<p>Most schools seem to have essays asking why the applicant wishes to attend XYZ school. How should we approach these?</p>
<p>Saying I like this major/department/program almost seems like cliche nowadays, although it may be true.</p>
<p>i had to write a few why ________ essays, and the best thing i can tell is to you to be genuine. schools can tell the difference between someone who surfed the website and found the mission statement and someone who actually is a fit for the school. it helps to write these essays after visiting and perhaps even overnighting because you could take about your experience and how it made you want to go the school. you could also spend time describing yourself and how you see yourself fit into the school based on your characteristics and what the school offers. or if you really do like a certain program/major/department/aspect of the school, you could talk about how and why you want to study that particular subject or be in that environment and the SPECIFIC aspects of the program/environment at the school that fit your interests. so yeah...hope i helped.</p>
<p>i agree with sgtpepper... be genuine. if you have several of these essays to write... it's okay to first write a "template" of sorts... some strong well written statements or parts that are school neutral... but then go back and tailor them to your feelings/interests/experiences/expectations of each school. show your personality. if you've visited the school, that's fantastic... if you've talked to an admissions rep, or an alum that's great too. show them that you aren't just applying to their school on a whim, that you have gone beyond the website and the pretty brochure.<br>
also, it's okay to put the schools name in the essay... just MAKE SURE (I'm talking double and triple checking here) that you have the correct name in the right essay... i have a friend who wrote one essay and then changed some things around to make them more personalized to each school, and when changing "school X" to "school Y"... she missed one. =X not exactly impressive to school Y.
best of luck! =]</p>
<p>Of the three why _____ essays I wrote (Macalester, Brown and Northwestern), one <em>cough</em>Northwestern<em>cough</em> obviously wasn't genuin. Guess what? Northwestern was the only school that rejected me. So.....be honest and if you can't be genuine then you probably shouldn't apply.</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure it was my essay that got me into Emory. I made sure I found lots of things I liked about the school and included all of them in my essay, not just stuff I had picked up from the website.
Make sure your enthusiasm and interest in the school comes across. If you're having a lot of difficulty putting together an essay, then maybe you shouldn't apply :)</p>