<p>I know that mentioning details about Brown shows how much you researched about it but… is it a really bad idea NOT to be so specific? I wrote my answer without referring to the curriculum or a program or club and whatnot. I just put down my feelings to the school as a whole making a comparison with another thing I love.
I was satisfied with my response and thought it was different but after reading this thread I’m getting a bit confused.</p>
<p>I think it would be impossible to write something they hadn’t heard before, and because so many people probably avoid “obvious” topics like the grading system and New Curriculum you might even be at an advantage for just being honest. That was my philosophy. I wrote about why I like the Literary Arts program and (yes) the grading system, open curriculum and visceral “feel” of Brown. I think as long as sincere interest is conveyed, the specific subject matter isn’t as important.</p>
<p>This has been a big help guys. To all the CC haters out there, I say: it’s threads like these that keep me here.</p>
<p>Excellent thread. Helped me out a lot with my essay. Submitted last night. I wrote about the New Curriculum and how it would allow me to explore my interests and then gave specific examples from the website about how I would explore them.
Now I just have to play the waiting game!</p>
<p>I think with any “Why ______?” essay it’s a wise idea to use the model I’ve found successful in grant writing and that’s to look at this as a bridge-building exercise. By that I mean you don’t want to build a bridge that only goes in one direction. You don’t want to just cover why you find Brown appealing to you. Bridges connect in both directions, so take time to express the first part – why you are attracted to Brown – in terms of the necessary second part – why Brown should be attracted to you. The combination of you and Brown should come across to the reader as if it is some sort of harmonic convergence, destined through the ages, allowing for no other alternate destiny in which you are not matriculating at Brown next fall. Don’t let the essay prompt lead you on so that you construct a uni-directional bridge. Make sure the traffic flows in both directions. The things that you love about Brown should be anchored to the things Brown is going to absolutely love about you being at Brown. That’s how to make it personal and unique and persuasive. You can take this and run with it in any number of directions, from the formulaic to the wildly creative, but you should really build a solid bridge no matter what things you focus on or how you express yourself. Good luck!</p>
<p>Great post^ Thank you!</p>
<p>Excellent post , D’yer Maker :)</p>
<p>Answer “Why I am perfect for Brown.” Not “Why Brown is perfect for me.” My tip!</p>
<p>Sorry to bump this up for this question, but what is the proper term for ‘Pass/Fail’?</p>
<p>^S/NC, not P/F as someone said ealier</p>
<p>In my essay (which I haven’t yet submitted), I talked about the open curriculum and how a Brown alumnus influenced my decision to apply. I just have one question-how should I say what I as a student can offer? Do they want me to talk about my personality traits, experiences, etc.? I am so confused about that part.</p>
<p>@ RainbowSprinkles : You could consider relating it back to environments where you excel, citing examples of how you did amazing things because of that environment. You could use the Brown alumnus as a good segue to explain some quality or accomplishment that s/he noticed that made him/her think, “You know what? RainbowSprinkles needs to go to Brown!” Or you could use that to explain some admirable quality in the alum that you admire and how you’ve come to the conclusion that that’s typical of Brown students and how those are people you prefer to collaborate with – perhaps pointing out some project where you led others who also possessed that same quality to some extraordinary result. It’s hard to say what you can do, but there are lots of ways to run with this, using specific examples that show off who you are, what you’ve done and – most importantly – who you are capable of becoming in an environment like the one you describe at Brown.</p>
<p>AmazingOnline said it well and succinctly. Make sure that it ties back to you, citing specific examples along the way. Whether you pepper the essay with examples to support your point or lead in with the example and then work back to the prompt…these are all matters of how you want to approach this.</p>
<p>It’s like architecture – there are a zillion ways to design a house; just be sure to make the structure sound. In this case that means connecting who you are to what you like about Brown. Capice?</p>
<p>^ To bad it can only be 1000 CHARACTERS. That’s like <150 words. I wrote the essay of my life and had to cut it down to a forth of its length. Liviiiiid.</p>
<p>Am I screwed if I never visited?</p>
<p>My biggest problem? Narrowing down all these big ideas to like… 150 words. aaaaaaaah.</p>
<p>Didn’t want to make a new thread for this one, but are abbreviations fine for New Curriculum and Satisfactory-No Credit? Does it look bad if I write ‘NC’ and ‘S/NC’ in my essay?</p>
<p>Now that I think of it, would it be wise to just write New Curriculum instead of NC to avoid possible confusion with Nor Credit? I’m sure adcoms are smart enough to figure out what I’m referring to but what’s a safe bet?</p>
<p>S/NC is fine. NC for new curriculum – I’ve never seen that abbreviation.</p>
<p>I’d upload it, try to get it to 175 words…definitely cap it at 200. Character limits are totally annoying. Nobody reads that way. And writing to a character limit forces writers to make absurd choices. It’s words that count to readers. And it’s easier to economize with a word limit than a character limit. I think 175 words is a reasonable number of words, consistent with the character limit, that shouldn’t offend any reader’s sensibilities. If that’s over 1000 characters, so be it. But I’m not applying…so take this with a grain of salt, please.</p>
<p>thanks for the advice, D’yer!!
I’m from Canada and my parents won’t let me visit schools in the U.S. by myself, and since they’re always busy, I’ve never gotten a chance to visit ):</p>