<p>So far, the part about my intellectual interests and their evolution has taken a humongous chunk of space... 400 words... how much should I focus on the "taking advantage of Cornell" part?... Should I shorten my "intellectual interests" part?... If so, by how much?... What is a good percentage of space for each part?...</p>
<p>uhh.......</p>
<p>dont undrstand?... the supplement says 1)"Describe your intellectual interests, their evolution, and what makes them exciting to you." and 2) "Tell us how you will utilize the academic programs in the College of Arts and Sciences to further explore your interests, intended major, or field of study."
what I mean to ask is: which sentence matters more? 1 or 2?... so far, for me, 1 has taken over. Should I shorten 1 to make space for 2? or is just about a paragraph on 2 Ok?... or should the essay be almost completely on 2?... i know, it seems like a lot of questions, but it all amounts to just one basically...
which is more important, 1 or 2?</p>
<p>My intellectual interests part was 350 words, then the second part was only 150. I couldn't really think of what to say for the second part, so I found myself repeating myself alot (I even used the same exact sentence twice.. oops!). Just do whatever you need to make it an excellent essay (useless advice, I know) :)</p>
<p>^^^... naw, actually really helpful. a word to word ratio is exactly wat I was looking for... :D thanx</p>
<p>ne othr opinions?...</p>
<p>also keep in mind that the word limit is not a hard limit. its ok if you go over a bit</p>
<p>For my essay, it was roughly 300/200. In the first part, I talked about how my interests influenced my choice of ECs and in turn, my choice of major. For the second part, I went in-depth about one of their research projects, which took up most of the paragraph. I also quoted a part of their mission statement and related it to my own interests. A former admissions officer once said that showing your knowledge of the school is perhaps the most important part of the supplement essay. It shows that you're genuinely interested in what the specific college/school has to offer you and that you're not applying just for the prestige. You may be surprised to know that the majority of applicants don't even know how many individual colleges/schools are in Cornell. If you even just briefly mention that number, it's possible that your essay may be taken into greater consideration by the adcoms.</p>
<p>Edit: I just realized that I answered your question with only the first sentence, lol. Oh well, I hope the rest of it helps to some extent.</p>
<p>^^--- yeah, they say that they're looking if you know about the school, it shows that you have genuine interest. What I did was look on the website and in that red Cornell book that they send out in the mail and took key phrases and use those. I also found an article about "Studying Biology at Cornell" and used key information from there.</p>