For the question about where you’ve lived, I wanted to call attention to a lot of the problems with things like racism and homophobia within my hometown and how I want to hopefully change these things in the future. I live extremely close to DC and I was wondering if I should avoid criticizing Trump in the essay? I know Brown is extremely liberal but I feel like this might be going a bit too far.
Not too far, but maybe a cliche at this point. If you want to point out those things, try to do it in a new fresh way, including what you can do to make it better.
I think politics in essays is fine, esp at a place like Brown. But I’d encourage you to focus on what you have done rather than on what you hope to do.
@HRSMom @ProfessorMom1 I was planning on recounting personal accounts of hatred and racism and then discussing how living by DC provides the perfect opportunity to combat these faults because it’s so easy to participate in marches, lobby Congress members, etc. Do you think this could work?
^ btw those are things I have done in the past and continue to do today
I think, personally, writing about politics in general is not a good idea. Also, you’re not showing anything about what you’ve achieved or how that has transformed you if you’re just complaining about Trump and stating there’s racism and homophobia and it needs to change. Maybe you have done this, but a McDonalds worker (not a diss on them) could change your city, so you need to show how that experience sparked a change in you that would benefit Brown’s community.
@nin12698 how did it change YOU as well…? Put a spin on it to show who you are and what you have to offer Brown. Protesters are not hard to find in college, so show something new and more you can add.
It appears our opinions for you are all over the place! I’d suggest taking a step back and make a listing of the things that you want Brown to know about YOU, and then making sure that each essay you write tells Brown something about one of those important details about you. Reveal yourself. WHY do you participate in those marches? What have you learned from these experiences?
Generally speaking, I’d say that it is not necessary to avoid politics in applications entirely, but it is best to make the message about yourself and also best to not be divisive or critical of others.
Unless they changed this, this prompt asks for a pretty short response. When asked what Brown admissions wants as an answer to this, an admissions official said, “we want to know exactly what we asked – describe where you live.” If your life is affected by the homophobia and racism in your hometown, if it shaped who you are today, then it’s OK to talk about it. But is there really enough words in the response to talk about what you’ve done or plan to do – and I’m not sure this is the essay to discuss those things.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong discussing politics in essays. I don’t see Brown admissions using that as an excuse to deny admissions – unless you come out and state that your purpose in life is to hold constant protests on campus.
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong discussing politics in essays.”
If you know who is reading it. You run the risk of “preaching to the choir” (so it’s cliche) or making the other half mad if they don’t agree with you. Be brief. This is for admission to an university not a personal blog.
In this case, you probably should avoid it. Your statement about wanting to stop racism and homophobia has no pragmatic value if you cannot prove that it works consistently. Unless you have an explicit personal connection with consistently advocating for it successfully, then you should write about something that you actually were able to truly change. Homophobia and racism is indoctrinated into a lot of people so much that it becomes astronomically difficult to change. Share an experience, not a futile belief that you want to shove down people’s throats who won’t listen anyways.
Is anyone here willing to read what I wrote? I’m really considering trashing a lot of it and changing the direction of my response to avoid all the things that have been stated above but I’d like a second opinion.