Secondaries that are so tedious that you thought, "Forget this!"

[Charles_Carmichael]

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It's not the wording of the question- it's more the fact that they expect a HUGE essay about it. And if I remember correctly, the year I applied that was the only essay on there. I understand why they'd ask the question (essentially they're asking, why do you specifically think you should go here?), but to make that the only focus of your application and to make it such a long essay just seems obnoxious to me. It means the only thing you care about is that I really want to go to your school- you don't care about who I am, what I've done, why that matters to me, where I've been, what has challenged me...just as long as I can list a bunch of reasons why Gtown is the shiz. I hate that.

Did you guys have a different question last year? The essay's character limit was 5000. I wrote about 2500 and am happy with what I wrote. I didn't get the sense that they were expecting a lengthy essay. Like someone else mentioned, it seemed like just another "Why this school?" essay to me and that's exactly how I treated it. Talked about what I like about the school and how it aligns with my future goals.

 

[curlytop]

doesn't jefferson ask you about your SAT scores?

I know Virginia Commonwealth does. How that is a useful criterion by which they judge applicants...I have no idea.

 

[leixample]

UCSD's secondary is making me incredibly unhappy right now. Before college? Autobiography? Really?

 

[curlytop]

Is it just me or is Virginia Tech's life experience essay really just another personal statement?

 

[bassvp]

A couple of people mentioned Kansas. Could you expand on what was bad about theirs? I'm OOS, but spent my first 24 years there...so hopefully they've got some leniency.

 

[nfo2010]

I saved Rush for last because everyone made a big deal about how annoying it was--hardly! A couple thousand-character essays only took an hour or two. Granted, some of the questions seemed redundant, but the entire application was a whole lot easier than Louisville's.