Rugers essay question- what the??!?

<p>ok, any ideas for the rutgers essay topic. im applying early action and rlly have to get the essay done, but the topic just seems so cliched and trite. </p>

<p>"RU is a vibrant communityof people with a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences.how would you benefit from and contribute to such an environment? consider variables such as your talents,travels,leadership activities,volunteer services, and cultural experiences." max 3800 charcachters. </p>

<p>Wat The???</p>

<p>OK 2 things:</p>

<p>1) it sounds like their asking for my extraccurricular resume. i dont hear a question. how do i write an ESSAY out of this. any advice?</p>

<p>2) wats with the "3800 charachters"? i dont have a charachter-to-word converter counter on my computer. why do they have to do that...every other college says max. 300-500 words, but rutgers says charachters, thats so annoying...does anyone know how many words 3800 charachters are?</p>

<ol>
<li><p>it’s inquiring about your thoughts on diversity, since Rutgers is well-known for that. what experiences do you have that highlight your perspective on others’ diversity? here you can talk about extracurricular involvements, work experience, or personal experience with people who seem unique to you. or if you believe you are contributing to it, what makes you so distinct? here, you can talk about your background or challenges you overcame that make you unique. </p></li>
<li><p>if you copy and paste your text onto Microsoft Word, there’s a little indicator at the bottom. click it, and it tells you how many characters and words. or, if you don’t have microsoft word, there’s are free tools online that can count the words of any given text.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>This essay question you are being asked to write reminds me of Communist China under Mao, where people were expected to write the politically correct, party line response, at the political re-education camps.</p>

<p>“Diversity”<br>
“Inclusiveness”</p>

<p>etc etc.</p>

<p>I am sure you know what they want to hear. </p>

<p>But why must a student who is being required to write this essay pretend he is something he probably is not? Whatever happened to the idea that a kid might just want to go to college, to better himself or herself? What is wrong with that? Can’t someone today from a suburban community, who can offer little in the way of “diversity”, simply apply to study nuclear engineering, biomedical engineering, or accounting, or the like, without having any interest in contributing to a “diverse” environment??? Can’t a student just mind their own business, study hard, simply treat the other students with respect, and graduate, so they can then get a good job? Why can’t a kid just be a regular guy from the suburbs? It seems that this essay requires the applicants to all race to show how they are more “diverse” than the rest. Everyone says the purpose of the essay is to get to know you as a real person. In this case, I think the reverse is true. They get to know a pretend person.</p>

<p>thanks alot for the answer first poster. and @floridadad -> hahaha. totally.</p>

<p>I disagree, floridadad. You can reflect on what diversity means to you without pretending to be someone you’re not. To me, the question is about why diversity makes a strong community. </p>

<p>College is when a lot of students probably first encounter true diversity head-on. Attending Rutgers, with thousands of people from different places, with different views, smacks you in the face with diversity and says, ‘open your eyes!’ Not everyone sees the world the same way as you do, and that is a good thing. It was an essential part of my education.</p>

<p>OP the world is a diverse place, not just Rutgers. How will experiencing a truly diverse environment, maybe for the first time in your life, impact you? If you feel you are ‘more diverse’ in some way, how can your experiences and perspectives influence someone else? To me, it’s not about listing your achievements, it’s about reflecting on how your experiences have made you the person you are and how you can benefit from seeing how others have become the people they are.</p>

<p>delmonico - It’s not a very hard question, you are just overthinking it. It does not necessarily have anything to do with extracurriculars, unless you use them as experiences that show how you have been exposed to new ideas and values. This was the easiest college essay to me, because you can be very creative without the admissions office nitpicking every single detail. There isn’t exactly a right answer, and this question was basically intuitive to me. </p>

<p>floridadad - If diversity is not important to you than you’re missing an important feature about Rutgers. Exposure to different cultures can help you grow up and face the real world if you stay open-minded throughout. Rutgers gives you this opportunity from day 1. By “minding your own business” you are only learning what is taught in the classroom but not what the rest of the Rutgers community is able to teach you.</p>