Some colleges require an essay that asks:

Why do you want to attend our college?
Why do you think you are a good match for our college?
Why do you want to major in X?

Why take this seriously? 
Because it can help you get in!!!

A well-written why essay:

• provides another example of competent writing
• convinces the college that you are a good match
• demonstrates interest in the college
• makes you better informed about the college (for an interview and at decision time)

How to write a Why Essay

An effective Why Essay specifies major ways in which the college fits your abilities, personality, interests, and goals.  Do your homework. On the college’s website, check out course offerings, faculty, extracurricular offerings, etc.  Know your stuff.  It would be really embarrassing, for instance, to say you want to major in an area the school doesn’t offer!

Establish your familiarity with the campus. If you have been to the campus, emphasize it here and talk about what impressed you during your visit. If you had an interview, mention the interviewer’s name, and specific positive recollections about the experience. If you haven’t interviewed or visited, make clear you have done enough research to be familiar with life on and off the campus.

Colleges pride themselves most on their academic reputations, so focus on academic programs first. Mention a specific department, course of study, or program that interests you. Do you like the challenge of the core curriculum or the intellectual style of the college? How about the learning environment—class size, professor contact, opportunities for study abroad or scientific research? Here’s a place to discuss your academic/career goals and how the college’s offerings will help you reach them. If you have contacted a faculty member about programs or research, mention it.

Research extra-curricular activities at the college. Are there clubs or teams or musical groups you’d join, or community service you’d undertake? If you have made contact with a coach or a music director at the college, by all means refer to it here. You can discuss activities that build upon your high school interests, or new ones you haven’t tried yet.

Check out the geographical area too. Mention culturally significant attractions nearby if they relate to your academic interests. Applying to a school in New York City? You could mention the Museum of Modern Art if you are an art history major or Carnegie Hall if you are a music major. If you are a potential Poly Sci major, the proximity of governmental institutions would be a plus for Washington, D. C. schools.

If you think the college would be a good social and cultural fit, explain why. Indicate how you would contribute to or benefit from diversity at the college—a major institutional concern these days. If you have a friend or family member who has attended, explain how this connection increased your interest.

The “Why I Want to Major in _____” essay calls for additional homework. Check major requirements, pre-requisites, and course offerings. Be prepared to refer to specific programs, including internship opportunities. You may also include narrative elements in this essay by telling about a moment or incident which brought you to your decision about your major/career path.

CAUTIONS:

• Avoid the temptation to write a very general essay that will fit every college. It will be too vague to convince anyone you are serious about attending. Use all the resources at your disposal—your personal experiences with the college, catalogues, the website, information gleaned from staff or faculty—to write an essay that could have been written ONLY about a specific college. It’s okay to use similar language and themes when writing about different colleges, but the details have to clearly differentiate each college from all others.
  
• If you are writing your essays using some common text, make sure you change the name of the college for each essay!!!!
  
• Be sincere.  Colleges have well-tuned flattery radar.
  
• In explaining how you fit with a college, focus as much on what you will contribute as on how you would benefit.

Why Essays that worked

Why Bates?
Why Oberlin?

Examples of essays with word-count restrictions

Some Short Why Answers

Printable Forms

Information Request Tracker

Application Checklist

Individual College Application Tracker

Essay Checklist

Interview Checklist

Recommendation Checklist

Junior Checklist

Senior Checklist