<p>The quality of Rice's academic life and the Residential College System are heavily influenced by the unique life experiences and cultural traditions each student brings. What personal perspective do you feel that you will contribute to life at Rice? (500 word limit)</p>
<p>What do they mean as "personal perspective"? When I first read it (and based my essay on), I interpreted it as personality attribute. Is that ok to write the supplement over? </p>
<p>It asks who you are as a person other than a student.</p>
<p>Hmmmm… So if I wrote about my sense of optimism and how it’ll positively impact Rice’s environment, would that work? </p>
<p>I highly recommend talking about your “life experiences and cultural traditions.” If your life experiences have led to your sense of optimism, than maybe that would fit. I definitely think they’re looking for uniqueness here, though.</p>
<p>@paintsplatterla As long as your essay truly reflects who you are as a person and how you use your talents to contribute to your community. “Optimism” definitely works.</p>
<p>Sure. Who you are (optimist etc) is a good topic. the sentence about personal perspective means that you should write about you and your experiences, mindset, thoughts etc and not list a bunch of things about Rice and or your life that don’t detail your perspective or feelings about it.</p>
<p>One tip about this essay - Do not go the cliche route.
Essays are tricky but the biggest edge is writing with your OWN voice.
Sure, don’t let me bring you down, but many applicants are going to write about optimism.
Your best bet is to make it YOU.
It’s your uniqueness that will get you in. Antarius and other are right because if you add that personal experience or experiences, no one else is going to have those. People are going to write about optimism, sure. No one is going to write about your own event. </p>
<p>Good luck. </p>
<p>If I keep my original topic about optimism, should I add a personal anecdote to make it more me? </p>
<p>Yes. The whole essay should be about you. It asks for a personal perspective</p>