And so students will write wonderful essays about how
much maybe a grandparent meant to them or a teacher.
But at the end of that we learned so much about a
grandmother but we don't learn actually
about the student who's applying to college.
And so sometimes it's helpful that when you get to the end
of the essay if you can summarize your main point in one sentence
and then add the phrase, and that's why I should be admitted
to your university it can help see if you're on the right track.
So if the main point of your entire college essay is my grandmother
was a wonderful person, and that's why I should be admitted to your university.
You can kind of see that that's not going to be as
useful to the admissions committee as you intended it to be.
The other, the last and final thing that I"ll
say about that is stick with what's comfortable for you.
It's not the time to reinvent yourself.
I see students a lot of times take risks.
And misinterpreting what that means.
So, you know, if you've never written a
poem before don't submit one for your college essay.
Express yourself in a way that's comfortable for you, that sounds like you.
The intended goal of this personal statement should be that in a
cluster of like 20 essays you could put them on a table.
And one of your best friends could come by and
sort through them and pick out exactly which one is yours.
Because if your best friend can recognize you from that essay then
the admissions committee has a real shot at learning much more about you.
>> As part of the common application Penn also has a supplement
which you mentioned and on your supplement you have an additional essay question.
In that essay question, you ask the admissions committee would like to
learn why you were a good fit for your undergraduate school choice.
College of Arts & Sciences, School of
Nursing, The Wharton School or Penn Engineering.
Please tell us about specific academic service and or research opportunities at
the University of Pennsylvania that resonate
with your background interest and goals.
>> Hm-mm.
>> So, what are you hoping to learn from this question?
So, what we are hoping to get out of our supplemental question is a sense of
what the student can see themselves having an impact in or with at Penn.
Anything that excited them to apply in the first place,
why they chose the undergraduate school or program that they did.
We want to know that this is a thoughtful
application and we want the student to share with us
that thought process that they went through in choosing to
apply to Penn and how they can see themselves there.
We're looking for students who, you get the sense that they would
just hit the ground running, so to speak, once they got to campus.
And we definitely want students who are very intentional, with their applications.
So, this should never, you know, again going
back to the essay, the idea that this has
to be specific, and there has to be
a reason for ever school that you're applying to.
This essay especially, you cannot send supplemental essay to the same schools.
You can't write one supplemental and send it to like ten different schools.
We see students trying to do that every year.
Those consistently students who sometimes don't
even take out the other university's names.
When they send it.
[LAUGH] And so it's just that idea of obviously that's not the most thoughtful
or put together case for why you should be part of this incoming class.
So with all the hard work that's going to go
into this application, don't let it fall down at this
moment would be my piece of advice, is that I
see a lot of students who don't treat this part.
The supplemental question with the same care that they've given to
all these other years of hard work and pieces of the application.
Where as really this is what what we, is going
to help bring you to life for the admissions committee.
>> So, in the evaluation process at Penn, how important are these essays?
>> These essays are critical, because you can imagine that there's
really no other way for us to, hear directly from the applicant.
It's what fills in all the rest of the,
you know, fills in the picture so to speak.
It really helps make things clear.
It adds the color.
It's the whole, you know, it's the way that you can finally
bring someone to life I think is the best way to put it.
And we use, you know, we can hear the excitement the nervousness,
the anxieties of being 16, 17, 18 and that's what we really look forward to.
We don't expect these essays to convey polished, already established person.
We don't expect them to sound like, a resume for job.
We very much expect them to sound like a person who is on the brink of
a very exciting time in their life and
we look forward to these essays for that reason.