<p>There’s a thread on the Marquette forum about the Honors Program essay and it sounds as if some potential applicants will skip it due to the essay topic. The topic is seen by some as too “LAC-ish” for engineering students because it involves an analysis of literary and historical figures.</p>
<p>I think S1 specifically chose his specialized engineering school because of the lack of an application essay AND the fact that he only had to take one humanities class once there.</p>
<p>My daughter crossed NYU and Columbia off her list as soon as she saw the supplemental essays…I agree with her that you can get a sense of the school from the extra short answers/essays, etc…</p>
<p>Especially NYU, kids are required to write a poem as part of the applicaiton???</p>
<p>Son applied to 10 all together. Wiliams missed the list for another reason but the essay didn’t help. He felt it was very esoteric in a way that seemed a little arrogant or something. Not really sure because I can only recall it being about looking out a window at your favorite scene. Frankly, I think once you wrote two or three of these additional essays it was somewhat easy to adapt them for different schools, including the Why ___? questions. Mostly peoples list share a common element and if you can find one or two differentiated traits within a school you can toss those in there. </p>
<p>Also… While I see nothing wrong with writing essays in the summer, son’s essays were much stronger later in the fall and the one he thought he had polished to perfection didn’t end up anywhere in his college applications. However, he did expand/refine on it for his first year seminar along the vein of a personal essay and was told to submit it to This I Believe on NPR by his professor.</p>
<p>I wrote my CommonApp essay this summer after a wonderful idea came to me in late August. I wanted to get all my essays done by then, but most of my supplements weren’t out til mid-late September.</p>
<p>I’ve done all the easy ones already, but there are a few that are more difficult that I’m putting off. Brown asks you to explain your intended major and I specifically wrote that I’m really not sure at all about the major I put down, it’s just my top choice at the moment, and I’m having trouble writing 2-3 paragraphs about what I like about it exactly. I don’t see how this essay helps Brown get to know me better when I’ve already noted that this by no means is my final decision.</p>
<p>Teenage Cliche -</p>
<p>If you are unsure of your major I would speak more directly to the open curriculum at Brown which would likely give you lots of choices to find your passions if it turns out that your current interest falls to the wayside. Without required courses, you are more free to experiment and explore without worrying if your choices will work against you over the course of 4 years and trying to incorporate a major and the requirements of it as well. Surely starting off with why you choosing your current major and then talking about education and a love of learning, this approach would give you some room to expand on your overall intellectual curiosity and why Brown would be a perfect fit for you. It does not have to be your number one pick for a school to match you in an ideal way.</p>
<p>Modadunn: That’s a good idea. I already talked about my love for the open curriculum in my “Why Brown?” essay, but I could bring it up again in my academic one. Thanks!</p>
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<p>Have to agree with parent56 here (btw “hi” parent56). D applied to U of Alabama -late to show up on her radar - around Nov. 1 last year. Alabama accepted her quickly with a phone call and info about the University Fellows Program. By that time, she only had about two weeks before the application due date - and a ton of end of semester papers, tests, and an ec competition. Anyway, she just didn’t have time to do justice to the essays - and knew as she submitted her application that it wasn’t near what she could have done had she had the time. </p>
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<p>Sorry - I didn’t notice the question earlier. D decided to attend The University of Texas at Dallas.</p>
<p>Interesting thread.</p>
<p>Years ago DH decided to not finish his Cornell app because of the essays…</p>
<p>I applied to several schools, both state and sprivate…and one of those state schools I added my apps at the last minute because there was no essay–just scores and gpa mattered…</p>
<p>We both ended up at that same school…</p>
<p>Student here. It wasn’t the entire reason, but part of the reason I decided not to apply to Kenyon is because of their supplement. I just couldn’t figure out how to address their questions.</p>
<p>D1 did not apply to WashU because the scholarship essays were so time consuming. After considering her stats and the number of scholarships offered and the fact that she could not attend without substantial merit aid, she realized that there was little likelihood of her being awarded a significant scholarship. So she kept looking and found a school where her academic goals could be attained and her search for merit aid was richly rewarded.</p>