<p>you have to write a total of four if you are applying with interest in the sciences…</p>
<p>Well, some of them are short. It does seem like a lot, but I don’t mind it. The hardest part to me is writing the small alloted amount (Once I get a good topic, of course. Which is hard).</p>
<p>Writing too many essays amongst all of the schools one applies to in such a short period of time means that most of the “why this school” ones are usually weak. The single piece of advice I give applicants is to start the essays EARLY. You don’t want to get into a situation where you have to go with your main Common App essay that you no longer like because there is not enough time to start a new (and better one) from scratch.</p>
<p>It’s really on two essays (one for Brown’s supplement, the other for the Common App) and two short paragraphs. If you want to make it seem better, check out UChicago’s supplement, they have two one page essays and one two page essay (or they did last year), as well as the common app.</p>
<p>At Brown, I almost feel as if the essays play a bigger role than at most schools (this is entirely my opinion with not statistical research/adcom references). Brown really tries to match the person with the school. So, the fact that Brown has 4 “essays” isn’t (and shouldn’t be) surprising. How do you think they can say no to people given only 1 essay? There’s more to a person than numbers. What surprises me is how Dartmouth can admit/reject students without any supplement essays…</p>
<p>Perhaps the “letter from a friend” that Dartmouth requests takes the place of a supplement essay.</p>
<p>Brown supplement is not yet out. How do you know that there will be a lot of supplementary Brown essays?</p>
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<p>it’s out on the Common App website.</p>
<p>nevermind.</p>
<p>You think you have to write too many essays to get into Brown?!</p>
<p>… Just wait for how many essays you’ll write once you GO there!</p>
<p>Not to hijack the thread, but if I put biochemistry as my interest, do I have to write the Chemistry-specific essay?</p>
<p>@pkm2232 I actually did exactly that. I put biochemistry as my interest, primarily to avoid having to write another essay.</p>
<p>pkm2232: I had the same question when I applied under biochem a couple years ago. The consensus was that it’s up to you whether or not to write them. Perhaps write the essays only if you have something compelling to say in them?</p>