<p>What is the best way to go about these essays and how long should they be?</p>
<p>Kinda wonderin' this myself.</p>
<p>Is threre a word limit? I thought they are usually around 250 words. I'm just saying why I want to go to a particular school.</p>
<p>Yeah, seriously. What do you mean the best way to go about this? Why do you want to go there? That's the best answer, is the truth. I guess it's unfortunate if you just want to go because everyone else does, or because your dad went there, or because it's prestigious, but nobody's going to manufacture a false answer for you.</p>
<p>That said, don't make it a laundry list. Make it your own. Use your voice to tell them why you want to be there. Compel them to admit you.</p>
<p>I agree with areyouserioussss: honesty is important. while it's good to research information about the college (its departments, professors, study abroad programs, etc), it's in your favor to not simply make a list. rather, you should focus on the facets of the school that appeal the most to you and explicate your reasons for choosing to discuss them. for instance, if you choose the average class size as something you like, then write about how you think you'll benefit from this.</p>
<p>Would it be weird to mention things I have seen on tours/books, or things I learned during info sessions? Genuinely, some of these things caught my attention, but I don't know how they'd like it...</p>
<p>Yes, the info. session would be fine. </p>
<p>I generally liked to make mine creative when I wrote them. If you have visited their campus shove in as much there as possible. In mine I described me walking through campus in present tense (though it's a true recollection of events) and basically described everything I could as I walked in certain detail. For example, you can describe how the weather feels to you while you were there or how the size of the campus is just right to get around yet be crammed full of stuff to do. Be it clubs in this grand building here and a world renowned research facility right across the street that you would love to participate research in. So on and so forth. In my essay I also described how my friends would be, study habits, and traveling to nearby sites just to hang out with my friends before a major cram session. Yadda yadda.</p>
<p>The "Why" essay should reflect a "I will go to this school no matter what" feel. Don't just praise things everybody else might praise though, tell'em how much you uniquely would love it. Generally (as said a billion times on CC) a good way to judge how unique your essay is is if you can shove in the name of another school and it'll still work (that's a very bad sign). Not single portion of your essay should be able to reflect a different school. So be specific! Place yourself at the school and show them what you would be like. Also, please don't get too corny or cheesy, but a bit of creativity never hurt.</p>
<p>The entire purpose of this essay as far as I can tell (seeing as how I'm not an actual admissions officer I can't claim to really know) is that 1) you fit in the school and have stuff to contribute to others and 2) you would definitely %1000000 go if you were accepted and no other school would work for you (of course it's not entirely true, otherwise everybody would only ever apply to just one school, but this is the feel that your essay should give. Admissions officers don't want to send out a butt load of acceptance letters just to get none of them back in return).</p>
<p>Hope that helps!</p>