<p>So at Commonapp there was this writing supplement for Mount Holyoke College:</p>
<p>B. WRITING SAMPLE
Send us a copy of a paper, with teacher's comments, that shows you at your intellectual best. The paper should be two to five pages in length and should have been written during eleventh or twelfth grade. Paper should be mailed to us at the address below: </p>
<p>Is i necessary to send this paper? And if yes what kind of paper are they looking for? I mean in any particular subject or language?</p>
<p>i’m probably not the ideal person to answer your question, as i didn’t recieve my admission notification yet (applied early decision for 2011), but i can tell you what they told me when i asked the same question in my admissions interview.</p>
<p>of course you have to submit the paper in english. if your first language (in school) is not english, then this gives you the subject - english!!
i am from germany and submitted my final exam in english because it was pretty long and structured and i got an A for it.
but as long as you give them a good one that they can read, i dont think it has to be a final paper. if your language of instruction in school is english, i think you can send them a paper written in any subject, as long as it is a good one. i think it would be nice if it was in a subject that interests you, that you might want to continoue in college.</p>
<p>i hope this helps, i can’t guarantee anything, if you are unsure, call the admissions office and ask them, they are willing to give you any information you ask for (really, i tried it^^)</p>
<p>Thank you for the advice!
In fact, my first language is Albanian, but I also study English at school. I will email the admission office and ask exactly what do they want and maybe I am gona send one essay I have done during my school year.</p>
<p>Hey pal, I’m an intl and also going to submit an essay too. So what length would be a “good” length ? The school requires a paper of at least 5 pages. Is an 5-paged essay too long ? Or do I have to write a research paper ? If I write an essay do i have to do bibliography</p>
<p>charlotte, are you asking me or franceska?
honestly, im unsure about the lengh. mine was pretty long, but i told them that it was the only paper i had in which they could really see what my teacher’s emphasises were in grading.
about bibliography and research paper, i think that moho doesn’t care as long as it’s a graded paper that shows how good you are and, most important, the stadards of grading in your school! if you have lots of A’s on your transcript, that will help you nothing when they can see from the paper that getting an A is too easy at your school. you know what i mean??
i think thats the important part. so give them somehing that was graded by your teacher and shows you at your intellectual best. and of course they know that it’s hard for internationals to find a paper showing them in their intellectual best which is not written in their mothertounge!!!
good luck to you guys, i hope this forum will be filled with a little more life…
greetz from germany :-)</p>
<p>@eagle91 when you say “it is not written in their mother tongue” you mean that the paper should not be in English. For example, I am from Albania, and my paper should be in Albanian. But how are they going to understand what is written in there?
Should I translate and notarize it?
Ok now i am desperate! :(</p>
<p>@ franceska:
no! what i meant is that they know that it is hard to find a paper that shows how good you are in english, if english is not your mothertongue!!!
so if your first language is albanian, they will understand that your paper in english is probably not as good as if you had written it in albanian! got it?
so of course you have to submit one in english…
i hope this helps^^ good luck!</p>
<p>@ charlotte: yeah, you’re right…
all i was trying to say is that they probably don’t expect you to submit one that has a bibliography… the type of paper is not that important, i think.</p>
