The Great Day

Students can submit up to 3 essays. Essays must be more than 100 words and fewer than 250 words. Students must be an incoming freshman for summer/fall 2023 to enter.

Essays must be related to one of the following 12 essay prompts:

1. Meal Plan Contest: Can you tell us about a food that has a special meaning or memory for you? How has this food influenced who you are?
2. Our Mountaineer values are service, curiosity, respect, accountability and appreciation. Choose one and tell us how you plan to use it while earning your college degree.
3. If you could create a globally celebrated holiday, what would it be and why?
4. How do you define success? What does a successful life look like to you?
5. Humans are always evolving. What is one significant experience that has helped shaped your identity thus far and why?
6. WVU believes that everyone has a purpose. What do you believe your purpose is and how do you plan to further reach it though higher education?
7. How do you feel about social media? Do you think it has had a positive or negative effect on your generation?
8. If you could make one improvement within your state, what would it be and how would you implement it?
9. What is the best advice you have ever received and how does it apply to you?
10. What current fact about your life do you think would most impress your younger self?
11. Describe to us a time you felt like an outsider looking in. How did you overcome this challenge?
12. FirstGen Question**: What's one thing you want to tell your future self, four years from now?

The winner of the meal plan will receive a Go13 plan valued at $2,000. All other topics enter students in our $1,500 scholarship contests. Scholarships will be spread ($750) over two semesters.

In order to quality for the FirstGen essay prompt, students must fit our definition of first-generation. We define first-generation as:

• If neither of your parents or guardians completed a four-year degree from a college or university within the United States.
• If your parents earned an associate degree.
• If you live with only one parent or guardian who provides all your support, and that person doesn’t have a four-year college degree.
• If you have a sibling that earned a two-year (associate) or four-year (bachelor's) college degree, but your parents did not complete a four-year degree.

Winners will be notified on The Great Day – April 26, 2023. Winners will have 24 hours to accept their award.

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