<p>If you apply to one of the engineering majors at Yale, why is there an additional essay? Is it because engineering is more competitive at Yale? I'd always thought that engineering wasn't one of Yale's strengths, compared to its other majors.
I wanted to go into computer science, but I opted for the computer science and electrical engineering joint major just so that I can write the additional essay and boost my chances.</p>
<p>Yale added an engineering essay last year because they want to make sure that the people who are applying for engineering are applying because they are truly interested in majoring in engineering, not because they think it will boost their chances. In the past, Yale traditionally loses more than half of its engineering majors (aka 100 people come in saying that they want to do engineering, 50 people graduate with a major). So that’s why they added the engineering essay, to get a higher retention rate.</p>
<p>Writing this essay won’t boost your chances at all because you ultimately get admitted to Yale College, not Yale Engineering. The essay is just to weed out people who want to take advantage of the system.</p>
<p>Good answer. But, Yale needs a certain number of engineering majors per year, and I doubt that entry into the engineering majors is as competitive as, say, political science or economics. The essay would result in even less applicants to engineering. I am not using this as an admissions strategy because I am actually interested in engineering.</p>
<p>I hope that’s true, because I applied to ChemE. But keep in mind that Yale Engineering is very small. I heard that each year, there’s only about 10 ChemE majors. So you don’t need a lot of applicants to make engineering competitive.</p>