<p>So I've been working on my supplemental essays for the january regular decision deadlines, and I've noticed that many of the highly selective schools like Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, and Northwestern all ask pretty much the same question: why did you pick your major, or what are your "intellectual interests", and how are you going to use the school to further explore them. Is this question pretty much asking why Cornell, why Northwestern, etc? Basically, do they want me to prove that I really want to go to their specific school by showing I know about things that only that specific school has? Or can I just answer the question?</p>
<p>In summation: can I write one essay and use it for all three of these colleges, because I'm applying to the Arts and Sciences school in each college and they all ask the same thing?</p>
<p>To save time and energy, I would write one essay explaining why you’d want to go to any of the schools. Pick an attribute that you like about it, ex. (low faculty-student ratio, study abroad, research, etc.) and emphasize that quality. I have not researched Carnegie Mellon or any of those Eastern schools, so I don’t know what they’re known for. When I wrote my essays, I chose to emphasize them on student-teacher ratios because I was applying to mostly LACs. I did not write each essay over, but I modified each one to meet the qualities of the school that I chose to emphasize. I’ve been accepted to a few schools so far, so maybe it’s a good strategy?</p>
<p>Good luck!! :)</p>
<p>you should write very specific essays that mention each school’s unique programs and strengths to show you’ve done research… colleges CAN tell when you use one essay and just change the name.
i know i know writing so many different essays on why you want to go somewhere to major whatever is a pain… but in your case it’s just three! I’ve had to write essays like that for fifteen colleges… if that makes you feel better! XD
Good luck!!!</p>
<p>I used the same intro paragraph/statement and ending sentence in all of my “why x college” essays, but other than that and a few other phrases that I re-used, mine were all pretty different. And the only reason why I was able to use the same intro paragraph/statement for all of my essays was because they were all fairly decent sized schools located in the middle of a large city, so what I had to say applied to all of them. Other than that, I made sure to be specific in my reasons for wanting to go to each school, and made sure to mention specific programs I liked and stuff like that. I think that this is the better way to go because it shows that you actually want to go there and aren’t just half-assing your way through your applications.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help guys! I guess I’ll have to spend more time researching each college so I can write a good essay for each of them. And YuhikoJay, that does make me feel a lot better because although I have to write five to seven supplemental essays, that nothing compared to fifteen.</p>