Hi! I've been receiving some questions about the college process, which I will be posting up (completely anonymously). I bolded the questions so you can clearly see what I'm going to be answering.
EMAIL
What is the kind of person that an Ivy League school wants to read about, and how do you get that impression across?
For example, if you're writing about mathematics, would it be terrible to include a significant amount of mathematical details in your essay? I guess the question is, is esoteric knowledge good in an essay? While I don't want to look like a kid who is just throwing in factoids from Wikipedia to seem smart, it's my opinion that in order to build yourself up as the kind of person they want to see, you have to show them that you can make connections and use critical thinking.
Going back to the mathematics example: that doesn't mean that the focus of my essay would be my love of mathematics - that's a little boring and cliché. It means that I would include occasional details that would be way over the average reader's head. Is that bad?
RESPONSE
What is the kind of person that an Ivy League school wants to read about, and how do you get that impression across?
For example, if you're writing about mathematics, would it be terrible to include a significant amount of mathematical details in your essay? I guess the question is, is esoteric knowledge good in an essay? While I don't want to look like a kid who is just throwing in factoids from Wikipedia to seem smart, it's my opinion that in order to build yourself up as the kind of person they want to see, you have to show them that you can make connections and use critical thinking.
Going back to the mathematics example: that doesn't mean that the focus of my essay would be my love of mathematics - that's a little boring and cliché. It means that I would include occasional details that would be way over the average reader's head. Is that bad?
RESPONSE
For the CommonApp - I think you should remember that the readers of your essay may not be experts in the mathematical field. Therefore, esoteric terms and concepts may confuse them unless the definition or reasoning is implicit within the essay. You should also keep in mind that even if it is an expert who is reading your essay, what you may think is conceptually challenging as a high school student may still seem very elementary to the expert. I'm not saying don't include these ideas because you should if you know it or if it actually influences the way you act and think - but balance it carefully throughout your essay. Remember that the reader wants to understand you and your personality; they don't need a lesson in mathematical concepts. The most important thing, I believe, is to explain the why in your love for math. What gets you excited about math? Why can you talk about it for hours? How does it influence your life or change the way that you think about things?
Now, I'd like to go back to your original question of what Ivy Leagues want to see in students' essays. I'm not sure there's a simple answer for that. Most of all, like you already said ("I know that they want to read about people who are legitimately interested in the subjects that they pursue, and who distinguish themselves in those areas."), they want to see a passion in something. I don't think it necessarily has to be for a single field, because they know college is a time for students to branch out, grow, and change their minds about their passions. They want to see good writing as well, of course. And they want to visualize that the student will fit in well at their campus - which makes college admissions very, very random sometimes.
No comments:
Post a Comment