<p>I am working on my BU supplement essay and I am having trouble with it. The assignment is to choose three words that describe you best and tell them how you will use the qualities/characteristics to contribute to BU. I've chosen my three words (hardworking, ambitious, and compassionate) and I have come up with some examples, but I'm having trouble with the actual writing of the paper. For example, how do I say I'm compassionate without actually saying "I'm compassionate" or "This reveals my compassionate nature" and how do I make my essay interesting? I feel like it will be boring if I say, "I am compassionate. For example, I did this and I did that"</p>
<p>Have you ever heard of the phrase “show don’t tell”?
Basically you want to avoid telling them you’re compassionate flat out.</p>
<p>How do you do this? Give vivid examples.</p>
<p>Also, if you think about it many MANY people apply to Boston University (it is such a huge school after all). How many of them do you think will describe themselves as ambitious, compassionate, and hardworking?
The school already knows you’re ambitious (it is BU after all)
They already know you’re hardworking (they have your transcript + activities)
And any Joe can say they’re compassionate.</p>
<p>I’d look deeper and find something more interesting!</p>
<p>Good Luck!!</p>
<p>hey, i did this supplement for BU 
yeah, i assumed my words were pretty common [compassionate, something, & something else. lol : P]
but the situations that show that you’re this, that, & that should be unique to u.
also, i don’t think i ever used my 3 descriptive words any where in my essay, other than in the first sentence.
gl!</p>
<p>is it possible to tell a story not about necessarily you but a situation you found yourself in and what it meant. maybe describe your afternoon volunteering in a homeless shelter and in that story and the emotions you felt you can weave in the word compassion without being too direct about it.</p>
<p>^sure, because that would be about what it meant to YOU.</p>
<p>decanela, in your opinion, what would be a more interesting word?</p>
<p>instead of using adjectives i would use nouns.</p>
<p>I am a <strong><em>, a </em></strong><strong><em>, & a </em></strong>.</p>
<p>that could be more interesting right off the bat.</p>
<p>Good point Another idea I was considering was choosing three words that express one idea. For example “I am me.” That’s a bad example, but do you see what I’m trying to say? I was also considering answering the question as a poem. Would that be overusing my creative license?</p>
<p>Yeah stick with an essay.</p>
<p>Here’s a potential idea. </p>
<p>Write about what one of your typical days at BU would be like. Maybe get some insight into what college is actually like and what most BU students do first. Then, weave a story about this day that shows the three qualities.</p>
<p>Example: One of these could be down-to-earth or something. Like, at one AM you’re freaked out about some assignment, but one of your dormies asks if you want to go get a midnight snack at like a Taco Bell. You decide to go and leave your assignment for a little while, knowing about the good memories that generally happens when you do these things. I don’t know how much this specific example contributes to BU, so maybe find some better ones. </p>
<p>Anyways, hope that helps.</p>
<p>That’s an interesting approach. Would the good memories tidbit be where I’d give an actual example from my own life? For example, would I flashback to a time that I was down-to-earth?</p>
<p>The good memories was just a reason for you going out to eat at 1AM. Like people (at least I and my friends) generally never forget the weird stuff we did extremely late at night. So, presumably, it would all be in the future, unless you have frequent flashbacks in your everyday thought process.</p>