<p>I was working on the supplement essays for NYU and after reading this prompt I typed my answer.</p>
<p>The propmpt: Please tell us what led you to select both your anticipated academic area(s) of study and the NYU school / college / program or the Abu Dhabi campus. What interests you most about your intended discipline? Mention any extracurricular or non-school-related activities or experiences that demonstrate your interest.</p>
<p>My answer was 300 words long. Then I realized that we are only allowed 500 characters! Condensing my answer while thoroughly answering every aspect of the question is giving me grey hair. Anyone else having trouble with this? I'm hoping I'm not the only person suffering haha.</p>
<p>You have to learn to be concise and edit out all but the main ideas. Maybe you can have someone (who is good at writing concisely) look over your work to see if fewer words can still capture the essence of your ideas. My son started out with far more words than the 500 words required for the Principal’s Leadership Award essay. I read it and felt that all his thoughts as written were important (probably had 1500 words to begin with). However, he just sat down and cut and cut to meet the 500 word limit for the $1000 State Award. He won the award. Now he is not one to stay enamored with all his thoughts or to have qualms about cutting out “excessive” or redundant words/ideas.</p>
<p>Believe me, you might think everything is necessary, but anything can be abbreviated. The incentive should be that it is a clear requirement by the Admission Committee and they want you to articulate yourself well and within their defined character limits.</p>
<p>I only used my son’s PLA essay as an example (because that really involved a more in-depth topic). However, he wrote very brief but to the point answers in the NYU Supplement that happened to be a great match for the mission and purpose of the Martin Luther King Scholarship. I was amazed at his brevity. He wrote from the heart, but I think it took him all of 1 hour (maybe 2) to express himself and to write a great poem having to do with his own fervor for social action (he did not know anything about the MLK Scholarship at the time).</p>
<p>However, some people are better at brevity than others. That is why I advise you to get assistance/ feedback from someone else if that is not your strong suit.</p>
<p>Please note that I was not able to be of assistance to my son in this regard since I tend to be more wordy myself (as you probably can tell, ). Ultimately, he did well on his own because being brief and to the point is something he does not have to struggle with.</p>
<p>It’s possible. I view the supplement questions as a way to display your personality, creativity, and writing skills. This question in particular is very focused so you may want to use an anecdote that relates to why you know the school you’re applying to is right for you, but also throw in something about your academics that shows this school is for you. </p>
<p>I’m in Stern and they have this question every year so for my answer I talked about my success in mathematics. I started out by saying how I have always been told I was gifted when it came to numbers. The I explained how my friends nicknamed me “Human Calculator” and others sometimes called me a “math geek” but it never bothered me because I knew I possessed exemplary analytical skills that I felt can be put to use in finance. Then I spoke about how I always wanted to go to stern and how it rivaled some of the best undergrad business programs in the country and would help me get on the path to success blah blah blah. I was able to get all of this across without going over the 500 character limit so I know you can do it. You can pm me ur response if u want and I can help you condense it. Good luck.</p>
). Ultimately, he did well on his own because being brief and to the point is something he does not have to struggle with.</p>