<p>ok, now that i got you attention, i was just wondering who you guys put down on your application as the prof you want to study with. i guess back then, i didnt think it through enough and i gave a lame answer. i should have had things planned out. what did you guys do?</p>
<p>I went to the chem department's website (my proposed major) and looked around for a prof whose research seemed interesting. After skimming over a few abstracts, I picked some dude (forget who he was), googled him, and saw what he published (he wrote a biochem book that Penn uses). Then I wrote a 300 character thing about how he does sweet research, then plugged in how I do research (I think out of the 4 essays I wrote, I said that I do research in 3). I got in and doubt what I wrote was unique, so don't put too much pressure on what you write for these 300 character things.</p>
<p>I picked an Econ professor, read a couple of her reports and talked about how she applied economics to analyze a social issue that I was genuinely interested in. I added how I want to be able to apply Econ outside of the business setting.</p>
<p>this is a dumb thread</p>
<p>Why is it a dumb thread? I thought the essay was kind of off the wall. Some students don't even know what they want to major in, and almost anyone applying to an Ivy can look at a site, choose some prof, and bs their way into a 300 word essay. To me, it didn't really show off anything about the applicant besides the fact that the applicant can jump through hoops. Well, at least my essay didn't show anything about me besides my interests that were already stated numerous times.</p>
<p>i chose a bioengineering professor who does really awesome research on cellular/tissue engineering and then connected it to my own interest in translational research. the main challenge of this essay is not just to pick somebody who seems like he/she is doing interesting work, but connect it back to yourself. this isn't necessarily an essay about somebody else, its about you.</p>