Citations on U. of VA transfer essay?

<p>Hello,
I'm applying to University of Virginia as a transfer student for the spring semester of 2012. I'm responding to the essay promt "What issue of local, national, or international significance concerns you? Why?"</p>

<p>I'm planning on writing about how I became aware of the significance of an issue after researching it and plan to explain what I found in my research, etc.</p>

<p>Would it be appropriate to put citations as footnotes or the like? I couldn't rightly think of how I could give an in-depth discussion of why anything significant concerns me without using citations . . . . . but using sources for an admissions essay seems inappropriate and square. What do you guys think?</p>

<p>Anyone have any ideas about citations? I’m really stuck on this one.</p>

<p>Also - could the citations not count towards the one page?</p>

<p>Do you guys think it’s one page double spaced or single spaced?</p>