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@re
9 answers, 11 votes
 • 4 years ago •
Admissions Advice

How specific should a "Why School?" essay be?
Answered

Hi!

I'm currently working on my Yale application and have come to the "Why Yale?" essay. From my reading, I've often seen that I should talk about specific attributes of the school I am applying to.

Currently, I plan to mainly focus on Yale's admissions slogan: "Yale is 'And.'"

In the essay, I plan to focus on how I have varied interests and how Yale would help support that varied style. I would also include specific attributes of Yale that would lend themselves to this idea, such as "Yale will allow me to do Thing X and Thing Y."

My question is: Is this too broad? Do I need to hone in on one specific course, extracurricular, or tradition? Or can I focus on a wide array of courses, extracurriculars, traditions, etc. to address my own varied interests?

Any help is much appreciated! Thanks.

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@DebaterMAX4 years ago

What’s the max and min word count?

[🎤 AUTHOR]@re4 years ago

@DebaterMAX : 125 words or fewer

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@1975
17 answers, 23 votes
 • 4 years ago

It isn't a bad thing to name a popular program or opportunity Yale offers as a reason for your interest, you just need to connect it to your desires and goals and make the reason specific to you. Specificity is also really important in terms of programs, but what Yale wants to know is what you individually want to do with the education and opportunities you will receive if admitted.

So I would say give specific reasons when you talk about broad aspects of the school, but also it really does help to include specific clubs, courses, traditions, professors etc.

Hope that helps and good luck!!

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@DebaterMAX
900 answers, 738 votes
 • 4 years ago

So with the fairly low word count pick 2 things and be fairly specific not like 3 adjectives per noun type of specific but be detailed. Personally pick your absolute favorite thing about Yale and something that you care about. For example Rice has essentially a Harry Potter -esqe system with assigned dorms/teams and I can talk about how the residential colleges are why I want to go to rice becuase of the creativity and the unique expierence and then say just like the motto it also has a wonderful post grad solutions as I live Houston. Blah blah blah.

Hope this helps and please comment if you need clarification as I’d be happy to help clarify!

(Excuse my spelling and that isn’t a perfect essay by any measure but it should be a good springboard)

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@Meggy3 years ago

My 'Why Yale' essay centres on Dr. Ben Carson, an alumni. I wrote about how his stories on his yalie days encouraged me to love the school as a community that accepts anyone and doesn't let my financial, social and racial societal status be a barrier to my dreams. Is that too weird?

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