How School-Specific Should I be in Secondaries?

[RN MD 2017]

As I'm hammering out secondaries, I'm realizing that I could basically substitute one school's name for another and it wouldn't be noticeable. I believe I am communicating well and have some good things to say, but do I need to mention why I want to attend school X even if they don't ask specifically? It's easy to gather some information about schools from the internet, but hard to address the "why" question when you have never visited.

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[LizzyM]

Some schools ask this because they want you to have a clue about the school. Don't apply to Weill-Cornell and say you love Ithaca. Also be very careful that you don't upload an essay with the wrong school name in it... but if you do you won't be the first.

 

[gyngyn]

Quoting from the website just feels like pandering. If you have a substantive reason for your interest in the school, let them know. We know that most of this has to do with stats match and location. There is no need to make stuff up.

 

[Lost In Transcription]

If it sounds too fake, it might go badly because it will just waste words/their reading time.

 

[avgn]

Don't apply to Weill-Cornell and say you love Ithaca.

lmao are you speaking from experience Ms. Lizzy

 

[LizzyM]

lmao are you speaking from experience Ms. Lizzy

We operate a "don't ask, don't tell" policy at SDN but I have seen secondary essays that demonstrated that the applicant had no clue about geography.