<p>Hey guys, I just saw the UPenn supplement for the following year and I'm having trouble with the essay topics. Well actually just one of them. It says:</p>
<p>A Penn education provides a liberal arts and sciences foundation across multiple disciplines with a practical emphasis in one of four undergraduate schools: the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the School of Nursing, or the Wharton School.
Given the undergraduate school to which you are applying, please discuss how you will engage academically at Penn.
(Please answer in 300 words or less.)</p>
<p>I'm not sure how I would 'engage academically at Penn'. Like what do they expect me to write? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!</p>
<p>When I first read this, the thing that popped in my head was “Please do not bore us with how wonderful the architecture is here, we already know that. Or how you saw one kid playing a harmonica and just felt a sense of belonging. Tell us how YOU would actually learn in Penn, and how YOU would give to Penn.”</p>
<p>They expect you to explain how you will take advantage of the one university policy, which means that you can take classes in any school. Like if you are applying to CAS explain how you would make use of Wharton, the Nursing School, etc.</p>
<p>Think twice about solely writing about the one university policy; it’s going to be the generic answer (I and a bunch of other guys used the same idea last year). Upenn is a huge school that has a lot happening. Become familiar with the student organizations, research opportunities, programs, etc. The more you know about what’s happening, the better you can display a real interest. In addition, I’d caution against the “I’m-going-to-add-diversity” platitude that everyone seems to include in his/her essay.</p>
<p>@Ednogg
Yes, I was. And yes, every college-application essay should be about you. Last year, the prompt was something like “what do you hope to learn from, and contribute to the Penn community”. This new prompt is like a narrower version of the last prompt. You should talk about how you’ll learn from and teach others. The problem with this essay is that pretty much everyone will talk about pursuing intellectual extracurricular activities outside of the classroom and discussing their original opinions. Of course, a lot of people will talk about diversity and the one university policy (as dfree said, this is worth mentioning, as it’s Penn’s staple). Not that the previous ideas are bad, but they just aren’t that creative. </p>
<p>I read a lot of essays last year (more than 100, I think). The personal essays I read were often better than the college-specific ones. I hated the college-specific essays because most of them were very generic, verbose and unspecific. Actually, I can’t recall more than two college-specific essays, while I remember every single personal essay. What I’m trying to say is that you need to avoid the clich</p>
<p>@Cardgames
Thank you for your info! And is it ok if the essay is like around 200 words? It says 300 or less but I’m thinking that it would be better if it’s shorter right? Since they’re reading thousands of essays, so they might be happier to read a shorter one once in a while. </p>
<p>So basically…I should share my opinions of how Penn offers many great things such as the Equity and Access Programs and the Graduate Mentoring Programs? And then should I try to just make it more unique and mention how I will contribute? But the thing is I’m not sure what I can say that might make it unique from everyone else…I feel like , like what you said, that the topic is rather generic and will have many of the same type of responses…I’m just having trouble with what could possibly make it unique from others.</p>