An essay prompt found often on applications is ‘Why us?’ Why do you want to come here and what will you do once you arrive?
USC: Describe how you plan to pursue your academic interests and why you want to explore them at USC specifically.
Northwestern: What are the unique qualities of Northwestern - and of the specific undergraduate school(s) to which you are applying - that make you want to attend the University?
University of Michigan: Describe the unique qualities that attract you to the specific undergraduate College or School (including preferred admission and dual degree programs) to which you are applying at the University of Michigan. How would that curriculum support your interests?
Johns Hopkins: Given the opportunities at Hopkins, please discuss your current interests (academic, extracurricular, personal passions, summer experiences, etc.) and how you will build upon them here.
One of the best ways to attack this question is to learn as much about the college as you can to really gain a sense of the place. If you can’t do this don’t waste the college admissions office time, and more importantly your own, by writing generalities about the school’s size, location or reputation.
One important thing to keep in mind when writing college essays: they are all about you. No matter what the question, you need to explain what it is you’re looking for and why. What type of person are you? Do you have the poise to approach a professor and discuss ways to research a problem? Do you have intellectual needs that must be fulfilled? These questions should factor into your answer, start broad then narrow your focus. Broad starts by using the guides (Princeton Review’s Best 376 Colleges, Yale Daily’s Insider’s Guide to Colleges, and Fiske’s Guide, which has an online resource for $20), to help you understand the curriculum, special majors, top professors, and the most popular departments. Narrow your search by going to the college’s website and read about key departments of interest. For example if you were curious about the advantages of NYU’s Sterne School of Business, on the website you’ll find ‘Why Stern’, which details flexible curriculum/small classes, exceptional faculty, truly global university, leadership opportunities…It would be a shame to miss this because of lack of due diligence.
A more intimate approach is to get beyond the screen or the printed page and talk to someone in the admissions office, or the regional admissions representative who is oftentimes your first reader—the more he or she knows about you the better; the more questions you ask him or her about the campus, better still.
What the ‘Why us?’ essay encourages is how you and your interests perfectly combine with what the school offers. Make this clear in a convincing, straightforward manner and you can rest assure that your essay will benefit your candidacy. Use specifics which might include internships, undergraduate research opportunities, case study contests, honors programs, dual degree programs, professors, classes and clubs.
So that is how you might piece together an imposing essay to validate your candidacy, but is this the only approach to respond to the ‘Why Essay’?
If you look at the Johns Hopkins’s prompt above, it sounds like ‘Why Hopkins’ to me. Yet, go to the ‘Essays that Worked’ section on the Hopkin’s website and you’ll find a number of essays including ‘Breaking into Cars’ by Stephen that discuss none of the features of JHU. Admissions, however, determined his essay one of the best received that year: ‘Through his anecdotes from growing up, we got a sense of how he might approach his studies here at Hopkins,’ which tells us if an essay clearly explains who you are-- if impressed-- the admissions committee is liable to infer anything.
Consequently, be you, be natural, be specific, be knowledgeable, be engaging and let the chips fall where they may.