<p>Since it's only 500 characters, that means I'd only be writing a very short paragraph, right? I've seen a lot of people making a big deal out of this essay, which seems strange to me if it's only one paragraph...I mean, I wouldn't even call it an "essay" if it's only a paragraph...am I missing something?</p>
<p>No, you aren’t missing anything. You’ve just forgotten that you’re on College Confidential.</p>
<p>Haha, okay. Thanks. 
I was getting worried that there was something hidden in the prompt that made it more significant or challenging than it sounds…</p>
<p>On that note, is it a bad idea to directly and straightforwardly state several aspects of Yale that appeal to me? Is it generally advised that this “essay” be abstract/creative? Should it focus on one single aspect of Yale one likes?..Now I’m getting paranoid. CC does that to you, I guess.</p>
<p>Something that would be particularly effective is if you couple your reason for desiring to attend Yale to another part of your application, IMHO. </p>
<p>Like you have been a writer or something is would make sense to say that you want to attend because of some special program that they have there or something. Or you could be completely honest and just state the reason you want to go to Yale. </p>
<p>Or if you were an architecture applicant you could talk about some aspect of Yale’s architecture that made it particularly desirable. Or something along those lines.</p>
<p>Okay, that’s what I was thinking of doing: tying my reasons into the passion I already mentioned in my Common App essay. Though I do have plenty of other reasons that I want to attend that aren’t directly connected and might show I’m well-rounded, so…What do you think is more important? Emphasizing my passion even more or showing well-roundedness?</p>
<p>The passion hands down. Judging from the essay topics of some of my friends here it is clear that passion was a HUGE criterion in determining admission. It really does matter.</p>
<p>Yeah. I feel that I should have talked about why I wanted to work with the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Peabody Museum of Natural History rather than talk about the residential college system. There was a certain professor I was interested in working with…</p>
<p>Yep. Passion trumps all.</p>
<p>Oh well.</p>
<p>whoops. I wrote about generic things like the residential college system and the shopping period. then again, when I applied in november, yale really wasn’t my first choice. However, after practically living on the yale forum here on CC for almost two months, it’s definitely my number one now…I’ve realized that there are so many more amazing, intangible things about yale than I knew when I applied and answered the question.
…oh well, too late to change anything :/</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice, guys! And good luck to you guys who have already applied! :)</p>