I will be applying to the Elliott School of International Affairs at GW, as well as the honors program. Does anyone have any advice that would be useful on the essays?
Here are the prompts:
Honors Prompt #1 (500 words):
The Honors Program’s core curriculum is comprised of interdisciplinary courses, discussion-based engagement with complex issues, and reflection. Why do you want to make this program a priority for your undergraduate experience?
Honors Prompt 2 (500 words):
Please write on one of the following two topics:
a) Please describe an instance when you took ownership of your intellectual growth and molded your education to meet your own goals. What did you learn about yourself through the process?
b) Write a letter to the author of a book you didn’t like.
Essay #3 (250 words):
George Washington University encourages students to extend learning beyond the traditional classroom by taking advantage of hands-on learning through service, research, internships, and studying abroad. Describe an experience that transformed the way you view the world and how this perspective prepares you for GW.
Be genuine. Don’t write what you think the admissions committee wants to here. Show, in your writing, why the way you think would be beneficial to the GW campus. You want to stand out and make yourself seem invaluable.
You should choose whichever essay you feel you can write to best, not whichever one someone else suggests. I can almost guarantee that no single question is weighted more favorably than the others.
When you’re reading college essays and deciding who to admit, you tend to look for two things:
intelligence
personality
Your first priority should be writing a quality essay that sounds intelligent, and is free of typos or bizarre word choice. Beyond that; you just need to have some fun and be creative. Colleges don’t expect 17 or 18 year old applicants to have major life accomplishments. They just want their admits to be smart, funny, and diverse.
I assisted in the GW admissions office a while ago. We had the same prompt as #3 above. The best essays I recall reading for that prompt included…
One about teaching a Syrian refugee how to play go fish
One about the various creations that the applicant made in a sandbox as a kid
One about a guy who had to carry a refrigerator up 5 flights of stairs
One that included a rant about how hot Florida was in the summers
These essays all had deeper meanings and included more sophisticated ideas than I may have made them seem, but I hope you see my point. You don’t need to (and in fact, shouldn’t) boast about how you cured cancer in your kitchen and how you want to change the world by solving the South Sudan crisis. Be a funny and smart high school kid when you write your essay, because at the end of the day, that’s who a college wants to admit.
@randomstudent789, Isn’t there only one essay prompt for the non-honors application? I see you wrote “# 3,” and I’ve seen mention of more than one essay prompt elsewhere, but the Common App only lists one essay prompt (which is the same one you entered as #3.)
@pickledginger Sorry, I just saw your comment. Yes, there is only one prompt for the non-honors application and two additional ones if you apply to the honors program. I just listed the non-honors prompt as #3 because that was how it appeared in my Common App.