<p>I am seriously in love with Stanford's political science department, and that is my genuine reason for wanting to attend Stanford so badly. Is that an acceptable college application essay, or should I be more general?</p>
<p>I think the only reason I want to go to Stanford would be to major in Poli Sci over there. I don't know how to get that across though.</p>
<p>Well, what does Stanford's poli sci department offer that others don't?</p>
<p>What makes you love Stanford poly sci? The building? The choice of textbooks? The hottie professors? Something you read? Prestige?</p>
<p>Read what I wrote you in that PM, I think it hit a lot of the stuff I wanted to say, but I'll say something again here for public consumption.</p>
<p>kyledavid80 came up with the one exception to what I told you in the PM about staying away from writing about your love for political science, and that is if you can come up with a SOLID reason, and i emphasize this, what Stanford's PoliSci department stands head and shoulders above every other one. This needs to be a hell of a reason, otherwise your going to run into the problems the vast majority of people do when the sound like they're trying to say what they think Stanford wants to hear, rather than getting across their own story in their own voice.</p>
<p>What is your reason for only wanting to do PoliSci at Stanford? If it's that Stanford PS is the best, that isn't a good enough answer for this essay. In fact, I would recommend against you saying that PS is the only reason you want to come to Stanford, as this makes it seem like you won't appreciate all the other things it has to offer.</p>
<p>And PLEASE do NOT be more general. Being general in your essay = bad. Being specific = good. Note though, that you can be specific while still covering a broad range of items, it is simply very hard to do, and often people mess up and just sound general. The way to avoid falling off this slippery slope is to keep all your examples specific, and keep your essay full of examples.</p>
<p>Good afternoon , </p>
<p>I was wondering how your Political Science Essay turned out. I would love to see it
If it is possible could you PM me with it.
BTW , were you accepted.</p>
<p>Definitely make your Why Stanford essay as specific as possible. You also don’t have to focus on one reason, I probably talked about 4 vastly different reasons I wanted to come here.</p>
<p>To add, you want your essay to deal with specifics that: can’t be found at other colleges AND most students won’t write about the same stuff. So don’t spend your essay discussing great weather and great general academics, because not only can that be found at Caltech, UCB, Rice, etc. but a lot of other applicants will write the same exact thing.</p>