NYU Supplement- what are they looking for?

Applying to College Common and Coalition Application
1

<p>“A. NYU’s global network provides students with hundreds of academic areas of interest for students to cultivate their intellectual curiosity and to help achieve their career goals. Whether you are entirely undecided about your academic plans or you have a definitive program of study in mind, what are your own academic interests? Feel free to share any thoughts on any particular programs or how you might explore those interests at NYU on any of our campuses.”</p>

<p>I wrote my response but I am afraid I did not effectively answer the prompt. I want to pursue journalism, so i got into it by exploring my mind and critical thinking by talking about the hypothetical situations of people that are distant from me and my personal life. I did not really relate it to journalism until the end where I say that i want to be the voice of these people and share their stories to a wider audience, where i think that studying at NYU and its journalism program would help me extend my critical thinking and teach me how to effectively tell these stories.</p>

<p>Did i go about my essay the wrong way? Should i concentrate more about what exactly I want to do and how NYU would help me? It’s just I feel that what I have written effectively explains my passion of critical thinking and storytelling, though i did not relate it to the actual relativeness of my enrollment in NYU until the end. If you would like to read it send me a personal message, but I guess what I’m asking is, how can i effectively answer the prompt and portray my reason in 1500 characters?</p>

2

<p>You cannot fully convey a passion in a mere 1500 characters, but you can give the admissions officers the gist of it (i.e. why you love journalism). There is always a way to make it fit into the character limit while still giving them a few concrete reasons why you love what you love. And don’t get me wrong, it is critical to talk about your own academic interests, but you should include at least a few sentences describing SPECIFICALLY what programs/courses/opportunities at NYU will help you advance your interests. I don’t know how much relative weight NYU puts on each part of the academic interests essay, but they are probably looking for at least some of both (this goes for similar prompts at any school). </p>

<p>But perhaps you did include a satisfactory amount of text conveying your interest in NYU. Take my advice with a grain of salt; I’m applying to colleges as well, but PM me the essay if you like and I’ll tell you what I think.</p>

<p>Good luck with your app!</p>