How does someone answer "Why <insert college>?" essay question w/o being cliche?

College Essays
1

<p>These specific college topics seems to be the most limiting. </p>

<p>I'm sure most people apply because of a school's prestige or because it offers the "top" program (ex. engineering), but you can't directly say for its prestige without being superficial and other colleges have a greater or just as good program.</p>

<p>They want to see passion for their school, but how would you answer this question without the hackney cliche: "Oh I've passionate since I've been little about Stanford" kind of thing.</p>

<p>Thoughts?</p>

2

<p>You need to ask yourself the question and come up with an honest answer. If you’re going just for the prestige of the place, then you’re toast. You’ve got to get personal. The essay below is from my book, but in this case the writer visited the place. If you’ve never visited, you’ll have to work a little harder:

First paragraph: makes it very personal on your part.
Second paragraph: distinguishes the school from the others and lets them know you “researched” the school to see if it was a fit.<br>
Third paragraph: some more about you and the possible major
Fourth paragraph: Shows the depth of your enthusiasm, looking for SPECIFIC information.
Fifth paragraph: Just a little “stinger” to polish off the essay.</p>

<p>Back to the fourth paragraph. That little line about “to see if Stanford was indeed a fit” is there to show that you weren’t in love with it from the time you were born, etc, etc. In a sense, the school had to earn your love, and it did.</p>

<p>Think of it as getting a date. If you said to the girl/boy, “I’ve loved you from the moment I could breathe,” you’d look desperate and a little nutty and scare them away. But if you spend the time to find out about that person, and THEN like what you see, it’s much more effective.</p>

<p>—Robert Cronk, author of [Concise</a> Advice: Jump-Starting Your College Admissions Essays (Second Edition)](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/dp/0974386723]Concise”>http://www.amazon.com/dp/0974386723)</p>

3

<p>^Very helpful advice, ty.</p>

<p>Personally, my top choices have some very unique characteristics that I feel prepared to explain why interest me, but I just feel like… I’m not the only one who is aware of these characteristics… so :s</p>

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<p>@digmedia: oh wow, that totally makes sense, great analogy!</p>

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<p>Wow digmedia that was a beautiful post, very informative thank you.</p>

<p>Just for clarification, are you Robert Cronk? Or were you quoting his advice from his book.</p>

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<p>Yuppie -</p>

<p>Sorry for the delay. I’ve been off in Tanzania for a few weeks and mostly out of touch with the internet. To answer your specific question, yes, that’s me. I apologize for the plug with the signature line above (we should never use CC for commercial reasons) and you won’t see me use it again. But I have been a LONG time poster here (actually since 2003!!) and was using the tag line to give a little weight to the advice.</p>

7

<p>@digmedia Can you please help me with my essay?!! You seem to know a lot about this. I just started on this site and I don’t just want to put my essay on the internet for everyone to see. Is there a way to just send something to one person on this website?</p>

8

<p>Finally got a reply back to you via PM.</p>