The Brown supplemental essays for fall 2027 entry are four required essays, each with a word range that Brown sets. Applicants to the Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME) write three more. Applicants to the Brown-Rhode Island School of Design Dual Degree Program (BRDD) write one more.
Here is what Brown asks, from its How to Apply page, which calls these “our essays for the 2026-2027 application cycle” (read October 23, 2026).
| What Brown asks | Fall 2027 entry (2026-27 cycle) |
|---|---|
| Essays for every first-year applicant | Four, all required |
| Word ranges | 150 to 250 words for essays 1 and 2; 100 to 150 words for essays 3 and 4 |
| PLME applicants | Three more essays, 250 words each |
| BRDD applicants | One more essay, 650 word limit |
| Where they go | The "Questions" section of Brown's part of the Common App |
| Encouraged, not required | A video introduction of no more than 90 seconds |
| Available, neither required nor expected | Music or visual art through SlideRoom |
| Deadlines (as read October 23, 2026) | Early Decision November 1; Regular Decision January 5 |
Brown Supplemental Essays: The 2026-27 Questions
Brown opens its list with one line: “Four essays are required for all first-year and transfer applicants.” Its application checklist adds that “Brown’s supplemental essays are submitted through the Common Application.” Brown prints each limit as a range, so plan for both ends of it.
Essay 1: The Open Curriculum (150 to 250 Words)
“There is something distinctive about Brown students. It is a blend of intellectual curiosity, creativity, and humility. A commitment to collaboration. An openness to new ideas and perspectives. A desire to make the world better. And it is resilience: the ability to recover and thrive after experiencing difficulties.” From President Christina Paxson’s 2025 Convocation Address. How will you use these characteristics or others to shape your approach to the Open Curriculum? (150-250 words)
The question is about the Open Curriculum, so start with what Brown means by it. Its academics page says: “At most universities, students must complete a set of core courses. At Brown, you’ll develop your own personalized course of study.” It adds that “there is no required core curriculum nor are there distribution requirements that students must complete in order to graduate.”
So the essay asks how you would build a course of study when nobody builds it for you. The words “or others” leave room for a trait Paxson did not name. Our advice: pick one or two traits, show each in something you have already done, then say what it would lead you to choose at Brown.
The question does not ask you to name a concentration, Brown’s word for a major. Brown asks for your top choices elsewhere in its Common App section, and its page on academic interests says: “There are no quotas among concentrations and we do not admit students by academic interest.”
Essay 2: Where You Came From (150 to 250 Words)
Students entering Brown often find that making their home on College Hill naturally invites reflection on where they came from. Share how an aspect of your growing up has inspired or challenged you, and what unique contributions this might allow you to make to the Brown community. (150-250 words)
The question has two parts: how one aspect of your growing up inspired or challenged you, and what it might let you contribute at Brown. “An aspect” is singular, so one thread told in detail suits the range better than a life story. Give the second part real space, because it is where the essay turns toward Brown.
Essay 3: The Class You Would Teach (100 to 150 Words)
If you could teach a class on any one thing, whether academic or otherwise, what would it be? (100-150 words)
“Academic or otherwise” means a class on bread baking or chess openings answers the question as fully as one on calculus. Name the class early. Use the rest to show why you could teach it and what students would do in it.
Essay 4: Something That Brings You Joy (100 to 150 Words)
Brown students care deeply about their work and the world around them. Students find contentment, satisfaction, and meaning in daily interactions and major discoveries. Whether big or small, mundane or spectacular, tell us about something that brings you joy. (100-150 words)
Brown allows “big or small, mundane or spectacular,” so a small subject is fine. With 150 words at most, one specific moment shows the joy better than a description of a hobby. Keep it apart from essay 3, so the two short essays show two different sides of you.
What Changed From the 2025-26 Questions
Brown changed this set for 2026-27. Its 2025-26 How to Apply page, archived in September 2025, listed three essays of 200-250 words plus three “very short answer questions.” The two cycles compare like this.
| Question | 2025-26 (fall 2026 entry) | 2026-27 (fall 2027 entry) |
|---|---|---|
| Open Curriculum | Your academic interests and how you might pursue them at Brown, 200-250 words | Paxson's characteristics and your approach to the Open Curriculum, 150-250 words |
| Where you came from | Same wording, 200-250 words | Same wording, 150-250 words |
| A class you would teach | Same wording, a very short answer, 100 words | Same wording, now an essay, 100-150 words |
| Something that brings you joy | Same wording, 200-250 words | Same wording, 100-150 words |
| What three words best describe you? | 3 words | Not on the 2026-27 list |
| In one sentence, Why Brown? | 50 words | Not on the 2026-27 list |
If you started from last year’s list, essays 2, 3 and 4 keep their wording. The class question grew from a 100-word very short answer into a 100-150-word essay, and the joy essay now ends at 150 words instead of 250.
The 2026-27 page also counts the set two ways. The first-year section says “Four essays are required,” while the PLME and BRDD sections refer to “the three essays required of all first-year applicants,” the count Brown’s 2025-26 page used.
PLME and Brown-RISD Dual Degree Essays
Brown’s PLME page calls the program “an eight-year continuum that allows students to combine both their undergraduate and medical school education at Brown.” To apply, “you must indicate your interest on the Common Application and respond to the additional essay questions.” For 2026-27, Brown lists three:
1. Why medicine? (250 words) 2. Why PLME? (250 words) 3. Tell us something about yourself, beyond your interest in medicine, that you think will make you a great doctor. (250 words)
These are new too: the 2025-26 page asked PLME applicants for two essays, of 500 and 250 words. Answer “Why medicine?” with your reasons for the field and “Why PLME?” with your reasons for this program, so the two do not repeat each other. “Why PLME?” works like a why this college essay, aimed at one program.
The PLME page adds an Early Decision rule. Brown may admit an Early Decision applicant “for admission to Brown only and not the PLME,” and that student stays “bound by the early decision agreement to attend Brown regardless of non-acceptance into the PLME program.” Applicants who do not want that risk “are asked to apply through Regular Decision.”
BRDD applicants write one more essay, with a 650 word limit:
The Brown | RISD Dual Degree Program draws on the complementary strengths of Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) to provide students with the opportunity to explore and engage with diverse spheres of academic and creative inquiry. Considering your understanding of the academic programs at Brown and RISD, describe how and why the specific blend of RISD’s experimental, immersive art and design program and Brown’s wide-ranging courses and curricula could constitute an optimal undergraduate education for you. Reflect on how you might integrate or synthesize content, approaches, and methods from these two distinct learning experiences. Additionally, how might you contribute to the Dual Degree community and its commitment to interdisciplinary work? (650 word limit)
It asks three things: why the blend of the two schools fits you, how you would combine what you learn at each, and what you would add to the Dual Degree community.
The Optional Video Introduction and Arts Supplements
“Brown encourages applicants to submit a brief personal video introduction (no more than 90 seconds) as an additional component of their application,” says its video introduction page. You can upload it in the Brown Applicant Portal, record it on Glimpse or send an InitialView interview. Brown says it “has no preference for the method you choose,” but Glimpse and InitialView each charge a fee (Glimpse says fee waivers may be available) and are open only to some applicants.
Brown says “there is no specific topic or format we are hoping to see in your video introduction” and lists eight suggested prompts on that page, from what you love about your hometown to your favorite time of day.
For music and visual art, Brown’s supplementary materials page says: “Applicants are neither required nor expected to provide additional materials as part of the admission process, but the opportunity to do so is available to any candidate.” Applicants who are “accomplished in music or visual art” may submit through SlideRoom, inside the Common App.
How to Plan the Four Brown Essays Together
Four essays to one school give you room to show four different things. The table sums up what each question asks; the last column is our own advice.
| Essay | What it asks you to show | Our note: a good place for |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Open Curriculum (150-250) | The traits you bring and how they shape the course of study you would build | your intellectual side, tied to choices you would make at Brown |
| 2. Where you came from (150-250) | One aspect of your growing up and what it lets you contribute to Brown | your background and what it gives others |
| 3. A class you would teach (100-150) | The class, academic or otherwise | a subject you know well enough to teach |
| 4. Something that brings you joy (100-150) | One source of joy, big or small | a side of you the other three do not show |
Before you draft, write one line for each essay saying what it will show, and check that no two lines overlap. Each supplemental essay should add something your activities list and recommendations do not already say.
Brown Supplemental Essay Examples: Openings We Wrote
We do not reproduce other applicants’ essays, and none of the lines below was submitted to Brown. They are openings we wrote for this article, to show how a first paragraph can set up what a question asks; they are not for reuse.
Our illustration, essay 1: I used to think humility meant staying quiet in class. Then an oral-history project at our town library showed me how much I had wrong about my own street. At Brown, I want to carry that humility into fields I have never studied.
Our note: the trait comes from Paxson’s list, it is shown in one real experience, and the last line turns toward the Open Curriculum, which is what the question asks about.
Our illustration, essay 3: My class would be called Reading a Bus Map. For two years I rode three routes to school, and I learned that every map hides a decision about who gets where on time.
Our note: the class is named in the first sentence, which leaves most of the 150 words for what students would learn.
Our illustration, essay 4: Every Sunday my grandfather and I fold the week’s newspapers into seed pots for his balcony garden. Nothing grows fast up there, and that is part of the joy.
Our note: one small, repeated moment, the kind of subject Brown’s “big or small, mundane or spectacular” allows.
Brown Deadlines for Fall 2027 Entry
Brown’s pages print no year beside these dates, so the table gives them as read on October 23, 2026. The essays go in with your Common App, so their deadline is your plan’s deadline.
| Plan | Application deadline | Decision | Video and SlideRoom deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early Decision | November 1 (11:59 p.m. applicant's local time) | By mid-December | November 4 (SlideRoom by 11:59 p.m. EST) |
| Regular Decision | January 5 (11:59 p.m. applicant's local time) | By early April | January 7 (SlideRoom by 11:59 p.m. EST) |
Brown words the Regular Decision date two ways. Its Regular Decision page says applicants “will receive a decision by early April,” while the application checklist lists Regular Decision letters online in “Late March.”
Early Decision at Brown is a binding commitment. Brown’s Early Decision page says admitted students “will be required to withdraw all pending applications” and asks applicants not to apply elsewhere under “another early decision, single-choice early action or restrictive early action plan.” It also says: “Please do not assume that your admission chances are improved by applying under the Early Decision plan.”
What Help Brown Allows on Your Essays
Brown’s Integrity in the Application Process page quotes the Common App’s definition of application fraud. That definition covers misrepresenting as your own “another person’s thoughts, language, ideas” and “the substantive content or output of an artificial intelligence platform.” Brown then states its own rule:
Brown affirms this definition and reiterates our own independent policy that the use of artificial intelligence by an applicant is not permitted under any circumstances in conjunction with application content. While an applicant may use artificial intelligence to assist with spelling and grammar review, in the same way as any other platform that supports basic proofreading, the content of all essays, short-answer questions and any other material submitted by an applicant must be the work of that individual.
That rule holds however many people read your drafts, us included: every essay has to be your own work. ExceptionalGrad’s College Secondary Essay Editing gives detailed feedback on the essays you write. We edit and advise; we never write them for you.
A free consultation is the place to start this application cycle.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Brown require supplemental essays?
Yes. For the 2026-27 cycle, Brown’s How to Apply page says “Four essays are required for all first-year and transfer applicants,” so transfer applicants answer the same four questions. The essays sit in the “Questions” section of Brown’s part of the Common App, where PLME and BRDD applicants also complete their program essays.
How many supplemental essays does Brown have?
Brown lists four required essays for 2026-27: two of 150 to 250 words and two of 100 to 150 words, so 500 to 800 words in all. PLME applicants add three essays of 250 words each, and BRDD applicants add one with a 650 word limit.
Is the Brown video introduction optional?
Yes. Brown’s QuestBridge page calls the video “this optional, encouraged component of the admission process,” and it runs no more than 90 seconds. As read on October 23, 2026, Brown’s video page gives November 4 for Early Decision and QuestBridge applicants and January 7 for Regular Decision applicants.
What are the Brown PLME essay prompts?
For 2026-27, Brown asks PLME applicants three questions of 250 words each: “Why medicine?”, “Why PLME?” and “Tell us something about yourself, beyond your interest in medicine, that you think will make you a great doctor.” They add to the essays every first-year applicant writes, and only first-year applicants may apply to the PLME.