How "unique" is it necessary for your supplement essay to be?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
1

<p>I just looked at the Cornell supplement essays and am a little concerned about how "unique" and "personal" they want your writing to be. Now, I know that obviously with the Common Application essay your goal is to be unqiue/be yourself and write an excellent personal statement that allows the admissions people to get to know you outside of what they see on your application. However, it seems as though the supplement essays are much more straightfoward and academic. They seem to be more like persuasive essays in which you explain your academic interests and why they are a fit for the college. Now, how personal do you need your essay to be? Obviously it shouldn't be generic or anything like that, and it should incorporate your own interests, but aren't most people simply going to be listing their interests and stating why they are best for the school of their choice? Is it even necessary to be creative (or for that matter, proper) here and use anecdotes (as in as brief examples, or making your whole essay anecdotal) and other creative devices? Is there any way to standout when chances are, fmost people are going to follow the exact format of the specific question (for example, for ILR, simply: 1. State your interests, 2. Prove why your interests fit with ILR)? Aren't people choosing these colleges for roughly the same reasons (for example - engineering to gain a science background, CAS to gain a liberal arts education)? How do you standout when people are applying to colleges for the same reasons (sorry if I sound like I am generalizing, and I guess I am a little, though this probably applies more if you are choosing a more common major such as political science or biological sciences)? The bigger problem is not content, but organization, since won't most people be using the same organization (see ILR example)? How does this make you standout (and yes, I know that this isn't exactly what you should be striving for in an essay - you should be yourself, but when you are being yourself, you should write about it in a unique way)?</p>

<p>I guess one of the main things is, should you write your essay as if you were writing a creative writing piece (like your personal statement), or should it be more like a stricter academic style essay?.</p>

2

<p>i didn't know the supplement was out yet?</p>

3

<p>For all I know they just posted it today. I was actually going to make a topic asking when it was coming out, but decided to check the site just in case, and it was there, I think in the downloadable forms section. I checked and it was listed as 2007. I was waiting for this as the benchmark for when I'm starting my essays, so I guess I'll start now.</p>

4

<p>Waffle:</p>

<p>Funny thing you posted this...</p>

<p>Those questions were really close to mine when I applied for the engineering school. Mine was something along the lines of <strong>How will you take advantage of the offerings in the College of Engineering</strong></p>

<p>My essay was a slight mixture of both creative and academic, but with a heavy focus towards academic simply because of what the question specifically asked for.</p>

<p>What I thought helped me the most was the fact that I familiarized myself with one of the faculty's research on cellular metabolism and actually went in depth as to how this research matched with my aspirations.</p>

5

<p>Just remember, the people who read these essays can spot bull$h*t from a mile away. Don't try to write yourself into someone you're not...cause they'll know when you are trying to do so. Don't get all flowery and prosaic either, keep it simple. DO NOT write about your ideas for changing the world, DO NOT write about how you want education to inspire you to fly away into the atmosphere, DO NOT talking about your dreams to build the first time machine.</p>

<p>College's like to think of themselves as sharpening stones for youngsters with a lot of potential. They want to be able to smooth out your rough edges and give you a nice complexion. They don't want perfect sounding students who promise world peace if admitted. Stress your desire for CU and the opportunities it will bring you, your commitment to personal growth and betterment, and your readiness for challenge.</p>

<p>I've read a lot of essays that begin with something like "Raindrops go ploppity-plop" or "I'd never believed in myself until that one fateful day" -- stuff like this might work at a artsy, little LibArts college tucked away in some forest, but not at an Ivy with roughly 15,000 students. </p>

<p>Sell yourself, not the budding Charles Dickens within.</p>

6

<p>Do you have to be specific with what you want your major to be? For example, I'm having trouble deciding whether I should do biochemistry or physics. I would like to concentrate in biophysics if I do either one (I know you can do that for physics but not sure about biochemistry - though I'm positive that they have biophysics in grad school, which I'm not sure if I'd do yet depending on when I would like to go to law school if I decide on patent law) but I'm not sure yet which would be best for me. I may e-mail the physics and biochemistry departments on this. If I talk about my interests in biophysics, I also do not want them to get the idea that I am accidentally writing the cliched "I want to major in this - little do I know that is not a major here" essay. So do they want you to be specific with your field of study, because I'm having a really hard time deciding between biochemistry and physics, and I would not like to seem indecisive (in short, I think biophysics is perfect since I like the conceptual parts of biochemistry and the actual process of solving problems in physics, so when you put them together it's unbeatable). Thanks for the advice so far!</p>

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<p>I think that's a good idea! When I applied, I had no idea what major I would settle on, but I'm sure it would have helped me state "what I wanted" from Cornell, which should be an integral part of your essay. Mention how much of a rush it will be for you to brush shoulders with some of the best bio/physics teachers in the nation and that you're hungry for the challenge.</p>

8

<p>My supplements were pretty straight foward. I took the info from the website and just wrote them well with my wonderful ********ting skills. I was also able to make the essays sound extremely personal, although I was totally bsing (which they didn't catch from a mile away, clearly). I don't really think they're expecting you to be insanely creative. I feel like you have room to be creative in the common ap essay and you don't need to be over the top with the supplements. I mean, if you think of something brilliant to say, go with it, but don't force yourself to.</p>

9

<p>does anyone know if they have posted the suppliment on comon application ? i just checked and it's NOt there ~</p>

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<p>It IS there:
<a href="http://admissions.cornell.edu/apply/applications.cfm#firstyear%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://admissions.cornell.edu/apply/applications.cfm#firstyear&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Scroll down to the section titled "First Year Students (2007 Application Materials)"</p>

<p>Oh, to answer your question, don't focus on being "unique" by trying to be eccentric, weird, or funny (it's great if a college essay is funny, but ONLY if the essay naturally came out that way- 99% of the time when applicants are actively trying to be funny, it sucks).
What you need to do- and I'm sure they're stressing this idea this year, since I filled out the Cornell app last year and can tell you, by comparing the two, that this year's application is stressing this- show WHY you like your major. Talk about your major in your essay and why you have a deep, genuine love for it. It's a very good idea to do this in your personal essay, too. Admissions people can smell b.s. from a mile away.</p>

11

<p>Anyway, I'd say the best thing you can do in a college essay is not try to be a certain way- don't try to be funny, weird, suspenseful, whatever- just write how you want to write and write it as if you're talking to a good friend. If you're a naturally mellow, non-funny person and you try to write a hilarious essay just because you think you'll stand out, the results will be disastrous. I know that's not the answer you want, but it's the truth.</p>

12

<p>Well, it is 3 months later and obviously I have already submitted my essay for ED. I kind of took some of the advice here but I also interpreted the essay in my own way. The only thing that I'm nervous about is that rather than going into my major as the main focus, I made both my major and the fact that I want to still have the opportunity to take many other types of courses both the main focuses. I pretty much went into how when it comes to academics, there's two sides of me. I talked about the practical side and my major briefly and then the adventurous side and how that evolved. I made a point of showing that although I want to concentrate in biophysics, I really also do want a broader education with the ability to take many other courses outside of the major. I went into how CAS is best for me due to the large variety of courses offered and the way the curriculum is set up into equal proportions of major, distribution, and electives. I went into the fact that Cornell would be the perfect fit and happy medium, as opposed to other schools that would simply confine me to my major and others that would only satiate my adventurous side through a large core curriculum. </p>

<p>While I do think that the major is important to talk about, the fact is that most people go undecided, so I don't think they wanted you to be necessarily focused on talking about your major, otherwise they would have said "Describe your interest in your major," and they wouldn't have given broad choices in the second part by asking about using the program for the major, along with interests and field of study. It would actually be somewhat discriminatory to want focus for everyone's essay on a specific major/field of study, due to the fact that a great amount of people are simply undecided. The problem with this essay prompt seems to be that it is specific in what it wants, yet still very open ended in how to go about writing it.</p>

<p>I'm still kind of nervous about the fact that I didn't make my major the focus of the entire essay, but then again I'm also fine with it since I know that my essay won't be the standard "I want to major in this since I like it and CAS will help me accomplish it" essay. Well, all I can do is wait now, and although I'm nervous about how I answered the question, at least I can be content with the fact that my personal essay was beastly :)</p>

13

<p>No, don't worry. I did pretty much the exact same thing. My major will be English because I love literature and especially writing, but I argued that I needed a fine liberal arts education because writing isn't just something you can learn straight - that all other studies enhance it, blah blah blah, but hopefully in more interesting words. I tried to make it articulate and a good explanation, but threw in a couple metaphors here and there. Eh, nothing special, but pretty solid I think.</p>

14

<p>Yeah, I kind of did that too, though I made a point of basically talking briefly about biophysics (connects interests in concepts of biology to challenges of physics, innovative, interdisciplinary, pretty much sums it up) and then going onto how the other side of me is completely different in that it wants to take many different courses from a large liberal arts range just to learn something different and gain new perspectives. CAS is the only school that will allow me to take biophysics as a concentration while still giving me the opportunity to take other courses to still gain a liberal arts education. I'd post my specific essay format but I don't want to give anything away online, though I basically started off broad then went into some specifics and talked about why CAS is right for me as the happy medium (well, I didn't use that cliche though, like it was "just right" or something, but the idea comes across more creatively).</p>

<p>I guess mine is different from yours in that while you say that you want the liberal arts education to complement your writing skills and interest in English, I want it to have entirely different perspectives other than the biological and physical sciences so I can broaden my horizons and not be the physics person who goes to a tech school to take purely science courses, but not necessarily the liberal arts person who just wants to take a bunch of random courses. I tried to contrast those hypothetical situations and then show that Cornell's curriculum allows for a reconiliation of my halves by providing the opportunity for both rigorous biophysics study and a broadening of perspectives through liberal arts.</p>

<p>I'm still just nervous since after searching through sample essays on this topic through google, I've seen the majority as specifically using anecdotes to talk about the major they have chosen, at least for the essay before the "interests" were combined with "why us?"</p>

<p>I guess that there's two ways to look at it. The way I was looking at it before was that I was writing a different style essay than most would (in no way was I writing for the sake of being different though - I wrote in the best way to show how my academic goals relate to my personality). but now that I'm done I'm thinking that if I wrote something different than the format most would use, am I doing something wrong? So the admissions people could either say about mine, "finally, something different than the same 'I loved Bill Nye the Science Guy as a kid, so now I'm obsessed with string theory' essay" or they could say "wow, this essay does not answer the question in the same specific way everyone else did about their major, so it's bad." </p>

<p>Anyone else ever get this feeling with their essays? I tend to think like this a lot after school essays too and usually end up doing fine, so maybe it's all nerves, I hope. I know that there's a 99 percent chance I'm overreacting (I've had teachers tell me that after I've second guessed myself on other school essays before) and that I'm really fine, but I'm still just nervous that I wasn't specific enough about the major.</p>

<p>Basically, am I fine as long as I wrote in the best way to show how my academic interests relate to my genuine personality and how I will use CAS to bring that out, regardless of how I formatted it?</p>

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<p>Definitely. If you put as much thought and time into as you say you have, I'm sure your personality and interests shine through.</p>

16

<p>i tended to focus more on my interest. didnt write much about how it would apply to cornell. bad?</p>

17

<p>my supplement, i did not really write alot how the school will persue my goal but i wrote my personnal experience on the school that i am applying to...
the topic really did relate to the field that i wanted to study though...</p>

18

<p>i wroter about my interest adn its evolution. and some aspects of cornell that would help enhance it.</p>

19

<p>i wrote about my major, a concentration at the college in addition to stuff i'd like to do around cornell UNIVERSITY... now i'm scared the last part shouldn't have been included.. did anyone else do that?</p>

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<p>I personally figured that when writing about your interests in CAS specifically, if you write about how you want to deal with great professors, you like the campus, you like the challenge - you're gonna sound generic. That's why I thought back to my info session and thought about the major things that made me think Cornell was for me as opposed to other schools I'd visited or thought about attending. After writing from this essay and learning from it, I'd also have to disagree with what most people here are saying about this essay: that it is strictly straightfoward and not meant to be creative. That's exactly what is going to get you an essay that is like almost everyone else's - the same old boring essay to the admissions people. It's okay to be creative with any essay, as long as you don't go over the top and stay on focus. This essay IS a little more straightfoward relative to others, but also keep in mind that it really gives you six different things to talk about:</p>

<ol>
<li>Intellectual Interests</li>
<li>Their Evolution</li>
<li>What Makes Them Exciting</li>
<li>How CAS applies to your field of study</li>
<li>How CAS applies to your major</li>
<li>How CAS applies to your interests</li>
</ol>

<p>That's 6 different things to talk about, and you can use as many combinations as possible, and notice how it doesn't even mention the word major in the first part of the question. </p>

<p>Sorry if I appear to be ranting - I tend to do this to get my thoughts out when I'm nervous about something, especially essays and waiting periods to see if you got a position (this is a combination of both), and it does work :)</p>