<p>I'm not sure if this is in the right place but how where do people find information regarding "why do you want to go to our school?" type of questions? Are there any websites that provide information on how each colleges stand out or differ from other? Thank you so much and please reply asap because I'm kind of desperate right now. Thanks.</p>
<p>There are a number of ways to get information to answer that question. If you’ve visited a school, you probably can speak about specific programs, buildings or even people who impressed you. Presumably you have a reason why you’re applying to the school (it’s in a city, it’s the right size, it has strong programs in your fields of interests etc.) and you should definitely mention things that are not generic in your essay–the general rule is if you could just fill in the name of any school in your essay, it’s not a good essay. Finally, you should go to the website of each school you’re applying to that requires such an essay. Look up the areas you’re interested in and see if there are any courses that sound interesting, any lectures that look good, any musical events or groups that you’d like to be involved with etc. and write about those things.</p>
<p>thank you midatlmom for the information. Regarding what you said, are these information found mostly on the school websites? Thanks.</p>
<p>Yes, each college’s website gives you so much information. Often on the first page of the website, there will be a link to news, which shows you what noteworthy projects professors and students have been involved with. Take a look at information about the college–often the school itself will highlight areas about itself it considers important (for example, a school might have a strong international outreach or an emphasis on service-learning). Then go to the specific link for an academic department and see what the professors are up to.</p>
<p>Does anyone else have any suggestions?</p>
<p>IMHO, these essays are harder to write if you have not visited the school. If you visited, sat in on a class, took the tour, etc., you would likely have some more specific things to write about. But you can get some things from the websites and mailings you have received. Some specific examples of the types of things my daughters wrote about:</p>
<ul>
<li>At one college she sat in on a super interesting class. She was able to talk about the class experience (specific with professor name and discussion topic) and why she wanted to go to the college.</li>
<li>At another one she met with a professor, and was able to talk about that and why it convinced her that X was a good school for her. Even if she had not met with them, she could have reviewed the professor profiles and research areas online, and talked about what areas interested her.</li>
<li>Another college offered a specific science tour, which she went on and learned a lot about the department she was interested in. She talked about that tour and the things on it that made her want to attend.</li>
<li>Yet another school has some very interesting research facilities (unique compared to other colleges) that she talked about. She only knew about those from researching on the college website.</li>
<li>My older D went through the course catalogs and mentioned a couple of specific courses offered that tied into her background and interests.</li>
<li>One of my kids applied to a school that her great-great-grandfather attended, and she talked about that family tie.</li>
<li>In three different cases, colleges have an extracurricular activity that my daughter thinks is fantastic, and quite unique to each of those schools. She talked about that as a reason for wanting to attend.</li>
<li>One of my kids had a specific location where she wanted to study off campus for a semester. At the college she ended up attending, they would let her do that (we talked to the study abroad office while visiting campus, but she could have emailed to ask if we had not been there). So she put that in her essay as a reason for wanting to attend.</li>
<li>In one case my daughter is looking for a really specific type of academic environment, similar to something she experienced in a program she went to a couple of years ago. In two of her Why X essays she talked about how that college reminded her of that other experience, and why that made her want to attend.</li>
<li>There are also some more generic type things. One of my kids likes rural LACs, so she said so (to the rural LACs she applied to). :)</li>
</ul>
<p>So there is no formula… an essay that has 3-4 paragraphs of honest connections you that tie your background and educational interests to that school are usually what they are looking for. If you can’t do that, then maybe you are not applying to the right schools.</p>
<p>Intparent gives a lot of good ideas here. Another: talk to alums and find out what they thought was most memorable about the school (or get on the CC forum for that school and ask current students)- and then cite your conversations/exchanges with them.</p>
<p>Read several issues of the student newspaper, online or in hard copy if you have access. See what the students are writing about and even see who advertises there.</p>
<p>Thank you all for the great advices!</p>