<p>When students applying to colleges expound on what a wonderful school their choice is along with their intended major and why, is it in the applicants' best interest to mention their intention of giving back to the college or university post graduation without necessarily giving specifics (ie. either monetarily or otherwise) in order to set them slightly apart from the rest of the pool?</p>
<p>Is that the prompt? It’s technically a loaded question in that it establishes your personal bias (i.e., toward upper or lower classes) all while expecting you to have a standard rudimentary understanding of how the economics policies of schools can work. I’d honestly say it’d be more subjective or relative to a specific university, because a school’s policy really depends on its target audience. I’d hate to have to write an essay on that.</p>
<p>No, it isn’t an essay prompt. I’m curious as to whether I should mention my desire to give back to the school in some way after I graduate or if that would come off as slightly fake to the admissions office.</p>
<p>I think there are a lot of reasons not to go that route.</p>
<p>For one, you don’t know how you’ll feel about your alma mater after the fact. You could, in fact, end up hating it.</p>
<p>For another, you don’t know what your circumstances will be after you graduate. You may be unable to find work. You may be in graduate school. You may have a lot of income, but have to use it, God forbid, to support a family member who is in dire need.</p>
<p>In my mind, it’s not that making such a claim seems mercenary. Rather, the trouble is that it seems somewhat naive.</p>
<p>In addition, I think it’ll carry no weight whatsoever with admissions. (Unless they think it’s a silly thing to have said, in which case it could do you harm rather than good.) So if you use up your words talking about how you’d like to “give back” to the college after you graduate, you miss the opportunity to talk about something better. Talk instead about the ways you can contribute to make the college an interesting, vital place during your time as a student there.</p>
<p>Bumpity bump bump.</p>
<p>Agree with Sikorsky. Veiled hints that you are a future development candidate are out of line unless you come from a family of major philanthropists and a library with your name on it is on the table.</p>