After Win finished his schoolwork each night, he'd toss off another "why" essay, poking around various schools' Web sites to try to figure out if "they were obsessed with independent study or their honor code or whatever".
He explains why college rankings are often lacking in hard evidence, why essay questions on tests disadvantage women, why the most grievous errors in education testing are not made by testing organizations--and much more.
Applicants also must do the standard Common Application essay and the "Why Chicago" essay that elicited Rohan's essay: how Chicago would "satisfy your desire for a particular kind of learning, community and future?" In his essay, Rohan objected to the "why".
(Maybe this is why humor essays tend to be on the short side).
That's why those essays aren't really about death or illness as much as they're about the scripts we're told we're supposed to follow around such circumstances.
Don't be mistaken; admissions officers are still looking closely into "Why Us?" essays and considering responses from interview questions.
Show your reader why the essay question is important or interesting – a good way to do this is by showing how academics disagree about the topic.
In my Duke application, I wrote my "Why Duke" essay about my aspirations to be a neurosurgeon.
(Don't ask me why that essay never appeared.
Which is perhaps why an essay posted late Wednesday by blogger Dan Bricklin (www.bricklin.com) was quickly recommended and linked by so many other bloggers.
Why the "new" essays were unpublished is unclear.
