Core, Leaders, and Arts - Why Columbia

Prompt: What makes Columbia appealing to you?

There are three primary aspects of Columbia that make the college very appealing to me; they are The Columbia University School of the Arts, The Leader's Forum, and the Core curriculum.

As an avid reader and chief editor of my high school newspaper, a division of Columbia that is genuinely attractive to me is the Columbia University School of the Arts because of its creative writing program. The creative writing program would allow me to meet prominent writers and journalists and allow me to listen and dissect their methods on writing which will in turn help me hone my own craft as a writer and get me more acclimated to literature and understanding/analyzing it at a higher lever.

A second aspect of Columbia that is appealing to me is the Leader's Forum. The Leader's Forum would allow me to learn from many different influential leaders in the world and present me with different perspectives and insights on politics and issues. In turn, listening to these significant people would benefit me by presenting a group of leaders to absorb different philosophies and ideas from.

The third aspect that makes Columbia appealing to me is the Core curriculum. While many high schools had a Core curriculum, my school unfortunately didn't. The Core curriculum is attractive to me because of the communal, not individual, experience. The curriculum allows students to orally discuss topics with each other and allows individuals to roam intellectually exploring different ideas, granting them freedom to go wherever their mind takes them.

I've been going through essay forum to look into some of the supplements that people wrote and it seems as if everyone is trying to be creative. Is it better to just be straightforward with the prompt or try to be creative? Is my straight-forwardness too mundane and should I rewrite? thank you!

Creativity is good for essays, but it can't be forced.

If you've got a good, creative idea of how to approach a prompt then you should write that bad boy up with haste; but if no ideas are forthcoming the straightforward approach is best. Creativity can add a little flair to your application but a well-written, straight-forward answer can be just as useful in its brevity and clarity. Its tempting to be stressed about not being creative enough, but I think that you'll be fine.

That being said even without creativity you could make this essay a little more engaging. While it is very well-organized your 1,2,3 format makes it read like a cliche, something which you might want to change. I might rewrite with the same ideas and see what comes out, it certainly can't hurt you.

Best of luck!