Uniqueness of "Why College X" Essays

gardenstategal
Sun, 15 May 2016 21:39:44 +0000

FWIW (I’m a parent, not a GC of Adcom), I don’t think this where they are looking for unique as much as fit. I have heard from adcoms that they have read answers in which an applicant cited the strength of a non-existent program/major or wrote something really generic (i.e., good academics.)

If you can bring something to the school that they want (i.e., you have an interest in immigration issues and this school has volunteer programs in the city where it is located working with immigrant populations), that’s great. It also helps to mention something that you noted on one of those visits that appealed to you or something in a conversation with the rep when he/she visited your school. There are a lot of schools that are reluctant to admit someone who they don’t feel has a genuine interest – this is your chance to show that the connection is real and that you think it’d be a good fit.

I suspect that they do read a fair amount of the same and that’s probably fine. At the same time, I’m also going to guess that a number of applications reveal themselves to be “why not?” applications.