mentioning specifics

[subtle1epiphany]

i'm finishing up my last secondaries and i've got to answer the same old "why did you apply here?" question. i'm thinking about doing this one a little different by including more specific information i got about Temple from a thread i read on SDN. is this a good idea? or should i just say something to the effect that Temple has great faculty that love to teach?
any advice based on what's worked for you is very much appreciated.

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[subtle1epiphany]

anyone???

 

[chuck deli]

In my opinion these secondary questions serve 2 purposes? To tell them why you applied there and what you already know about the school. Good school? Good location? Good city? Father went there? Research? Cirriculum? Special opportunities? Good cancer institute? Close to home? Heard it was good from a friend?

I tried to be as specific has possible. (I even mentioned for one school about how lectures end at noon on Fridays!...for another I mentioned a school-sponsored option to do medical missions during the summers). So yeah, in my opinion, I would mention as much "specific stuff" about Temple as you could.

 

[Amy B]

I agree with chuck deli, you should look for something specific to the school you are applying to. I went through the web pages and found things I liked about the schools, such as a speciality rural rotation, etc.... It shows you are interested enough in their school to check their web page.

 

[subtle1epiphany]

awesome, thanx for responding guys!

just wanted to make sure that they wouldnt think i was taking "hearsay" as truth or something i wasnt thinking of...

 

[AlternateSome1]

For one I wrote a couple of different reasons, including the fact that I had friends in the area of the school. During a panel interview, the lead interviewer started laughing about this and said "At least you are honest." The student on the panel supported what I wrote though, saying its a good reason to want to attend the school.

Basically though, I would say be as honest as possible. The last thing you want is for an interviewer to ask you a question about what you wrote and to have misled them in any way. The truth seldom hurts you.

~AS1~