<p>Hi everyone, this question has bothered me long.</p>
<p>I mean," why "essays are mostly the same for each candidate(people are telling the adcoms about how good the schools is, how many nobel laureates there are etc.)aren't they.</p>
<p>How can they serve to distinguish applicants since all the application process is about seeking the unique.?
How can we make "why" essays be special?
Why are they so welcomed by schools?
What exactly are the adcoms expecting of the why essays?</p>
<p>I think the “why” essays are very popular with colleges because they can help distinguish those who actually thought about the school–even if only enough to synthesize some perks they read on the college’s website–from those who are just sending off another application. I have definitely seen examples on this website and elsewhere of people who didn’t get into a school they were seemingly qualified for, and it was clear that they had a pretty lousy attitude about said school from their reaction to that news. That tells me that their poor attitude, likely seen in the “why” essay, probably hampered their application. Colleges want the people they accept to seriously consider coming (and then not be miserable when they attend). The “why” essay can help them figure out who those people are–at least more than any other part of the application. </p>
<p>A “why” essay isn’t about why a school is great in general; it’s about why a school is great for you. In mine, for example, I talked about being on campus and seeing all the sidewalk chalkings advertising college government elections and how neat I thought it was and I talked about particular subjects/activities I wanted to study/participate in at Wellesley and why I thought Wellesley would be a good choice for me with respect to those subjects/activities. It wasn’t groundbreaking prose, but it showed that I knew something concrete about the school and had thought at least a little bit about why I was applying to Wellesley as opposed to another school.</p>
<p>Edit: And I know that I personally decided not to apply to a couple schools I was really only marginally interested in because I had nothing to say about why I was applying to those schools. Assuming I would have been accepted had I made something up, those schools saved themselves from dealing with a person who was very unlikely to attend by including a “why” essay.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The “Why?” essays at selective schools serve as a weed out tool to screen for applicants who have a genuine interest vs. the ones who recite stuff from the brochures. Although my D did write in her essay how jaw-droppingly beautiful Wellesley campus was, she also added a personal perspective on why she liked the school so much. Of course, if you are a recruited athlete or a legacy who’s parents paid for the construction of a major building, “why” essays don’t matter much.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>But what are genuine interests like?
As an international, most information I get about the school and why I love it comes from the brochures they mailed and their website, from which, I guess the information are somewhat impersonal…:(</p>
<p>How best should an international who can’t visit their campus say “why?”</p>
<p>I think they’re stupid and secretly just about pandering to people who have to make hard decisions and don’t know how to make them. If I had to write a “why Wellesley” essay, I wouldn’t have gotten in. I wouldn’t know what to say, and I hate writing anything personal or kiss upish or any application essays. All you are doing is regurgitating propaganda from the admissions office.</p>
<p>I could write a really nice “why I liked my four years at Wellesley” essay just fine.</p>
<p>I can’t speak about other schools, but my guess is that for Wellesley, the idea is to see if students have really thought about what joining the Wellesley community would mean to them - i.e. have you really thought about attending a women’s college? Lots of Wellesley’s characteristics ( the liberal arts, small class sizes, profs vs. TAs, etc) are shared by a lot of other schools. It’s the women’s college aspect that really sets Wellesley apart and really affects the community. I’d think that even if Wellesley was the only women’s college that you applied to, you have to think about how that very important component is going to shape your college experience. Or, are you just applying to the top 10 liberal arts schools as ranked by US News? (Rhetorical question)</p>