<p>My application with reflect my love for history and my success in those classes and on those AP exams. I'm having my history teacher who has taught me in three AP classes and 1 other class write a recommendation letter and it will be great (he already wrote me one when i applied to a school when i moved and it was a glowing recommendation). So, for my Why Columbia? essay would it be okay to mention specific professors (Richard Bushman and Alan Brinkley) and how i want to go to Columbia partly because of them and the other professors? I wasn't sure if it would be okay to be that specific..</p>
<p>My advice would be to spin it like this: I really enjoyed [insert book/article/lecture/speech/Stephen-Colbert-Appearance here] by [insert columbia professor here]. It really touched on my interest in history, specifically [some specific subset of the field that shows you know a lot about it]. I would love the opportunity to study with [professor], but even if I never study with him/her, I want to make sure that I am at a school where the kind of strenuous thinking shown by professor whateverface is valued. </p>
<p>That’s not very well-written, wordy, too many clauses, etc., but you get the idea. Try to emphasize that you really admire the particular professor (and what specifically about the prof), but then broaden it out to Columbia as a whole. Say why that professor made you excited for columbia in general, like, you know columbia values that kind of thinking, or has that kind of academic/intellectual climate. </p>
<p>The reason I say this is because adcoms probably aren’t too excited by students wanting to come to CU to study with a particular star professor, because there’s a very good chance that you’re never going to get to study with that professor, and even if you do, it might be a huge lecture, etc. I’m not saying that wanting to study with a particular professor will hurt your app, but I don’t think it’ll help that much. </p>
<p>But, if you can use the mention of a specific columbia professor to show that you’ve a) done your research on CU, b) have specific and strong academic interests and have done the reading to back them up, and c) have that vague quality known as “intellectual curiosity,” it’ll really help your app.</p>
<p>Thanks silverchris9! Your concerns were also my concerns! I knew that mentioning a specific professor wouldn’t be great because there is SO much more to the university but i wanted them to know that i do admire their professors and their professor’s work that they’ve done. I’ll definitely mention certain people and then broaden that to CU. Thanks again!</p>
<p>I think mentioning specific profs (with the above caveat) should be a big boost. Especially if they’re not super well known in popular culture, but are more field-specific stars.</p>
<p>It’s definitely good to be specific, since no one wants to read clich</p>
<p>Yes, i’m definitely avoiding focusing on the city and the core in my Why Columbia essay. Ahhhh, i’ve been trying to think about what to focus on but i keep changing my mind. This essay makes me so nervous because i feel like this could make/break my application!</p>