Hi! My name's Mattie. Thanks for your Email!

If you already know who I am, it is likely from the “ApplyingtoCollege” board on Reddit. That place
rules! You may have also stumbled upon my website, CollegeWithMattie.com. Also a fun site I’m on!

On both sites, you can find a dozen+ additional articles related to college admissions that I have
worked on. Some are better than others, but every one is intended to give you ideas and tips on
how best to get into the colleges you are applying to.

I know these tips because I am a private college admissions consultant. I work with students
around the US and globe on their college admission essays and overall applications. My deal is
strategy. I'm kind of weird, and part of that weirdness is I love solving puzzles. Furthermore, once I
do solve something, I like to share that knowledge with the world. I consider college admissions all
one massive puzzle, and I have dedicated my life to cracking that code and letting everyone in on
what I've found. People seem to be into it.

As a teenager, I wrote video game strategy guides. I loved finding clever, unconventional ways to
beat levels and bosses in ways that others could easily replicate. That is the type of content I like to
produce for others. My advice tends to be specific and actionable. Just like no one wants to look up
a guide for Final Fantasy 7 that reads, "Fight Sephiroth only the way that you could fight him", I
don't think students like you are here looking for a pat on the back. Instead, you want a system.
You want a strategy guide.

Here is my strategy guide for the "Why College" AKA "Why School" AKA "Why Us" AKA "Why do I
have to do this" essay and how I recommend you answer it. Well, more specifically, here is my
strategy guide to research it. Because that is the number one point I would like to address
regarding this topic.

The "Why College" essay is much closer to a research paper than it is a traditional essay.
You will go much further spending extra time learning about the school than you will
writing all fancy-like.

Your goal with the "Why College" essay should not be to wow the reader with your fantastic
analysis or thespian prose. That's for your Personal Statement. Instead, what Admission Officers
want to see from this essay is proof that you care about them: that you care enough to go beyond
surface-level facts and info to showcase why that school matters to you. It's ironic, but the
takeaway from a successful "Why College" essay should not be, "Wow, we are the perfect home for
this developing mind!" but instead closer to, "Damn. Kid did his research."

But just saying that isn't very helpful. "Work harder" is not the type of advice I tend to bring to the
table. Instead, what I have for you today is the exact process I teach to my IRL students who pay a
lot more than $EMail to learn it. I hope that you find that my system not only leads to a better final
product but also gets you there in a faster, more efficient way. 

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Here are the eight concepts you should be following as you research and then write your "Why
College" essay.

1) Read the entire supplement before you do any research

Not every "Why College" is just a why college. Some ask you to be more specific. If a prompt asks
you why you want to do your major at their school, you want to know that before you start trying
to answer it. You can pretty much write about anything you want in general, but if a prompt asks
explicitly for a specific answer, you must include it. If you don't, AOs will be mad and think you just
C/P'd another essay. We're totally going to be C/P'ing from other essays, but we don't want them
catching on.

Similarly, if there is another prompt after the "Why College" that asks about your major or
background, you need to know that so you aren't being redundant and digging up stuff that needs
to go somewhere else.

In general, every complete supplemental should include both info about you and info about the
school. 50/50 is perfect, but I feel like anything between 30/70 and 70/30 works ok. That's why you
need to have a plan ahead of time to prepare the answers. If there are two questions and the
second is 100% asking about you, you should take that to mean that this first question needs to be
all about the school itself. If there is only one question, understand that you should be splitting up
your content to cover both topics as best you can.

Keep this 30/70 to 70/30 rule in mind as you tackle any supplemental going forward. Even if there
isn't technically a "Why College" question, you still want to be getting that type of content in.
Similarly, if there isn't a "Why You" question, that doesn't mean I don't still want you slamming that
square peg in that round hole.

2) Find things only THIS SCHOOL can provide for you

I capitalized "this school" for a reason. The number one mistake students make on these
supplementals is being too vague or generic. 

Real people are going to read these. People who know a lot - but not everything - about the school
they work at. They're also going to know a lot about other schools, especially ones similar to the
one they work at. AOs will not like it if/when you claim to want to go to their school for something
that another school does just as well or better. They're gonna think, "well, why don't you just go
there, then?"

My best example is classes. I think writing about classes you want to take is relatively lame. Not
awful, but closer to awful than good. It is a bad idea to write a sentence that is anything like, "I want
to attend Dartmouth to take advantage of the school's excellent math program. There I plan to
take "Math-based Economics" (Econ211) with Professor Mark Shriley."

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THAT SENTENCE SUCKS 
Reasons:

I) Dartmouth does not have the best math/econ program in the US. It doesn't even have the best
math/econ program in the Ivy League. It's just a program. Why would Dartmouth let you in to enjoy
a program over some other student who will get a lot more out of going there?

II) Schools aren't dumb. They know if you have a 4.8 and 1580 that you probably aren't only
applying to Dartmouth. Whoever reads this will in no way believe that you care enough about it to
go there. Instead, it comes off lazy. It reads like you Madlibbed different math programs at
different schools.

III) It's redundant. If you're applying math/econ, you will take a math/econ 100 class. I also don't
learn much about you except...that you plan to take a class you're interested in.

IV) Please do not put the class registration ID after the class name. It's so weird, and I don't
understand why students do it. Just the class title is OK.

V) While we're here, never use the term "interdisciplinary studies" again and stop using indents to
start paragraphs. Thanks again for your Email.
---
Right, so what should we do instead?

The answer is researching through a highly-specific lens. We want to be writing about things that
only the specific school you are writing about offers you. The best way to do this is to get highly
specific with your info. 

Every school has a library. And just writing that you want to "get lost in such a nice one" won't
work. Instead, what's in that library? What makes it unique? Maybe the Yale library has a model
sailboat exhibit you read about in Vanity Fair. Perhaps the UPenn one is shaped like the Quaker
Oats guy, and there's a helicopter tour nearby that lets you throw stuff onto the roof.

The other way to go about it is to want something from a school that is actually the best. This route
can be tricky because, like, 70% of the time, the answer is CHYMPS . But maybe you write about
how much you love big libraries, and then you find out that...Harvard has the biggest school library
in the nation. See how that is a better reason than "I want a good one plz lemme in"? You can also
use modifiers if you need them. UCLA has the biggest library on the west coast. Yale has the
biggest library of schools you'd want to go to if Harvard says no.

I like the former option more than the latter. The reason is only so many schools can be the best at
something, and I think there is more value in educating an AO than there is giving them a pep
boost. The reaction to "you're number 1!" will be a confident, "you're Goddamn right.". The
response to "This is the only school in the Nation that allows freshmen to live off-campus if they
are in the Mellitology program and are actively keeping bees'' will be "wait, really?" Then they will
take out their phone and Google it. You want them to Google it.
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3) Find things only YOU would want from this type of school

Here's where we get some more “you” into the process.

I have something called "money lines". A money line is something you want from a school that can
be easily modified to fit many schools. I was hesitant to give this concept away. But I already wrote
about it in my piece with the cricket essay, so I think that makes it public domain, or something. 

The paragraph I wrote was this:

My dream is to become an entomologist like my teacher, which starts by getting an Evolutionary Biology
degree. I'm interested in both Tulane's strong program and also its location. Swamp insects like the
Gumbo Cicada are my favorite, and I want to go where they are. I looked at your school's website and
found a "Crickets and Critters" class taught by professor Mark Davids. I plan for that to be the first class I
sign up for in the fall. Maybe you'll even find me out digging at Yulman stadium one day.

The money lines in this paragraph are: 

I'm interested in both Tulane's strong program and also its location. Swamp insects like the Gumbo
Cicada are my favorite, and I want to go where they are. 

As well as:

Maybe you'll even find me out digging at Yulman stadium one day.

If I was applying to U Texas, now desert bugs rule, and I can't wait to dig up Darren K Royal - the
stadium, not the person.

Now it's U Washington time, and look at that, I can't wait to find watery pill bugs at Husky Stadium.

And on and on and on. No one else in the nation will be writing about digging up bugs on a
football field. That's because you are special and do special things. Then you just modify a few
words, and now every school thinks they have a winner on their hands. These are the types of
essay Madlibs that do get you in places. 

Hot Damn, I love money lines so much. I can't believe I'm not charging for this.

The road to money lines starts with you. What do you want from a school? Any school? Be as
specific as possible. Maybe you like cats. You can't just say, "I want a school with cats". Every year,
schools will receive at least four applications saying that. Instead, be more specific. If possible, link
these specifics to things you've already done and can write about.

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If you have a background at the SPCA, write about your experience, and then say you want to join
a similar college organization. Nearly every school will have something like that. It's also a big ask to
make you explain why any specific school would have a better program than another. Instead, I
think it's fair here to break things down into types of schools and then go from there. Some ways
you can group them:

- Location
- Size
- Student racial/gender/cultural makeup
- Weather
- School vibe
- I'd say prestige...but that's kind of tacky
- Any other weird quirk that you care about that has influenced your list of schools in the first place

So for the cats stuff, maybe you know from your background that cats in northern climates are
more likely to die in the winter. You built a heating device to keep momma cats warm and want to
attend a school where it snows in the winter to try and implement it. You could even make things a
little more...money by instead talking about the impacts of wind chill in Chicago or the kitty-danger
when the great lakes near Michigan freeze over. Good thing your device is multi-versatile :]

The deal is that you can be more vague about what the exact school may offer you in this case
because the school itself is somewhat irrelevant. Instead, it's you hijacking a "Why College" essay to
write more about yourself. Then you explain how they fit into your plans

4) If you can combine two and three, that's the dream

This is what I try to do with my students. I push for them to get me as much research as possible,
and then I work with them to create connections that lead to ”Why College” reasons that only
they would want and only that school could provide them. Do you see why that would be so
effective and also a massive pain in the ass to find?

I don't have any example for you here. Actually, I do. But there is no chance in hell I am offering up
any of my past student's work here for free. I save those in a hyperbaric chamber deep inside my
brain for immediate access whenever another similar student wants to apply to that same school. 

If I get one plug for my services here, it's that. I have a lot of ideas I don't write about publically. I
also have much more specific advice related to things I do write about that's only for my students.
This advice tends to be highly detailed and actionable in a way that if it became "a thing", schools
would catch on, and it wouldn't work anymore. If you like my writing, understand that you're mostly
getting the stuff I give away after ditching it for a better strategy. 

Also, I'm selling "Half-Ideas 2.0" on my site eventually. I'll send you an Email when it's ready.

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5) If a school is already well known for something, don't write about it

We already know that Brown has an open curriculum. We already know that New York University is
in New York. That's why these are research papers. Resist the urge to regurgitate babies-first info
back at a school. It will not work.

Except for Tulane. Write a good paragraph about how much you wanna bro out in New Orleans.
You will never love anything as much as Tulane loves being associated with the city it is in.

Roll Wave.

6) Follow weird sources as far as they will go

I've covered a lot of the what so far. Now here's the how.

I don't like school websites, in general and as a way to do research. What you will find there tends
to be vague and sanitized. It's also a fact that anything you find, some other kid is going to find,
too.

Instead, I prefer my students to fall as deep down the rabbit hole as possible. I don't want clubs
and school-sponsored webinars. I want forum posts from 2013 and low-quality school Youtube
videos with 192 views. I like stuff that no other student will write about because no other student
knows that content exists. The key is, you should take this info as a gateway to more content. Find
a story, or incident, or concept from that school's past, and see what else you can dig up. If nothing
else, fact check the source, and follow up with your analysis.

And be open about it! I think it works great to be like, "I found an r/chess post from March of 2015
that talked about the Columbia chess team missing out on state championships because the
captain forgot to trade queens. I found that game on Youtube and noticed that had he taken the
rook instead, he still would have made mate within six turns." The fact that you cared enough to
find the content will impress them as much as the content itself. 

AOs already know what's on their website. They know their best classes and the most popular
teachers—the only way to grab their attention in a way that will make them care is to teach them
things with your writing. The easiest way is to tell them about yourself and your world. That's why I
preach creative topics and zagging when everyone else zigs. The other is to teach them about their
world. "Wait, really?" is the exact mood you want to promote in them.

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7) Google is your friend

Do something for me. Think of a completely random word that applies to you and a school you
want to go to. I'll go with... 

Mormons + Virginia Tech

Well, there are no Mormons at Virginia Tech. I mean, they would all go to B…

WELL WOULD YOU LOOKY HERE

https://virginiatech.sportswar.com/mid/7520126/board/vtbasketball/

Did you know the basketball coach at V-Tech used to coach BYU and that the two had weird
internet beef? YOUR AO DIDN'T EITHER. But it sure would be cool to follow up on the story and see
if that coach was still there, right? And if he was, maybe write about how you want to ball because
Mormons all kick ass at basketball and having a coach from the same background is something
only you would want and only that school could provide you? Cooler than math class, huh?

I'm not actually Mormon. It's just a good example. Also, "Pokemon + Vanderbilt" was only excellent
instead of excellent and also a forum post from literally 2013.

Play it yourself. Go nuts. You'll see what I mean quickly. This is how you research. *thing you want*
+ *school*, then get searching. If you're getting too much info, refine your terms. Too little? Open it
up. Maybe "Virginia Tech + Christianity" gets you closer to the goal. I'm not sure why I think "use
Google" is such a valuable tip of mine, but this is where the action is.

Ok, one actual writing tip for you...

8) If anything you write sounds like it came from a pamphlet, that's bad

Line's like, "Columbia engineering contains the best teaching experience in the northeast. It's 221
tenured professors are more than every other New York school combined."

I think this is most common if/when you follow step one too closely. The easy fix is to make it about
you. Why do you care that something is so good? Pretty much everything in every essay you write
should be in the first person.  I'd convert the line above to something like,

"I'm interested in Columbia's deep pool of 221 tenured teachers because I tend to value proven
experience over professors who haven't proven that their methods are effective".

The sentences both get the 221 in, but the latter makes it about you.  Often, it's easier to go back
and look for pamphlet-ese sentences instead of worrying about them as you write.

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I have no idea how to end this. Thanks for reading? Another "thanks for your Email" joke that won't
land? A note that more guides like these will be coming soon, so I'd love to hear your feedback via
an Email to Mattie@collegewithmattie.com? Iono, hope this helped. Teenagers rule. Go get into
college, yo.

  ...wait! I thought of something! If you liked this guide, please share it with as many people as
possible. I’m trying to slowly transition from “Reddit college man” to “internet college man who
posts on Reddit”, and the best way for that to happen is for people to know about and access
content that only exists on my site. 

If you’re on college Discords or in other group chats, it would mean the world to me to have you
link this there. It can even be on r/A2C. I know how often students ask about this kind of essay. I’m
not a fan of spamming stuff I’ve written to farm clicks, but if you read or hear someone that you
think this piece could help, let them know about it. It would mean a lot. Also, if it’s on Reddit,
include the word “SAWFT” somewhere in your post. Make sure it’s all caps. That will be fun. 

Teenagers rule. Go get into college, yo. 

- Mattie

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