<p>I have no idea how I can describe why I want to be at Brown in 200 words or less. I have so many things to say and I really want to get across the way that I truly feel like I belong at Brown. So I thought I’d ask everyone else how they dealt with these incredibly short essays and let their unique-ness shine through?</p>
<p>I applied ED and don’t yet know my admission status, so best take my advice with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>That being said, I made my short personal statements very tight. I made every single sentence count and I eliminated throwaway words that tended to clog up each of my statements. (For instance, I would have changed that previous sentence to “I eliminated throwaway words clogging up each statement” – does that make sense?) I avoided passive voice as much as possible (without making things sound stilted) and I selected my diction extremely carefully as to convey the most amount of meaning with the fewest amount of words.
As for the “Why Brown?” essay, list out all the reasons you like Brown and try to pick a few that are the most unique to the school. Like, don’t just say you like Brown because of its liberal environment, as there are a lot of schools that fit that description. Try to pick something that only Brown can fulfill (like PLME or maybe there’s a specific prof at Brown doing research you’d like to participate in). </p>
<p>Good luck! :^)</p>
<p>I applied ED too. I think my essays were good enough. Kind of. Somewhat unorthodox but good. Even though I basically had to weasel my way out of the Counseller’s eyes. She told me to tear the essay into pieces and write something ‘safe’. In the end, I stuck with it.
I haven’t told the Counseller though. She would kill me.</p>
<p>did you guys focus on one program or mention a couple things about the school that you liked? im not sure if i can narrow down the list to one thing but the word count is making it really difficult to mention anything in depth if im mentioning more than one thing if that makes sense</p>