help on the essay topic..

<p>For the personal essay, I've written about a specific experience that, i guess you could say, has "shaped my life." i'm just wondering if this is the right way to approach this essay since i'm applying ED for engineering. it doesnt reflect much on why i'm attracted to engineering and aside from the little 300 character blurb the application allows, i'm afraid Columbia won't get a real sense of why i'm applying. Should i scratch the personal essay i have now and rewrite one? maybe one that's focused more on science/engineering?</p>

<p>What? The essay isn't supposed to explain why you're applying to engineering/columbia/etc. it's supposed to show them some aspect of you that they couldn't tell just from the numbers/recs that you're submitting. </p>

<p>The 300 character blurb should be just fine (are you sure it was that short? I remember mine being just enough space to make a concise statement that I felt covered all that was necessary).</p>

<p>ok thanks. yea its 300 characters.</p>

<p>cute username.</p>

<p>The "why Columbia" and "why engineering" ones are 600 characters each.</p>