When I applied (1973), you had to hand write your personal statement (i.e., no typewriters allowed for that part). There was a rumor that the Ad Com used a handwriting analyst!
I absolutely love this supplement. It gives you so many opportunities to showcase the different parts of your personality and who you are as a student. I was worried when I saw last year's because I felt like it was way harder to show how you fit into the Brown community, but this is much better. Definitely my favorite supplement so far.
I really like the question "Sculptor Jacques Lipchitz once said, 'Cubism is like standing at a certain point on a mountain and looking around. If you go higher, things will look different; if you go lower, again they will look different. It is a point of view.' With this in mind, describe a moment when your perspective changed." I know the answer doesn't have to be art related, but I like that they used a quote from an artist. I'm also finding that the character limit is too small! It's hard to fit everything I want to say under 250 characters.
As a student applying this year, this suppliment actually makes me worry a little less. I always feared of being just a number in the application pile, but that doesn't seem to be the case now. All of the questions on the suppliment will really show a student in many dimensions, not just the typical "why [college x]?" and additional essay. I hope many more colleges learn form Brown in the future.
This supplement makes me love Brown so much more because of how interested they are in applicants as actually people not scores and numbers. I really wish I could apply this year. Fingers crossed that next year's supplement is equally as wonderful.
Oh, I don't know. It reminds me of the Yale supplement the year I was applying. They had questions like "Describe your perfect afternoon in 25 words or less." I said something about biking through the crunchy leaves on the city green. I'm really not sure what sort of insight they are going to gain from asking those questions. Everyone is unique and have different ideas of what is fun or makes them proud. For example, maybe you invented something awesome and could make that your Common App essay. Or maybe you haven't done anything that exciting in your life, but you really like baking cookies because your grandmother gave you a secret recipe. Students are going to feel pushed to do something awesome or amazing when they may not have the means or the desire to do so. I think this supplement actually speaks to how arbitrary the process is, and, if anything, it will only help weed out people who are applying because "it can't hurt."
I think that the first two questions are fine (good questions, in fact). Why School X should be the focus of the application because, ultimately, the students who should be admitted to the school are the ones with the compelling reasons to go. I also think "Why are you going to college" is an excellent question, but answers like "It will help me get a job" should be accepted. For many people, it's the truth.
My high school college counselor used to work as an admissions officer/reader at two different Ivies. She said they spend a maximum of 15 minutes on all the documents in the file (recs, essays, etc.) because they don't have time to read through everything thoroughly. And that was BEFORE I applied in 2008.
I wonder what else is left for them to know? After the Common App, its much exhausting to look at the 4-page supplement when you have other schools to apply in the short time interval of the Admission cycle after the Dec SAT.
Hey guys! So I'm looking over the supplement (applying this year!) and I am a bit confused. For the part which says complete one of the following prompts, do you have to restate the prompt (i.e. If I could do something with no risk of failing, I would go parasailing or i would go parasailing) or can you just write your answer!
I love the questions, I feel like it gives you alot of room to be unique and express yourself. What I don't like, though is these word/character limits. They really hinder what I really want to say, and I feel like I'm not fully expressing myself. :/
At first, I thought that this was going to take a REALLY long time to fill out, but I did 6 of the questions in one day, and edited them the next day, so I'm pretty excited that it's coming along so fast .
I think some of the questions are a little out there (if you've lived in the same place all of your life like I have, it's hard to sound interesting on that one question). And the one with the no risk of failing/felt like you belonged is a little silly simply because of the character count: you can only write about a sentence! xD
It's asking you to answer life-defining questions in interesting, creative ways and in under (in some cases) 125 characters. For people who already know the answers to those questions and are bizarrely good at answering them in a single sentence, maybe this isn't terrible, but for everyone else this would qualify as "a lot of work".
I've been working on the supplement on and off for the past month and still haven't answered half of the questions.
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