<p>For the supplemental essay, I wrote extensively about my experience in a medical research summer program at UCLA this past summer. The last part of the essay talks about why I wanted to study Biology at Carnegie Mellon, but it isn't as extensive. Does anyone think this is a bad/good idea?</p>
<p>I assume you are talking about the Why CMU essay? It has a one page limit so writing extensively about your summer experience is a horrible idea. The purpose of the Why CMU essay is to talk about how much you know about CMU and what separates them from other colleges. They want to see if you actually want to attend CMU so the purpose of this essay is to see how much you know about them. You should talk about their distinctive programs, research that you wish to be part of, specific study abroad programs, interdisciplinary study, your experience when you visited, special traditions like painting the fence, spring carnival etc. Talk about your “summer experience” in the beginning of the essay and how it caused you to want to study biology. Then talk about why you want to attend Carnegie Mellon for biology and include the stuff I talked about above. For example, in my essay I started of talking about how my families jobs influenced my decision to do business. Then I talked about how Carnegie requires Biz majors to minor in something and I picked robotics since Carnegie Mellon is the only college that has that option for business majors. Than I talked about specific professors, interdisciplinary programs, and a bunch of other stuff about CMU that only people who have done extensive research would know about. I also included a “goal” something that I wanted to give back to CMU which was to start a business club once I attend.</p>