Do people actually name-drop university programs/classes/professors in their supplemental essays?

jym626
Fri, 31 Oct 2025 20:56:15 +0000

A student I knew had a pretty unique idea for something they wanted to develop with a biomedical engineering major at a top tech U. Can’t really give details as it was unique and might disclose privacy info, but it involved interfacing with 3 different departments, and potentially with a joint/partner program with a nearby college (the joint program exists). It was a really clever idea that IMO seemed long overdue, and the student did a great job of researching which faculty in which departments might have an interest in this idea and yes, this was included in the essay about the idea. There is no guarantee that the idea hadn’t been thought of prior to the writing of this essay (though not seeing a lot on line about it) but the fact that they researched which departments would need to work in concert, and which professors’ specific areas of expertise might make them interested in this idea to me showed a lot of forethought. So yes, this was included in the essay. Thy were accepted. Will never know if that essay helped or not.