The answer is quite obvious.

The selection committee wants to find out who is hiding behind a mountain
of similar documents that end up on their hands.

Motivation letter should create a vivid idea of personality. What describes you as a person? Ambition?
Sense of humor? Self-awareness? Imagination? Sociability? This is what you have to find out during the
preparation of the motivation letter.

Here are some citations of the representatives of leading American universities confirming this idea:

"The most important thing [for me to do] is communicate what we’re not looking for, which is to say that
there is no magic formula for admission, there are no right answers." — Bob Alig, Director of MBA
Admissions and Financial Aid, the Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania).

"Applicants make a mistake when they try to write something they think will please the committee.
When they try to anticipate what that might be, they run a great danger of going astray." — Albert R.
Turnbull, Associate Dean for Admissions and Placement University of Virginia School of Law.

"We look for honesty (as far as we can discern it), simplicity, straightforwardness." — Dr. Andrew G.
Frantz, Chairman, Committee on Admissions College of Physicians and Surgeons (Columbia University).

"You want to come alive off the page and write the story that only you can write." — Linda Meehan,
Assistant Dean for Admissions and Financial Aid, Columbia Business School.

An interesting short story written in a vibrant, dynamic language is the main requirement that experts
insist on. Through a motivation letter, professors want to find out what goals future students are
pursuing, what they want to achieve in life, how they can be useful to their university and society as a
whole. The main thing is not to overdo it: avoid wordiness, deceit and floridness in the text. No need to
send a letter that is bizarre and hard to follow — you need to be yourself, but try to express your
thoughts vividly, since you can not use gestures and facial expressions.

More precise recommendations were made by Vince Gotera, professor of English Language and
Literature, University of Northern Iowa. In his opinion, the motivation letter should show the applicant as
a person:

Passionately interested in the field. You can do this at the very beginning of the letter using the "hook",
which will be discussed in the following sections;

Educated, which is obvious from the letter itself, its structure, expressiveness, logic, etc .;

Well-trained academically, which can be demonstrated through the use of highly specialized terms to
describe the achievements of the applicant, and by the achievements themselves;

Able to cope with the curriculum of the university and finish the program on time, which can be
confirmed by prior experience in overcoming problems with performance;
Ready for cooperation with professors and other students, in other words — collegial. This is not a
priority, but developed soft skills will be an obvious plus;

A potentially prominent representative of this university in the professional field, which can be deduced
by the current success of the applicant, as well as by how the student speaks about the previous
educational institution.

This is a lot of stuff to fit in a few hundred words, so it is worthwhile to approach each of the points
sensibly. No need to describe them in the same order in which they are on the list of the university.
Combine, move them, do everything to show yourself as an inventive person, and not a parrot following
a line of Brazil nuts to crack.