For students applying to Brown
Brown Supplemental Essays for 2026–27
Every Brown 2026–27 supplemental essay prompt, word for word, plus all four essays drafted inside their ranges from your own notes.
Free to start. No card needed.
How to write Brown's supplemental essays yourself
Start by assigning stories, because four essays read side by side will expose any repeat. List four: where you grew up, a moment that shows one quality named in the Open Curriculum prompt, something you could teach and a small daily joy. Check each against your Common App essay and activities list, and swap any story already told there. Brown's optional video introduction, up to 90 seconds, is meant to go beyond your application too, so if you record one, give it a fifth story.
Brown has no required core and no distribution requirements1, so students design their own course of study and choose one of more than 80 concentrations. That freedom is what the Open Curriculum essay is about. Choose one or two qualities from the prompt, show each in a real moment, then explain how it would guide the courses you pick. The growing-up essay asks for the same proof: one concrete part of home, how it inspired or challenged you, and what it lets you add to Brown.
Keep the two short essays small in scope as well as in length. For the class you would teach, a specific title and first lesson beat a broad subject. The joy essay rewards something ordinary, described closely enough to hear or taste. Every range has a minimum, so check each count, then read all four aloud and cut any line that sounds like an application. One more rule: Brown's integrity policy2 allows AI only for spelling and grammar review and says the content of every essay must be your own work.
Brown's 2026–27 prompts
Every Brown essay prompt
All first-year and transfer applicants write the first four essays. Applicants to PLME, Brown's eight-year Program in Liberal Medical Education, or the five-year Brown | RISD Dual Degree add their program essays. The wording is copied from Brown's how to apply page3, which labels it for the 2026-2027 application cycle.
| Essay | Exact wording | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Open Curriculum | "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 to 250 words |
| Where you grew up | 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 to 250 words |
| Teach a class | If you could teach a class on any one thing, whether academic or otherwise, what would it be? | 100 to 150 words |
| Something that brings you joy | 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 to 150 words |
| PLME essay 1 | Why medicine? | 250 words |
| PLME essay 2 | Why PLME? | 250 words |
| PLME essay 3 | Tell us something about yourself, beyond your interest in medicine, that you think will make you a great doctor. | 250 words |
| Brown | RISD Dual Degree | 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 |
Compared with Brown's 2025–26 page4, the Open Curriculum prompt is new, the three-word and one-sentence "Why Brown?" answers are gone, and the word ranges changed. Checked October 29, 2026.
Real examples
Brown essays from admitted students
CollegeAdvisor, a paid admissions-coaching company, says each essay on its page was written by a student admitted to Brown. They answer older prompts, including a 150-word Open Curriculum question that Brown has since replaced, so read them for specificity and voice rather than as templates.
Five Brown supplement answers, with an admissions officer's notes
Several admitted students · earlier cycles · CollegeAdvisor
The strongest opens on a common view, that math is just arithmetic, then overturns it with one scene at a kitchen table. It ends on a precise pairing of math and philosophy. Each answer has a short note from a former admissions officer. Read the one on contributing to the Brown community critically, though: most of its lines could come from any applicant.
Read the Brown answers at CollegeAdvisor
Link checked October 29, 2026. We found no sample essays on Brown's own admission site.
How it works
What are Brown's supplemental essays for 2026–27?
Brown's supplemental essays for 2026–27 are four short essays that every first-year and transfer applicant writes in the Common App. The two longer ones, 150 to 250 words each, ask how you would approach the Open Curriculum and how your growing up shapes what you would add to Brown. The two shorter ones, 100 to 150 words, ask what class you would teach and what brings you joy. PLME and Brown | RISD applicants add program essays, all listed above, word for word, from Brown's how to apply page3.
Give River whatever you have: notes, a résumé, your Common App essay or a few files. It plans which story suits each prompt and gives every essay a different one, drawing on anything already in your workspace too. The Open Curriculum draft proves one or two of Brown's named qualities with a moment from your notes. Each draft lands inside its range with an exact word count, and a missing detail becomes a bracket for you to fill, never an invented fact.
Your drafts stay in your River workspace, where you can grade the set or ask for another joy essay to compare. River can also suggest real Brown concentrations that fit your interests, each with its official Brown page, to fill the Open Curriculum brackets. Applying to several schools? The supplemental essay writer plans every prompt together, the Cornell supplement page covers Cornell's college-specific essays, and the college application organizer tracks every deadline.
How it works
From your notes to four Brown essays
Add your stories
Paste notes, a résumé or your Common App essay, then pick all four Brown essays or just one.
River matches stories
It gives each essay a different story from your material and brackets any detail you didn't give.
Read your drafts
Each essay arrives inside Brown's range, with its exact word count and the story it uses.
Edit or ask again
Swap a story, try another joy essay, or ask for Brown courses that fit, each with its official page.
Brown supplement · example
- Something that brings you joy · openingIn January, Lake Superior's ice sings. It pings and whoops like a whale calling from under the harbor, and I have forty-three recordings of it on my phone.
- Teach a class on any one thing · openingCourse title: Four Seconds of Dead Air. Lesson one: the CD will skip. Lesson two: keep a list of thirty things to say before it does.
- Where you grew up · openingAt my family's bait shop on the Duluth harbor, nobody buys minnows without telling you a fish story first. [The story you have heard most often]
What you'll get
All four Brown essays drafted from four different stories
- All four required Brown essays, each inside its 100–150 or 150–250 word range
- An Open Curriculum essay showing how your own habits of mind would shape your courses
- PLME or Brown | RISD essays too, if you are applying to either program
Before and after
Your notes in. Four Brown essays out.
Duluth, MN, right on Lake Superior. Volunteer DJ at our community radio station 2 years: Saturday 6 a.m. weather and a folk show. CD skipped once, 4 seconds of dead air, so now I keep a list of 30 things to say. Lake ice sings in January: pings and whoops, like whales under the harbor. 43 recordings on my phone. I go down to the harbor on the coldest mornings and stand there with my phone up, waiting. First time I thought the lake was breaking. I play the best ones on my show and people call in asking what it was. Love explaining it. Best part is the quiet right before the first ping. Family bait shop on the harbor: nobody buys minnows without telling a fish story. Want environmental science, maybe music.
Something that brings you joy (101 words) In January, Lake Superior's ice sings. It pings and whoops like a whale calling from under the harbor, and I have forty-three recordings of it on my phone. The first time I heard it, I thought the lake was breaking. Now I go down to the harbor on the coldest mornings just to listen, phone up, waiting. I play the best recordings on my Saturday radio show, and people call in to ask what they just heard. Explaining it to them is the second-best part. The best part is the second before the first ping, when the whole harbor goes quiet. Teach a class on any one thing (opening) Course title: Four Seconds of Dead Air. Lesson one: the CD will skip. Lesson two: keep a list of thirty things to say before it does. [What lesson three would be]
Every detail comes from the notes, and the joy essay sits inside Brown's 100 to 150 words. The bracket is the student's to fill.
What lands in your doc
What's in your Brown essays
- Four essays inside Brown's ranges, with exact word counts against both the floor and ceiling
- An Open Curriculum essay that proves one or two named qualities with a real moment
- A growing-up essay linking one concrete part of home to what you would bring
- Short teach-a-class and joy essays built on small, specific details from your notes
- PLME or Brown | RISD essays added on request, each written from different material
- A "Before you submit" list: each bracket's question, the story behind each essay, both deadlines
Questions applicants ask
Common questions
How many supplemental essays does Brown require for 2026–27?
Four, for every first-year and transfer applicant. The Open Curriculum and growing-up essays run 150 to 250 words, and the teach-a-class and joy essays 100 to 150, according to Brown's how to apply page3. PLME applicants add three 250-word essays, and Brown | RISD Dual Degree applicants add one of up to 650 words. Each range has a minimum as well as a maximum, so aim inside it.
What changed in Brown's supplement this year?
Compared with Brown's 2025–26 page4, the Open Curriculum prompt is new: it quotes President Paxson's 2025 Convocation Address instead of asking about academic interests. The three-word and one-sentence "Why Brown?" answers are gone. The two longer essays now start at 150 words, not 200. Teach a class grew from a 100-word cap to 100–150, the joy essay fell from 200–250 to 100–150, and PLME now asks three 250-word essays.
How do I write the Brown Open Curriculum essay?
Pick one or two qualities, prove each with a real moment, then show how you would use them at a school with no required core. The prompt says "these characteristics or others," so a quality outside Paxson's list is fair game if your story shows it. Close on a question you would follow across departments. One quality shown well beats six claimed in passing.
When are Brown's 2026–27 deadlines?
Early Decision applications are due November 1, 2026, and Regular Decision applications January 5, 2027, each by 11:59 p.m. your local time, according to Brown's application checklist5. Early Decision is binding, and its letters come out in mid-December. Regular Decision letters follow in late March. First-year applicants must also submit SAT or ACT scores, which Brown superscores.
Does Brown allow AI for its supplemental essays?
Only for spelling and grammar review. Brown's integrity policy2 says an applicant's use of AI with application content "is not permitted under any circumstances." The content of every essay must be the applicant's own work. Brown also affirms Common App's definition of fraud, which includes intentionally passing off an AI platform's output as your own original work. Read the policy before using any AI tool, River included.
How do I draft my Brown essays with River?
Paste your notes, résumé or Common App essay into the box at the top of this page, then choose all four essays or just one. River gives each essay a different story from your material, keeps it inside Brown's range and turns any missing detail into a bracket. Your drafts open in your free River workspace, where you can swap a story or ask for another version.
Is the Brown essay writer free?
Yes, it is free to start. Your Brown essays open in a River workspace, where you can edit them, share them or ask River to change them. Paid plans add more AI use and access to the most advanced models.
Your next step