Santa Clara University supplemental essays
Santa Clara University asks for two supplemental essays in 2026-27. Common App. Personal statement required (250-650 words).
That is two supplements plus the Common App personal statement: three pieces of writing in all. Early Decision closes November 1, 2026, Early Action closes November 1, 2026 and Early Decision II closes January 7, 2027, with the rest in the table below. The prompts carry these limits: 150-300 words, 50 words. Every Santa Clara University 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 7, 2027 |
| Regular Decision | January 7, 2027 |
Checked against www.scu.edu/admission/undergraduate/first-year-students. Confirm on the college’s own page before you submit.
The essays, 2026-27
Optional · 150-300 words
At Santa Clara University, we encourage our students to be creative, embrace challenges, and become changemakers. Think about an issue you care about and believe is important to address. This can be something happening in your local community or more globally. How can an SCU education help you prepare for and address this challenge?
This essay is NOT on the Common Application. SCU's page says it is submitted 'at any time through your SCU application portal'.
Get a free read on this essayPaste your draft, see the verdict before you pay.No draft yet? Pick a topic for this promptRequired · 50 words
Why are you interested in pursuing the [Division or Major] selected above? (50 words).
UNCONFIRMED / single source. Only College Essay Guy's 2026/2027 guide lists this. It says the question 'is tucked into the Academic Section of Santa Clara's Common App page' and appears after you pick a division/major from dropdowns, which is why it does not show on SCU's public requirements page. A human should confirm this inside the Common App before publishing it. If it is real, it is a required piece of writing that SCU's own site never mentions.
Your Santa Clara University checklist
Two supplements, one of them required. The first deadline, Early Decision, is November 1, 2026.
- Common App personal statementRequired250-650 words
- Supplement 1Optional150-300 words
- Supplement 2Required50 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
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 Santa Clara University’s own prompts is on the Santa Clara University essay review page.
Getting into Santa Clara University
Santa Clara University admits 48.0% of applicants. The middle 50% of enrolled students scored 1350-1490 on the SAT and 31-33 on the ACT.
About 1 in 2 applicants are admitted, at a college of 6,552 undergraduates.
| Enrolled students | 25th | Median | 75th |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAT total | 1350 | 1420 | 1490 |
| SAT reading and writing | 670 | 700 | 730 |
| SAT math | 680 | 720 | 760 |
| ACT composite | 31 | 32 | 33 |
What SAT score do you need for Santa Clara University?
A 1490 puts you in the top quarter of the students who enrolled, a 1420 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, 32 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 Santa Clara University?
- Santa Clara University sets no minimum. Among students who enrolled, the middle 50% scored 1350-1490 on the SAT: a 1350 sits at the 25th percentile, 1420 at the median and 1490 at the 75th. A score at or above 1490 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 Santa Clara University reports to the US Department of Education, released in the College Scorecard of 2026-09-17.
- What ACT score do you need for Santa Clara University?
- The middle 50% of enrolled students scored 31-33 on the ACT, with a composite of 32 at the median. There is no cutoff: a quarter of the enrolled class scored below 31. Reported by Santa Clara University to the US Department of Education, College Scorecard release of 2026-09-17.
- What GPA do you need for Santa Clara 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 Santa Clara University is either reading that college's own Common Data Set or estimating. What the reported data does say is that Santa Clara University admits 48.0% 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 Santa Clara University?
- Santa Clara University admits 48.0% 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 Santa Clara 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.
Santa Clara University essay questions, answered
- Does Santa Clara University have supplemental essays?
- Yes. Santa Clara University asks for two supplemental essays in 2026-27. Every prompt is printed in full on this page. Word limits: 150-300 words, 50 words.
- How many essays do you write for Santa Clara University in 2026-27?
- Two supplements, plus the Common App personal statement.
Schools with similar admit rates
Santa Clara University admits 48.0% of applicants. The colleges either side of it in our set by admit rate, most selective first, each with its own prompts and deadlines: George Washington University (47.1%), CUNY Baruch College (47.5%), Stevens Institute of Technology (47.6%), St. Olaf College (48.3%), Stony Brook University (SUNY) (49.0%), Purdue University (49.9%).