The College of New Jersey supplemental essays
The College of New Jersey asks for one supplemental essay in 2026-27. 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 1, 2026, Early Action closes November 1, 2026 and Regular Decision closes February 1, 2027. Every The College of New Jersey 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 |
| Regular Decision | February 1, 2027 |
Checked against admissions.tcnj.edu/applications/first-year-applicants. Confirm on the college’s own page before you submit.
The essays, 2026-27
Required
TCNJ requires a secondary writing prompt, submitted within the Common App's TCNJ-specific questions, to explore the applicant's interest in the College in more detail.
admissions.tcnj.edu says only: "The Common Application essay is the official essay used in the evaluation process. TCNJ also requires a secondary writing prompt designed to explore your interest in The College in more detail." No prompt sentence is printed on tcnj.edu itself; third-party guides give a "Why TCNJ?" 500-word prompt but only for the 2024-25 cycle, so it is not carried here.
Your The College of New Jersey checklist
One supplement, required. The first deadline, Early Decision, is November 1, 2026.
- Common App personal statementRequired250-650 words
- SupplementRequired
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Getting into The College of New Jersey
The College of New Jersey admits 62.3% of applicants. The middle 50% of enrolled students scored 1140-1340 on the SAT and 26-31 on the ACT.
About 6 in 10 applicants are admitted, at a college of 7,105 undergraduates.
| Enrolled students | 25th | Median | 75th |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAT total | 1140 | 1240 | 1340 |
| SAT reading and writing | 570 | 620 | 670 |
| SAT math | 570 | 620 | 670 |
| ACT composite | 26 | 28 | 31 |
What SAT score do you need for The College of New Jersey?
A 1340 puts you in the top quarter of the students who enrolled, a 1240 at their midpoint, and a 1140 at the bottom quarter, meaning one in four enrolled students scored below it. The same three points on the ACT are 26, 28 and 31. 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 The College of New Jersey?
- The College of New Jersey sets no minimum. Among students who enrolled, the middle 50% scored 1140-1340 on the SAT: a 1140 sits at the 25th percentile, 1240 at the median and 1340 at the 75th. A score at or above 1340 is a clear strength in the application; below 1140 it is the part of the file the rest has to make up for. These are the figures The College of New Jersey reports to the US Department of Education, released in the College Scorecard of 2026-09-17.
- What ACT score do you need for The College of New Jersey?
- The middle 50% of enrolled students scored 26-31 on the ACT, with a composite of 28 at the median. There is no cutoff: a quarter of the enrolled class scored below 26. Reported by The College of New Jersey to the US Department of Education, College Scorecard release of 2026-09-17.
- What GPA do you need for The College of New Jersey?
- 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 The College of New Jersey is either reading that college's own Common Data Set or estimating. What the reported data does say is that The College of New Jersey admits 62.3% 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 The College of New Jersey?
- The College of New Jersey admits 62.3% of the people who apply, which is about 6 in 10 applicants. Numbers inside the reported range put you in a real position here, and the application itself decides the rest.
What The College of New Jersey 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.
The College of New Jersey essay questions, answered
- Does The College of New Jersey have supplemental essays?
- Yes. The College of New Jersey asks for one supplemental essay in 2026-27. Every prompt is printed in full on this page.
- How many essays do you write for The College of New Jersey in 2026-27?
- One supplement, plus the Common App personal statement.
Schools with similar admit rates
The College of New Jersey admits 62.3% of applicants. The colleges either side of it in our set by admit rate, most selective first, each with its own prompts and deadlines: Ohio State University (60.6%), University of San Francisco (USF) (61.7%), Sarah Lawrence College (61.7%), Pepperdine University (62.9%), Wabash College (63.3%), Southern Methodist University (63.3%).