The application form asks for two short essays. How short exactly is a short essay? Both of mine are about 500 words, and I'm worried that they may be too long.
Now I'm really worried. I was just going to send in my Swat Weekend application when I read your post. One of my essays is 800 words and the other is 600. At the time, I thought they were rather short by my standard and by my school's standard. I'm going to shorten both of them. ty
Looking back at the invitation letter it said "On a separate sheet, write 2 short essays." Now, they don't mean write both essays on ONE sheet, right? LoL...
I wouldn't worry about it. If they really wanted to hold you to particular length, they would (or should) have given you a target word count. That's not really what they are looking for from these essays. More likely, they are just trying to get a sense of you or your personality or whatever.
This weekend, 130 prospective students will arrive on campus to participate in Discovery Weekend, an event in which various students of color from high schools across the country have been invited to explore issues of race and student life at Swarthmore.
The weekend serves as a chance for students of color to ask questions about the racial dynamic at Swarthmore in a comfortable environment with a variety of people. It also exposes the prospective students to the importance of diversity and issues of diversity on campus.
Prospective students who have shown interest in Swarthmore, and who have self-identified as students of color, are encouraged to apply for the chance to partake in this weekend. This year, 360 students applied for the event, a process that required an application with two short essay questions about why they want to attend Swarthmore and Discovery Weekend in addition to the signature of an educator and the student’s GPA.
Diversity is one of the defining characteristics of Swarthmore College. 42% of Swarthmore's students are US minority students or internationals. More than half of the acceptance letters each year are sent to non-white or non-US students.
LoL, I emailed them a while ago and then the reply was this:
"Short essays should be at most a page."
Never specified if I was to fit both on one page or one essay per page. Oh well, I sent mine already before getting it.
No use worrying now ^_^.
I'm sure the word count won't be held against us since the wording was very vague. I do wonder though how much the essay is weighed in their selection process (which apparently includes the generic stuff: rank, GPA, standardized testing, ec list).
They accepted 130 out of 360 applications to attend Discovery Weekend last fall. I'm guessing that the essays probably play a role in the selection. By and large, students aren't going to apply for Discovery Weekend at Swarthmore if they aren't pretty solid academically.
