th |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAT total | 1250 | 1330 | 1390 |
| SAT reading and writing | 630 | 670 | 700 |
| SAT math | 620 | 660 | 690 |
| ACT composite | 29 | 31 | 32 |
What SAT score do you need for Providence College?
A 1390 puts you in the top quarter of the students who enrolled, a 1330 at their midpoint, and a 1250 at the bottom quarter, meaning one in four enrolled students scored below it. The same three points on the ACT are 29, 31 and 32. 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 Providence College?
- Providence College sets no minimum. Among students who enrolled, the middle 50% scored 1250-1390 on the SAT: a 1250 sits at the 25th percentile, 1330 at the median and 1390 at the 75th. A score at or above 1390 is a clear strength in the application; below 1250 it is the part of the file the rest has to make up for. These are the figures Providence College reports to the US Department of Education, released in the College Scorecard of 2026-09-17.
- What ACT score do you need for Providence College?
- The middle 50% of enrolled students scored 29-32 on the ACT, with a composite of 31 at the median. There is no cutoff: a quarter of the enrolled class scored below 29. Reported by Providence College to the US Department of Education, College Scorecard release of 2026-09-17.
- What GPA do you need for Providence 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 Providence College is either reading that college's own Common Data Set or estimating. What the reported data does say is that Providence College admits 50.9% 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 Providence College?
- Providence College admits 50.9% 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 Providence 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.
Providence College essay questions, answered
- Does Providence College have supplemental essays?
- Yes, but every one is optional. Providence College 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: 250-500 words, 150-300 words.
- How many essays do you write for Providence College in 2026-27?
- One supplement, plus the Common App personal statement. Some applicants write more, depending on the college or program.
Schools with similar admit rates
Providence College admits 50.9% of applicants. The colleges either side of it in our set by admit rate, most selective first, each with its own prompts and deadlines: Stony Brook University (SUNY) (49.0%), Purdue University (49.9%), Rhodes College (50.3%), Baylor University (51.3%), Bard College (52.1%), University of San Diego (USD) (52.4%).