<p>I am applying early decision, and I am trying to stay on top of the whole application thing. So I started my essay today for the supplement. I decided to write about a unique life experience. Well, I realized somewhat belatedly that I was telling a story about my unique life experience and not reflecting on what about me would add to the Rice community. I was planning to make that the last page or so, but is that enough? Can I tell the story? Or should I ONLY reflect on what makes me unique?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Don’t worry too much about the “unique” part. Tell a good story… Last page is plenty…</p>
<p>Just write out everything you want to say, with a healthy dose of reflection at the end. Then, after you’ve got a first draft down on paper, cut it down to remove superfluous words/sentences and parts of your story that are rather irrelevant, unexciting, or don’t tell much about you as a person. Try to keep the parts that are reflective and give the reader a good sense of you. In short, write it how you want to write it, and then be selective in trimming down the essay so as to have a good story-to-reflection ratio.</p>
<p>maybe you should see the format of other accepted students in Rice. Search for “essays of accepted Rice students” in google and you can get a pretty good idea about how to begin writing about your story. For me, it helps to see a sample of things. Trust me, a lot of these sample essays remind of just ordinary students writing about simple experiences that they somehow mold into exceptionally brilliant messages. That’s all what you need for a good essay,and whichever one catches the eye and makes the admissions read it thorougly and carefully. ;)</p>
<p>make it interesting. thats really what they want to see. While researching old essays helps, make sure it is unique and stands out by itself.</p>
<p>^ yea I agree with antarius since I’m also applying this year :D</p>
<p>good luck.</p>
<p>Just rember, some of the most non-traditional essays also help people get in. As always, being different to be different is a bad idea. Quality is a must - but above that, your essay can help you stand out.</p>