It seems like every college I plan to apply to has required essays with the prompt “Why do you want to go to (college)”. I am sure the vast majority of applicants answer these in the kiss ass sort of way that admissions staff hate. How should I answer this prompt in a good way? I have thought of two ways. You could be a suck up and give all the trite reasons all students give for their interest. My other idea is to state those reasons, and then be honest and say that while my intellectual curiosity drives me significantly, its is the fantastic monetary investment and education the institution will be that drives me to apply. It seems most kids lie and say they want to go to a certain school for “diversity” or “student organizations”, all the cutesy stuff schools use to differentiate themselves from others, when in reality most students pick a prestigious school because they will be hired over someone from a lesser school and they will get paid more. Which of these would be a better “why us” essay? I feel the second could either piss of an adcom or make them like my frankness. What do you think?
Do you think they will fall for that?
Do you think they will buy that either?
LOL- do you really believe that?!
Or neither and they just roll their eyes at another delusional 18 year old.
Seriously, nothing you have in your post has any relationship with reality.
Good ‘why us’ essays take true things about you and link them to true things about the college in a way that shows both what you get and what you bring. They show maturity of thought and more than a passing familiarity with specific elements of the university. I just read a really good example of a ‘why us’ that one of the parent posters put up- was it @BatesParent2019? @BrownParent? One of the Dads on here anyway- hopefully they will see this & link it in.
My son is getting ready for his why us essays and they will probably be the easiest of the bunch. This is because, he actually does have real reasons for wanting to attend specific colleges. He uncovered these reasons as we toured colleges and he saw real differences between institutional personalities. During our tours he dropped 3 colleges from his list because they were really not good fits. He moved other colleges higher up on the list because they offered opportunities that excited him. These are the things he will write about.
If you don’t have something real to say about wanting to attend a specific college, are you sure you really belong at that school? Is it only prestige and jobs and money you are interested in?
@LKnomad I wish I could have visited more than 2 schools, but I simply couldn’t. The things I find most important in a school in descending order of importance are the school’s acadmics, my fit for the campus and its student body, and then its prestige/marketability. I have no way of knowing how the campus feels or how the student body is without visiting, or writing this essay would be much easier. What other things draw students to certain schools? I think it would be poor to talk about student organizations or clubs or certain programs as none of them are things I will certainly participate in at the school; I may or may not end up being able to join the astronomy club or take that cool class in geology. See what I mean? I do not know what to write about given that the most I know about schools is their prestige, educational quality, and very general opinions about the student body and the campus from reading CC.
Mentioning courses, organizations, and other opportunities in your essay isn’t poor, because you aren’t committing to anything. More than just teaching you things, college is a place that offers you the resources and opportunities to create your own college experience. That’s why you wouldn’t go to a college that didn’t offer your major, or only had clubs that you weren’t interested in.
So you’re simply saying, “These are the things your school offers that I’m interested in,” and “Your school offers the things I’m looking for in a college education,” whether that is specific classes, few general education courses, the ability to study abroad, etc. You don’t have to take advantage of all of them, but you want to go there because you have the option to take advantage of some of them.
That’s what research is for. You start with a true thing that is interesting / important to you, and rootle around the web to find how that links to a particular school. Example: D2 wanted a school that would support undergrad research- but lots do, so how to make it specific? she kept working through: reading the research interests of the department; looking at the profs bios; googling various combinations until she came across a small program buried within the department that (as she said) had ‘her name all over it’. That became part of her ‘why us’ essay. Another D had an EC that was really important to her, so in addition to combing the college’s web site, she read back issues of the student paper (available online), googled the people who were named as being part of that EC, through that found links between the group she was involved with and the college. She didn’t know that would happen- she just kept following the threads of her interest. In some cases that kind of research led to being less interested in the college, in other cases more interest.
The tone of your two posts are so different that I am not sure which is truer to you. A quick scan of your other thread topics suggest that you are interested in engineering and/or pre-med, and you seem to be interested in places that are strong in those areas. So push your thinking a bit: what about engineering is interesting to you? what does [college name] have in that area?
Believe it or not, this is actually useful beyond a ‘please offer me a place’ formality: this research helps you learn more about the schools you are thinking of enrolling in- and it helps you learn more about you. You have +/- a month of summer break left: spend some time digging.
Thanks