why is school so important essay

Why is School Important? (16 Best Reasons)

why school is important, explained below

A good education is the basis for a number of important life skills. It is not only a foundation for knowledge, but also the development of social skills, civic participation, and independence .

Here are 16 reasons school is important.

School facilitates learning
School provides opportunity to the poor and disadvantaged
School teaches personal responsibility
Students develop reading and writing skills
School opens up career options
Helps students develop a sense of self
School prepares students for the future
School teaches critical thinking and problem solving
School teaches collaboration
A functioning education system benefits the economy
School instils a sense of cultural and national identity
School exposes children to a diversity of views
Teaches conflict management skills
It leads to higher average incomes
It helps build social capital
It provides babysitting (Yep – read this one.)

The educational system, with all its flaws and detriments, is and forever will remain one of the most important human endeavors. The rest of this article will explain the top reasons school is crucial to learning.

Why is School Important?

1. it facilitates learning.

The fundamental purpose of education is to ensure the members of a society have a basic education. As a result, this should also be listed as the first reason school is important.

When you go to school, you’re educated by people who are trained specifically in how to maximize learning. These people – teachers – will create lessons that are at just the right education level for students, so the students are challenged but not given tasks that are too hard that they give up.

The teachers will also, ideally, create lessons that are engaging and entertaining, which helps people to learn.

Furthermore, a curriculum is used in the education system to ensure the student gets a thorough and wide-ranging education.

Combined, these structures within the education system enable and empower learners – and we can see: if you did not go to school, you surely wouldn’t know nearly as much as you do now!

2. It Provides Opportunity to All

Another important part of school is that it provides an opportunity for all people. If we didn’t have free public education, then people who couldn’t afford an education would not get the opportunity to get ahead in life.

School therefore forms an important function in enabling social mobility (which is the capacity for people to move from poor to wealthy, or working-class to middle-class and even higher).

While schools may never quite achieve perfection in regard to the ideal of “equal opportunity”, school still remains an important part of giving all students an opportunity to learn essential skills so they can succeed in life.

3. It Teaches Personal Responsibility

School helps students practice personal responsibility every time they’re given a deadline to meet, a project to complete, or an independent learning task.

When students leave school and enter the workforce, they will need to apply the responsibility they have learned during their education—completing assignments on time, managing group projects, and maintaining an ethical standard—to their occupation.

As such, schools often play a significant role in assigning students responsibilities and giving them the duty to uphold those responsibilities in a timely manner.

4. It Develops Reading and Writing Skills

Reading and writing are two of the most crucial life skills that we all use on a daily basis. It’s essential to communication in businesses and personal life. If everyone in society couldn’t read or write, communication would be much harder, and we’d all be poorer for it.

School demonstrates its importance in that it not only teaches students how to read and write at an early age, but it also continues to develop those skills throughout their entire educational journey.

Even fields outside of language studies rely on reading and understanding communications, as well as effective writing. Thus, these basic skills are instilled and reinforced in school on a daily basis.

5. It Opens Up Careers

In the long term, one of the most important feats of schooling is that it opens up career opportunities for students.

Whether it’s the fundamental skills learned in high school to an industry-specific degree at a university, there are countless ways that school prepares students for occupational careers.

Of course, the most relevant accomplishment is instilling the necessary knowledge students need to perform their jobs effectively. Many jobs require prerequisite knowledge, and school creates the ideal environment to glean that knowledge and then apply it to an occupation.

6. Helps Students Develop a Sense of Self

A lot of students will struggle in some areas of school, and that’s completely normal. Struggling through difficult subjects (and achieving success in others) helps you to learn what you’re naturally good at, and what you don’t particularly enjoy.

Without a holistic, wide and learning what subjects appeal to them of the most difficult aspects of being a student, especially in college-level courses.

Throughout this process, students will learn their niche skills and develop an understanding of how they process information, a self-recognition that is vitally important in considering what skillset they want to pursue.

7. It Prepares Students for the Future

Good schools are designed to be future-facing. They think about the challenges and opportunities of the future and make sure students are prepared for them.

We can see, for example, that many schools were very eager in the early 2000s to bring computers and the internet into classrooms in order to ensure student establish necessary digital literacy skills . This would position them well for the jobs of the 21 st Century.

Similarly, most jobs of the 21 st Century are cooperative . As a result, schools often emphasize the importance of compromise , teamwork skills , and team projects.

8. It Teaches Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

Critical thinking skills and problem-solving skills are necessary for an educated, self-governing, and functioning society.

For example, we need to be able to understand the scientific method and why science works – or else people will still be walking around believing in witchcraft.

Similarly, critical thinking is vital for evaluating the veracity of information, developing solutions to problems, and communicating with team members effectively.

Individuals who learn to think critically are generally more self-sufficient and thrive in high-demand environments where they are expected to participate in the problem-solving process .

9. It Teaches Social Skills

Schools are the key spaces in our early lives where we meet and interact with other people. Resultantly, it’s also the forum for learning social skills .

Whether it’s group projects, classroom participation, or just the sense of camaraderie that comes with having classmates, school fosters a mindset of collaboration with other people.

After all, students in the same class are learning from the same fount of knowledge. They often need to collaborate or participate in class activities to understand how to retain and apply the information.

Not only is this skill useful for retaining information more effective, but it also has merit in the workforce, where team communication is vital to the success of a business.

10. It Benefits the Economy

Education in general benefits the economy a great deal. It gives people the skills to participate productively in the workforce.

The more skilled a national workforce, the more they can get access to higher-earning jobs in the creative and service industries. A highly educated population boosts economic growth (Jorgenson & Fraumeni, 2020).

As a result, societies tend to see schools not as a sunk cost expense, but an investment. Social investment of resources into education for the next generation enables the society and its economy to flourish into the future.

11. School instils a sense of cultural and national identity

Many nations explicitly teach cultural and national identity in their schools. For example, American schools teach the pledge of allegiance. But even if it’s not explicitly taught, it is implicitly taught.

We have a word for the implicit teaching that occurs in school. It’s the ‘ hidden curriculum ’. This refers to all the subtle things we learn in school – like manners, fashion sense, and of course a sense of community identity (Alsubaie, 2015).

When we spend time with other children in the playground, we develop a sense of belonging – we are similar. We are part of the same tribe. We are one nation.

12. School exposes children to a diversity of views

If you were only homeschooled by mom and dad, you wouldn’t be exposed to alternative worldviews.

School has built-in diversity of views: from fellow school children to the diversity of views taught throughout a balanced curriculum.

Sometimes (but not always), this is exactly why people homeschool their children. Many people want to raise their children to only be exposed to a certain brand of religion or a certain political ideology.

Of course, there are many other reasons to homeschool your child – such as because you don’t like mainstream schooling teaching styles .

Nevertheless, if you were to homeschool your children, you would have to try very hard to ensure your children were exposed to a range of different types of people with different viewpoints.

13. Teaches conflict management skills

Playing in the schoolground can get rough. In fact, one possible downside of schooling is that you’ll be exposed to some cruelty from time to time from other children.

But through the adversity that children face when playing with other children in the schoolyard, they learn skills in managing conflict, engaging with people they disagree with, and developing street smarts .

Of course, we want to keep all children safe and comfortable at all times. But at the same time, realistically, children at schools will come across times when they have to deal with other kids they don’t like, and this is a learning opportunity for them that they may not get if they don’t spend so much time at school with other kids.

14. It leads to higher average incomes

Statistically speaking, incomes are higher among people with higher levels of education.

For example, the US Government found that men with bachelor’s degrees earn $900,000 per year more on average than men without bachelor’s degrees. That’s a lot of money.

This isn’t to say that there aren’t very successful people without a high education level. But it’s to say that on average you’re more likely to earn more if you’re more educated.

And this makes sense.

For example, if you have a high education level then you’ll be able to go for more competitive jobs in more specialist fields, and you’ll be a stronger candidate in job interviews.

15. It helps build social capital

If you have high social capital, you have a lot of social contacts such as friends and colleagues. If you have low social capital, you don’t know many people.

School is great for developing fundamental social capital. You meet people at school who might be able to get you in touch with someone who can give you a job. Or, they might tell you about an opportunity you didn’t know about before.

Simply: meeting people opens doors. And school is a great place to meet people.

In fact, if you go to an elite university, you have a great chance of meeting people who will be able to get you a good job after school (Martin, 2009), or who may have great contacts with the top-paying firms that hire university graduates.

16. It Provides Babysitting

Controversially, school holds a hidden value: it looks after children, which frees up parents to return to the workforce.

With more parents in the workforce, the economy can grow, and national productivity can increase.

It’s one reason why many countries now fund preschool education.

The reason this is a controversial point is that calling a teacher a babysitter is condescending and belittles the value of their job.

Of course, teachers are more than babysitters. They are professional educators – and often, highly-trained and highly-skilled at what they do.

Nevertheless, it remains true that a secondary value of education is that it frees parent up to participate in the economy as workers.

School is an institution of learning, first and foremost, serving the primary purpose of conveying information from the source to the listener.

While the model for traditional schooling has changed over the years, its importance in society has not.

Aside from providing quintessential knowledge that students need to excel in the outside world, school also instills a sense of responsibility and capability in its students.

1 thought on “Why is School Important? (16 Best Reasons)”

Thanks for the facts about why students must go to school.

Why Is Education Important? The Power Of An Educated Society

Looking for an answer to the question of why is education important? We address this query with a focus on how education can transform society through the way we interact with our environment.

Whether you are a student, a parent, or someone who values educational attainment, you may be wondering how education can provide quality life to a society beyond the obvious answer of acquiring knowledge and economic growth. Continue reading as we discuss the importance of education not just for individuals but for society as a whole.

a student graduating from university while showing the time and impact their education provides

Harness the power of education to build a more sustainable modern society with a degree from Unity Environmental University .

How Education Is Power: The Importance Of Education In Society

Why is education so important? Nelson Mandela famously said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” An educated society is better equipped to tackle the challenges that face modern America, including:

Climate change
Social justice
Economic inequality

Education is not just about learning to read and do math operations. Of course, gaining knowledge and practical skills is part of it, but education is also about values and critical thinking. It’s about finding our place in society in a meaningful way.

Environmental Stewardship

A study from 2022 found that people who belong to an environmental stewardship organization, such as the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics, are likely to have a higher education level than those who do not. This suggests that quality education can foster a sense of responsibility towards the environment.

With the effects of climate change becoming increasingly alarming, this particular importance of education is vital to the health, safety, and longevity of our society. Higher learning institutions can further encourage environmental stewardship by adopting a framework of sustainability science .

jars filled with money showing the economic growth after going to a university

The Economic Benefits Of Education

Higher education can lead to better job opportunities and higher income. On average, a person with a bachelor’s degree will make $765,000 more in their lifetime than someone with no degree. Even with the rising costs of tuition, investment in higher education pays off in the long run. In 2020, the return on investment (ROI) for a college degree was estimated to be 13.5% to 35.9% .

Green jobs like environmental science technicians and solar panel installers have high demand projections for the next decade. Therefore, degrees that will prepare you for one of these careers will likely yield a high ROI. And, many of these jobs only require an associate’s degree or certificate , which means lower overall education costs.

Unity helps students maximize their ROI with real-world experience in the field as an integral part of every degree program.

10 Reasons Why School Is Important

Education is not just an individual pursuit but also a societal one. In compiling these reasons, we focused on the question, “How does education benefit society?” Overall, higher education has the power to transform:

Individuals’ sense of self
Interpersonal relationships
Social communities
Professional communities

Cognitive Development

Neuroscience research has proven that the brain is a muscle that can retain its neuroplasticity throughout life. However, like other muscles, it must receive continual exercise to remain strong. Higher education allows people of any age to improve their higher-level cognitive abilities like problem-solving and decision-making. This can make many parts of life feel more manageable and help society run smoothly.

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is key to workplace success. Studies show that people with emotional intelligence exhibit more:

Self-awareness
Willingness to try new things
Innovative thinking
Active listening
Collaboration skills
Problem-solving abilities

By attending higher education institutions that value these soft skills, students can improve their emotional intelligence as part of their career development in college.

Technological Literacy

Many careers in today’s job market use advanced technology. To prepare for these jobs, young people likely won’t have access to these technologies to practice on their own. That’s part of why so many STEM career paths require degrees. It’s essential to gain technical knowledge and skills through a certified program to safely use certain technologies. And, educated scientists are more likely to make new technological discoveries .

Cultural Awareness

Education exposes individuals to different cultures and perspectives. Being around people who are different has the powerful ability to foster acceptance. Acceptance benefits society as a whole. It increases innovation and empathy.

College also gives students an opportunity to practice feeling comfortable in situations where there are people of different races, genders, sexualities, and abilities. Students can gain an understanding of how to act respectfully among different types of people, which is an important skill for the workplace. This will only become more vital as our world continues to become more globalized.

Ethical and Moral Development

Another reason why school is important is that it promotes ethical and moral development. Many schools require students to take an ethics course in their general education curriculum. However, schools can also encourage character development throughout their programs by using effective pedagogical strategies including:

Class debates and discussions
Historical case studies
Group projects

Unity’s distance learning programs include an ethical decision-making class in our core curriculum.

Ready To Learn More About Unity Environmental University?

Communication Skills

Effective written and verbal communication skills are key for personal and professional success. Higher education programs usually include at least one communication course in their general education requirements. Often the focus in these classes is on writing skills, but students can also use college as an opportunity to hone their presentation and public speaking skills. Courses such as Multimedia Communication for Environmental Professionals provide many opportunities for this.

Civic Engagement

According to a Gallup survey , people with higher education degrees are:

More likely to participate in civic activities such as voting and volunteering
Less likely to commit crimes
More likely to get involved in their local communities

All these individual acts add up to make a big difference in society. An educated electorate is less likely to be swayed by unethical politicians and, instead, make choices that benefit themselves and their community. Because they are more involved, they are also more likely to hold elected officials accountable.

Financial Stability

The right degree can significantly expand your career opportunities and improve your long-term earning potential. Not all degrees provide the same level of financial stability, so it’s important to research expected salary offers after graduation and job demand outlook predictions for your desired field. Consider the return on investment for a degree from an affordable private school such as Unity Environmental University .

Environmental Awareness

We have already discussed why education is important for environmental stewardship. Education can also lead to better environmental practices in the business world. By building empathy through character education and ethics courses, institutions can train future business leaders to emphasize human rights and sustainability over profits. All types and sizes of businesses can incorporate sustainable practices, but awareness of the issues and solutions is the first step.

Lifelong Learning

The reasons why education is important discussed so far focus on institutional education. However, education can happen anywhere. Attending a university that values all kinds of learning will set students up with the foundation to become lifelong learners. Research demonstrates that lifelong learners tend to be healthier and more fulfilled throughout their lives. When societies emphasize the importance of education, they can boost their overall prosperity.

Unity Environmental University Commencement diploma covers

The Role Of Unity Environmental University In Society

Environmentally conscious education is extremely valuable and should be accessible to all. Unity Environmental University offers tuition prices that are comparable to public universities, and financial aid is available to those who qualify. Courses last five weeks so that students can focus on only one class at a time. This ensures all learners are set up for academic success.

Unity believes in supporting students holistically to maximize the power of education. This includes mental health services, experiential learning opportunities , and job placement assistance . Students in our hybrid programs can take classes at several field stations throughout Maine and enjoy the beautiful nature surrounding the campus for outdoor recreation.

Sustainable Initiatives

Some highlights from Unity Environmental University’s many sustainable initiatives:

All programs include at least one sustainability learning outcome
All research courses are focused on sustainability research
Reduced building energy use by 25% across campus
100% of food waste is recycled into energy
Campus features a net-zero LEED Platinum-certified classroom/office building

While many schools value sustainability, Unity stands out because everything we do is about sustainability. We also recognize our responsibility to model how a sustainable business can operate in a manner that’s fiscally viable and socially responsible.

Make An Impact At Unity Environmental University

While the phrase ‘education is power’ may sound cliche, it is also resoundingly true. Higher education has the power to transform individuals and societies. Unity Environmental University understands its power to make a positive impact on the world. That’s why we were the first university to divest from fossil fuels.

This year, we celebrated our largest incoming class ever , showing that students want an education system that aligns with their values. In addition to our commitment to sustainability, we offer flexibility to students with start dates all year round for our online degree programs .

Start Your Journey

Looking for Answers

Get More Info

Privacy Overview

What Is the Purpose of School?

This story is part of a special project called Big Ideas in which EdWeek reporters ask hard questions about K-12 education’s biggest challenges and offer insights based on their extensive coverage and expertise.

Very early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, in March 2020, I wrote a story to mark the shuttering of almost every single public school in the nation . It concluded on a hopeful note about a possible wake-up call regarding the incredible number of invisible ways schools serve 50 million children and their families that often go unappreciated.

“There is the specter of a rejuvenation in Americans’ attitudes toward schools, or at least a recognition that the role they play as a provider of social services is indispensable, and possibly even that those functions ought to be reinforced so that schools aren’t left alone to face future crises,” I concluded.

It hasn’t exactly worked out that way.

Instead, there are rumblings that schools could be standing on less solid civic footing than they were before the pandemic—at least when measured by the most tangible factor available: enrollment. It has notably declined, even as home schooling has increased and school choice advocates work to expand tax-credit scholarships and other programs , partly in response to schools’ perceived failings.

What in fact reemerged in public discourse is a long-standing debate that’s often papered over in K-12 education: Americans, including our educators, are divided on what they believe schools’ core role should be.

Is it to convey knowledge and information and prepare students for their futures? Is it to provide guaranteed child care so that the economy can hum along? Is it to provide indispensable welfare services?

How to balance these functions appropriately is a question that will probably never be definitively answered to the approval of all. But it is a key one for districts to revisit as they decide what to do with a mammoth, but time-limited infusion of federal funding.

After all, how districts choose to spend that money serves a symbolic role as well as reflects how they’ve weighed the question of their core role. It conveys what they value, how they plan to reach it—and, importantly, what they feel they can manage.

In part, this tension is reemerging because families depended on schools during the pandemic in large numbers and in big ways. Arguably, they were perhaps the only real infrastructure we had to reach 50 million students and their families. But what we also learned, if we hadn’t already, is that that infrastructure is stretched, creaky, and, yes, not particularly efficient.

Consider, for example, schools’ remarkable shift to remote learning programs in the space of just a few months. Most schools offer one-to-one programs, devices, or internet access—despite the United States’ pointed failure to invest in broadband as a public utility .

And many will be shouldering the responsibility for seamless online learning in perpetuity, especially because of the concerns wrought by the Delta variant.

Schools also rapidly expanded the other social services they offered. Thousands of them used school lunch flexibility to expand the distribution of school meals. Others set up home-visiting programs and knocked on doors to find missing students, and still others are trying to coordinate housing in response to an epidemic of homelessness .

A recent EdWeek Research Center survey showed just how far-reaching some of these services are. It found that 63 percent of administrators reported that their district provided or subsidized internet services; 38 percent work in districts or schools that offered food pantries above and beyond their regular school meal programs; 37 percent said the district or school offered health services; and a third provided laundry facilities.

The pandemic showed the cracks in this network as needs grew more acute and as urgency ran up against schools’ built-in bureaucracies and resources.

Is it fair to ask schools to serve all these roles? More to the point, is it good policy? Is it wise?

Even our nation’s debate over so-called critical race theory (now a thoroughly misappropriated term) points to what the public assumes about schools’ abilities: Believing that schools are capable of widespread indoctrination implicitly means believing that they possess an extraordinary power to teach these things coherently, even though the evidence suggests that core reading, math, and science instruction, even within the same school, lacked cohesion from grade to grade before the pandemic.

So, here I ask: Is it fair to ask schools to serve all these roles? More to the point, is it good policy ? Is it wise ?

School systems are by the very way they’re set up—via local boards with built-in turnover—slow to adapt to new roles. If society expects schools to take them on, we need to consider how to do it well.

The expanding role of schools into the largest social-welfare providers in the country is not a new phenomenon, according to education historians like Campbell Scribner, who teaches at the University of Maryland.

They point out that the transformation of U.S. schools from centers of teaching and learning into places that serve social-welfare functions accelerated between 1900 and 1930, even as other national policies like universal health care did not gain traction.

This is partly the result of the intellectual foundations of U.S. welfare policy, which were—and continue to be—structured by centuries-old ideas of dividing the “deserving” and the “undeserving” poor. Children fall into the first category—so much so that many programs, from the first cash-aid welfare program in 1935 through the recently expanded Child Tax Credit, are directly aimed at them.

Most of these school-based additions, like health centers, nurses, and social workers, have ultimately proved to be broadly popular with the public, even though they were all controversial at the time.

Less commonly understood, though, is that schools didn’t shed the responsibilities they already had during this expansion. And as politicians have scaled back supports for other social programs, the resulting challenges—drug epidemics, vaping, gun violence, severe weather events, a pandemic—have been foisted by default on schools.

The massive decline in referrals to child-welfare agencies during the pandemic testifies to the extent to which schools play an important role in protecting children via the multiple lines of view they have on them. But this surveillance cuts both ways, too, as the debate about school policing and racism in schools underscores .

If anything, the pandemic added yet another duty to the school district’s roster, that of epidemiologist. At least initially, state officials passed the buck on issues like masking and social distancing , forcing 14,000 districts with little health experience to make consequential health choices—and to endure furious backlash.

What is the best way to integrate academics and social services?

If you have gotten this far, you probably agree with me that it’s imperative, 18 months after COVID-19 changed the world, to consider anew the fundamental question of what schools are for.

We might, as a starting point, agree that academic learning should be their key function. And we might also agree that students will face difficulty learning if they are not fed, clothed, and nurtured. But we have to think about how schools can do all that they do sustainably and effectively, particularly as they cope with more mandates and expectations from legislators.

For a while, there was a trend both in the federal government and in cities toward interagency collaboration to coordinate an expanding roster of services. These do not, to put it frankly, have a great track record because of the siloed nature of agencies.

In one continually infuriating example, the U.S. departments of Education and Housing and Urban Development still do not agree on a common definition for homelessness, which means cities cannot serve the same populations via the two different funding streams.

Perhaps the most promising model is actually a bottom-up one.

The community schools movement aims to build academic and social-service partnerships on school campuses. And a recent review of 19 studies examining the approach found that on balance, the approach seems to produce academic benefits.

But the research also found that there’s no “concrete recipe” for how to structure these partnerships in ways that consistently produce results, no clear road map on how to deploy funding or personnel. (It’s a truism in education to say that we know the “what” but often lack the “how.” In this case, it applies perfectly.)

I was feeling quite blue about all this as I was researching, but I’m reminded that public schools are also resilient. The culture-war discussions and disagreements about how to reopen safely may be loud right now, but parents generally do value schools’ expansive roles and give their own schools good marks even during the pandemic.

The split among Black and white parents on their trust in schools, however, is a warning sign that this trust is not automatic. It must be carefully nurtured.

The funding is a turning point that we can either build on or one we can waste.

We have an opportunity to do that through the extraordinary $123 billion federal recovery package for schools. The funding is a turning point that we can either build on or one we can waste.

It’s a symbolically important investment, because it signals that there’s still a commitment to public schools. But it’s not really a solution to the definitional problem I’ve been discussing here, so much as it is a stopgap. It could create new dependencies—or expectations—if districts aren’t careful.

At bottom, districts will need to invest in efforts that they can sustain—or use the funding, in part, to launch partnerships with local social-service agencies to make their new investments stretch. They’ll need to devise some kind of organizing structure that doesn’t run up against the silos and dysfunction I’ve outlined above. And they’ll need to begin with an honest assessment of what their schools can do now and what they’ll need help doing in the future.

I know what your question is, and, no, I don’t know what this structure should look like or how it should be governed or staffed.

I do know, though, that it’s imperative to start thinking about one. Because the pandemic won’t be the last major crisis to strain schools—and I, for one, want them to be strong enough to outlast the next one.

A version of this article appeared in the September 15, 2021 edition of Education Week as What Is The Purpose of School?

Sign Up for EdWeek Update

Edweek top school jobs.

President Joe Biden delivers a speech about healthcare at an event in Raleigh, N.C., on March 26, 2024.

Sign Up & Sign In

Essay Samples
College Essay
Writing Tools
Writing guide

Creative samples from the experts

↑ Return to Essay Samples

Argumentative Essay: The Benefits of Going to School

Many young people see going to school as a chore and only go because they absolutely have to, while some will even skip school because they see it as boring and unnecessary. However, going to school is incredibly important for your career, future education you may wish to pursue, and social and communication skills.

Teenagers are forever being told that they need a good education so that their can have the career they want, but many do not listen. However, it is important to remember that your schooling, no matter how long it may feel, lasts for a just a few short years compared to the rest of your life ahead of you. Therefore, it is better to sacrifice a little bit of fun now so that you can find happiness in later life, as you will be happier if you can do a job that you enjoy and afford to do the things you want.

Integrally linked to your career is the fact that you will only be able to achieve a higher level of education later on if you work hard in school now. Although at the age of fourteen and fifteen many young people may not think they want to go to college or university, you don’t know how this may change as you get older. And with unemployment among young people in the USA at its highest since the early 1960’s, you may find that you need a college degree to secure a good job because there is so much competition for so few jobs. Many people also decide that they want to study further when they get a bit older, perhaps after they have got married and had children, sometimes because they want a career change as they are not happy, or just to prove to themselves and others that they can do it. Those that don’t succeed in compulsory education will not have the opportunity to even start many courses because there will be plenty of better-qualified candidates that also want a place.

Finally, school is the place where you learn a great deal of very important life skills. From communicating and empathizing with people of both genders and different ages, to listening to instructions and following orders, and developing leadership skills. It is not a coincidence that there is a negative correlation between criminal offences and level of education, in all races, ages and genders all over the world, and one of the main reasons for this is that the lessons that are learnt in school are so much more than just academic. So, although most of us only consider our career when we think about what school may do for us, the life skills we learn are equally important.

Follow Us on Social Media

Get more free essays

Send via email

Most useful resources for students:.

Free Essays Download
Writing Tools List
Proofreading Services
Universities Rating

Contributors Bio

Find more useful services for students

Free plagiarism check, professional editing, online tutoring, free grammar check.

Getting Into College , Tips for Online Students , Tips for Students , Why Go to College

Top 10 Reasons Why Is Education Important

Most of us have grown up being taught the importance of education. But why is education important? Through your frustrating school years, you may have thought that it was a waste of time, or was just something that you needed to do in order to get a job. Truth be told, however, education goes so much beyond just getting a job and making your parents happy. In fact, it’s one of the most powerful tools out there.

What Is Education?

Education means studying in order to obtain a deeper knowledge and understanding of a variety of subjects to be applied to daily life. Education is not limited to just knowledge from books, but can also be obtained through practical experiences outside of the classroom.

Top 10 Reasons: Why Is Education Important?

There are many different understandings and definitions of what education is, but one thing can be universally agreed upon, which is the importance of education — and here’s why.

1. Provides Stability

Education provides stability in life, and it’s something that no one can ever take away from you. By being well-educated and holding a college degree , you increase your chances for better career opportunities and open up new doors for yourself.

2. Provides Financial Security

On top of stability, education also provides financial security, especially in today’s society. A good education tends to lead to a higher paying job, as well as provide you with the skills needed to get there. Educated and well-informed individuals also know how to use money-saving tactics. They are more likely to use coupon websites like EMUCoupon while shopping online to save their hard-earned money.

3. Needed For Equality

In order for the entire world to really become equal, it needs to start with education. If everyone was provided with the same opportunities to education , then there would be less gaps between social classes. Everyone would be able to have an equal chance at higher paying jobs — not just those that are already well-off.

4. Allows For Self-Dependency

The importance of education is evident when it comes to being self-dependent. If we are we educated, then it’s something that belongs to us, and only us, allowing us to rely on no one else other than ourselves. It can allow you to not only be financially independent, but also to make your own choices.

5. Make Your Dreams Come True

If you can dream it, you can achieve it. An education is the most powerful weapon you can possibly have, and with it, you can make all of your dreams come true. There are of course certain exceptions, depending on what you’re aiming for, but generally an education will take you as far as you’re willing to go.

6. A Safer World

Education is something that’s not only needed on a personal level, but also on a global level, as it’s something that keeps our world safe and makes it a more peaceful place. Education tends to teach people the difference between right and wrong, and can help people stay out of risky situations.

7. Confidence

Being self-confident is a major part of being successful in life. And what better way to gain that confidence than with an education? Your level of education is often considered a way to prove your knowledge, and it can give you the confidence to express your opinions and speak your mind.

8. A Part Of Society

In today’s society, having an education is considered a vital part of being accepted by those around you. Having an education is believed to make you a useful part of society, and can make you feel like a contributing member as well.

9. Economic Growth On A National Level

An educated society is crucial for economic growth. We need people to continue to learn and research in order to constantly stay innovative. Countries with higher literacy rates also tend to be in better economic situations. With a more educated population, more employment opportunities are opened.

10. Can Protect You

Education can protect you more than you know, not only on a financial level, but it can help prevent you from being taken advantage of by knowing how to read and write, such as knowing not to sign any bogus documents.

Photo by Pixabay from Pexels

Education is important for children.

Children are the future of our world, making education crucial for them. Their knowledge is what’s going to keep our world alive and flourishing.

At Childhood

During the childhood development stages, the importance of education is stronger than ever. It’s a time for children to learn social and mental skills that will be crucial for their growth and success in the future. Education at childhood also offers a chance for self-discovery and to learn about their unique interests.

The importance of education in our lives goes far beyond what we can read in a textbook. Education also provides childhood with knowledge such as how to produce artwork and make music. Education allows us to analyze what’s in front of us, and even learn from our mistakes.

Goal Building

By learning from a young age, children are given the chance to start building goals for themselves. Education means having the logic to set your mind to something and achieve it.

Importance Of Education In Society

For a modern society, education is of utmost importance. There are so many influences coming from all directions, and education can help us decipher what we should take as true, and what we should take with a grain of salt. Education can mold people into functional members of society with the right kinds of values.

Productivity

Education is needed for a productive society. Our population only continues to increase, and in turn, so do our needs. We need a strong and efficient workforce of educated people to provide us with the services we need for everyday life.

Why Is Education Important For a Nation?

The importance of education is seen in every aspect of life, and is especially crucial for the growth of a nation.

The Impact Education Has On The World

With education, people can become better citizens, knowing right from wrong, allowing for a better society where laws are followed. An educated nation knows about the importance of voting, doing so with the knowledge not blindly, but also having an understanding of what their party truly stands for. Education can also help people get jobs, which is what a nation thrives on.

Inspiring Quotes On What Education Truly Is

Why is education important, and what is it exactly? While every person has a different understanding of its true meaning, here are some of the most inspiring quotes by some legendary people.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” — Nelson Mandela
“Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” — Malcolm X
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” — Benjamin Franklin
“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” — John Dewey

What Are Some Other Reasons Why Education Is Important?

There are endless reasons why education is so important, especially since it also has endless connotations and meanings.

Mind And Body

Our mind and bodies are connected more than we know. With a powerful, well-educated mind, so too are our bodies.

We can not only know how to best take care of ourselves, but we can feel confident and good about ourselves, which will likely have a positive effect on our physical well-being . Education has even been proven to add years to our life . To be exact, each additional year of education was found to add as much as 1.7 years to our lives at the age of 35.

Personal Growth

The importance of education even extends itself to our personal growth. By constantly educating ourselves, asking questions and wanting to know more, we can move forward and achieve things we never imagined before.

Get To Know Yourself

Education can allow us to get to know ourselves better than ever. We can learn things about ourselves, whether it be through books, courses, or even consulting with a professional.

Photo by Burst from Pexels

Worldwide value.

Education is the best way to ensure a positive world value and view. Without a proper education, how else do we know what’s considered appropriate and how to behave?

While world peace may unfortunately seem like a far-fetched concept, with education we can get closer to this goal than we know. Education can teach us about our place in this world, and about our responsibility to humanity.

Teaches Values

Values are taught through education! Education exists far beyond the classroom or an exam. It’s taught at home, through what our parents and peers show us, and although not necessarily written down somewhere, such a teaching method is still a large aspect of what education entails.

Sharpens Your Thinking

Education is needed to think sharply and clearly!

Makes You Informed

Education makes you informed about the world around you, what’s going on and what kind of people are around you. Education can help you be more self-aware about your strengths and weaknesses, showing you were to shift your focus.

Logical Reasoning

When in an argument, if you aren’t well educated and don’t have your facts straight, then you aren’t likely to win. If you get upset about something, then being educated can also help you logically work through the situation and make sense of it, understanding all aspects.

Stay Focused

Education can help you stay focused and on track in the right direction by knowing what the right path is for you.

Allows For Innovation And Creativity

When it comes to being creative, in any way, shape, or form, the mind can only really reach its full potential if it’s been fed with the knowledge it needs to think outside the box.

Develop Life Skills

Education is the foundation of basic life skills and street smarts. While education might sound like a fancy technical term, it’s really everything we learn in life about how to best conduct ourselves from day to day.

Education can be the most freeing and empowering thing in the entire world!

Live Life To The Fullest

Truly living life to the fullest means being well-educated and holding a vast amount of knowledge about the world around us. It also means we continue to learn every day in all kinds of forms, whether it be from the people around us, newspapers, experiences, research, or traditional classes.

Breaks Barriers

Education breaks barriers between people, and allows people from across the globe to be empowered.

University of the People, a tuition-free , online university, is one powerful example of how education is being revolutionized – they offer students of all socio-economic backgrounds an equal chance at education.

Once upon a time, such a thing wouldn’t have been possible, but today such places like UoPeople have proven that these barriers truly can be broken through to receive higher education.

You Become Your Highest You

Education can allow you to become the best, fullest version of yourself, learning about what interests you, what you’re good at, becoming self-aware and conscious about the world around you. It can help you establish your place in this world, and feel complete.

Education In The Modern World

Education today is more important than ever before, and has reached new heights with new understandings of what it truly entails. Ask yourself “Why is education important?” and it will surely not be the same as anyone else’s answer.

While in modern society, holding a college degree is considered to be highly beneficial for a successful career and to be socially accepted, it is not the only means of education. Education is all around us in everything that we do, so use it wisely!

What’s the point of education? It’s no longer just about getting a job

Researcher for the University of Queensland Critical Thinking Project; and Online Teacher at Education Queensland's IMPACT Centre, The University of Queensland

Disclosure statement

Luke Zaphir does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

University of Queensland provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

View all partners

This essay is part of a series of articles on the future of education.

For much of human history, education has served an important purpose, ensuring we have the tools to survive. People need jobs to eat and to have jobs, they need to learn how to work.

Education has been an essential part of every society. But our world is changing and we’re being forced to change with it. So what is the point of education today?

The ancient Greek model

Some of our oldest accounts of education come from Ancient Greece. In many ways the Greeks modelled a form of education that would endure for thousands of years. It was an incredibly focused system designed for developing statesmen, soldiers and well-informed citizens.

Most boys would have gone to a learning environment similar to a school, although this would have been a place to learn basic literacy until adolescence. At this point, a child would embark on one of two career paths: apprentice or “citizen”.

On the apprentice path, the child would be put under the informal wing of an adult who would teach them a craft. This might be farming, potting or smithing – any career that required training or physical labour.

The path of the full citizen was one of intellectual development. Boys on the path to more academic careers would have private tutors who would foster their knowledge of arts and sciences, as well as develop their thinking skills.

The private tutor-student model of learning would endure for many hundreds of years after this. All male children were expected to go to state-sponsored places called gymnasiums (“school for naked exercise”) with those on a military-citizen career path training in martial arts.

Those on vocational pathways would be strongly encouraged to exercise too, but their training would be simply for good health.

Read more: Guide to the classics: Homer's Iliad

Until this point, there had been little in the way of education for women, the poor and slaves. Women made up half of the population, the poor made up 90% of citizens, and slaves outnumbered citizens 10 or 20 times over .

These marginalised groups would have undergone some education but likely only physical – strong bodies were important for childbearing and manual labour. So, we can safely say education in civilisations like Ancient Greece or Rome was only for rich men.

While we’ve taken a lot from this model, and evolved along the way, we live in a peaceful time compared to the Greeks. So what is it that we want from education today?

We learn to work – the ‘pragmatic purpose’

Today we largely view education as being there to give us knowledge of our place in the world, and the skills to work in it. This view is underpinned by a specific philosophical framework known as pragmatism. Philosopher Charles Peirce – sometimes known as the “father of pragmatism” – developed this theory in the late 1800s.

There has been a long history of philosophies of knowledge and understanding (also known as epistemology). Many early philosophies were based on the idea of an objective, universal truth. For example, the ancient Greeks believed the world was made of only five elements: earth, water, fire, air and aether .

Read more: Where to start reading philosophy?

Peirce, on the other hand, was concerned with understanding the world as a dynamic place. He viewed all knowledge as fallible. He argued we should reject any ideas about an inherent humanity or metaphysical reality.

Pragmatism sees any concept – belief, science, language, people – as mere components in a set of real-world problems.

In other words, we should believe only what helps us learn about the world and require reasonable justification for our actions. A person might think a ceremony is sacred or has spiritual significance, but the pragmatist would ask: “What effects does this have on the world?”

Education has always served a pragmatic purpose. It is a tool to be used to bring about a specific outcome (or set of outcomes). For the most part, this purpose is economic .

Why go to school? So you can get a job.

Education benefits you personally because you get to have a job, and it benefits society because you contribute to the overall productivity of the country, as well as paying taxes.

But for the economics-based pragmatist, not everyone needs to have the same access to educational opportunities. Societies generally need more farmers than lawyers, or more labourers than politicians, so it’s not important everyone goes to university.

You can, of course, have a pragmatic purpose in solving injustice or creating equality or protecting the environment – but most of these are of secondary importance to making sure we have a strong workforce.

Pragmatism, as a concept, isn’t too difficult to understand, but thinking pragmatically can be tricky. It’s challenging to imagine external perspectives, particularly on problems we deal with ourselves.

How to problem-solve (especially when we are part of the problem) is the purpose of a variant of pragmatism called instrumentalism.

Contemporary society and education

In the early part of the 20th century, John Dewey (a pragmatist philosopher) created a new educational framework. Dewey didn’t believe education was to serve an economic goal. Instead, Dewey argued education should serve an intrinsic purpose : education was a good in itself and children became fully developed as people because of it.

Much of the philosophy of the preceding century – as in the works of Kant, Hegel and Mill – was focused on the duties a person had to themselves and their society. The onus of learning, and fulfilling a citizen’s moral and legal obligations, was on the citizens themselves.

Read more: Explainer: what is inquiry-based learning and how does it help prepare children for the real world?

But in his most famous work, Democracy and Education , Dewey argued our development and citizenship depended on our social environment. This meant a society was responsible for fostering the mental attitudes it wished to see in its citizens.

Dewey’s view was that learning doesn’t just occur with textbooks and timetables. He believed learning happens through interactions with parents, teachers and peers. Learning happens when we talk about movies and discuss our ideas, or when we feel bad for succumbing to peer pressure and reflect on our moral failure.

Learning would still help people get jobs, but this was an incidental outcome in the development of a child’s personhood. So the pragmatic outcome of schools would be to fully develop citizens.

Today’s educational environment is somewhat mixed. One of the two goals of the 2008 Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians is that:

All young Australians become successful learners, confident and creative individuals, and active and informed citizens.

But the Australian Department of Education believes:

By lifting outcomes, the government helps to secure Australia’s economic and social prosperity.

A charitable reading of this is that we still have the economic goal as the pragmatic outcome, but we also want our children to have engaging and meaningful careers. We don’t just want them to work for money but to enjoy what they do. We want them to be fulfilled.

Read more: The Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians: what it is and why it needs updating

And this means the educational philosophy of Dewey is becoming more important for contemporary society.

Part of being pragmatic is recognising facts and changes in circumstance. Generally, these facts indicate we should change the way we do things.

On a personal scale, that might be recognising we have poor nutrition and may have to change our diet. On a wider scale, it might require us to recognise our conception of the world is incorrect, that the Earth is round instead of flat.

When this change occurs on a huge scale, it’s called a paradigm shift.

The paradigm shift

Our world may not be as clean-cut as we previously thought. We may choose to be vegetarian to lessen our impact on the environment. But this means we buy quinoa sourced from countries where people can no longer afford to buy a staple, because it’s become a “superfood” in Western kitchens.

If you’re a fan of the show The Good Place, you may remember how this is the exact reason the points system in the afterlife is broken – because life is too complicated for any person to have the perfect score of being good.

All of this is not only confronting to us in a moral sense but also seems to demand we fundamentally alter the way we consume goods.

And climate change is forcing us to reassess how we have lived on this planet for the last hundred years, because it’s clear that way of life isn’t sustainable.

Contemporary ethicist Peter Singer has argued that, given the current political climate, we would only be capable of radically altering our collective behaviour when there has been a massive disruption to our way of life.

If a supply chain is broken by a climate-change-induced disaster, there is no choice but to deal with the new reality. But we shouldn’t be waiting for a disaster to kick us into gear.

Making changes includes seeing ourselves as citizens not only of a community or a country, but also of the world.

Read more: Students striking for climate action are showing the exact skills employers look for

As US philosopher Martha Nussbaum argues, many issues need international cooperation to address . Trade, environment, law and conflict require creative thinking and pragmatism, and we need a different focus in our education systems to bring these about.

Education needs to focus on developing the personhood of children, as well as their capability to engage as citizens (even if current political leaders disagree) .

If you’re taking a certain subject at school or university, have you ever been asked: “But how will that get you a job?” If so, the questioner sees economic goals as the most important outcomes for education.

They’re not necessarily wrong, but it’s also clear that jobs are no longer the only (or most important) reason we learn.

Read the essay on what universities must do to survive disruption and remain relevant.

Ancient Greece
The future of education

Lecturer (Hindi-Urdu)

Initiative Tech Lead, Digital Products COE

Director, Defence and Security

Opportunities with the new CIEHF

School of Social Sciences – Public Policy and International Relations opportunities

15 Reason Why School Is Important

People take school for granted in some places. There’s no question about whether a kid will attend because school is accessible and valued. Kids may even feel annoyed or frustrated that they’re made to go. In many countries, however, school is a privilege. Why does school matter so much? Here are 15 reasons why:

#1. Schools teach social skills

For most kids, school is the first setting where they learn to socialize with others outside their family. They learn to make friends, listen to teachers, and work through problems. Learning these social skills early on gives kids an important foundation for their interactions in society. Studies show education can increase what’s called “learned effectiveness,” which includes traits like self-control and cognitive ability. Students also learn “soft skills” like good communication, teamwork, and flexibility. Going to school doesn’t automatically teach social skills; it’s still the responsibility of teachers and other adults to encourage healthy socialization. When they spot unhealthy socialization – like bullying – they should intervene appropriately.

#2. Schools can teach empathy

Empathy, which is the ability to understand another person’s feelings and experiences, is one of the most essential “soft skills” a person can have. Schools can be the perfect environment for teaching this to kids starting at a young age. They’re learning to interact with other people, understand different perspectives, and develop good communication skills. Teachers can teach empathy by modeling it, talking about emotions, encouraging community activities, and integrating listening activities into classwork.

#3. Schools help young people build confidence

Being self-assured and confident in one’s abilities is crucial to healthy self-esteem. People who don’t have much confidence are more likely to be taken advantage of and struggle with anxiety. In a school setting, kids get the opportunity to build their confidence early on. As they learn to read, write, solve math problems, and more, their confidence in their abilities increases. A teacher plays a very important role in this. It’s their job to celebrate a student’s progress as well as their hard work, as many struggle with certain subjects.

#4. Schools encourage critical thinking

Critical thinking is an essential part of any subject in school. Whether they’re studying literature, science , or history, students can develop critical thinking techniques. They use these to absorb the material, form their own ideas, and express themselves in writing and speaking. These skills translate to every area of life, whether it’s in academia, the work setting, or relationships. How do schools teach critical thinking ? It needs to be intentional or schools run the risk of just teaching kids how to memorize facts. Teachers can improve their students’ critical thinking skills by asking open-ended questions, encouraging students to think for themselves, presenting real-life problems, and encouraging interaction between students.

#5. Schools teach the value of the learning process

It’s not unusual for students to question the point of any given topic at school. “When am I ever going to use the Pythagorean theorem?” they might ask. “Who cares what happened two hundred years ago?” While a student will probably not use a specific math formula in their daily life, the process of learning is what matters. Good schools teach kids the value of learning for its own sake. It trains the brain how to focus, analyze, and remember. In the future, that training kicks in when you need to learn something new or solve a challenging problem.

#6. Schools help young people develop future goals

School introduces students to a wide variety of subjects. More often than not, a student connects with certain topics on a deep level. Whether it’s through a research paper or group project, they get opportunities to explore their interests further. Students consider what they want their career to be and develop goals for the future. With support from teachers, any student can see what’s possible and work towards their passions.

#7. Students benefit from school extracurriculars

Schools are more than just classrooms. Many also offer sports , clubs, and other extracurricular activities. Some of these can lead to scholarships, which give students access to higher education. Even if a student doesn’t thrive in a classroom setting, they can find something else at their school that benefits them. Do extracurriculars help with academic achievement? It depends. One study found that it depends on factors like parental educational level, age, and sex. In early adolescence, girls who participated in extracurriculars saw improved academic achievements, but in later adolescence, it was better if they didn’t participate in as many extracurriculars. This could be because schoolwork becomes more challenging and time-consuming. Some students will need fewer distractions to do well, but others will be fine with extracurriculars. It depends on the specific student.

#8. Schools strengthen communities

School can become an important source of community for many students. For some, it may be the only place they feel safe to be themselves. For students, feeling like they belong and are part of something bigger than themselves is very important. They’ll feel supported and encouraged, and even when they leave school, they’ll strive to find and build community wherever they go. School can also serve as a community space for parents, so it benefits whole families.

#9. Education reduces poverty

Education is an essential part of reducing poverty around the world. When children receive an education, they’re able to access jobs with higher incomes. Other factors (like gender) impact what kind of a job someone can get, but it’s generally true that as a person gets more schooling, their income potential goes up. That benefits their whole families and can end cycles of generational poverty. According to a UNESCO policy paper , around 60 million people could escape poverty if all adults got just two extra years of schooling. If all adults finished secondary education, it would lift 420 million people out of poverty. If a country wants to reduce poverty, it needs to invest in schools.

#10. School is good for gender equality

In addition to reducing poverty, education combats gender inequality. In many places, girls receive less education than boys. This affects the jobs they can get and makes them more vulnerable to poverty, violence, and exploitation. According to the World Bank , limiting girls’ education costs them between $15-$30 trillion in lost lifetime productivity and earnings. When they go to school, girls increase their income potential and safety. Research also shows that in countries that value education, maternal death rates go down. There’s been significant progress in education; the gender educational gap is less than 1% . However, there are regional pockets where inequality is still a major issue. In sub-Saharan Africa, more than 1 in 4 young women can’t read or write. The impacts of COVID are still being analyzed, but it’s likely that girls’ education was negatively affected. Schooling for girls will need to be a priority for pandemic recovery.

#11. Education is linked to better health

Education (or lack of education) has long-term consequences for a person’s life. When someone gets good schooling, they’re more likely to earn a good income. They’re also more likely to get a job with fewer physical risks. Combine safety with higher wages and better health follows. On the other side of things, research shows when someone doesn’t get a good education, they’re more vulnerable to health issues. They may also be less likely to see a doctor (because they can’t afford it) and less familiar with good health information. This makes education not only an economic issue but a public health one. Countries need to invest in good schools if they want to ensure a healthy society.

#12. More education can lead to less stress

More education leads to better-paying jobs. Not shockingly, having a higher income makes life less stressful. This is important because stress is linked to serious mental and physical health issues. According to a report from the American Psychological Association , people with low incomes experience higher stress levels, which plays into disparities that affect life expectancy. A good education and a higher-paying job could help reduce some of that stress. That doesn’t mean going to school is naturally stress-free. Reports consistently show college students experience high levels of stress and burnout. Schools need to protect the mental health of their students, so they can finish their education and get access to higher incomes.

#13. A mother’s education impacts her children

Parents obviously have a big impact on their kids, but research shows the relationship between moms and kids could be unique. According to one study on maternal education in the US and UK, maternal education is “most strongly associated with children’s cognitive development.” It’s also a key predictor of other resources that affect a kid’s well-being. The more educated a mother is, the better her kids do. That affects a kid’s educational achievements and even their health. School doesn’t just affect individuals; it’s generational.

#14. Schools can address (or reinforce) societal inequality

Schools, especially public schools, can be diverse spaces where kids meet people who are different from them, learn to work together, build deep emotional connections, and get equal opportunities. These are key ingredients in addressing inequality, but schools can also reinforce inequality. How? Funding is a good example. In the United States, the districts with the most Black, Latino, and Native students can receive $2,700 less per student than districts with the fewest students of color. High-poverty districts, despite needing more funds, receive about 5% less than low-poverty districts. Instead of improving equality, this type of discrimination in schools makes it worse.

#15. Good education benefits entire countries

Schools benefit individuals and communities, so it makes sense that a whole country will do better when they have good schools. Starting from a young age, citizens receive the education they need to get higher-paying jobs. This creates a society of skilled workers and boosts the economy. An educated society is also a healthier society, and when people benefit from schools, they’re more likely to invest resources back into schools for the next generation. Agencies like the World Bank recognize the importance of education for a country’s economic development.

Guide to "Why This School" Essays

The recording will load in a moment., about this livestream.

Learn how to write an essay responding to "Why This School" prompts. Hale Jaeger will walk through how to write college-specific essays, covering what admissions officers are looking for in this essay, techniques to research unique info about a school, and the biggest turnoffs in a "Why This School" essay.

He'll also open up the floor for a Q&A session where he'll answer any and all questions about "Why This School" essays.

Video Transcript:

Just a little context about who I am if you haven't been on any of my streams before, I'm currently a super senior at Yale University studying neuroscience. This is my fifth year working with CollegeVine now. And today, I'm going to be walking through writing the why school essay, it's a pretty common essay type that you'll run into as you're preparing your applications. So I want to give a nice thorough walkthrough of what that looks like, and where you might want to take it. But if you have specific questions, please throw those in the chat box. Throughout. I will have a q&a at the end. But I want to try to answer your questions throughout if I can. If it's not going to work out right away, I'll just save it for the Q&A. But I'll try to be checking your questions as we go through.

So without further ado, I just want to show you guys what exactly we're going to be covering today. And so we have a couple of different bullet points here. One, what does a why school question look like? What are colleges looking for in response, how to think about the why school problem, then what you all came here for how to start writing the wise or essay. And I've actually given this presentation a few times, which I say, just so that you guys know that this is being recorded, and it will be entering the archive is pretty much within hours or minutes of me finishing the presentation. So if you missed the beginning, you can always go back. And you can watch it again over and over if you want a home. But this is going to be recorded and available on the CollegeVine website in the future.

So jumping right in starting with what this question looks like, you've probably already seen it probably know what you expect it to look like. But that's why I want to go through a couple different examples. So the first one I have here is really straightforward. What is it about Yale that has led you to apply 125 words or fewer? Short and sweet, right to the point? It says Why do you want to go here and say it in 125 words, not that much. Not really, you know, too difficult to wrap your head around.

The second one here is the University of Michigan prompt and it's a little different. It says describe the unique qualities that attracted to a specific undergraduate college or school including preferred admissions and dual degree programs to which you're applying at the University of Michigan. How would that curriculum support your interests? 500 words. So this is different in a couple ways from the Yale prompt. It asks you to select a specific undergraduate college so that might be for you, the College of Letters, sciences, and the arts, may be the College of Engineering, it could be their business school, when you're really focusing in on I mean, University of Michigan as a whole institution, but rather just that one, one college within it. And that includes if there's a special program you're applying for, or if you're trying to do more than one of the colleges, you want to talk about that in specific. In addition, you're focusing in specifically on the curriculum and how the curriculum is going to support your interests. And so you actually have a lot more space as compared to the year one, it's about four times as long. And so you have a lot more space to get into the details of your interest in the University of Michigan and the programs that you're applying to.

Similarly, if you look down at the NYU question, it says "We would like to know more about your interest in NYU. What motivated you to apply to NYU? Why have you applied or expressed interest in a particular campus, school, college program or area of study? If you have applied to more than one, please also tell us why you're interested in these additional areas of study or campuses, we want to understand why NYU? 400 words." So this one, like the Michigan one is asking for a little more from you, they want to know about the specific college, if you want it to be in a specific place. They want to know about that. And they also want to know like your area of study. So you're interested in what you actually want to be doing when you're there. from an academic standpoint. Of course, that doesn't bar you from spending a little time talking about things that are outside of or exogamous from your academics. But that is should definitely be a focus, especially since you have so interspace 400 words for this one.

Then the last example I've pulled here is from Tufts. It says "Which aspects of the Tufts undergraduate experience prompt your applicant. In short, why Tufts? 150 words." This one is very similar to the Yale essay, they just want to know what is making you apply here. And you don't have a lot of room to go into it.

We'll go through some examples of these questions have answers to these questions later on. But first, I just want to sort of summarize what these questions look like. Because we've seen a lot of differences here. There are the straightforward ones like Yale and Tufts just say, "Why do you want to go here?" Then there are the ones that are more like NYU or Michigan that say, "Why do you want to go here? And also why are you choosing this major? Or this campus? Or this department, etc?" So that asks for a slightly more nuanced or detailed answer to the question.

And then there are some others some other types of approaches to this question that colleges might take. That exam might be "Why do you want to go here? And how have you familiarized yourself with the college? What have you done to understand what it's like to be here?" Oh, excuse me. Friday evenings, am I right? They might also ask you about the mission of the school, they might say "This is our mission statement. How does this align with you? How does this reflect who you are?" Then they might ask something similar: "What why is it important to have X religion at the heart of your education?" and that's obviously going to come from a religious school, a Catholic school or a Baptist school, something that actually puts religion at the core of the education. A secular school is not going to ask you why is it important to have a secular education?

And the last one I've given here, as an example is "How will you explore your interests here?" So this is asking you to name some specific resources, and talk about how you're going to take advantage of the opportunities that are available on campus.

Obviously, this list this slide is by no means comprehensive, there are still questions that could take you by surprise that fall into the "Why school?" category, but this is a pretty good way to start thinking about recognizing these prompts.

And so before I move forward I want see, okay, Are you guys having trouble hearing me? Can you put a message in the chat, if you can hear me, I'm getting a little bit of feedback here that says there isn't audio, I just want to make sure that you are all able to hear me? Before I keep going, obviously. And if you can't, I will check in with my team and see what's going on. Okay, I'm seeing a bunch of likes. So I'm going to assume the issue resolved itself. Thank you guys for giving me that sort of validation here. I appreciate I am so sorry about the yawns. By the way, I don't know where they're coming from. But I will do my best to control them. I am excited to be here enthusiastic to be here, I promise.

So moving on you, we're going to talk about what colleges are actually looking for when they ask these types of questions. And so there are three main components here that I want to talk about a passion for attending, the reasons that you want to attend, and whether or not you're a good match. So they want to see that you care about going. They want to understand why you care about going that's probably the most straightforward aspect of it. And then the last one, the sort of secret question here is, why are you and the school a good match for one another. So let's get into a little more detail on this.

The passion about attending is going to come from giving really specific answers showing that you've done your research that you care. You care enough to spend the time on it. So they want to see that you're talking about things that are specific to them. And not just generic could be any college in America, any college in a specific place.

You want to make sure that you are personalizing this essay. And in addition, the familiarity it's kind of same as the other side of the same coin. Have you done your due diligence? Have you made the effort to understand what the school is like and know what's going on there? Then the thinking about the reasons that you're giving, which we'll get into in just a moment. Are they authentic? Are they genuine? Are they just things that come across as superficial? And I'll talk a little more about what that means in a moment. But this is sort of a check to see that you actually do want to attend. And then lastly depth. Are you doing more than just saying look, I did the research here. Some people here are some places here are some opportunities that this campus has? Or are you going into a little more detail? Are you telling us how those opportunities are going to apply to you why they're exciting to you, and not just cool things for a school to have?

To get a little deeper into those reasons that authenticity that I was mentioning? What are your authentic reasons here, your genuine reasons, and they can be academic, or they can be non academic, but they should be authentic, like I said. So some things that do count as authentic reasons that will really resonate with a reader are, you know, having a sense of community, with the people who are on campus, the students, the professor's, etc. Maybe there are specific programs that they have that other places don't have, that are really exciting to you, that you want to take advantage of. And that can be again, academic or non academic. And then that last bullet point is interesting and important, and how are you going to use your education at this school to achieve the goals that you've set for yourself? Now, what are your goals? And how will your education at x school help you achieve them?

In contrast, there are a couple less authentic reasons. ones that don't fly, don't go over so well to an admissions reader. And those are things that are going to be more superficial, like clout or prestige, or your post graduation salary. Colleges really see themselves as more than a stepping stone more than a rung on a ladder, they see themselves as an experience. And, honestly, they are at experience, it's four or more years of your life that you're spending that you're building relationships and growing. And so thinking ahead mean towards the future is fine. But just thinking about it in terms of getting a good job, or getting a job that pays well isn't really going to cut it if they're looking for a reason that is going to resonate with a school and their admissions committee.

And then the last thing I wanted to touch on here is whether you're a good match for the school or not. So it's not enough to just say, these are the good resources that you have. This is what makes you a good school. This is very interesting to all people. It's not about to say I should go to this school because of all these cool achievements I have, you have to really focus on the overlap that you have. With the school, you know why these resources will help you, why you're a good match for the school, not just why it is a good school. And that's a place where a lot of people get tripped up. So think about it, as if you are putting yourself into almost every sentence, if not every sentence, make sure that this essay is really about you as much as it is about the school.

So moving on to how to think about these things and how to conceive of the essay and the question. This is a lot like every other essay that you will write for any school. And that is to help you stand out to help you matter in the eye and make make you really seem really cool in the eyes of the admissions readers. Because they have so many applications to get through. They have so many qualified people, if you just look at statistics, so they want to know what makes you you. And so this should reveal something about you. And it should tell us something about who you are and what you are going to achieve.

So you want to consider yourself going to consider you know who you are and what you want and what you want from your college. And that will really help you guide the direction of this essay. Again, as I just said in the last slides, don't write essays that are just about you, and how good you are, how cool you are. You're trying to convey who you are not what you've done. So you want to write well. You want to show what your key personality traits are. And you want to show where you're going to fit within the community at this school.

Oh, so you're trying to make sure you are giving them the grounds to understand a couple things, whether you fit with the school and that means academics it means social culture, it means the values of the institution. Again, that passion showing if you are willing to do the research that you care abotu. They are also obviously always looking for writing ability. If your essay is riddled with typos, that's not going to go over so well. And it's going to be a pretty easy way to weed something out.

And you also want to demonstrate your interest and the department, the major the program, the college, the school, whatever it is that you're writing this essay about, you want to show that you actually are interested. And then finally, whether you're going to be a positive contributor, once you're on campus are you going to bring something to the school that you know is going to make it a better place is going to help your peers grow. That's what they're really hoping to find out. And so the ways to get that information to know how to talk about this and to get that good research done, are, you know, here, we have lots and lots of resources that you can go through, to try to find answers to your questions to understand what being a student out of school is like.

So some of the resources that I recommend you look through are listed here on the left, and missions websites are, you know, my number one go to, it's a great place to start. It's not shouldn't be where you end, but it should definitely be where you start. Because admissions websites are where they collect a lot of information that they think is going to be important to applicants to prospective students. So it's a good jumping off point to find things that are worth researching more. From there, you'll probably investigate the school website a little bit, I have the departmental websites open so you can see what their academic programs look like. And then a little more detail.

And once you've found a program that you're really interested in, you might check out the course catalogs which are often available online. And that'll help you find specific classes. So you can see exactly how they're supporting each major how they're teaching. And if it's going to be in a style that resonates with how you learn. Also, a campus tour is a usually a pretty good way to do some research on a school to get to know it a little better. It also gives you direct interaction with a college student.

Obviously, most places aren't doing tours right now. But a lot of places do have virtual tours, or some kind of replacement, whether it's on their social media, which is another resource down below. Or if they're doing forums and panels and events that allow you to have that same kind of interaction with current students. Which leads me right to the next one, which is reaching out to current students a lot of the time if you email and admissions office, they'll be able to forward your question to a student who can answer if a student isn't already the one working at the desk, or that emails coming through.

Which leads me to the next point admissions offices, you can talk to the admissions office, don't be afraid to call, send an email, whatever it is to get your questions answered, they might put you on the line with an admissions officer or a student, like I said, that'll help to give you a sense of what that school is like and give you specific answers to the questions that you have.

After that, I recommend checking out some blogs, some social media, often admissions pages will link you over to student blogs, and the official social media accounts. And those can actually keep you astride abreast of what's going on on campus. And that's a really good way to see what's going on what events are happening, how this campus is staying engaged, even, and especially now.

And then the last one that's listed here as an online forum, these I don't necessarily recommend being the your top choice for doing some research, there's very little way to verify where the information is coming from. And so it's not all good. It's not all helpful or truthful. But if you're just looking for something and you can't find it anywhere else, you can feel free to check out those places like college confidential. One thing that isn't on this slide, here are the CollegeVine College fair panels that we did last week. If you missed it last week, we had a whole long series of events that were just panels and fireside chats with current students at schools all over the country of all different kinds. With moderators, just asking questions live to get the answers that people were looking for about the student experience. And we recorded all of those, and we put them back in our archives on our website. So if you're looking for information, really in depth about a certain school, absolutely. Take a look at those. I think they'll be really helpful.

While you're doing all this research, it's not quite enough to just take it all in and just listen or read it. It's going to be important for you to ask note Ask questions and take notes. You know, find the things that are interesting to you. And not just the generic things, write down the specific programs, the environment, what the curriculum looks like, what the course requirements are, so you know what you're getting into that you can keep those thoughts straight. And when you have questions that don't seem to be answered by the websites, feel free to ask them reach out to the admissions office to current students to offer admissions officers, your tour guides, staff, faculty, anybody who's on campus, or has been on campus recently, is going to be more than happy to answer your questions.

One caveat to all this research is that if you do too much of it all at once, schools will start to blend together, you'll get really tired, and you're going to not like the schools that you are tired for as much as the schools that you're fresh for. So if you're feeling fatigued, give yourself a break, take a step away. And just come back to it with fresh eyes. And another time. And something that this research can really help with is writing the why school essay, but it's also important to figure out if you want to go to school at all. And a lot of people don't look at it that way because they think it's just they've come up with a list of schools, and then they just say, I'm going to apply to all these no matter what. But if you're doing the research, and you find that there aren't really things about the school that you would enjoy, then it's totally fine to modify your list based on this kind of research.

You do want to make sure you're maximizing that research, though. And that's why you take notes, ask questions. But you also should go in with, you know, some ideas of the type of information that you are trying to get out of this research. So you want to be thinking, what academic programs and opportunities do they have? Or the things that I'm interested in? Where is this college? Is it close to home? Is it far away? Is it in a big city? Is it in the middle of nowhere? If it is in the city? Is it you know, really integrated with the city? Or does it have its own separate distinct campus? Now? Is it a big school or a small school, people can feel lost in big schools and they can feel trapped in small schools is all about knowing what's right for you.

You'll also want to check out if they have anything that's unique or different, like a new residential system, or some traditions that really stand out. And so that can be something that you latch on to. And then this other thing here that I wrote, what is the college proud of? That's something that what are they advertising, what do they think are their greatest hits their coolest programs and achievements? Because that's the kind of thing that they're excited about, and that they're going to be funneling a lot of energy into. And is it something that, you know, resonates with you, I say resonate a lot for this presentation, because it's honestly, a really important word for what you're looking for that connection that resonating between you and the college and one has to offer.

Some things to avoid when you're doing this research, you can get easy to be sucked in to the statistics of it, the rankings. These are generally not helpful pieces of information, especially for writing the essays, because statistics and rankings don't actually tell you very much about the school and a specific way. Just saying that, Oh, this is the number one school doesn't really mean, it's going to be the right place for you. And in addition, those rankings take into account so many different pieces of information, including how many smoke alarms there are on campus. So you want to make sure that you are finding good specific information that isn't going to change year to year and actually shows us what your relationship to the school would be like.

And as I said before, you want to maximize what the information that you're getting is giving to you, you know, especially the questions that you ask of students. And so you want to think when they give their answers, how does their insight How did their answers reflect upon what's interesting to you? Hmm. So if they have some things that are their favorite aspects of their school or their program, are those things that also excite you, and vice versa, if they have things that they really dislike, are those things that are going to be deal breakers for you? Are they things that you might actually enjoy? So if someone says Yeah, I like this program, I thought it was going to love it. But then it turned out to be really hands on and I prefer theoretical learning. I like to sit in class and just think, but you're somebody who's really hands on and loves to do application based learning and their negatives or your positives.

So it's really about understanding how their information and their attitudes apply to what you're looking for. And that brings us obviously to the last bit of what I wanted to talk about today, which is how to start writing the essays. Now that we know how to think about them, so I'm just going to dive right in, because this is the bulkiest medius part of it. And I want to make sure that we are getting to cover that kind of information. So again, you definitely want to be focusing in on authentic reasons, genuine reasons, reasons that align with you and the school. And so some good examples are, you know, really having a connection to that place. If it's something that you've built over time, for example, a sense of community, if you really vibe with the people on campus, that's important to note, are there any specific programs, academic or non academic, that you really want to take advantage of? And then how are you going to use your education to achieve the goals that you've set for yourself?

Then again, the things to avoid, like prestige and rankings and post graduation salary. I've already talked about why that's not, you know, really an acceptable way to go about it things on the no fly list here. But then, something we haven't yet talked about, are generic reasons and superficial reasons. Generic reasons are things that don't apply to just that college don't apply to that school in specific. So location is a good example of one that people think often that they're writing a very specific essay, because they're writing about how excited they are to be in New York City, or in California, or wherever they're planning to be. In general, there are as you think about it, and there are hundreds of colleges and in around New York City, there are hundreds and thousands of colleges in the country, and their locations are not that different from one another. So it's not actually quite helpful.

Especially think of if you're thinking about a place like Yale, for example, a lot of people say I love that I'm really close to, I'm really in New Haven that's close to New York City, it's close to Boston, I can take the Amtrak either way, if I wanted to, I could take the Amtrak all the way down to Washington, DC. Sure. But that's certainly not special. There are several other colleges in New Haven, there are tons of colleges in Connecticut, and between Boston and New York, there's not a lot about being here that sets apart Yale from other college.

And similarly superficial elements don't really tell you much about what your love for a certain school. So if the buildings are really pretty like they are here, that's great. But what we're more interested in is what you're doing with them what you're doing inside of them, rather than just the aesthetic beauty. So you know, you can want to talk more about the resources than how they look. And that'll be really helpful for you, if you are struggling to think of authentic reasons, definitely avoid how pretty the architecture is, you could talk about the ways the architecture is functional and supports learning but if you only have about 100 or 125 words, you might want to economize on space, talking about a stronger reason.

And then, as I've said a couple times in this presentation already, this essay is about how you and the school match up where you guys Connect, and what ties you together. So going around this little circle here, you know, what are your specific goals? And how will you achieve them using the college's resources? How will you take advantage of the opportunities that they present you? What are you going to do about what you have in front of you? And then what do you personally feel a connection to at this school? You know, why are you tied here? And what makes a college not just a good place to study not even just the best perfect place to study. But why is it perfect for you? What is that connection? And a good rule of thumb for this is are you and the college mentioned in you know, every sentence or every other sentence.

So you'd rather write an essay that says cut x college does this really well. And that is exciting to me because this rather than writing a paragraph about why it's a good school, another paragraph about why you're good, like those resources and why you're a good student, weave it together. It's going to be a lot more effective that way. And so now we're going to go through a couple of Example essays, I'm going to read them aloud. And then I'm going to go into how they take these points and apply them. The first one is that tufts essay that we talked about all the way back at the beginning, which aspects of the tough undergraduate experience, prompt your application, in short, why tops 100 to 100 keywords. Like I said, I'm going to start by reading this response.

So it reads, someday, I hope to conduct medical research in developing countries, I'm attracted to tufts because of the wide array of majors offered and support for undergraduate research. To understand the human brain, I intend on studying biology, neuroscience, and psychology. In addition, in addition to outstanding faculty in each of these areas, Tufts organizes initiatives like the international research program, through this program, I would work with other students and professors on an international project related to brain diseases, this arbitrary, will offer a taste of my future career and help me narrow the scope of my future studies.

So that's a mouthful, but there are actually a lot of really important elements in it. So they start right off with this is my goal, this is the goal I want to achieve. And this is how Tufts is going to help me do that helped me achieve that. I said, I want to do medical research in developing countries. And then they say, top supports that because they have lots of good undergraduate research. They have strong faculty for biology, neuroscience, and psychology, which will help me in my very specific interest in brain studies, and brain disease. And then it goes on to name a specific program, the International Research Program, and how they're going to use it. So they're not just going to do research internationally, they're going to do an international project on brain disease with other students and professors. So they're engaging the community at Tufts. And they're also pursuing an academic intellectual passion through a specific resource.

And then the last sentence here, this opportunity will offer a taste of my future career and help me narrow the scope of my future studies. AI is nice, because it tells us again, where we're going in the future, how we're going to get there, and why it's important that tufts is providing this opportunity. This is a pretty good way to have, you know, a lot of strong ideas, make an appearance and trust 100 150 words. This essay, by the way, is taken directly from the CollegeVine blog. So if you are looking to read it again later, and see what makes it strong, definitely feel free to check out the blog post that this presentation, this livestream is based off of wanting to do another case study, this time of a slightly longer essay on this one is for why Penn, and it's not one we talked about, we didn't see this prompt earlier. So I'm going to read it out loud.

"How did you discover your intellectual and academic interests? And how will you explore them at the University of Pennsylvania? Please respond considering the undergraduate school you have selected." This one gives you 300 to 450 words. So it's very similar to the NYU essay, for example. And it's asking you about your intellectual and academic passions and interests. So that's definitely the central focus. And they want to know how you were going to use your specific undergraduate college, you know, engineering, arts and sciences, Wharton, or nursing to achieve those goals, and exploring those passions. So this person, I only posted an excerpt from their essay, this is not the whole thing. But it's what fits neatly on a slide and it's enough to get the point across so I'm going to read it out loud and talk about why this is a strong response and also maybe a ways in which you could grow and start starts off.

"Sister Simone Roche, a theorist of nursing ethics once said, caring is the human mode of being. I have long been inspired by SR roaches, five C's of caring, commitment, conscience, competence, compassion, and confidence. Pen both embraces and fosters these values through a rigorous interdisciplinary curriculum and unmatched access to service and volunteer opportunities. commitment. reading through the activities to which Penn Quakers devote their time in addition to academics felt like drinking water from a firehose in the best possible way. As a prospective nursing student with interests outside of my major, I value this level of flexibility I plan to leverage Penn's liberal arts curriculum to gain an in depth understanding of the challenges faced by the LGBT community, especially regarding health care access. Through courses like inter interactional processes with LGBT individuals and volunteering at the Missouri Center for Research, I have to learn how to better support the Penn LGBT community as well as my family and friends, including my cousin who came out as trans last year."

So this essay takes a pretty interesting approach as this nice little introductory paragraph, where it sets up a value system that they identify with, they say these are my values. And then they say pattern shares these values. And its curriculum, as well as its service and volunteer opportunities are the best ways to demonstrate that. So it says, look, pet and I have the same values, we have the same mission. And this is how Penn goes about it. One thing I generally am not a fan of, in writing essays like this, and in general, is using a quotation, you only have 300 to 450 words here to make your case, you should definitely use your own words and not somebody else's. Find ways to paraphrase or apply this information without directly quoting and losing some of your own voice for somebody else's.

But then, once they've introduced what their topic is going to be, this person takes a really cool tack. And each of the following paragraph starts with one of these five C's of caring. So the first one obviously, is commitment. But then there's another paragraph each for conscious conscience, competence, compassion and confidence, as well as a conclusion. This one again, is on the CollegeVine blog if you want to read the whole thing. But this format is cool, because it stands out, it's definitely a little different. And it also partitions the essay really nicely. It's very easy to read and logical bytes. And so the person who wrote this essay gives some more specifics throughout the body.

So commitment, they talk about how they're planning to use the liberal arts curriculum, in particular, to balance out a lot of different aspects of an education that will help them approach the health care access challenges faced by the LGBT community. So you're saying, this is a specific course i'm going to use showing they've done their research. And they're saying going to save this is how I'm going to use it, I'm going to be volunteering with this pen specific center. And I'm going to be learning how to support these people, this group of people in ways that are meaningful. And then they draw a personal connection at the end of the paragraph by saying that their cousin has recently come out as trans. And that is a big part of the impetus for them to take advantage of all of the different types of education that Penn has to offer.

So moving forward, it sounds a lot like there are lots of different schools asking lots of different questions, and you have to write a brand new essay for every single one. And to a degree that is true. As I said, it definitely needs to still be specific, it needs to be school oriented, tailored for the program to which you're applying. But there are some things that won't change. So the main thing to remember here is that this is an essay about a school and about you so the school part will change. But the U part is probably going to be pretty similar from essay to essay from school to school, you are still interested in pursuing the same departments, the same topics, the same methods. And you still have the same set of values. And you still are looking for a specific college experience and having life goals that are beyond college.

So those things are all constant, that's going to be the core of what your essay is building from. Of course, this doesn't mean you can just write an essay and then swap out landmarks and program names and school names. First of all, it's super dangerous, because you might not change something and then you'll be submitting to Harvard with it. Gail, so written in your essay, and that's going to be a pretty, pretty rough it's not going to reflect well on your passion or your proofreading.

Definitely you do have to write a new essay for each school but you haven't you can also think about these things as good starting points for what you want to talk about because you are presumably the same person throughout the entire public. process. As you saw, we have some short prompts like the yellow one, and some longer ones like Penn, Michigan and my U. And so the short ones, maybe you can cover everything pretty short and sweet, not too difficult, the longer ones you might struggle with a little in terms of filling the space. And I'm not saying that you have to write every single word that they allow you to write. If they say 500 words, you don't have to write 500 words. But if you if they say 500 words, and you submit a 125 word essay, it's going to be pretty obvious why that is.

And that's going to be that you didn't try or didn't adapt an essay from one school to the other, you borrowed something you already had written for elsewhere. And so you definitely want to fill in up to about 90% of the space that you're given. And to do that, you might want to include more details about you or about the school. Really, what you'll see as I continue talking is that they are intertwined as they should be. So if you're looking to focus more on you and yourself, give us more about what your worldview is like, what are your values, what is your perspective on the world around you. Or if you've had specific experiences, like anecdotes that you can share about how you've come to find the goals, or tried to achieve your goals in your past.

And then finally, how you'll be a positive contributor to campus, what are you going to bring, and that's going to make you a special addition to campus. On the other hand, you can talk about the college a little bit more, do they have programs or research that are really exciting for you? Do they have organizations, groups, interest programs, things that are going to be very specific, and to this school and help you to differentiate yourself here. And then finally, how you'll use the resources available to you this should be pretty standard, you can't just name a resource, you have to see what you're going to with it.

So as you can see, even though I artificially split these up into things that are about you and things that are about the school, there's a lot of overlap between the two categories of things you can talk about to extend a long a longer prompt. So to summarize, everything we've talked about, this does bring me to the end of the presentation. There are some really great ideas to focus on when you're trying to write a white school essay. And there are some things to steer clear of. One is that you want to avoid is copy pasting, forgetting to change the details. Like I said, don't apply to Harvard with a Yale essay, it's not gonna fly.

Now, you also want to make sure you are fact checking all your work, don't talk about programs that don't exist. Don't talk about majors that don't exist, or things that used to exist, but no longer, make sure you are getting up to date information to include. And then avoid talking about why the school is great and avoid and not saying anything about you and avoid saying things that are all about how great you are. And I'm not talking about the school at all, you would rather be talking about things that align you with the school that make you a good match. And that also means avoiding generic aspects of the school, don't talk about location, don't talk about how pretty the buildings are, or how good the food is, those aren't gonna be helpful for understanding why the school is the right place for you. And then something I just mentioned was not using the full word count, like I said, you should get within about 90% and 10% on either side is usually my go to if they even allow you to write more than the maximum word out.

So you know, make sure you're using the space provided even if you don't use every single letter that you have.

And the last thing to avoid here is value misalignment. I touched super briefly on this earlier, but basically what I mean by value alignment is understand what the school is like. And right to that. And for example, most schools most higher institutions of learning have a fairly leftward leaning bent politically. And that's not to say there aren't conservative students on campus or conservative organizations or that conservative people are silenced or oppressed in any way. But it is definitely something that might rub our reader the wrong way if you don't talk about it with incredible grace. And so we they want people to have things in common with them. You know, this is an opportunity for you to share something that is a connection between you and a school, rather than something that would divide you or something that you have to overcome.

So definitely make sure you're not saying anything racist or homophobic or bigoted in any way that's not going to work for any school you're applying to. So make sure you're just hitting the values that are going to To endear you to the school, rather than the ones that are estranging. And I always try to end on some positives here things to actually remember and focus on. Use this as an opportunity to tell them more about who you are, what you want out of life, and how the schools education is going to help you achieve those goals. Make sure you're settling in on authentic and personal reasons for wanting to attend. And make sure you are as specific as possible. You should always be writing these with the specific school in mind, not just writing in general template essay that you can copy paste all over the town.

So those are the lessons I want to leave you with. But now I want to move into answering the questions that you have the things that are going on in your mind, I've done a lot of talking. And so it's going to be really, really helpful for you guys to have the interaction with me. And I'll try to get to everything. But if I can't answer your questions, by the time we sort of run out, that's totally where we are. I want to I someone asked what is the blog post that I'm referencing, so let me just take a moment to find it and send you guys the link.

See, let's see.

Here we go. I think this is where I've been before, and want to make sure you guys have access to that. So I'm going to send that to everyone. So you should be able to see the blog post that I'm talking about. And that can be that's one of many, many prompts that we cover on our blog. So if you want to just read about some of the possible responses that you can give and how to approach all different types of essays and school specific ones, I'd definitely give that a look.

But for now, I would love to answer the questions that you have. So please do drop those in the box. Yeah. Okay. So I'm also getting a request for the link for the Save videos for later access. So let me give that to you as well. That's pretty straightforward. If you just go to collegevine.com, slash live streams, there's a button there that shows you the recorded ones, but I'll drop it in the chat as well.

And that should give you access to everything that we've ever recorded, ever done. But you can also just go through our live streams page. And that'll also categorize them. So if you go to our live regular live streams, page collegevine.com slash live streams, you can scroll down and it'll have some playlists recommended for you. So Q&A's with current students, ideas about college essays. There's one just for college admissions as a general topic, there's also one a playlist for pre-meds. And so there are lots and lots of really good presentations by all of these great CollegeVine people. So please, please give those a look if you are interested in hearing more about some of these other things.

What other questions do you have, though, maybe about this essay type about college admissions in general. I want to make sure that we're tackling everything that is going on in your minds. all at the same time. I guess I'll ask you guys a couple questions. I have some polls for you to answer here. So I'll send a couple your way while I am waiting for your questions to roll into me. And it would be really helpful to get some of your feedback. So I have a question here is it common to write about professors. Um, and so this is something that you can definitely touch on. If there's a professor who's doing really incredible work or with whom you have a personal connection, it's totally fine to mention them. But you should also take the opportunity to explain that your job, don't just say I'd love to work with their lab. And this professors approach to something is really interesting. And I'd love to explore that further ask them questions and get involved with some research of my own. And so it might not work so well.

And those shorter essays, those 125 word essays, because just because there's not a lot of room to do something like that, but in the longer ones, you can definitely use that as an opportunity. Don't just list a ton of professors say I want to work with this person, and that person, and this person seems really cool and interesting. But it can be something if you have a genuine interest in the work that that professor is doing. It can be worthwhile to put a little effort into that. And talk more about school values. What are some school values I've seen? Where can we find them? What are value differences among the ivy schools, um, so school values, General ones that most schools will abide by tolerance, diversity, accommodation, encouragement, something that I think has been really special here at Yale is a culture of collaboration, and everybody is working together and trying to build each other up, everyone is driven but not competitive. So it's a very rewarding place to be for that reason.

And I think that sets it apart from some other schools of its caliber, that it is really truly a place where people are building each other up and create and helping each other in an environment that is healthy. And I love that. schools will often have a mission statement or a VAT vision statement. And those will encapture encapsulate some of the values and make an explicit way to make sure that you're not going against them. But mostly, it's fairly straightforward, you just have to put a little thought into am I writing something that is going to go against a school's mission here, for example, if you're planning to apply to a Catholic school, I might not recommend writing about, you know, your views on a woman's right to an abortion. And that's, you know, maybe something just to navigate away from in this particular context, definitely a conversation worth having. But maybe not in the why school essay here? How can we show not tell in these essays?

That's a great question, because it can be somewhat difficult to do it really quickly. If you have any anecdotes to share, about an experience at a school or an experience that has led you to believe the school is the right place for you that can be really meaningful and very show not totally. For example, when I applied to Yale, they asked a similar version of that question. It was a while ago, so it has changed a little. But I wrote about a specific campus tradition, or that I could really imagine myself taking part in and how that connected me to the sense of place that is really distinctive here. So anecdotes are always a good way to see to do a litmus test on whether you're showing not telling.

Should you end your essay with excited to walk by x to walk to x library and go to why building as a yearly, I mean, you absolutely can do something like that, I'm not going to tell you what you should or shouldn't do in such a specific way. But if you have something that's meaningful in that way, go for it. I mean, if I think that there are lots and lots of ways to do it, so I'm not going to tell you that you shouldn't send this way. But you can definitely work this kind of information into the essay earlier, you say, you know, I can read envision myself, you know what, I'm excited to go to this library and participate in this activity, as a gala and join a community, you know, that is really passionate about this, you know, so I don't think that's necessarily like a standard way to end this essay. But you can take it in any direction that you see fit.

I'm talking about paraphrasing the school's mission statement and applying it to how you are as a person, you can absolutely do that. I mean, it's something that I probably can't see myself doing is not the way I will approach these kinds of problems or essays. Because of the thing that I mentioned earlier, which is that I don't think you should be spending time using other people's words, I think you should spend as much time thinking about your own thoughts, feelings, ideas, and beliefs. And that'll be the basis of your essay, rather than just what they already have to say.

In addition, I think mission statements, especially for these shorter essays can be kind of narrow, and keep you from talking about the academics, the opportunities on campus, the resources that they have available that you want to take advantage of. And it can get kind of nebulous, while still keeping you away from the specifics that you definitely want to get into. So I would not necessarily recommend paraphrasing the mission statement, and then using that as the framework for your essay. But if it's something that really resonates with you, and is really what drives you're interested in the school, feel free to take that approach. But definitely make sure you're demonstrating that that is like the true passion of yours.

Um, please keep the questions coming. And in the meantime, I'm going to give you another poll to answer just so we can continue to collect a little bit of information on what you guys are getting out of this.

What did I discuss in my why Yale essay, like I said, I talked about a campus tradition that was really exciting for me that I could really see myself doing, and how I could envision myself in various places on campus and what that meant for the sense of community, the sense of place. Those sort of about the magic of the environment here at Yale, that I really loved. And it didn't necessarily talk about any specific programs, or academics, it was a very short essay, obviously. And it really narrowed in on this one tradition, and how it spoke to me. So that was where I took this essay. But for other ones, I wrote a lot about my worldview, like, for example, for my university of michigan prompt, I wrote about the like, just for my overarching perspective on life, and how I would make that manifest at the University of Michigan through the programs that were available.

I don't remember it super well, it was five years ago. Um, but that is the kind of tack I took for those longer form essays. What else do we have? What else are we? What else? Are we thinking people? I want to make sure I'm getting all the questions that you have answered. And the less you give me, the more I have to give to you. I'll miss polls. So I'm just going to keep sending them your way. Thank you for your feedback. Absolutely. But um, please give me some more. Give me some more questions to answer.

You know, I'm always going to pull out my failsafe trick, my foolproof trick for getting you guys to ask questions. And that's telling you guys that I'm about to wrap up. Since it doesn't look like there aren't any other questions to be answered. Every time I say the magic words, wrap up three more questions appear in the box. So I am going to There we go. Here it is. How would you approach a 650 word why college essay.

Again, this sort of goes back to that one slide that I had up previously approaching these longer prompts. You can talk more about your worldview and how you're going to bring that to campus. And how campus manifests that already. You can talk about anecdotes that you've had that are have led to the goals that you're trying to achieve through your college education. You can go into more detail about the opportunities and the research and the organizations, whether they're academic or non academic, anything that they have on campus that you're looking to take advantage of. So you just give it a little more detail should just try to keep yourself from being redundant is my best advice. Because that's the danger. Don't talk about the same thing over and over again.

Because that will get kind of boring. And also you have there if you think about it, there are plenty of reasons to go to a school to go to any given school. You just have to put them together into the essay. So That's what I recommend for those longer essay types.

College asked why major what why area of interest? How to Avoid restating activities, but still communicate a passion. So with this question of why major, I this is not necessarily asking you to restate all your activities. But think about what actually draws you to this. So is it you know, you just love a specific sub subheading of it. So not just biology, but you're interested in genetics, you're interested in genomics, you're interested in these, like very small areas of it?

I'll talk about that. Or is there a particular methodology that you're really interested in?

You know, do you really love working with your hands? And that's why engineering is right for you? Or do you really love connecting different fields? And that's why a philosophy or is for you, you know, so what? What is it exactly that draws you to that major? That's going to be really helpful, or communicating a passion without being redundant?

Can you give specific links for the examples used in a slide show? That should be they should be somewhere and the blog post that I typed that I gave you? If not there, it'll be a similar one. They'll just be in the bottom there.

Why school as a college fine. I googled, um, here it is writing a stellar why this college essay, plus examples? Here we go. This is this is another good link for you guys to follow.

There we go. Oops, did did that go to everybody? Yes. Okay. Great. Um, let's see, what is the most important part of the why essay? The most important part of the why essay is showing that you are a good match for the school that you guys go together, it's not just how good they are, or how good you are, but that you are going to be great together. That is the most important part, of course, doing that authentically. And doing it with specificity. That is, if I had to summarize this entire presentation into like, three seconds, that's exactly what I would say.

Um, would you mind sharing what you wrote about for your Common App essay, so Okay, my Common App essay was a little bit cheesy, and that's okay. That's something that I try to tell everybody. Being cheesy is okay, as long as you avoid being cliche. And so it was a series of four anecdotes, followed by a conclusion paragraph. So it's five paragraphs, and each one told a different story. Each story revolved around a different time that I fell over in my life, once when I was three, once when I was seven. And so I was 13, or 14, and ones when I was 17. So some of them were really light hearted and fun.

Others of them were more mature and serious, especially the last one, where I was trying to show that I had grown. And then in my conclusion, paragraph, I tied the stories together, I said, this is, you know, what I've learned from these experiences, this is who they've made me. And even though I keep falling down, I recognize that that's just a part of growth. And I'm not afraid to fall. I am excited to stand back up and keep growing and in college and beyond.

So that was the general thrust of my essay for the CommonApp. Like I said, a kind of a cheesy topic, you know, very, very straightforward metaphor falling down getting back up. But it was something that allowed me to show a lot about what mattered to me and who I was and what experiences had made me the way I am. So it was very personal in that way.

Yeah, do you read essays if we email them to you? Unfortunately, I cannot do that. That's not a service that CollegeVine offers where you just send me your essays and I read them and give feedback, something we do have, we have two resources that I do want to bring your attention to one is a peer feedback tool, where you can put your essay out there for other applicants to read. And you can read other applicants and give feedback and help each other, which is really cool. And it helps you guys fresh set of eyes on it. And we also do live essay reviews. So they're live streams like this, where we'll go through an essay that we get from you guys, and talk about its strengths, and its ways it can grow. And so you'll see some of those under our live streams page as well, if you take a look at that page, there's a whole folder, a playlist that's just live essay reviews, so you can take a look at that.

Yeah, um, one of the questions you guys have now that we have had some more time together?

Um, what does that look like?

All right, I'm gonna give you my last poll, then. I'm just, you know, question about how many colleges you guys are applying to be really cool to get some feedback on that. And I know that we are, you know, at the tail end here. So there we go. Can you give a sample anecdote, um, I, I could give some anecdotes from my life. But the whole point of an anecdote is that is a personal story that has happened to you that maybe you learn something from or that it really exemplifies your way of thinking.

So for example, one of the anecdotes I wrote about in my Common App essay, one of the times I fell down, was the first time and only time that I went ice skating, I grew up in New Jersey playing of ice skating, playing hockey is just something that my family never did until I was approaching High School. And then I was really embarrassed because all my friends and more importantly, my girlfriend at the time, were avid skaters, my girlfriend's whole family loved hockey. And I had never been on the ice before. And I fell over about a million times. And I was so embarrassed, because you know, when you're 14, you are really insecure about that kind of thing. So I spend a lot of time, you know, trying to look busy, like I was in control, and it was very difficult, and I was really stressed about it.

And I know that that was, you know, just a time that I felt really afraid to fall, and something that I had to learn from. So that's one of the anecdotes I used personally. But they should be really personal to you different. It can be literally about anything that taught you a lesson or exemplified a lesson, for example.

Any other questions before we close out the night? Well, in that case, I want to remind you guys that this is, again, a recorded session, so you can find it again in the future if you wanted to. And there are plenty of live streams going on all the time.

So we have plenty coming up this week. And in next couple weeks, so definitely give us some time to cover some more topics that are interesting to you. But since I'm not seeing to any more questions, I'm going to call it a night on this one. And I hope to see you guys next time. Thank you guys so much for all of your excellent questions and for being really participatory here. We're really excited to be able to help you and we hope that way you can do even better in the future.

Undergrad College: Yale University '21

Work Experience: I am a senior at Yale and excited to begin my fifth admissions cycle working with CollegeVine. After four years of working directly with students, I can't wait to engage with the people and the process in new and innovative ways online.

Popular recent recordings

Make the Most of Your Summer Break with the NSLC!

Making the Most of your Summer with Matriculate

Physics Preparation for PreMedical, PreDental, and PreHealth College Students

I transferred to Harvard and how you can too

The "Why" of Education

Examining our expectations around sending children to school..

Posted August 24, 2021 | Reviewed by Ekua Hagan

Why Education Is Important
Find a Child Therapist
Martin Luther King, Jr. identified "the goal of true education" to be "intelligence plus character."
Schools that do well in terms of test scores don’t always excel at developing character in their students.
It's important to not simplify education and to get young people's perspective on its purpose.

By Angela Duckworth, Ph.D.

What do we hope for when we send children to school?

This is the question Martin Luther King, Jr. posed in an essay entitled “The Purpose of Education ,” published in the Morehouse student newspaper around the time of his 18th birthday.

King’s answer: “ Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.”

But what, then, is character?

This is the question child psychologist Diana Baumrind addressed, toward the end of an illustrious career , in an essay entitled “Reflections on Character and Competence.”

Character, Baumrind writes, “provides the structure of internal law that governs inner thoughts and volitions subject to the agent’s control under the jurisdiction of conscience .”

Baumrind then offers examples of character strengths recognized by diverse traditions across history and different cultures. Character is personal integrity, honesty, and social responsibility. But character is also persistence in the face of obstacles, self-discipline, and work ethic. The list of what constitutes admirable character goes on and on. In short, character is not one thing, but many.

In King’s prescient words: “The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education that stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals.” As Baumrind put it: “It takes virtuous character to will the good, and competence to do good well.”

New research by economist Kirabo Jackson and colleagues shows that some schools are especially good at raising standardized achievement test scores. Some excel at improving interpersonal skills, like helping other people. Some improve intrapersonal skills, like setting aside time to study.

Jackson also found that the schools that do a wonderful job on the test-score front don’t always excel at developing aspects of character—and vice versa. But many schools do both.

Don’t oversimplify education. A great classroom is one in which young people thrive in every sense of the word. Schools play an essential role in helping young people develop socially, emotionally, physically, and academically.

Do ask the young people in your life what they think about the purpose of education. Share a story, perhaps, of a lesson you learned as a young person that you can’t put on your resume but hope will be remembered in your eulogy . As with so many endeavors in life, "Why?" is a very good place to start.

Angela Duckworth is the Rosa Lee and Egbert Chang Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance . She is also the co-host of the podcast No Stupid Questions .

Character Lab is a nonprofit whose mission is to advance scientific insights that help kids thrive.

Find a Therapist
Find a Treatment Center
Find a Psychiatrist
Find a Support Group
Find Teletherapy
United States
Brooklyn, NY
Chicago, IL
Houston, TX
Los Angeles, CA
New York, NY
Portland, OR
San Diego, CA
San Francisco, CA
Seattle, WA
Washington, DC
Asperger's
Bipolar Disorder
Chronic Pain
Eating Disorders
Passive Aggression
Personality
Goal Setting
Positive Psychology
Stopping Smoking
Low Sexual Desire
Relationships
Child Development
Therapy Center NEW
Diagnosis Dictionary
Types of Therapy

Understanding what emotional intelligence looks like and the steps needed to improve it could light a path to a more emotionally adept world.

Coronavirus Disease 2019
Affective Forecasting
Neuroscience

Why Is School Important? (24 Reasons)

From the first shy step into kindergarten to the confident stride onto the graduation stage, school is a critical waypoint on the map of human development. It’s where the seeds of knowledge are sown, often sprouting into passions and professions that define us.

But could the essence of school be a hidden influence, quietly shaping the fabric of who we become? Join me as we explore this intricate dance of education and its pivotal role in nurturing the thinkers, leaders, and innovators of tomorrow.

School Prepares Individuals for the Workforce

Through a structured curriculum, schools provide students with a wealth of general knowledge across various subjects. This exposure cultivates a well-rounded individual with a broad perspective, capable of adapting to a range of professional roles.

Core subjects like math and language arts lay the groundwork for essential workplace competencies, such as quantitative analysis and effective communication.
Electives and specialized courses allow students to explore interests that may lead directly to career paths.

In addition to academic knowledge, schools are critical in instilling work-related soft skills. Team projects and group learning foster collaboration and teamwork, which are highly valued in most careers.

Moreover, schedules and deadlines present in everyday school life teach students about time management and adhering to a set timetable, much like structured workdays in professional environments.

School Provides Foundational Knowledge in Various Subjects

Across various subjects, students learn not only facts but also the context and frameworks to make sense of information they encounter throughout life. From the scientific method to historical perspectives, schools equip students with the tools to understand complex systems and issues.

For instance:

Science classes teach the scientific method, equipping students with a systematic way to question, hypothesize, and validate.
Literature studies often offer insights into human behavior and ethical considerations.

The impact of this foundational knowledge is also evident in daily life. A consumer’s understanding of basic health science can affect nutrition choices, and a citizen’s grasp of civics can shape their participation in governance.

For instance, calculating taxes or understanding a voting ballot requires arithmetic and comprehension abilities typically taught in school.

School Fosters Critical Thinking Skills

Critical thinking is an invaluable skill in an era flooded with information. It allows individuals to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information to determine its credibility and make informed decisions. Schooling plays a significant role in developing this crucial cognitive skill through various teaching methods and subject material.

Each subject offers a unique avenue for fostering critical thinking:

Mathematics challenges students to solve problems through logical steps.
Humanities encourage students to weigh evidence, consider different perspectives, and craft arguments.

In school, students are often required to transition from absorbing facts to applying the knowledge they’ve acquired.

For example, transitioning from learning the laws of physics to using them in practical experiments or moving from reading literature to critiquing its themes and authorship. Such activities demand that students go beyond rote memorization, encouraging them to engage with content at a deeper level.

The skills honed through critical thinking in school have broad applications in adult life. People with well-developed critical thinking skills are more likely to navigate life’s challenges effectively and less likely to be swayed by fallacies or misrepresentations.

A particularly relevant example is the ability to assess the reliability of different sources of information, an essential skill in today’s digital age, where misinformation is widespread.

School Helps in Developing Social Skills Through Interaction

School environments are hubs of social interaction, where students learn to navigate and manage relationships with peers, teachers, and other members of the school community. These interactions are critical in developing social skills that are essential in all areas of life, including the ability to work effectively with others.

During the school years, students are exposed to:

Collaborative projects that teach teamwork and negotiation.
Group discussions that hone the ability to listen, share ideas, and respect diverse opinions.
Extracurricular activities that provide opportunities for leadership and communal engagement.

These experiences help students to learn the art of communication, understand the nuances of social cues, and develop empathy. They also prepare students for the diversity they will encounter in the larger world.

Beyond the practical aspects, the social environment in schools can also support emotional growth. Friendships formed, challenges faced, and successes celebrated contribute to the emotional intelligence of students. A child who learns to navigate schoolyard dynamics effectively is laying the groundwork for successful interpersonal relationships in adulthood.

School Teaches Effective Communication Skills

The essence of communication—conveying and understanding thoughts and ideas—is central to the human experience and is cultivated within schools. Effective communication is a pillar of success in both personal and professional aspects of life, and schools play a pivotal role in teaching these skills.

Here are some ways schools lay the groundwork for effective communication:

Language arts curriculum develops skills in both written and spoken language.
Presentations and speeches in various classes build public speaking skills.
Debates and peer reviews promote constructive criticism and argumentation.

Schools teach students grammar, vocabulary, and syntax for precise expression, as well as reading comprehension for understanding complex texts.

For instance, a student who learns to write persuasive essays is developing the skill to articulate and defend a viewpoint which is useful in any career where presenting proposals or ideas is necessary.

In addition, being articulate and expressive has vast implications, from the ability to advocate for oneself in everyday situations to collaborating with others on complex projects.

An illustrative example of the school’s impact can be seen in a student body president’s campaign speech, demonstrating learned persuasive techniques and the ability to engage an audience.

School Contributes to Shaping Responsible Citizens

Civic education in schools plays a crucial role in forming responsible citizens who are equipped to participate in and contribute to the democratic process. The school setting introduces students to the principles of democracy, rights and responsibilities, and the importance of community involvement.

Key aspects of citizenship education within schools include:

Civics and history classes that explore democratic values and institutions.
Participation in student government offers a microcosm of larger governance.
Service-learning projects that involve students in community improvement efforts.

This educational grounding ensures that students understand their role in society and the functioning of governmental bodies. For instance, a history class discussing the civil rights movement can inspire students to consider their own part in upholding justice within society.

The school’s role in citizenship extends to teaching respect for the law, understanding the rights and responsibilities of citizens, and fostering an environment where students can practice these principles.

Graduates who have experienced this form of education are more likely to vote, volunteer, and participate in the public sphere. Their early education forms the backbone for later civic engagement, such as serving on community boards or engaging in advocacy work, thereby perpetuating a healthy, functioning democracy.

School Aids in the Development of Problem-Solving Abilities

Problem-solving is a crucial life skill that enables individuals to manage challenges and obstacles effectively. Schools are instrumental in developing this competency by engaging students in tasks that require them to apply logic, creativity, and critical thinking to find solutions.

Students face mathematical problems that require analytical and quantitative reasoning.
Scientific experiments in labs demand hypothesis testing and adaptation based on results.
Literary analysis encourages interpreting texts; thus, students must deduce understanding from complex narratives.

These academic exercises simulate the type of thinking that is required in the real world, where problems are often multifaceted, and solutions are not immediately apparent.

An example of problem-solving in action occurs when students must determine the best approach to divide tasks for a group project, balancing fairness with each member’s strengths and weaknesses.

School Can Lead to Better Job Opportunities and Income

Education is often seen as a ladder to better job prospects and, consequently, a higher income, and schools are the starting point of this educational journey.

Key points illustrating this include:

Higher levels of education generally correlate with lower unemployment rates and higher earnings.
Specialized programs and advanced courses in schools can open doors to lucrative professions.
Career and technical education in schools provides practical skills for in-demand jobs.

Employers often regard a good education as indicative of a potential employee’s ability to learn and adapt. For instance, a high school diploma is a minimum requirement for many jobs, and further education increases employability in competitive fields.

School Is a Gateway to Higher Education Opportunities

Access to higher education greatly expands through the foundations laid in school. Schools not only provide the necessary academic qualifications for college or university but also the guidance and preparation to pursue these advanced educational pathways.

Consider the following points:

Counselors in schools assist with college applications, fostering access to higher education.
Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate programs offer college-level coursework, giving students a taste of higher education rigor.
Extracurricular activities and sports can lead to scholarships, making higher education more accessible.

An illuminating example is the transition from high school to college, which often involves standardized testing, letters of recommendation from teachers, and a solid academic transcript—all facilitated by the school environment.

Additionally, school-sponsored college tours or guest lectures from university professors provide glimpses into the world of higher education, igniting students’ ambitions to pursue higher degrees and specialized knowledge.

This bridge to higher education has profound implications for personal and professional development. Higher education not only offers a deeper exploration of chosen fields but also provides opportunities for networking, research, and personal enrichment that can shape an individual’s future trajectory.

School Encourages Personal Development and Growth

School is much more than a place for intellectual expansion; it is a setting for students to mature emotionally, discover their interests and values, and learn the importance of self-discipline and hard work.

Personal growth is nurtured in a multitude of ways:

Through participation in sports, arts, and clubs, students uncover passions that may influence their lifelong hobbies or even their career paths.
Character education programs in schools promote values such as integrity, perseverance, and respect.
The diverse challenges faced during school—from learning new subjects to dealing with social dynamics—help develop adaptability and resilience.

Such experiential learning is imperative for character building.

Take, for instance, the commitment a student shows in completing a year-long research project, which instills a sense of responsibility and achievement. It’s within the school community that many students first learn to take initiative, practice patience, and build self-esteem—all attributes that are essential as they move into adulthood.

School is a Platform for Discovering Talents and Interests

When it comes to unearthing latent talents and interests, the school acts as a discovery zone. Whether it’s an affinity for the visual arts, a knack for scientific inquiry, or an aptitude for languages, schools offer a supportive environment for students to explore and develop their abilities.

In a school setting, students have access to:

A variety of subjects allows for exploration of a wide range of fields.
Teachers who can identify and nurture students’ aptitudes.
Facilities such as science labs, art studios, and music rooms provide the resources necessary for students to practice and refine their skills.

Consider a student who joins the school band on a whim and finds a passion for music, which could lead to a lifelong engagement with the arts or even a professional career. Schools create these pivotal moments by providing students not just with options but also guidance to delve deeper into what they love.

School Nurtures Creativity and Imaginative Thinking

The nurturing of creativity and imaginative thinking within the school curriculum is essential for the development of innovative problem solvers and artists alike.

Creativity goes beyond artistic expression—it encompasses the ability to think in novel ways, approach problems from unique angles, and envision what might be.

Within schools, creativity is fostered through a variety of experiences:

Art and music classes, where students express themselves and learn from historical and contemporary works.
Writing assignments that encourage original thought and personal voice.
Project-based learning requires inventive approaches and solutions.

For example, a science project might task students with creating a sustainable ecosystem, pushing them to synthesize knowledge and think creatively to design their models. Such activities demonstrate the value of imagination and creativity in academic contexts, showing students that these qualities are not only for ‘ artistic ‘ types but are universally beneficial.

The creative talents honed in school often figure prominently later in life during brainstorming sessions at work or in entrepreneurial efforts where innovation is key. By valuing creativity in the classroom, we prepare students to be the visionaries, inventors, and leaders of tomorrow.

School Prepares Students for Global Competitiveness

Schools lay the groundwork for understanding international issues, economic dynamics, and cultural sensitivities – essentials for anyone navigating the global stage.

Schools serve as preparation grounds by providing:

Language courses to bridge communication barriers.
Exchange programs to experience education in different cultural contexts.
Courses in international relations and global economics that arm students with the knowledge to compete and cooperate on a worldwide scale.

Global awareness is key in many professions, where an understanding of cross-cultural nuances can be the difference between success and failure. A student’s participation in a Model United Nations debate can not only polish public speaking skills but also cultivate a nuanced understanding of international diplomacy.

School Exposes Students to Diverse Cultures and Ideas

Exposure to a range of cultures and ideas is a significant aspect of education that supports tolerance, empathy, and a broader worldview. Schools are often the first place where children encounter perspectives different from their own, a fundamental step in building an inclusive society.

The exposure in schools includes:

A curriculum that covers various cultures, religions, and historical perspectives.
Cultural festivals and events that celebrate diversity.
Literature from around the world gives insight into different life experiences.

This diverse exposure can profoundly affect a child’s life, such as when a student reads a novel set in a different country or learns about the civil rights movement. These learning experiences can shape their understanding of justice and equality, lead to more informed citizens, and contribute to a more compassionate society.

School Promotes Understanding of Ethical and Moral Values

The understanding of ethical and moral values is critical to the fabric of society and is something that education systems nationwide aim to instill. School is a setting where students learn not only the ‘ three Rs’ (reading, writing, arithmetic) but also the ‘fourth R’ — right from wrong.

Here’s how ethical and moral values are integrated into school education:

Character education and ethics classes delve into moral philosophy and day-to-day ethical dilemmas.
Literature and social studies discuss historical events and literature, providing context for discussions on morality.
Service projects and community service requirements reinforce the importance of altruism and civic responsibility.

Real-world moral and ethical decision-making is often complex and nuanced. Through case studies in a history class or debates on contemporary issues, students learn to navigate these complexities, which serve them well in adult life, such as when making choices about sustainability or fairness in the workplace.

School Encourages Civic Engagement and Leadership

Schools play a critical role in encouraging civic engagement and developing future leaders. The school environment provides numerous leadership opportunities and teaches students about civic duties, fostering a commitment to the larger community and the world at large.

Here are a few of the ways that schools encourage civic engagement and leadership:

Student government: A miniaturized political system that teaches democratic principles and leadership.
Community service requirements: Integrating service into education to build a habit of engagement and responsibility.
Debates and discussions: Where students practice defending their viewpoints and learn the importance of informed debate on civic issues.

When students take on leadership roles, such as captain of a sports team or president of a club, they learn the complexities of leadership — making decisions, mediating conflicts, and motivating peers.

These experiences are formative, equipping students with the skills necessary for community involvement and leading initiatives. An active involvement in these school-based activities can spark a lifelong commitment to public service or activism.

School Equips Students with Technological Proficiency

The ability to navigate various software, understand the principles of computer operation, and use the internet responsibly are now foundational skills for participating effectively in most aspects of modern life.

Schools cultivate technological proficiency by integrating technology into the curriculum:

Computer classes teaching basic to advanced computing and coding skills.
Interactive learning modules across subjects that involve technology use.
Assignments and projects requiring research and presentation often demand fluency in digital tools.

A student who learns to create a website as part of a class project is acquiring skills that are increasingly relevant in the job market. Additionally, the ethical use of technology, a critical component of digital literacy, is emphasized to prepare students for the challenges of digital citizenship.

School Helps to Build Confidence and Self-esteem

Confidence and self-esteem are vital personal attributes that enable individuals to face life’s challenges with resilience and ambition. The school environment offers various experiences and challenges that contribute to the development of a student’s self-confidence and self-worth.

Examples of how schools build these attributes include:

Academic achievements and feedback that reinforce a student’s capability.
Extracurricular activities where students explore talents and gain recognition.
Social interactions that help students develop a sense of identity and belonging.

Overcoming the challenges of difficult assignments, or speaking in front of peers during class presentations, helps students gain confidence in their abilities. Participation in arts, sports, or other interest-based activities also nurtures a healthy sense of self-esteem as students recognize their unique strengths and contributions.

This foundation of self-assuredness is essential, whether it manifests in a student advocating for themselves in college or handling a high-pressure situation in their career.

School Aids in Teaching Time Management and Organization

The structured nature of the school day provides a fundamental framework for students to develop time management and organizational skills. The ability to prioritize tasks, manage one’s time effectively, and stay organized are crucial for academic success and are highly transferable to all areas of adult life.

Within the educational structure, students encounter various aspects that foster these skills:

Daily schedules require punctuality and the ability to move from one task to another.
Homework and project deadlines teach students to plan and allocate time for completion.
Note-taking and assignment tracking require students to develop methods for staying organized.

The practical applications of these skills are wide-reaching. For example, a student balancing schoolwork with a part-time job must learn to manage time wisely, a skill that is indispensable in managing work-life balance later on.

The discipline of organization and time management, honed from the early days in school, can lead to more productive college experiences and efficient professional practices.

School Introduces the Basics of Financial Literacy

Financial literacy begins in school, where students are introduced to the basic principles of money management, economics, and entrepreneurship. As they progress, they learn essential skills such as budgeting, saving, and investing, preparing them for financial independence and sound decision-making in the future.

To foster financial literacy, schools may offer:

Economics classes that discuss the fundamentals of the economy and personal finance.
Math problems and projects that involve financial calculations and budgeting exercises.
Clubs or special events focused on entrepreneurship and the financial markets.

A practical example of schools’ role in financial education is when students manage a mock stock portfolio or develop a business plan, applying learned principles and gaining financial acumen. These lessons are invaluable later in life when managing personal finances, starting a business, or navigating economic downturns.

School Creates Opportunities for Physical Education

Physical education (PE) in schools is instrumental in promoting an active lifestyle and educating students about the benefits of regular exercise and sportsmanship. PE classes provide structured exercise, teach a variety of physical skills, and emphasize the importance of health and wellness.

In school-based physical education, students engage with:

A range of sports and physical activities that cater to diverse interests and abilities.
Health and fitness education that stresses the benefits of exercise and proper nutrition.
Competitive and cooperative games that foster team spirit and fair play.

For instance, a student who finds a passion for soccer or running during PE may continue these activities into adulthood, contributing to long-term health and well-being. The teamwork and discipline learned through team sports can also translate into effective collaboration and perseverance in other areas of life.

School Helps to Build a Foundation for Lifelong Learning

Lifelong learning is the continuous pursuit of knowledge and skills throughout an individual’s life, and it begins with the foundation laid in school. The habits and attitudes developed during the school years can instill a love of learning that persists long after formal education ends.

Consider these pillars of lifelong learning that stem from school education:

Curiosity: Schools encourage inquisitive minds through science experiments, literary analyses, and open discussions.
Adaptability: As students encounter new subjects and teaching styles, they learn to adapt and thrive amidst change.
Self-directed learning: Initiatives like independent study projects foster the skills necessary for students to take charge of their own education.

The seed of curiosity planted in a biology class or the joy of discovery in solving a complex math problem are examples of how schools inspire students to continue learning.

School Provides Access to Resources and Expertise

Schools are resource centers that provide students with access to a plethora of learning materials and the expertise of qualified educators. This access is crucial for students to explore subjects deeply and receive guidance in areas where they might not have expertise themselves.

In schools, students have access to:

Libraries with extensive collections of books and research materials.
Laboratories equipped for scientific experimentation and discovery.
Teachers with subject matter expertise who act as mentors and guides in the learning process.

For example, a student with an interest in astronomy can take advantage of the school telescope to observe celestial bodies, guided by a science teacher. These resources and expert guidance are invaluable for deepening students’ understanding and sparking a level of engagement that might be challenging to achieve independently.

School Supports Emotional and Psychological Well-Being

The importance of emotional and psychological well-being in schools cannot be overstated. Schools provide more than just intellectual growth; they offer support systems and services that are integral to the mental health of students.

Key aspects of how schools support students’ emotional well-being include:

Counseling services where students can seek help for personal, social, or academic issues.
Programs and clubs that provide a sense of belonging and community.
Anti-bullying policies and wellness programs that create a safe and supportive environment for all students.

A student who is experiencing personal difficulties, for example, may find solace and assistance in a school’s guidance counseling, enabling them to navigate challenges and continue their education with confidence. This type of comprehensive support is essential for fostering healthy, well-adjusted adults who can cope with life’s stresses and challenges.

Final Thoughts

As we conclude our discussion on the enduring importance of school, it is evident that the hallways and classrooms have been more than just spaces for learning—they have been the arenas where our character is formed, and life skills are forged. School is integral to building the foundations upon which we grow and contribute meaningfully to society.

Let us then acknowledge the timeless relevance of our schooldays. With every interaction and lesson, with every challenge faced and overcome, the school steadily molds both character and intellect. May we hold onto the profound lessons that these years impart and let them resonate, uplifting and shaping us in every future chapter of our great human sto

How useful was this post?

Click on a star to rate it!

As you found this post useful...

Share it on social media!

We are sorry that this post was not useful for you!

Let us improve this post!

Tell us how we can improve this post?

Bea Mariel Saulo

Why Is School Important Essay?

August 13, 2023
Learning Techniques

In the vast landscape of education, one question often arises: “Why is school important essay?” Well, my young learner, let me enlighten you. School is not just a place where you spend your days sitting at desks and listening to teachers drone on about quadratic equations or the French Revolution. No, it’s so much more than that!

You see, my eager student, school is a magical realm where you embark on a journey of discovery. It’s where you learn about the world around you, uncover your passions, and acquire the knowledge and skills that will shape your future. It’s where you make friends, explore new ideas, and challenge yourself to grow. School is the launching pad for your dreams and aspirations.

But why, you may wonder, is school important in the first place? Well, dear reader, the answer lies in the doors it opens for you. School equips you with the tools you need to succeed in life. It teaches you how to read, write, and think critically. It instills in you the values of discipline, responsibility, and perseverance. And most importantly, it empowers you to chase your dreams and make a positive impact on the world.

So, my inquisitive young mind, as you embark on your own educational journey, remember the importance of school. Embrace the opportunities it presents, savor the knowledge it imparts, and cherish the friendships you make along the way. Because, my dear reader, school is not just a place, but a springboard to a bright and fulfilling future.

School is important for a variety of reasons. It provides a foundation for academic learning, social development, and personal growth. In school, students gain knowledge and skills that prepare them for future success. They learn how to collaborate, communicate, and think critically. School also offers opportunities for extracurricular activities, sports, and arts, allowing students to explore their passions and interests. Beyond education, school fosters friendships and builds a sense of community. In summary, school plays a crucial role in shaping well-rounded individuals.

Table of Contents

Education plays a vital role in shaping individuals and society as a whole. School, as the foundation of education, holds immense significance in the lives of students. It provides a structured environment for learning, critical thinking, and personal development. In this article, we will explore the reasons why school is important and how it contributes to the growth and success of individuals.

Importance of Attending School

1. Academic Learning:

School acts as a platform for academic learning, where students gain knowledge and skills in various subjects. By attending school, students have access to a structured curriculum that covers a wide range of disciplines, including math, science, history, literature, and more. Classroom environments foster interactive discussions, critical thinking, and problem-solving, allowing students to develop a strong educational foundation.

Moreover, school provides opportunities for students to engage in extracurricular activities such as sports, drama, music, and art, further enhancing their learning experience. These activities promote creativity, teamwork, and personal growth.

2. Social Development:

School is a social setting where students interact with their peers and develop crucial social skills. By attending school, students learn to communicate effectively, resolve conflicts, and collaborate with others. They build friendships, participate in group activities, and develop a sense of belonging within a community.

Additionally, schools offer platforms for students to hone their leadership skills through student clubs, organizations, and student government. These experiences allow students to discover their strengths, take on responsibilities, and develop essential life skills that extend beyond the classroom.

3. Personal Growth:

Attending school contributes to personal growth by fostering self-discipline, time management, and a sense of responsibility. In a school environment, students learn to follow schedules, complete assignments, and meet deadlines, instilling valuable life skills that are essential for success in later stages of life.

School also plays a crucial role in character development by promoting values such as honesty, integrity, empathy, and respect. Students are exposed to diverse perspectives, cultures, and backgrounds, allowing them to develop a sense of empathy and appreciation for others.

Preparation for Higher Education

1. Higher Education Opportunities:

School is an essential stepping stone towards higher education opportunities. It equips students with the academic knowledge, study skills, and critical thinking abilities necessary to pursue higher education. The knowledge gained in school serves as a solid foundation for success in college or university.

2. Career Readiness:

School prepares students for their future careers by imparting crucial skills and knowledge relevant to the workforce. It helps students explore different subjects and career paths, allowing them to make informed decisions about their future goals. Schools often offer career counseling and guidance services to assist students in making well-informed choices about their academic and professional futures.

3. Personal Development:

In addition to academic and career readiness, schools foster personal development by nurturing essential life skills. Through various activities, such as public speaking, teamwork, and problem-solving, students develop their communication abilities, leadership potential, and adaptability – all of which are highly valued in modern-day workplaces.

By attending school, students also have access to mentorship and guidance from teachers who help them navigate challenges, provide academic support, and offer valuable insights into personal growth and development. These experiences contribute to a well-rounded education that prepares students for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

Overcoming Challenges in School

1. School-related Stress:

With the academic workload, extracurricular activities, and social dynamics, students often face stress and pressure in school. It is important for schools to create a supportive environment that addresses the mental health and well-being of students. Encouraging open communication, providing access to counseling services, and promoting a healthy work-life balance can help students overcome these challenges.

2. Bullying and Peer Pressure:

Bullying and peer pressure can negatively impact a student’s experience in school. Schools should enforce strict anti-bullying policies, educate students about respectful behavior, and promote inclusivity and acceptance. Creating a safe and supportive atmosphere where students feel comfortable and confident is essential for their overall well-being.

3. Lack of Resources:

Schools in certain regions may face challenges in terms of limited resources, outdated facilities, or lack of funding. It is vital for governments and communities to work together to ensure that schools have the necessary resources to provide quality education to students. Investing in education is investing in the future of individuals and society as a whole.

The Role of Parents and Teachers

1. Parental Support:

Parents play a crucial role in supporting their child’s education. By actively engaging in their child’s academic journey, providing a nurturing environment, and being involved in school activities, parents can enhance their child’s educational experience. Regular communication with teachers, attending parent-teacher meetings, and encouraging a love for learning at home are some ways parents can support their child’s education.

2. Inspirational Teachers:

Teachers are the driving force behind students’ educational journey. Passionate and dedicated teachers inspire students, foster a love for learning, and provide guidance and support. It is essential for teachers to create inclusive and engaging classrooms, tailor teaching methods to meet individual needs, and foster a positive and supportive learning environment.

Parents and teachers can work together as a team to ensure students receive the necessary support, encouragement, and guidance to excel in their education and personal development.

Embracing the Importance of School

1. Recognize the Value:

Understanding the importance of school is vital for students to actively engage in their education. Recognize that school provides opportunities for learning, personal growth, and future success. Embrace the challenges and experiences that come with attending school, as they contribute to your overall development.

2. Set Goals:

Setting personal goals and aspirations can help you stay motivated and focused during your school years. Identify what you want to achieve academically, socially, and personally. Break these goals into smaller tasks and work towards them with determination and perseverance.

3. Make the Most of Resources:

Schools provide various resources and opportunities for students to excel. Take advantage of libraries, extracurricular activities, counseling services, and other resources available to enhance your learning experience. Seek support and guidance whenever needed.

Remember that your journey through school is just the beginning of a lifelong pursuit of knowledge and personal growth. Embrace the importance of school, seize the opportunities it provides, and pave the way towards a bright and successful future.

Key Takeaways: Why Is School Important Essay?

Education in school helps you learn important skills for life. (For example, reading, writing, and problem-solving).
School provides a safe and structured environment for learning and socializing with peers.
Attending school regularly teaches discipline and time management.
Education opens doors to future opportunities, such as college and career success.
School helps develop critical thinking and creativity, enabling you to solve problems and think outside the box.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some commonly asked questions about the importance of school essays:

1. How do school essays help in developing critical thinking skills?

School essays encourage students to analyze information, think critically, and form logical arguments. Through essay writing, students learn to gather evidence, evaluate different perspectives, and express their own opinions. This process enhances their ability to think critically, problem solve, and make informed decisions, which are valuable skills applicable in all aspects of life.

By engaging in essay writing, students also learn to communicate effectively, articulate their thoughts and ideas clearly, and support their claims with evidence. These skills are crucial for success not only in academics but also in future careers and personal relationships.

2. What role do school essays play in enhancing students’ research skills?

School essays require students to conduct research on various topics, which helps them develop their research skills. When writing an essay, students are encouraged to explore different sources, gather relevant information, and evaluate its credibility and reliability. This process teaches them how to identify reliable sources, critically analyze information, and draw meaningful conclusions.

Researching for essays also exposes students to different perspectives and allows them to develop a well-rounded understanding of a topic. This broadens their knowledge base, enhances their ability to synthesize information, and encourages intellectual growth.

3. How do school essays contribute to students’ writing and communication skills?

Writing school essays helps students develop their writing skills by providing them with regular practice. As they construct and revise their essays, students learn to organize their thoughts, structure their writing, use appropriate language, and convey their ideas effectively. These skills are valuable not only for academic success but also for professional communication.

Furthermore, school essays foster creativity and encourage students to think critically about how to express their ideas in a compelling and persuasive manner. By mastering the art of writing, students gain a powerful tool for self-expression and effective communication, both in written and verbal forms.

4. How do school essays promote self-reflection and personal growth?

Writing school essays provides students with an opportunity for self-reflection and personal growth. Through the process of writing, students are encouraged to analyze their thoughts, beliefs, and experiences. This self-reflection fosters self-awareness, enabling students to identify their strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement.

Additionally, school essays often require students to explore personal topics, express their emotions, and analyze their own experiences. This introspection allows students to gain deeper insights into themselves, develop empathy, and foster personal growth.

5. How do school essays prepare students for future academic and professional success?

The skills developed through writing school essays are transferable to various academic and professional contexts, preparing students for future success. These skills include critical thinking, research, effective communication, and self-reflection.

Whether in college or the workforce, students will continue to encounter situations that require the ability to think critically, evaluate information, and express their thoughts effectively. School essays provide the foundation for these skills, equipping students with the tools they need to excel in future endeavors.

Essay on Importance of school/essay on school importance

So, to sum it all up, school is super important for a bunch of awesome reasons! First, it helps us learn new things and gain knowledge that we can use later in life. Whether it’s math, science, or history, school gives us the chance to explore different subjects and expand our minds. Plus, going to school helps us develop important skills like problem-solving, teamwork, and creativity. These skills will help us succeed in the future, no matter what we decide to do.

Second, school is a place where we can make friends and build relationships. We get to meet all kinds of people from different backgrounds and cultures, and this helps us become more open-minded and understanding. We also get the chance to work together on projects and learn how to communicate effectively, which is super important in the real world. School teaches us how to socialize and be part of a community, which is something we’ll need throughout our lives.

So, whether we love it or sometimes find it challenging, school is definitely worth it. It gives us knowledge, skills, and the chance to make friends. Remember, school is not just about getting good grades, but about growing as a person and preparing for the future. So, let’s make the most of this amazing opportunity and enjoy our time in school!

Why Schools Are Important: The Benefits

By: Author Paul Jenkins

Posted on Published: April 27, 2022 - Last updated: January 1, 2024

Categories Education , Community , Society

School is one of the most important and fundamental institutions in our society. It’s where we learn about the world around us and develop the skills we need to succeed in life. But with so much focus on things like test scores and college admissions, it’s easy to forget why schools are so important in the first place. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at some of the top reasons why schools are so important and why they should be a top priority for each of us – far beyond simply academic achievement. Thanks for reading!

Schools Prepare Young People for Their Futures

Young people spend a great deal of their time in school, and for good reason. A school is a place where a young person learns about the world around them, explores their interests and passions, develops social skills, and learns more about things that will be useful in their future careers.

Schools open doors for young people. Many children don’t yet know what they want to do with their lives, so school helps them develop an understanding of themselves and the world.

While at school, they may find that they enjoy reading , writing, building with Legos, or drawing pictures of frogs eating spaghetti (or whatever). No matter what a child likes to do, school can help them explore those interests.

At a later stage, schools prepare students for higher education, should that be their choice.

School also provides an environment where young people can safely make mistakes and learn valuable lessons along the way – whether it’s how to treat others with kindness and respect or how to take responsibility by completing assignments on time. Young people can learn from each other as well as from their teachers, preparing them for life after school.

Schools are very important because they teach us many different skills that we’ll need later in life. For example, schools teach students how to count by introducing them to numbers at an early age so that later, when they grow up and have a job, they can use those skills when planning budgets, or other types of calculations.

School Education is Critical for All Students’ Success

Schools are critical to the success of all students. They provide a great public service and prepare young people for their future. Schools are a safe place for children and youth to learn and grow together.

Schools often help communities thrive: it’s undeniable that schools play a key role in communities around the world, especially for children and young people.

In the United States, schools are often where most children first learn about their role in society and how they can contribute to their community. The public school system in America is one of the largest educational institutions, with more than 70 million students attending each year from kindergarten through high school graduation.

It’s important that our schools are open to all students, regardless of race or ethnicity, because diverse classrooms help us become better-educated citizens who better understand the world around us

Schools Provide a Great Public Service

For many families, public schools make the most sense for their children. Not only are they more affordable (public schools are funded by federal, state, and local governments), but they offer a wider range of programs, and class sizes tend to be smaller.

Public schools also tend to be more diverse: according to recent statistics, about 50 million school-age children in the United States attend public school.

In addition, studies have shown that strong parental involvement is critical to academic success. It only makes sense that parents are more engaged if they’ve chosen a school that’s close to home and convenient for their family.

For children with special education needs, public schools may provide special instruction and services under an Individual Education Plan (IEP). If your child has an IEP or a Section 504 plan, teachers in public schools can also make adjustments in instruction without charging fees or tuition.

Schools Provide Physical Education to Students

Schools should ensure that students receive appropriate physical education. Physical education is part of a person’s overall health and is part of the school programs.

Physical education promotes the development of movement skills that are essential to developing and maintaining a healthy body and mind. A well-developed physical education program can teach students important lessons about teamwork, perseverance, self-discipline, and sportsmanship.

Studies show that people who’re physically active live longer and happier lives than those who don’t exercise enough.

Our Schools Often Help Children Develop Important Social Skills

Children can develop important social skills in school. These include leadership skills, social engagement , communication, and teamwork.

The ability to lead is an important skill that children learn in school. It helps them get involved in clubs and activities. It helps them communicate more effectively with others. And it even helps them contribute to the community when they graduate from school.

Communication is another skill students should develop in school. Being able to communicate well with others is important for a healthy relationship between children, classmates, and teachers.

At school, children learn how to work together as part of a team. This can help them be more productive and successful later, both in personal life and at work.

Schools Provide a Safe Place for Children and Youth to Learn and Grow Together

Schools are for children, and children need good schools. Schools provide a community where children can learn and grow with teachers, peers, family members, and friends.

They set the tone for the learning environment from elementary school through college (and help students prepare for careers), are responsible for keeping students safe, and help children develop into good citizens who can contribute to their communities.

Schools also impact the lives of adults: Many careers require a high level of literacy skills – and research shows that a child’s educational environment has an impact on these skills later in life.

Schools Often Help Communities Thrive

Schools often help communities thrive by bringing together community members with similar interests and concerns and by addressing local issues that affect our neighborhoods.

For example, through community involvement they can:

focus on community needs
help with outreach
provide resources that may not be available without school involvement
encourage diversity

Neighborhood schools are absolutely essential to this process. They provide a space where people can come together to work on projects, discuss concerns, and help improve 1 business or reputation.

In some cases, they even host events on specific topics to attract more people. These events aren’t only a great way to meet like-minded people, but also an opportunity to learn new skills that can benefit careers or personal lives.

In short, there are many benefits to someone who wants to attend a school near them!

Not only do schools provide opportunities for different members of society to work together, but they can also address local issues that affect the community (such as safety issues from crime).

Schools that focus on educating children about social issues- such as poverty – are likely to have less difficulty identifying areas that could later become dangerous than schools that don’t address these issues in the classroom or in extracurricular activities for students under 18!

School Staff and Teachers Care About Students’ Success, Both in School and in Life

Another point that makes schools important is the support that teachers and school staff provide to students.

Most teachers aren’t only great at their jobs but are passionate about helping students learn and grow. It’s a profession where the decision to become a teacher isn’t usually made for financial reasons.

Many teachers begin their educational careers with the hope of impacting the lives of their students. That’s the reason they want to teach in the first place!

School staff – from principals to security to cafeteria workers – are there for the students. They’re committed to providing a safe, positive learning environment and have their students’ best interests at heart.

Teachers have many students to take care of, but they care about each one and want them all to succeed both in school and in life.

School Leaders Take Action on What They Learn From the Community

Principals implement what they learn from the community, such as how well students are doing, how to get parents more involved in their children’s learning, or how to improve health care in the community.

They also help teachers change their instructional practices. School leaders create positive school environments where students and teachers are healthy, safe, and motivated to learn.

When school leaders take action on what they learn from the community, such as how well students are doing, how to get parents more involved in their children’s learning, or how to improve health services in the community, they send a clear message that the school cares about its students and families.

When parents and teachers work together to solve problems and make improvements at the local level, students benefit both academically and socially.

Teachers Make a Difference in Student Achievement by Challenging Them to Think Deeply

Schools play a particularly important role in helping students learn to think critically , solve problems, and complete tasks independently.

Learning how to think is a critical part of child development.

They’re in a position to help students understand the value and importance of critical thinking and learning by linking it to their own interests and goals, making lessons more understandable and comprehensible.

Teachers can also help students appreciate the challenge of learning because they can see that it makes them better thinkers and learners. In addition, teachers help students learn more effectively by showing them ways to understand new material and the steps they need to take to improve.

Therefore, many teachers encourage their students to reflect on their understanding before they begin assignments or take a test.

By encouraging their students to think about what questions they could ask about the material at each stage of a lesson (before, during, and after), teachers help them become more aware of how much they really understand – and where there are still gaps that need to be filled as soon as possible.

Schools Are a Great Place That Not Only Help Children Get Educated but Also Prepare Them for Their Future Life Successes

Schools are an important part of modern society and should be taken seriously.

They play an important role in shaping the lives of students by giving them education, opportunities, and the confidence to tackle any problem that comes their way so that their academic performance in numerous subjects and personal development flourishes.

In schools, children get access to a good education where they learn subjects such as mathematics, science, history, etc. These subjects are very useful for later life. Education is very important for success in life because it gives us knowledge about different things that we need in our lives and allows us to understand the world around us.

In school, students learn how to behave towards other people, such as older people, younger people, or their peers. They learn how to share their experiences with others without disturbing others or hurting their feelings.

The school helps students develop social skills so they can be successful later in life, because social skills are very important for success at work and in other places where you regularly meet people, such as clubs or social gatherings.

A good school thinks of itself not only as an educational establishment but as a center of educational leadership.

Sep 20, 2023

Crash course: How to write a great “Why School” essay

For our students applying to a long list of schools, the “Why School” essay can be one of the most challenging parts of the essay process. Unlike other prompts, this one cannot be recycled across schools—and if you’re applying to 10 schools or more, these drafts can accumulate into a major time sink.

But while these essays are usually short, they can make the difference in putting your application over the line at competitive universities. It’s worth the time to do them right… here’s how.

Understand why colleges ask this question. They are not including this prompt to make more work for you (after all, reading it creates more work for them, too!). Schools ask this because they need to protect something called the yield rate. That’s the percentage of students who accept the school’s offer of admission and matriculate there, and it’s an important factor that affects the school’s prestige, financial stability, and ability to attract highly qualified students. So, colleges want to admit students that they believe will accept their offer—and the Why School essay is one way they try to ascertain this. If you can show enthusiasm for the school and convince them that they’re your first choice, the Why School essay can increase your chances of acceptance.

Research the school. The Prospective Students part of a school’s website is a good place to start, but you’ll need to go beyond this area to write a great Why School essay. Check out online information about specific departments, professors, student organizations, and unique resources at the university. For instance, Yale’s Beinecke Rare Books Library and Directed Studies program are unlike any resource at other schools, and they’ll be of great interest to humanities majors. You can also look at the student newspaper, and don’t be afraid to go back in time a bit as you peruse the articles. This can be a valuable way to get an unvarnished look at a school’s culture—a perfect supplement to the university’s official marketing materials.

Discuss topics that are unique to the school—and to you. The essay will stand out if you write on topics that other applicants won’t write about. For example, a common cliche in Why School essays is to discuss “studying with world-renowned professors.” However, all elite colleges employ world-renowned professors, so this does nothing to explain why you prefer the target school over a competitor. Also avoid discussing resources that may be specific to the school, but that all students will benefit from—for example, a residential college system or sunny weather.

So, what should you discuss instead?

Relate the school’s resources to your personal interests and goals. The truth is that many colleges offer similar benefits to their students—career services offices, clubs related to your major, study abroad, and undergraduate research programs are all standard at elite schools. If you want to write about one of these resources, focus on what makes it different from the same program at competing schools, and a perfect fit for you as an individual. For example, a study-abroad program in an unusual country, whose content directly relates to your career goals, is a much stronger discussion point than writing about study abroad opportunities in general. Perhaps many schools offer research opportunities, but one professor at your target school is doing work that’s closely related to your academic interests. Mention that professor by name and share why you’d love to work with them. (Professors’ bio pages on their department website usually include their research interests.)

In crafting a Why School essay, nothing can replace good research—and there’s no way to rush this. Our best advice is to start early and to always keep your eye on not just why your target school is great, but why it’s great for you.

At College Choice Counseling®, our counselors and tutors are here to help you with college counseling , college essay and application help , test prep tutoring , and academic subject tutorin g. Reach out … we’ll help you succeed!

Comentarios

Skip to main content
Skip to secondary menu
Skip to primary sidebar

Curious Desire

Quench Curiosity

How to Write Why School is Important Essay

September 10, 2023 by Yusuf Ali

One of the most important things that you need to remember when writing about “why school is important essay” is to keep your audience in mind. You need to make sure that you are able to capture their attention and make them want to read more.

Here are some tips and tricks on how you can do this:

Table of Contents

Start with a strong opening statement

This is one of the most important aspects of your essay. You need to make sure that you are able to catch your reader’s attention from the very beginning. A strong opening statement will immediately grab their attention and make them want to read more.

For example; you can write an opening sentence as;

“School is the place where we learn the basic fundamental things that we need in our lives.”

Use strong supporting arguments

Another important thing to remember is to use strong supporting arguments throughout your essay. You need to make sure that you are able to back up your claims with evidence . This will make your essay more convincing and persuasive.

For example;

“School is important because it helps us to acquire the essential skills and knowledge that we need in our lives. It also helps us to develop our character and values .”

Use Examples

Examples are always helpful when trying to make a point. They help to illustrate your point and make it more understandable. Try to use examples that are relevant to your topic and that will resonate with your reader.

If you are writing about why school is important, you could use examples like:

School teaches important life skills like responsibility , time management , and organization .
At school, students learn how to think critically and solve problems.

Quotes can also be effective in making your point. They can be used to support your argument or to illustrate a point. Make sure to choose quotes that are from credible sources and that will add value to your essay.

“School is the place where young minds are nurtured and challenged to grow.” – Unknown

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” – Nelson Mandela

Note: Use these quotes sparingly, as too many quotes can make your essay seem like a collection of other people’s thoughts.

Write in a Clear and Concise Manner

Make sure that your essay is easy to read and understand. Avoid using complicated words and sentences, as this will only make it harder for your reader to follow your argument. Instead, use simple language to make your point.

Be Persuasive

You need to make sure that you are able to convince your reader that what you are saying is true. You need to use strong language and persuasive techniques in order to do this. If you can’t do this, then your essay will likely fail.

Your argument needs to be well-reasoned in order for it to be effective. You need to make sure that you are able to back up your claims with evidence and reasoning . If you can’t do this, then your essay will likely fall flat.

Edit and Proofread Your Work

This is one of the most important aspects of writing an essay. You need to make sure that you are able to edit and proofread your work before you submit it. This will ensure that there are no errors and that your essay is as good as it can be.

How to Edit and Proofread Essays?

There are a few different ways that you can edit and proofread your essay.

One way is to read it aloud to yourself. This will help you to catch any errors that you may have missed.
Another way is to have someone else read it for you. This person can help you to identify any areas that need improvement.
Finally, you can use a grammar checker to help you find and fix any errors in your essay.

By following these tips, you can be sure that your essay on why school is important will be of the highest quality.

Use Strong Language

Make sure that you are able to use strong language in order to make your essay more effective. You need to make sure that you are able to convey your message in a clear and concise manner. If you can’t do this, then your essay will likely fail.

Strong language for why school is important essay

Be Original

Your essay needs to be unique and original in order to be successful. You need to make sure that you are able to come up with new and interesting ideas in order to make your essay stand out. If you can’t do this, then your essay will likely be ignored.

Make sure that you are able to keep your essay short and to the point. Your reader will likely lose interest if you go on for too long. So, make sure that you are able to get your point across in a clear and concise manner.

Be Passionate

Make sure that you are able to show your passion for your topic in your essay. You need to make sure that you are able to convey your excitement and enthusiasm in order to make your essay more effective. If you can’t do this, then your essay will likely fall flat.

End with a Strong Conclusion

Your conclusion is just as important as your opening statement. You need to make sure that you are able to leave a lasting impression on your reader. A strong conclusion will reiterate your main points and leave your reader with something to think about.

Strong conclusion - a key for good essay

“School helps to prepare us for life. It teaches us how to socialize, how to think critically, and how to solve problems. It is an essential part of our lives and we should all do our best to get the most out of it. So why is school important? Because it helps us to become better people. And that is something that we should all strive for.”

This is a strong conclusion that will leave the reader with a positive impression of the essay.

Why School Is Important Essay – Sample Essays

Sample essay 1, introduction.

In a world where knowledge is power , formal education is seen as the key to unlocking greater opportunities in life. From preschool to university and beyond, most people believe that going to school is the best way to gain the skills and qualifications needed to succeed. But why is school so important? Here are four reasons why getting an education can be vital to your future success.

One of the most important things that school provides is education. Education is essential to success in life. It teaches us how to read, write, and do the math . It also teaches us about history , science , and other important subjects. Without an education, it would be difficult to get a good job or succeed in life.

In addition to providing education, the school also gives us the opportunity to make friends and meet new people. For many people, school is the first place where they socialize with people their own age. It’s a place where we learn how to interact with others and form relationships. These skills are essential in both our personal and professional lives.

Finally, the school helps instill discipline in our lives. In order to succeed in school, we have to show up on time, pay attention in class, do our homework, and study for tests. These are all habits that will serve us well later in life when we enter the workforce.

As you can see , there are many good reasons why school is important. It’s more than just a place to get an education; it’s a place where we learn important life skills and form lasting relationships. If you’re currently debating whether or not to stay in school or drop out, we hope this article has helped you make up your mind.

Sample Essay 2

Many people view school as a tedious chore that they must go through in order to get a job and support themselves financially. However, there is more to a school than just preparing for a career. Education is the key to success in life, and everyone should take advantage of the opportunities that school provides.

Here are four reasons why school is important.

Body – Supporting Arguments

School Teaches You How to Learn

One of the most important things you learn from formal education is how to learn effectively. In school, you are taught how to break down information and understand it better. You also learn how to retain information and apply it in different contexts. These are essential skills that you will need throughout your life, whether you are learning a new language, developing a new skill , or researching for a work project.

School Helps You Develop Important Life Skills

In addition to teaching you how to learn, schools also help you develop other important life skills. For example, you learn how to communicate with others, how to work effectively in teams, and how to manage your time and resources. You also learn how to think critically and solve problems. All of these skills are essential for success in any field.

School exposes you to new ideas and perspectives

One of the great things about school is that it exposes you to new ideas and perspectives that you may never have encountered before. Through your studies, you learn about different cultures and beliefs , and you develop a greater understanding of the world around you. This increased knowledge can help you make better decisions in your personal and professional life.

School can open doors to new opportunities

Finally, completing formal education can open doors to new opportunities that may not have been available to you otherwise. A good education can give you the chance to pursue the career of your dreams or gain admission into a prestigious university. It can also improve your earning potential and help you build a successful future for yourself and your family.

School is an important stepping stone on the path to success, but it’s so much more than just a stepping stone. It’s an opportunity for students to learn how to learn, be creative, make friends, explore their interests, and much more. So if you have the opportunity to go to school, don’t pass it up. It might just be the best decision you ever make.

Yusuf is interested in exploring the world around him and making meaningful connections with it. He then express these ideas with words for the world to enjoy. In his free time, Yusuf loves to spend time with books, nature & his family.

Choose Your Test

Sat / act prep online guides and tips, how to write a perfect "why this college" essay.

College Essays

Did you think you were all done pouring out your blood, sweat, and tears in written form for your personal statement , only to be faced with the "why this college?" supplemental essay? This question might seem simple but is in fact a crucial and potentially tricky part of many college applications. What exactly is the "why us?" essay trying to understand about you? And how do you answer this question without falling into its many pitfalls or making any rookie mistakes?

In this article, I'll explain why colleges want you to be able to explain why you are applying. I'll also discuss how to generate and brainstorm topics for this question and how to make yourself sound sincere and committed. Finally, we'll go over some "why this school?" essay do s and don't s.

This article is pretty detailed, so here's a brief overview of what we'll be covering:

Why Do Colleges Want You to Write a "Why Us?" Essay?

Two types of "why this college" essay prompts, step 1: research the school, step 2: brainstorm potential essay topics, step 3: nail the execution, example of a great "why this college" essay.

College admissions officers have to read an incredible amount of student work to put together a winning class, so trust me when I say that everything they ask you to write is meaningful and important .

The purpose of the "why us?" essay goes two ways. On one hand, seeing how you answer this question gives admissions officers a sense of whether you know and value their school .

On the other hand, having to verbalize why you are applying gives you the chance to think about what you want to get out of your college experience and whether your target schools fit your goals and aspirations.

What Colleges Get Out Of Reading Your "Why This College?" Essay

Colleges want to check three things when they read this essay.

First, they want to see that you have a sense of what makes this college different and special.

Do you know something about the school's mission, history, or values?
Have you thought about the school's specific approach to learning?
Are you comfortable with the school's traditions and the overall feel of student life here?

Second, they want proof that you will be a good fit for the school.

Where do your interests lie? Do they correspond to this school's strengths?
Is there something about you that meshes well with some aspect of the school?
How will you contribute to college life? How will you make your mark on campus?

And third, they want to see that this school will, in turn, be a good fit for you.

What do you want to get out of college? Will this college be able to provide that? Will this school contribute to your future success?
What will you take advantage of on campus (e.g., academic programs, volunteer or travel opportunities, internships, or student organizations)?
Will you succeed academically? Does this school provide the right rigor and pace for your ideal learning environment?

What You Get Out Of Writing Your "Why This College?" Essay

Throughout this process of articulating your answers to the questions above, you will also benefit in a couple of key ways:

It Lets You Build Excitement about the School

Finding specific programs and opportunities at schools you are already happy about will give you a grounded sense of direction for when you start school . At the same time, by describing what is great about schools that are low on your list, you'll likely boost your enthusiasm for these colleges and keep yourself from feeling that they're nothing more than lackluster fallbacks.

It Helps You Ensure That You're Making the Right Choice

Writing the "why us?" essay can act as a moment of clarity. It's possible that you won't be able to come up with any reasons for applying to a particular school. If further research fails to reveal any appealing characteristics that fit with your goals and interests, this school is likely not for you.

At the end of your four years, you want to feel like this, so take your "Why This College?" essay to heart.

Want to write the perfect college application essay? Get professional help from PrepScholar.

Your dedicated PrepScholar Admissions counselor will craft your perfect college essay, from the ground up. We'll learn your background and interests, brainstorm essay topics, and walk you through the essay drafting process, step-by-step. At the end, you'll have a unique essay that you'll proudly submit to your top choice colleges.

Don't leave your college application to chance. Find out more about PrepScholar Admissions now :

The "why this college?" essay is best thought of as a back-and-forth between you and the college . This means that your essay will really be answering two separate, albeit related, questions:

"Why us?": This is where you explain what makes the school special in your eyes, what attracted you to it, and what you think you'll get out of your experience there.
"Why you?": This is the part where you talk about why you'll fit in at the school; what qualities, skills, talents, or abilities you'll contribute to student life; and how your future will be impacted by the school and its opportunities.

Colleges usually use one of these approaches to frame this essay , meaning that your essay will lean heavier toward whichever question is favored in the prompt. For example, if the prompt is all about "why us?" you'll want to put your main focus on praising the school. If the prompt instead is mostly configured as "why you?" you'll want to dwell at length on your fit and potential.

It's good to remember that these two prompts are simply two sides of the same coin. Your reasons for wanting to apply to a particular school can be made to fit either of these questions.

For instance, say you really want the chance to learn from the world-famous Professor X. A "why us?" essay might dwell on how amazing an opportunity studying with him would be for you, and how he anchors the Telepathy department.

Meanwhile, a "why you?" essay would point out that your own academic telepathy credentials and future career goals make you an ideal student to learn from Professor X, a renowned master of the field.

Next up, I'll show you some real-life examples of what these two different approaches to the same prompt look like.

Clarifying why you want to study with a particular professor in a specific department can demonstrate to college admissions staff that you've done your research on the school.

"Why Us?" Prompts

Why [this college]?
Why are you interested in [this college]?
Why is [this college] a good choice for you?
What do you like best about [this college]?
Why do you want to attend [this college]?

Below are some examples of actual "why us?" college essay prompts:

Colorado College : "Describe how your personal experiences with a particular community make you a student who would benefit from Colorado College’s Block Plan."
Tufts University : " I am applying to Tufts because… "
Tulane University : "Describe why you are interested in joining the Tulane community. Consider your experiences, talents, and values to illustrate what you would contribute to the Tulane community if admitted." (via the Common App )
University of Michigan : "Describe the unique qualities that attract you to the specific undergraduate College or School (including preferred admission and dual degree programs) to which you are applying at the University of Michigan. How would that curriculum support your interests?"
Wellesley College : " When choosing a college, you are choosing an intellectual community and a place where you believe that you can live, learn, and flourish. We know that there are more than 100 reasons to choose Wellesley, but it's a good place to start. Visit the Wellesley 100 and select two items that attract, inspire, or celebrate what you would bring to our community. Have fun! Use this opportunity to reflect personally on what items appeal to you most and why. "

In a "why us?" essay, focus on the specific aspects of the school that appeal to you and how you will flourish because of those offerings.

"Why You?" Prompts

Why are you a good match or fit for us?
What are your interests, and how will you pursue them at [this college]?
What do you want to study, and how will that correspond to our program?
What or how will you contribute?
Why you at [this college]?
Why are you applying to [this college]?

Here are some examples of the "why you?" version of the college essay:

Babson College : " A defining element of the Babson experience is learning and thriving in an equitable and inclusive community with a wide range of perspectives and interests. Please share something about your background, lived experiences, or viewpoint(s) that speaks to how you will contribute to and learn from Babson's collaborative community. "
Bowdoin College : "Generations of students have found connection and meaning in Bowdoin's 'The Offer of the College.' ... Which line from the Offer resonates most with you? Optional: The Offer represents Bowdoin's values. Please reflect on the line you selected and how it has meaning to you." (via the Common App )

In a "why you?" essay, focus on how your values, interests, and motivations align with the school's offerings and how you'll contribute to campus life.

No matter how the prompt is worded, this essay is a give-and-take of what you and the college have to offer each other. Your job is to quickly zoom in on your main points and use both precision and detail to sound sincere, excited, and authentic.

How do you effectively explain the benefits you see this particular school providing for you and the contributions you will bring to the table as a student there? And how can you do this best using the small amount of space that you have (usually just one to two paragraphs)?

In this section, we'll go through the process of writing the "Why This College?" essay, step-by-step. First, I'll talk about the prep work you'll need to do. Next, we'll go through how to brainstorm good topics (and touch on what topics to avoid). I'll give you some tips on transforming your ideas and research into an actual essay. Finally, I'll take apart an actual "why us?" essay to show you why and how it works.

Before you can write about a school, you'll need to know specific things that make it stand out and appeal to you and your interests . So where do you look for these? And how do you find the details that will speak to you? Here are some ways you can learn more about a school.

In-Person Campus Visits

If you're going on college tours , you've got the perfect opportunity to gather information about the school. Bring a notepad and write down the following:

Your tour guide's name
One to two funny, surprising, or enthusiastic things your guide said about the school
Any unusual features of the campus, such as buildings, sculptures, layout, history, or traditions

Try to also connect with students or faculty while you're there. If you visit a class, note which class it is and who teaches it. See whether you can briefly chat with a student (e.g., in the class you visit, around campus, or in a dining hall), and ask what they like most about the school or what has been most surprising about being there.

Don't forget to write down the answer! Trust me, you'll forget it otherwise—especially if you do this on multiple college visits.

Virtual Campus Visits

If you can't visit a campus in person, the next best thing is an online tour , either from the school's own website or from other websites, such as YOUniversityTV , CampusTours , or YouTube (search "[School Name] + tour").

You can also connect with students without visiting the campus in person . Some admissions websites list contact information for currently enrolled students you can email to ask one or two questions about what their experience of the school has been like.

Or if you know what department, sport, or activity you're interested in, you can ask the admissions office to put you in touch with a student who is involved with that particular interest.

If you can't visit a campus in person, request a video chat with admissions staff, a current student, or a faculty member to get a better sense of specific topics you might write about in your essay.

Alumni Interview

If you have an interview , ask your interviewer questions about their experience at the school and about what going to that school has done for them since graduation. As always, take notes!

College Fairs

If you have a chance to go to a college fair where your ideal college has representatives, don't just attend and pick up a brochure. Instead, e ngage the representatives in conversation, and ask them about what they think makes the school unique . Jot down notes on any interesting details they tell you.

The College's Own Materials

Colleges publish lots and lots of different admissions materials—and all of these will be useful for your research. Here are some suggestions for what you can use. (You should be able to find all of the following resources online.)

Brochures and Course Catalogs

Read the mission statement of the school; does its educational philosophy align with yours? You should also read through its catalogs. Are there any programs, classes, departments, or activities that seem tailor-made for you in some way?

Pro Tip: These interesting features you find should be unusual in some way or different from what other schools offer. For example, being fascinated with the English department isn't going to cut it unless you can discuss its unusual focus, its world-renowned professors, or the different way it structures the major that appeals to you specifically.

Alumni Magazine

Are any professors highlighted? Does their research speak to you or connect with a project you did in high school or for an extracurricular?

Sometimes alumni magazines will highlight a college's new focus or new expansion. Does the construction of a new engineering school relate to your intended major? There might also be some columns or letters written by alumni who talk about what going to this particular school has meant to them. What stands out about their experiences?

School or Campus Newspaper

Students write about the hot issues of the day, which means that the articles will be about the best and worst things on campus . It'll also give you insight into student life, opportunities that are available to students, activities you can do off campus, and so on.

The College's Social Media

Your ideal school is most likely on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, and other social media. Follow the school to see what it's posting about. Are there any exciting new campus developments? Professors in the news? Interesting events, clubs, or activities?

The Internet

Wikipedia is a great resource for learning basic details about a college's history, traditions, and values. I also recommend looking for forums on College Confidential that specifically deal with the school you're researching.

Another option is to search on Google for interesting phrases, such as "What students really think about [School Name]" or "[School Name] student forum." This will help you get detailed points of view, comments about specific programs or courses, and insight into real student life.

So what should you do now that you've completed a bunch of research? Answer: use it to develop connection points between you and your dream school. These connections will be the skeleton of your "why this college?" essay.

Find the Gems in Your Research

You have on hand all kinds of information, from your own personal experiences on campus and your conversations with people affiliated with your ideal school to what you've learned from campus publications and tidbits gleaned from the web.

Now, it's time to sift through all of your notes to find the three to five things that really speak to you. Link what you've learned about the school to how you can plug into this school's life, approach, and environment. That way, no matter whether your school's prompt is more heavily focused on the "why us?" or "why you?" part of the give-and-take, you'll have an entry point into the essay.

But what should these three to five things be? What should you keep in mind when you're looking for the gem that will become your topic?

Here are some words of wisdom from Calvin Wise , director of recruitment and former associate director of admissions at Johns Hopkins University (emphasis mine):

" Focus on what makes us unique and why that interests you. Do your research, and articulate a multidimensional connection to the specific college or university. We do not want broad statements (the brick pathways and historic buildings are beautiful) or a rehash of the information on our website (College X offers a strong liberal arts curriculum). All institutions have similarities. We want you to talk about our differences. "

Time to find that diamond, amethyst, opal, tourmaline, or amber in the rough.

Check Your Gems for Color and Clarity

When I say "check your gems," I mean make sure that each of the three to five things you've found is something your ideal school has that other schools don't have.

This something should be seen from your own perspective. The point isn't to generically praise the school but instead to go into detail about why it's so great for you that they have this thing.

This something you find should be meaningful to the school and specific to you. For example, if you focus on academics (e.g., courses, instructors, opportunities, or educational philosophy), find a way to link them either to your previous work or to your future aspirations.

This something should not be shallow and nonspecific. Want to live in a city? Every city has more than one college in it. Find a way to explain why this specific college in this specific city calls to you. Like pretty architecture? Many schools are beautiful, so dwell on why this particular place feels unlike any other. Like good weather, beach, skiing, or some other geographical attribute? There are many schools located near these places, and they know that people enjoy sunbathing. Either build a deeper connection or skip these as reasons.

Convert Your Gems into Essay Topics

Every "why this college?" essay is going to answer both the "why us?" and the "why you?" parts of the back-and-forth equation. But depending on which way your target school has worded its prompt, you'll lean more heavily on that part . This is why I'm going to split this brainstorming into two parts—to go with the "why us?" and "why you?" types of questions.

Of course, since they are both sides of the same coin, you can always easily flip each of these ideas around to have it work well for the other type of prompt . For example, a "why us?" essay might talk about how interesting the XYZ interdisciplinary project is and how it fits well with your senior project.

By contrast, a "why you?" essay would take the same idea but flip it to say that you've learned through your senior project how you deeply value an interdisciplinary approach to academics, making you a great fit for this school and its commitment to such work, as evidenced by project XYZ.

Describing how project XYZ demonstrates your investment in a particular course of study that then happens to align with a specific program at the university is an effective approach to the "why you?" essay.

Possible "Why Us?" Topics

How a particular program of study, internship requirement, or volunteer connection will help further your specific career goals .
The school's interesting approach to your future major (if you know what that will be) or a major that combines several disciplines that appeal to you and fit with your current academic work and interests.
How the school handles financial aid and the infrastructure setup for low-income students and what that means for you in terms of opening doors.
A story about how you became interested in the school (if you learned about it in an interesting way). For example, did the institution host a high school contest you took part in? Did you attend an art exhibit or stage performance there that you enjoyed and that your own artistic work aligns with?
How you overcame an initial disinterest in the school (be sure to minimize this first negative impression). Did you do more research? Interact with someone on campus? Learn about the school's commitment to the community? Learn about interesting research being done there?
A positive interaction you had with current students, faculty, or staff, as long as this is more than just, "Everyone I met was really nice."
An experience you had while on a campus tour. Was there a super-passionate tour guide? Any information that surprised you? Did something happen to transform your idea about the school or campus life (in a good way)?
Interesting interdisciplinary work going on at the university and how that connects with your academic interests, career goals, or previous high school work.
The history of the school —but only if it's meaningful to you in some way. Has the school always been committed to fostering minority, first-generation, or immigrant students? Was it founded by someone you admire? Did it take an unpopular (but, to you, morally correct) stance at some crucial moment in history?
An amazing professor you can't wait to learn from. Is there a chemistry professor whose current research meshes with a science fair project you did? A professor who's a renowned scholar on your favorite literary or artistic period or genre? A professor whose book on economics finally made you understand the most recent financial crisis?
A class that sounds fascinating , especially if it's in a field you want to major in.
A facility or piece of equipment you can't wait to work in or with and that doesn't exist in many other places. Is there a specialty library with rare medieval manuscripts? Is there an observatory?
A required curriculum that appeals to you because it provides a solid grounding in the classics, shakes up the traditional canon, connects all the students on campus in one intellectual project, or is taught in a unique way.

If the school can boast a cutting-edge laboratory where you dream of conducting research, that would be a strong focus for a "Why Us?" essay.

Possible "Why You?" Topics

Do you want to continue a project you worked on in high school? Talk about how or where in the current course, club, and program offerings this work would fit in. Why will you be a good addition to the team?
Have you always been involved in a community service project that's already being done on campus? Write about integrating life on campus with events in the surrounding community.
Do you plan to keep performing in the arts, playing music, working on the newspaper, or engaging in something else you were seriously committed to in high school? Discuss how excited you are to join that existing organization.
Are you the perfect person to take advantage of an internship program (e.g., because you have already worked in this field, were exposed to it through your parents, or have completed academic work that gives you some experience with it)?
Are you the ideal candidate for a study abroad opportunity (e.g., because you can speak the language of the country, it's a place where you've worked or studied before, or your career goals are international in some respect)?
Are you a stand-out match for an undergraduate research project (e.g., because you'll major in this field, you've always wanted to work with this professor, or you want to pursue research as a career option)?
Is there something you were deeply involved with that doesn't currently exist on campus? Offer to start a club for it. And I mean a club; you aren't going to magically create a new academic department or even a new academic course, so don't try offering that. If you do write about this, make double (and even triple) sure that the school doesn't already have a club, course, or program for this interest.
What are some of the programs or activities you plan to get involved with on campus , and what unique qualities will you bring to them?
Make this a mini version of a personal statement you never wrote. Use this essay as another chance to show a few more of the skills, talents, or passions that don't appear in your actual college essay. What's the runner-up interest that you didn't write about? What opportunity, program, or offering at the school lines up with it?

One way to impress admissions staff in a "Why You?" essay is to discuss your fascination with a particular topic in a specific discipline, such as kinetic sculpture, and how you want to pursue that passion (e.g., as a studio art major).

Possible Topics for a College That's Not Your First Choice

If you're writing about a school you're not completely psyched about, one way to sidestep the issue is to focus on what getting this degree will do for you in the future . How do you see yourself changing existing systems, helping others, or otherwise succeeding?
Alternatively, discuss what the school values academically, socially, environmentally, or philosophically and how this connects with what you also care about . Does it have a vegan, organic, and cruelty-free cafeteria? A relationship with a local farm or garden? De-emphasized fraternity involvement? Strong commitment to environmental issues? Lots of opportunities to contribute to the community surrounding the school? Active inclusion and a sense of belonging for various underrepresented groups?
Try to find at least one or two features you're excited about for each of the schools on your list. If you can't think of a single reason why this would be a good place for you to go, maybe you shouldn't be applying there!

Topics to Avoid in Your Essay

Don't write about general characteristics, such as a school's location (or the weather in that location), reputation, or student body size. For example, anyone applying to the Webb Institute , which has just about 100 students , should by all means talk about having a preference for tiny, close-knit communities. By contrast, schools in sunny climates know that people enjoy good weather, but if you can't connect the outdoors with the college itself, think of something else to say.
Don't talk about your sports fandom. Saying, "I can see myself in crimson and white/blue and orange/[some color] and [some other color]" is both overused and not a persuasive reason for wanting to go to a particular college. After all, you could cheer for a team without going to the school! Unless you're an athlete, you're an aspiring mascot performer, or you have a truly one-of-a-kind story to tell about your link to the team, opt for a different track.
Don't copy descriptions from the college's website to tell admissions officers how great their institution is. They don't want to hear praise; they want to hear how you connect with their school. So if something on the college brochure speaks to you, explain why this specific detail matters to you and how your past experiences, academic work, extracurricular interests, or hobbies relate to that detail.
Don't use college rankings as a reason you want to go to a school. Of course prestige matters, but schools that are ranked right next to each other on the list are at about the same level of prestige. What makes you choose one over the other?
If you decide to write about a future major, don't just talk about what you want to study and why . Make sure that you also explain why you want to study this thing at this particular school . What do they do differently from other colleges?
Don't wax poetic about the school's pretty campus. "From the moment I stepped on your campus, I knew it was the place for me" is another cliché—and another way to say basically nothing about why you actually want to go to this particular school. Lots of schools are pretty, and many are pretty in the exact same way.

Pop quiz: This pretty gothic building is on what college campus? Yes, that's right—it could be anywhere.

Want to build the best possible college application?

We can help. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies . We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools , from state colleges to the Ivy League.

We know what kinds of students colleges want to admit. We want to get you admitted to your dream schools .

Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in.

When you've put together the ideas that will make up your answer to the "why us?" question, it's time to build them into a memorable essay. Here are some tips for doing that successfully:

Jump right in. The essay is short, so there's no need for an introduction or conclusion. Spend the first paragraph delving into your best one or two reasons for applying. Then, use the second paragraph to go into slightly less detail about reasons 2 (or 3) through 5.
To thine own self be true. Write in your own voice, and be sincere about what you're saying. Believe me—the reader can tell when you mean it and when you're just blathering!
Details, details, details. Show the school that you've done your research. Are there any classes, professors, clubs, or activities you're excited about at the school? Be specific (e.g., "I'm fascinated by the work Dr. Jenny Johnson has done with interactive sound installations").
If you plan on attending if admitted, say so. Colleges care about the numbers of acceptances deeply, so it might help to know you're a sure thing. But don't write this if you don't mean it!
Don't cut and paste the same essay for every school. At least once, you'll most likely forget to change the school name or some other telling detail. You also don't want to have too much vague, cookie-cutter reasoning, or else you'll start to sound bland and forgettable.

For more tips, check out our step-by-step essay-writing advice .

Avoid cookie-cutter responses to "why this college?" essay prompts. Instead, provide an essay that's personalized to that particular institution.

At this point, it'll be helpful to take a look at a "why us?" essay that works and figure out what the author did to create a meaningful answer to this challenging question.

Here is a "Why Tufts?" essay from James Gregoire '19 for Tufts University :

It was on my official visit with the cross country team that I realized Tufts was the perfect school for me. Our topics of conversation ranged from Asian geography to efficient movement patterns, and everyone spoke enthusiastically about what they were involved in on campus. I really related with the guys I met, and I think they represent the passion that Tufts' students have. I can pursue my dream of being a successful entrepreneur by joining the Tufts Entrepreneurs Society, pursuing an Entrepreneurial Leadership minor, and taking part in an up-and-coming computer science program.

Here are some of the main reasons this essay is so effective:

Interaction with current students. James writes about hanging out with the cross-country team and sounds excited about meeting them.
"I'm a great fit." He uses the conversation with the cross-country team members to talk about his own good fit here ("I really related with the guys I met").
Why the school is special. James also uses the conversation as a way to show that he enjoys the variety of opportunities Tufts offers (their fun conversation covers Asian geography, movement patterns, and other things they "were involved with on campus").
Taking advantage of this specialness. James doesn't just list things Tufts offers but also explains which of them are of specific value to him. He's interested in being an entrepreneur, so the Tufts Entrepreneurs Society and the Entrepreneurial Leadership courses appeal to him.
Awareness of what the school is up to. Finally, James shows that he's aware of the latest Tufts developments when he mentions the new computer science program.

The Bottom Line: Writing a Great "Why This College?" Essay

Proof that you understand what makes this college different and special
Evidence that you'll be a good fit at this school
Evidence that this college will, in turn, be a good fit for you

The prompt may be phrased in one of two ways: "Why us?" or "Why you?" But these are sides of the same coin and will be addressed in your essay regardless of the prompt style.

Writing the perfect "why this school?" essay requires you to first research the specific qualities and characteristics of this school that appeal to you. You can find this information by doing any or all of the following:

Visiting campuses in person or virtually to interact with current students and faculty
Posing questions to your college interviewer or to representatives at college fairs
Reading the college's own materials , such as its brochures, official website, alumni magazine, campus newspaper, and social media
Looking at other websites that talk about the school

To find a topic to write about for your essay, find the three to five things that really speak to you about the school , and then link each of them to yourself, your interests, your goals, or your strengths.

Avoid using clichés that could be true for any school, such as architecture, geography, weather, or sports fandom. Instead, focus on the details that differentiate your intended school from all the others .

What's Next?

Are you also working on your personal statement? If you're using the Common App, check out our complete breakdown of the Common App prompts and learn how to pick the best prompt for you .

If you're applying to a University of California school, we've got an in-depth article on how to write effective UC personal statements .

And if you're submitting ApplyTexas applications, read our helpful guide on how to approach the many different ApplyTexas essay prompts .

Struggling with the college application process as a whole? Our expert guides teach you how to ask for recommendations , how to write about extracurriculars , and how to research colleges .

Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points? We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

Student and Parent Forum

Our new student and parent forum, at ExpertHub.PrepScholar.com , allow you to interact with your peers and the PrepScholar staff. See how other students and parents are navigating high school, college, and the college admissions process. Ask questions; get answers.

Ask a Question Below

Have any questions about this article or other topics? Ask below and we'll reply!

Improve With Our Famous Guides

For All Students

The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 160+ SAT Points

How to Get a Perfect 1600, by a Perfect Scorer

Series: How to Get 800 on Each SAT Section:

Score 800 on SAT Math

Score 800 on SAT Reading

Score 800 on SAT Writing

Series: How to Get to 600 on Each SAT Section:

Score 600 on SAT Math

Score 600 on SAT Reading

Score 600 on SAT Writing

Free Complete Official SAT Practice Tests

What SAT Target Score Should You Be Aiming For?

15 Strategies to Improve Your SAT Essay

The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 4+ ACT Points

How to Get a Perfect 36 ACT, by a Perfect Scorer

Series: How to Get 36 on Each ACT Section:

36 on ACT English

36 on ACT Math

36 on ACT Reading

36 on ACT Science

Series: How to Get to 24 on Each ACT Section:

24 on ACT English

24 on ACT Math

24 on ACT Reading

24 on ACT Science

What ACT target score should you be aiming for?

ACT Vocabulary You Must Know

ACT Writing: 15 Tips to Raise Your Essay Score

How to Get Into Harvard and the Ivy League

How to Get a Perfect 4.0 GPA

How to Write an Amazing College Essay

What Exactly Are Colleges Looking For?

Is the ACT easier than the SAT? A Comprehensive Guide

Should you retake your SAT or ACT?

When should you take the SAT or ACT?

Stay Informed

Get the latest articles and test prep tips!

Looking for Graduate School Test Prep?

Check out our top-rated graduate blogs here:

GRE Online Prep Blog

GMAT Online Prep Blog

TOEFL Online Prep Blog

Holly R. "I am absolutely overjoyed and cannot thank you enough for helping me!”

What are your chances of acceptance?

Calculate for all schools, your chance of acceptance.

Your chancing factors

Extracurriculars.

12 Effective “Why This College?” Essay Examples

What’s covered.

Essay 1: UPenn Nursing
Essay 2: UPenn
Essay 3: UW Madison
Essay 4: Northwestern
Essay 5: NYU
Essay 6: NYU
Essay 7: Boston University
Essay 8: Boston University
Essay 9: Tufts
Essay 10: Tufts
Essay 11: Georgia Tech
Essay 12: Georgia Tech

Where to Get Your Essays Edited

The “ Why This College?” essay is one of the most common supplemental prompts. These school-specific essays help colleges understand if you’re a good fit for them, and if they’re a good fit for you.

In this post, we’ll share 12 “Why This College?” essay examples from real students and explain what they did well, and what could be improved. Read these examples to understand how to write a strong supplemental essay that improves your chances of acceptance.

Please note: Looking at examples of real essays students have submitted to colleges can be very beneficial to get inspiration for your essays. You should never copy or plagiarize from these examples when writing your own essays. Colleges can tell when an essay isn’t genuine and will not view students favorably if they plagiarized.

Essay Example #1: UPenn Nursing

Prompt: How will you explore your intellectual and academic interests at the University of Pennsylvania? Please answer this question given the specific undergraduate school to which you are applying (650 words).

Sister Simone Roach, a theorist of nursing ethics, said, “caring is the human mode of being.” I have long been inspired by Sister Roach’s Five C’s of Caring: commitment, conscience, competence, compassion, and confidence. Penn both embraces and fosters these values through a rigorous, interdisciplinary curriculum and unmatched access to service and volunteer opportunities.

COMMITMENT. Reading through the activities that Penn Quakers devote their time to (in addition to academics!) felt like drinking from a firehose in the best possible way. As a prospective nursing student with interests outside of my major, I value this level of flexibility. I plan to leverage Penn’s liberal arts curriculum to gain an in-depth understanding of the challenges LGBT people face, especially regarding healthcare access. Through courses like “Interactional Processes with LGBT Individuals” and volunteering at the Mazzoni Center for outreach, I hope to learn how to better support the Penn LGBT community as well as my family and friends, including my cousin, who came out as trans last year.

CONSCIENCE. As one of the first people in my family to attend a four-year university, I wanted a school that promoted a sense of moral responsibility among its students. At Penn, professors challenge their students to question and recreate their own set of morals by sparking thought- provoking, open-minded discussions. I can imagine myself advocating for universal healthcare in courses such as “Health Care Reform & Future of American Health System” and debating its merits with my peers. Studying in an environment where students confidently voice their opinions – conservative or liberal – will push me to question and strengthen my value system.

COMPETENCE. Two aspects that drew my attention to Penn’s BSN program were its high-quality research opportunities and hands-on nursing projects. Through its Office of Nursing Research, Penn connects students to faculty members who share similar research interests. As I volunteered at a nursing home in high school, I hope to work with Dr. Carthon to improve the quality of care for senior citizens. Seniors, especially minorities, face serious barriers to healthcare that I want to resolve. Additionally, Penn’s unique use of simulations to bridge the gap between classroom learning and real-world application impressed me. Using computerized manikins that mimic human responses, classes in Penn’s nursing program allow students to apply their emergency medical skills in a mass casualty simulation and monitor their actions afterward through a video system. Participating in this activity will help me identify my strengths and areas for improvement regarding crisis management and medical care in a controlled yet realistic setting. Research opportunities and simulations will develop my skills even before I interact with patients.

COMPASSION. I value giving back through community service, and I have a particular interest in Penn’s Community Champions and Nursing Students For Sexual & Reproductive Health (NSRH). As a four-year volunteer health educator, I hope to continue this work as a Community Champions member. I am excited to collaborate with medical students to teach fourth and fifth graders in the city about cardiology or lead a chair dance class for the elders at the LIFE Center. Furthermore, as a feminist who firmly believes in women’s abortion rights, I’d like to join NSRH in order to advocate for women’s health on campus. At Penn, I can work with like-minded people to make a meaningful difference.

CONFIDENCE. All of the Quakers that I have met possess one defining trait: confidence. Each student summarized their experiences at Penn as challenging but fulfilling. Although I expect my coursework to push me, from my conversations with current Quakers I know it will help me to be far more effective in my career.

The Five C’s of Caring are important heuristics for nursing, but they also provide insight into how I want to approach my time in college. I am eager to engage with these principles both as a nurse and as a Penn Quaker, and I can’t wait to start.

What the Essay Did Well

This essay has many positive aspects, but the most impressive one is the structure. Utilizing the Five C’s of Caring to discuss Penn’s offerings was a genius way of tying in this student’s passion for nursing while also making their essay exciting and easy to read. Beginning each paragraph with the respective adjective helped focus the paragraph and allowed the student to demonstrate how they exemplify each quality without explicitly stating it. The student wasn’t afraid to think outside the box and add creativity to their essay structure, which really paid off.

Another positive is how specific and specialized the Penn resources and opportunities the student mentions are. This essay did not fall into the trap of name-dropping professors or programs. In every paragraph, there was a connection to something the student wants to do at Penn to further themselves in the respective characteristic they were describing.

Not only did this student mention a resource at Penn—whether it was a professor, a class, or a club—in every paragraph, but they elaborated on what that resource was and how it would help them achieve their goal of becoming a nurse. The what and how is what sets this essay apart from other supplements that just name-drop resources for the sake of it. The amount of detail this essay went into about some of these resources makes it clear to the admissions officers reading the essay that this student has seriously looked into Penn and has a strong desire to come to campus and use these resources.

What Could Be Improved

One thing this essay could do to make it stronger is improve the first paragraph. The student does a good job of setting up Sister Roach and the Five C’s, but they don’t mention anything about their desire to study or pursue nursing. The first paragraph mentions both Sister Roach and Penn, but left out the student. This could be fixed by simply adding something along the lines of “I can’t wait to embody these values as a nursing student at Penn” to the paragraph.

Essay Example #2: UPenn

Prompt: Considering the specific undergraduate school you have selected, how will you explore your academic and intellectual interests at the University of Pennsylvania? For students applying to the coordinated dual-degree and specialized programs, please answer these questions in regard to your single-degree school choice; your interest in the coordinated dual-degree or specialized program may be addressed through the program-specific essay. (300-450 words)

I always loved watching the worms when it rained. I used to put my little raincoat on, sit on the doorsteps, and watch them move toward the puddles. My younger brother, forever intent on destroying the world around him, would try to stomp on the worms, and I would run after him screaming. In my imagination, the brain looked like a pile of squiggly worms. However, my neuroscience curiosity has since grown beyond a worm’s habits.

For example, my mother thought that I was insane when I wanted to watch American Murder: The Family Next Door . To her immense relief, I was interested in the psychology of the criminal rather than the crime itself. Although neuroscience is my primary interest, I also hope to learn more about the intersection between law and medicine at the UPenn College of Arts and Sciences. I’ve been able to explore this topic through various projects at school such as presentations on juvenile crime and the death penalty.

At the University of Pennsylvania, I look forward to taking classes like Forensic Neuroscience (BIBB 050) as well as Neuroscience and Society (PSYC 247) both of which directly combine my two interests. Hopefully, the Take Your Professor to Dinner program resumes as I would make sure to talk to Dr. Daniel Langleben about his research on forensic functional brain imaging over a meal of Philly cheesesteaks.

I also hope to participate in the Race, Science, and Society Program where I can discover how race biases and neuroscience go hand-in-hand and contribute to the fight against racism. The Beyond Arrests: Re-Thinking Systematic-Oppression Group immediately caught my attention while looking at Penn’s opportunities to engage in relevant dialogue. My fascination with the criminal system began with reading Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment , and Penn will both fuel that curiosity as well as introduce new questions about the world of justice reform.

As an eight-year Latin scholar and a five-time reader of the Percy Jackson franchise, I would like to take classes in the Penn Classical Studies department where I can learn more about the impact of ancient cultures on society today. Classes such as Greek and Roman Medicine (CLST 271) would intersect my interests in medicine and classical civilizations.

Although I do harbor a deep love for Philly cheesesteaks and enjoyment of running in strange places like the Woodlands Cemetery, the range of programs to support my diverse interests and unmatched opportunities to put learning into action make me confident that the University of Pennsylvania is the best university for me to succeed.

The real strength in the essay lies in the sheer number of details this student is able to include in a short space, without sacrificing style and flow. The first two paragraphs really have nothing to do with Penn, but the inclusion of them makes this response feel like an essay, rather than a list of offerings at Penn. Striking the balance is important, and the anecdote at the beginning ultimately humanizes the writer.

From the three unique courses to the specific professor and his research to the race and criminal justice programs, this student has clearly done their homework on Penn! The key to this essay’s success isn’t just mentioning the offerings at Penn that excite the student, but the context that explains how each opportunity fits into the student’s academic interests.

Adding book titles like Crime and Punishment and Percy Jackson to support their passion for the criminal justice system and classics are extra details that help us learn more about how this student pursues their passions outside of the classroom. Finding little ways to humanize yourself throughout the essay can take it from good to great.

One area of improvement for this essay is the structure. It follows a very traditional “ Why This College? ” framework—start with an anecdote, then discuss classes, and then extracurriculars and programs—that gets old quickly for admissions officers.

A great way to add some spice to the format would be to use a sample schedule for the day. This essay mentions three different classes, two different groups, and a Take Your Professor to Dinner opportunity. Together, that’s the recipe for a full day at UPenn!

There are a few ways to play around with an essay that follows a typical day-in-the-life. Maybe each paragraph starts with a time and explains what they do during that hour. Maybe they narrate walking through campus on their way from one class to the next and what they just learned. However they choose to go about it, adding in a playful spin to the traditional essay structure is one of the best ways to instantly set an essay apart from the crowd.

Essay Example #3: UW Madison

Prompt: Tell us why you decided to apply to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition, please include why you are interested in studying the major(s) you have selected. If you selected undecided, please describe your areas of possible academic interest. (650 words)

Essay – # Day 117

7:30 am… As I open my eyes, I look at the pinboard in front of my bed. Written in red block letters are two of the many goals of my life: “Make life better and more independent for the Visually impaired; Inspire kids to explore the field of STEM, making them the future problem solvers.“

Keeping these goals afresh in mind, I freshen up and prepare for the first class of the day, ECE 533 Image Processing. As the professor explains the Applications of Image Processing in Computer Vision, a light bulb sparks in my mind. I can modify the head contraption of PERIPHIS to identify objects in peripheral vision and alert the wearer via an earpiece using Text to Speech (TTS).

After the class, I see Professor Mohit Gupta at the WISION Lab, where he shares his insights from the Block World Cameras system, which helps to geometrize 3D Man-made environments. We brainstorm ways we can implement this system on PERIPHIS.

Deep in the discussion and intrigued by my curiosity, he asked me where my interest in this niche field sparked during high school, and then I recount the incident from 9th grade:

“In Hindi – Agar aaj mere paas paise hote to ye din na dekhna padta” (If I had money, I would not have had to see this day.)

These were the words of Aadiya, a glaucoma patient, who couldn’t help but cry in despair as she injured herself in an accident just because she couldn’t sense the incoming traffic. During my visit to “Baroda Association for Blind (BAB)” for a survey, I saw and experienced firsthand how hard and inaccessible it is for an underprivileged visually impaired to locomote without anyone’s assistance.

What happened next was my first adventure into the world of Computer Science and Engineering. I dedicated the next four years to find an affordable solution to a pressing problem. It was called PERIPHIS, a smart wearable that helps alert the visually impaired wearer of impending danger while locomoting.

When I finally presented this device to Aadiya, the smile on her face made me realize how big an impact technology can make in one’s life.

11:00 am… As I head to the Engineering Hall to complete my assignments of COMP SCI 570

Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction, I crossways with my roommate from the Chadbourne Residential College, who is also interested in researching applications of Computer Vision in real life. We fix a time to chat later.

1:20pm… After a quick bite, I head to Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory. I expand my knowledge on different applications of Computer Science to make human life better than I found. I get fascinated when I see a few students building a child-friendly humanoid robot to teach kids the principles of Coding and AI. I hop in and share insights from my experience of being the President at AiGoLearning and kindling interest in STEM for young children. I explain how crucial the UI is when it comes to technology for the young.

5:00pm… To blow off some steam and socialize, I meet up with my fellow countrymen and artists at the Indian Graduate Students’ Association. We discuss and plan the upcoming Diwali Night Music at Shannon Hall. I feel proud to share my national identity while bringing out my musical self by contributing as a Tabla player at the student organization.

As I close my day, I reflect and think of the most unique resource at UW. It is not the labs, research facilities, classes, but the people, including the professors and students, all aligned to a single goal: “Solving problems to make society a better place.”

10:00pm… I find my way back to my dorm room and write with red block letters on my pinboard: “Meet with at least 1 Badger every day and gain new insight from them.”

This essay is a stellar example. The day in the life formatting is a common way to spice up your “Why This College?” essay, but the way this writer executes it is nearly flawless.

Opening with the vision board makes the student’s college goals clear from the very start, and this was cleverly done since vision boards are naturally one of the first things you see when you wake up.

The student then takes us to specific courses and labs and shares their thoughts on how they could improve their invention, PERIPHIS. The author seamlessly includes background information on PERIPHIS by including this hypothetical conversation with a professor who speaks their native language.

As we go through the day, we can see that this student will not only be involved academically, but also socially. We learn how important their culture is to them and how they plan to share it with the campus community.

This essay does everything a “Why This College?” essay should: it shares the student’s goals and motivations behind them, how the university can support those goals, and how the student will engage with the campus beyond academics.

There’s not much this essay could improve, besides a few formatting and wording issues. The first line of this essay—“ Essay – # Day 117”—is a great attention-grabber, but the placement of the # symbol is confusing and perhaps should’ve been in front of the number.

There are also a couple spots where wording is a bit awkward, such as these lines:

I crossways with my roommate from the Chadbourne Residential College, who is also interested in researching applications of Computer Vision in real life. We fix a time to chat later.

It should instead say something like “I run into my roommate” and “We schedule a time”. This is likely due to English not being the student’s native language, but could’ve easily been caught by proofreading from a native speaker.

Essay Example #4: Northwestern

Prompt: While other parts of your application give us a sense of who you are, we are also excited to hear more about how you see yourself engaging with the larger Northwestern community.

In 300 words or less, help us understand how you might engage specific resources, opportunities, and/or communities here. We are curious about what these specifics are, as well as how they may enrich your time at Northwestern and beyond.

For as long as I can remember, I have seen my parents, both farmers, struggling to produce food because of the challenges presented by the environment. Joining Northwestern’s community, and majoring in Environmental Engineering, will allow me to understand what are the reasons behind climate change and learn how to stop them and/or prevent them from happening.

Having witnessed how plant diseases affect crops, I would like to collaborate in the PLANT-Dx project and in its widespread application. I strongly believe that it will be able to help farmers to improve the quality and quantity of their production, and reduce famine around the world. At some point in my education, I want to take advantage of the study-abroad programs Northwestern has to offer and learn about farming practices in a different part of the world. In addition, I want to conduct research on sustainable alternative farming methods that adapt to the new environmental conditions and that can be practiced in countries with fewer resources.

Apart from having access to outstanding professors, rigorous academics, and cutting-edge research resources, I will be able to be part of a close-knit community genuinely curious about others’ activities, truly passionate about what they do, and not afraid to step out of their comfort zone to make of this world a better place. Being part of Engineers for a Sustainable World at Northwestern will allow me to get to know people that share one of my passions in addition to learning and teaching how to apply sustainable practices in daily life.

I am already looking forward to marching through the Weber Arch.

This essay is extremely cohesive, as it focuses on the student’s agricultural background and desire to study environmental engineering. The student mentions a couple resources specific to Northwestern, such as the PLANT-Dx project and Engineers for a Sustainable World.

Because of the background information the student provided, their motivations for participating in these opportunities is also clear. We can see that Northwestern would be a school that would help them achieve their goals.

There are two main aspects of the essay that could be improved: the writing and its specificity.

To begin with, the intro paragraph is a bit clunky and vague. The student should have specified the challenges the environment has presented to their parents’ farming with detailed imagery about droughts or torrential rain. The final sentence about climate change is also much too broad, and the student should’ve stated a goal in a smaller niche of environmentalism.

For example, here’s what a rewritten strong intro paragraph might look like:

The drought this year was bad, and the once-flourishing tomato crops on my family’s farm were afflicted with Southern Blight. As my family and our community struggled to put food on the table for the third year in a year, I resolved to major in Environmental Engineering at Northwestern to learn how to preserve our agriculture in the face of climate change.

Another writing error is the typo in the final paragraph, where they write “to make of this world a better place”. It’s important to proofread your essay and have others help you proofread as well!

Finally, while the essay mentions a couple specific Northwestern resources, the other resources they mention are too vague. The student could’ve improved by mentioning a specific study abroad program and a current research project on sustainable alternative farming methods. Most colleges let you study abroad and conduct research, so you need to explain why Northwestern is the best place for your goals.

Essay Example #5: NYU

Prompt: We would like to know more about your interest in NYU. What motivated you to apply to NYU? Why have you applied or expressed interest in a particular campus, school, college, program, and or area of study? If you have applied to more than one, please also tell us why you are interested in these additional areas of study or campuses. We want to understand – Why NYU? (400 words)

“A futuristic way of looking at academics,” the student panelist said during a New York University virtual information session. I reflected on a conversation I had with my grandma; she couldn’t understand how her vegetarian granddaughter could build a career in the food industry. However much I tried convincing her that vegetarianism was the future, as it offers substantial benefits to the environment and can offer health benefits to a growing population with the same environmental resources, she insisted that tofu would never provide the same satiation as meat. She was raised in a community where meat consumption was embedded in the culture, and its production is a large part of the country’s economy. In contrast, I had the privilege of living a few steps from San Francisco, with many restaurants and grocery stores dedicated to plant-based meat alternatives. Trying innovative recipes and products eventually allowed me to develop my own recipes. Upon my move to Nicaragua, where my grandmother is from, I found my food options to be limited, expensive and hard to find. So I developed my own small-scale solutions that did not break the bank and satiated grandma.

An institution that implements forward-thinking is what I need to reach my goals of changing the future of plant-based diets and people’s views on vegetarianism. NYU’s Nutrition and Food Studies program offers multiple disciplines of food studies that I will apply to my aspirations as a vegetarian. I plan to study under Adjunct Faculty Kayleen St. John, whose success in the plant-based industry and her teaching of the ‘Foundations of Plant-Based Nutrition’ in The Vegetarian Times excites me. The variety of classes like Introduction to Food History, Food Photography, and Food Systems: Food & Agriculture will give me an overview of what is available in the food industry to be prepared for all fields. Not to be cliche, but NYU’s proximity to the city is essential for the rapidly changing vegetarian industry. The multiculturalism available in NYC and NYU will allow me to understand the food system and diets of various cultures, religions, and areas. I can explore the extremes of the food industry, from fancy restaurants to public school cafeterias. These juxtapositions, much like the one I experienced after my move to Nicaragua, will allow me to broaden my reach and demonstrate that the vegetarian diet is not something reserved for select groups but a diet attainable to all.

A core strength of this essay is the fact it takes its time to provide the reader with ample background on why this student is interested in nutrition and food studies and how they have grappled with difficult questions and surrounding this topic in the past. It’s okay to not mention anything about NYU for a whole paragraph if you are using that space to bring depth to your interests and tell the reader the crucial backstory behind pursuing your intended degree.

Another positive aspect is the inclusion of New York City for a purposeful reason. NYU admissions officers read thousands of essays that just talk about living in NYC for the sake of NYC—this is not what they want to hear. In contrast, this essay focuses on the vast and lively food scene in New York that the student considers to be an invaluable asset to her NYU education. This is a time where including New York actually plays to the appeal of NYU, rather than making it seem like the student is simply applying for the city.

Finally, this student clearly demonstrates that they are someone who wants to change the world for the better, but through their personal niche. NYU is looking for people who express this desire to be a changemaker, but oftentimes sweeping statements like “I want to change the world” come across as vague and disingenuous. The essay does mention changing diets and looking to the future, but it is focused within the student’s specific area of interest, making the claim to change the world more determined and authentic.

This essay could be made stronger if there was a bit more personal reflection included. The first paragraph provides a lot of details on the student’s vegetarianism and how it conflicts with her grandmother and her heritage. What it doesn’t include very much of is how the student thinks and feels about her diet being at odds with that of her family.

Does this student feel they are betraying their heritage by being vegetarian? What emotions do they feel when people criticize vegetarianism? Why did they go vegetarian in the first place? Probing questions like these that get to the emotional core behind the story in the first paragraph would really help to build out this student’s backstory. We want to understand what their emotional responses and reasoning processes look like, so finding ways to include those into an already expositive paragraph would further bolster this essay.

Essay Example #6: NYU

My mother never takes off her Cartier necklace that my father gave her 10 years ago on their anniversary. As a child, I didn’t fully understand this attachment. However, on my 15th birthday, my aunt gifted me a ring, which was uniquely designed and made up of three rings linked together. Wearing it every day and making sure I would never lose it, I didn’t treat it like my easily replaceable childhood necklaces; it was my piece of luxury. This sparked my deep curiosity for the luxury world. The niche strives to provide the finest and most memorable experiences, as equally as my Japanese attention to detail and my French appreciation towards aesthetic beauty. In a constantly shifting environment, I learned that luxury chases timeless excellence.

NYU Stern’s BS in business and a co-concentration in management and marketing will fully immerse me in the business side of luxury fashion that I aim to pursue a future career in. The luxury marketing track, offered only by NYU, will enable me to assemble the most suited classes to reflect my interests. Specifically, NYU Stern’s exciting electives such as The Dynamics of the Fashion Industry seminar and Brand Strategy & Planning will encourage me to develop the skills that I was introduced to and grew keen on when running a virtual sustainable fashion auction.

As someone who has moved around from Paris to Tokyo, to Chicago and now Athens, I thrive in meeting and collaborating with others from diverse backgrounds. The school’s strong global outlook, demonstrated through Stern’s International Business Exchange Program, further sets NYU apart for me, as it is crucial to building essential soft skills. This opportunity allows me to experience new cultural approaches to luxury business which I can bring back with me to New York, and therefore push me to become a well-rounded business student. Similarly, I am excited to take part in the array of student clubs offered, such as the Luxury and Retail Association (LARA), which I learned about after connecting with and talking to current students. Seeing past talks from employers of companies like Conde Nast, I am eager to learn outside of the classroom from future speakers.

Finding myself in new situations constantly, I always seek new challenges and explorations – to me, it is clear that NYU Stern will push me to create the finest and most unique learning experiences of timeless excellence.

This essay has an amazing introduction paragraph. It doesn’t mention anything about NYU or what this student is planning on studying, which is what makes it so intriguing. The reader doesn’t know where this student is headed after making such a seemingly unrelated statement about jewelry, but we want to find out.

Not only does this essay immediately capture the reader’s attention, it maintains a succinct and direct tone that helps the reader effortlessly flow from one paragraph to the next. The student chose to include three opportunities at NYU that excite them and fully elaborate on them. This serves as an excellent example of more is less.

We aren’t bombarded with a laundry list of classes, professors, and clubs the student wants to take. Instead, the student took a focused approach and described why they were excited by each offering they highlighted. Going deeper into a smaller number of opportunities at the college still shows this student did their research, but it allows for their backstory and goals to be discussed in far greater detail.

While this student does a good job of elaborating, they also mention a few key aspects of their personality as throw-away lines, when it would have been great to elaborate further on them. For example, they mention running a virtual sustainable fashion auction (cool!), but don’t provide us with any details on what that actually entails, how they got involved with it, what they enjoyed about it, etc. They also mention moving around a lot in the context of developing a diverse perspective, but they don’t include any emotional insight into what that was like.

Although there are only 400 words available, and you don’t want to spend too much time discussing the past, it would be nice to see just a sentence or two that delves into the details of this student’s background. The fashion auction and moving around clearly had an impact on the student, so we want to know what that was. If they are choosing to include these details, they must be important in the student’s decision to pursue business at NYU, so they shouldn’t be afraid to divulge the emotional significance to the reader.

Essay Example #7: Boston University

Prompt: In no more than 250 words, please tell us why BU is a good fit for you and what specifically has led you to apply for admission.

Boston University’s College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) attracts me because of its support of interdisciplinary study among its wide array of majors. In fact, the CAS now offers a course that combines biology, chemistry, and neuroscience. As I hope to conduct medical research into brain disorders, I plan to pursue all three areas of study. These cross-disciplinary connections at BU will prepare me to do so.

CAS’s undergraduate research program would allow me to work with a mentor, such as Dr. Alice Cronin-Golomb or Dr. Robert M.G. Reinhart related to their research on neurological disorders. With them, I can advance the work I have already completed related to Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). In a summer class at our local university, my partner and I extracted data from fMRI and PET studies and inputted them into a coding program. We then created an indicator map, which we imported into another software program, AFNI, to display significant activity in the brain regions affected by DID. Seeing the representation of our data thrilled me because I knew it could eventually help people who live with DID. I want to experience that feeling again. Successfully analyzing these fMRI and PET studies and learning to code drives me to pursue more research opportunities, and this desire motivates me to study at a university that offers research opportunities to undergraduates. BU’s interdisciplinary approach to psychology and support for independent undergraduate research will optimally prepare me for a career as a neurological researcher.

This student clearly outlines BU-specific resources (the interdisciplinary course and undergrad research program), plus how these resources align with their professional goals (to become a neurological researcher). They do name professors, but since their work clearly relates to the student’s interests, it doesn’t look disingenuous, and shows that the student has done research on their fit with BU. The student also provides background on why they want to pursue research, and shows that they already have experience, which makes their interest in the undergrad research program more concrete.

The only thing missing from this essay is the student’s fit with BU in terms of extracurriculars and social life. “Why This College?” essays should also cover extracurriculars, as colleges are also interested in how you’ll contribute to their community.

In general, these essays should be academic-leaning (especially if they’re under 250 words), but you should still address some social aspects of the college that appeal to you (we recommend about 70% academics, 30% social, with more or less focus on social aspects depending on the word count).

Since the student probably already detailed their previous research in their Common App activities section, they could’ve just summarized their research background in one sentence (instead of 78 words, which is 31% of the total word count!), and used that valuable space to talk about a specific social aspect of BU that interests them.

Essay Example #8: Boston University

Prompt: In no more than 250 words, please tell us why BU is a good fit for you and what specifically has led you to apply for admission.

I am fascinated by research, though completely uninterested in the disciplines traditionally associated with it, such as STEM fields. I need to find a school that will balance my desire to conduct research with my interest in political science.

While many schools boast in-depth student research programs for those looking to cure diseases or develop solutions to global warming, few tout their support for humanities research. Additionally, many universities that do allocate funding to social science research typically reserve these monies for graduate students or upperclassmen. BU, with the help of its Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, will allow me to conduct research on the topics that most intrigue me, such as gender disparity in politics, or the relationship between dominant parties in power and the country’s economy and involvement in foreign affairs. Furthermore, I can begin these studies as early as my first year. Not only can I take classes with professors like Sandra McEvoy or Dino Christenson to develop my interests in a classroom setting, but I could also work with one of them to develop new knowledge in the topics that we both enjoy learning about. With this knowledge base and experience conducting studies with top professors in a respected research institution, I will be well-prepared for my future law career. I want to learn in an environment that encourages independent study no matter one’s field of interest or experience, and BU’s support of intellectual curiosity for all of its students makes it a perfect fit for me.

This student knows exactly what they want, and they’re not afraid to state it bluntly. Their intro paragraph is totally honest about their interests (or lack of interest), and we immediately understand one of their main college goals: to conduct political science research.

The student mentions a specific resource, the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, as well as an alignment with BU’s value of encouraging independent study in all fields. Showing alignment with a specific value of the university is a great way to take your essay to the next level.

This essay shows us that the student would be a great fit for BU and would take advantage of its research opportunities.

The writer mentions some of their research interests, but doesn’t explain the motivation behind them. We don’t actually learn very much about the student themself, which is a common flaw of “Why This College?” essays. The essay would’ve been stronger if they’d explained why they’re interested in “gender disparity in politics, or the relationship between dominant parties in power and the country’s economy and involvement in foreign affairs.” For example, maybe they feel strongly about abortion rights and are upset about the way men have been legislating women’s rights.

The student also names two professors whose classes they’d like to take and with whom they’d like to do research, but we aren’t told which classes they’re interested in, or which topics they could cover together. You want to avoid “name-dropping” professors without context in your essay. If the student shared the names of specific classes or research topics and why they’re interested in them, that would’ve strengthened their essay.

Essay Example #9: Tufts

Prompt: Why Tufts? (100 words)

When Deanne, Tufts’ admissions counselor, visited my school, she immediately caught my attention by emphasizing Tufts’ diverse yet unified campus. Tufts’ inclusive definition of diversity goes beyond merely recruiting students from a variety of backgrounds. Tufts seeks to integrate these categories of diversity and pushes its students to learn from one another. One such intersectional program that attracts me is CAFE (Conversation, Action, Faith, and Education). By joining CAFE, a community that promotes interfaith education, I will learn from my peers, become more understanding of other religious backgrounds, and apply this broader understanding to my academic work at Tufts.

It’s hard to write a “Why This College?” essay in 100 words. This essay does a good job sticking to one unique element of Tufts—its intersectionality. Since Tufts also cares about demonstrated interest, it’s great that the student also mentioned speaking with an admissions counselor.

We unfortunately don’t learn very much about the student from this essay. Why do they care about diversity and interfaith programs? How does this relate to their academic and career goals? While the word count is super short, they could’ve cut these lines and jumped right into the specific resource they’re interested in: Tufts’ inclusive definition of diversity goes beyond merely recruiting students from a variety of backgrounds. Tufts seeks to integrate these categories of diversity and pushes its students to learn from one another.

Here’s an example of a stronger version of this essay:

When a Tufts admissions counselor visited my school, she immediately caught my attention by emphasizing Tufts’ diverse yet unified campus. As a Muslim hoping to go into International Relations, I want to attend a school that not only recruits diverse students, but pushes them to learn from one another. I hope to join intersectional programs such as CAFE (Conversation, Action, Faith, and Education). By joining this community that promotes interfaith education, I will gain the necessary perspective and compassion to become a human rights lawyer in countries with religious conflict, such as my homeland Azerbaijan.

Essay Example #10: Tufts

Prompt: Why Tufts? (100 words)

Someday I hope to conduct medical research in developing countries; Tufts attracts me because of its wide array of majors it offers and support for undergraduate research. To understand the human brain, I hope to study biology, neuroscience, and psychology. In addition to outstanding faculty in each of these areas, Tufts also organizes initiatives including the International Research Program. Through this program, I would work with other students and faculty members on an international project related to brain diseases. This opportunity will give me a taste of my future career and help me narrow the scope of my later studies.

This essay does a better job of sharing the student’s goals with us compared to the previous Tufts essay. We learn that the applicant is interested in medical research in developing countries on brain diseases, and that Tufts has a program to support international research.

The essay still mentions some resources that could apply to many schools, which is not an effective use of the tiny word count. For example, they say: “Tufts attracts me because of its wide array of majors it offers and support for undergraduate research” and they mention the “outstanding faculty” in the fields they plan to study.

They also don’t tell us their motivation behind studying brain diseases abroad, and it feels like there’s a significant story there. Giving some background would’ve further strengthened their essay.

Finally, they mention that they still need to narrow the scope of their studies; while it’s fine to be undecided on your career and majors, you don’t need to spend your precious word count saying that in your essay. They could’ve instead shared a couple potential avenues they’re considering.

Here’s what the student could’ve written instead:

Outcomes for schizophrenia patients are better in developing countries than in developed ones. I hope to research the reasons behind this and improve the treatment options in the US for the cousin I grew up with. In college, I want to study biology, neuroscience, and psychology. Tufts attracts me because of its unique interdisciplinary BS in Cognitive and Brain Science and its International Research Program. Through this program, I could do the research I’ve dreamt of doing with a faculty member and other students, preparing me for my future career as either a researcher or clinician.

Essay Example #11: Georgia Tech

Prompt: Why do you want to study your chosen major specifically at Georgia Tech? (300 words)

Climate change is a human rights issue.

There the headline was, screaming on my phone screen. I think about those suffering from a lack of clean water. I think about those suffering from a lack of clean air.

I often think back to that headline – it’s what drives my passion for environmental engineering. As an environmental engineer, I can mitigate air pollution and design water treatment systems that address the water injustices that people face. However, it’s not just about creating a technology that cleans water; it’s about changing people’s lives. New technologies can make a lasting difference in humanitarian issues worldwide; Georgia Tech’s research on creating a toilet that turns human waste into clean water for those in need of improved sanitation aligns perfectly with my interests.

At Georgia Tech, through the student-led organization, Engineers for a Sustainable World and the InVenture Prize, I can translate the knowledge gained from my classes into a concrete vision. I can design and implement hands-on sustainability projects around Atlanta and invent a water sanitation system for the on-site acquisition of clean water.

Georgia Tech can also provide me with ample research opportunities, such as the broad area of Healthy Communities in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. I can further pursue my interest in developing solutions to deliver clean water while welcoming new areas of inquiry. An area I would like to explore would be the controlling of dangerous matter in the air to reduce health hazards; reducing the impact of climate change is of utmost importance to me.

Studying environmental engineering at Georgia Tech would well prepare me to develop solutions to climate-related issues. With the countless opportunities that Georgia Tech has to offer, I know there is nowhere else where I can receive a better environmental engineering education.

What the Essay Did Well l

This essay begins with an attention-grabbing statement that leaves the reader wondering how this will relate to the student’s interest in Georgia Tech. They then transition seamlessly into how climate change and human rights motivate their desire to become an environmental engineer.

The student mentions several resources specific to Georgia Tech that would help them achieve their goals, such as the research on the toilet turning waste into water, Engineers for a Sustainable World, InVenture Prize, and Healthy Communities research. It’s clear that they did their research and have reflected on their fit with the campus community.

They end the essay explicitly stating that Georgia Tech is the best place for them to grow, and the reader is certainly convinced of this by the end.

This essay is quite strong, so there’s not much that the student could’ve improved. That said, there is one sentence that is a bit awkwardly worded: New technologies can make a lasting difference in humanitarian issues worldwide; Georgia Tech’s research on creating a toilet that turns human waste into clean water for those in need of improved sanitation aligns perfectly with my interests.

Instead, the student could’ve written:

New technologies can make a lasting difference in humanitarian issues worldwide; Georgia Tech aligns with this value of mine and is even developing a toilet that turns human waste into clean water for those who need improved sanitation.

Essay Example #12: Georgia Tech

From my first Java project, a somewhat primitive graphing calculator, I realized that CS unlocks a different way of thinking. My brain races at speeds it seldom touches with other subjects. Every part of CS, from conceptualizing a plan to executing a solution, is another piece of a puzzle I’m eager to solve and affords the most opportunities for creative problem-solving and application.

“Progress and Service,” Georgia Tech’s motto, tells me there’s no better place to explore my curiosity and deepen my CS skills while simultaneously helping make the world a better place, my ultimate goal for a college education.

In the classroom, I look forward to GT’s threads program, where I can tailor the curriculum to suit my career choice after exposing myself to all technical aspects of CS.

I’ll apply my specialized learning with Tech’s fascinating research opportunities. Professor Pandarinth’s brain-machine interfacing software means a lot to me. My uncle passed away from a freak accident after extensive paralysis because potential treatments were unaffordable. Exploring this revolutionary brain decoding software wouldn’t just involve me in cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology research, I’d be personally driven to ensure its success and accessibility.

I’m at my best building towards tangible results. I learned this on my robotics team using design skills to create a technically complex robot that tackles anything from shooting balls to hanging on a balance beam. I’m excited to expand my skills on the RoboJackets team, applying my career interests to build ferocious BattleBots and autonomous race robots that compete on the Indy Speedway, two events that sound ridiculously fun.

Of course, I can’t skip hackathons. These competitions molded my interest in coding so I want to give back to Georgia Tech’s Hack-Community by planning HackGT and the Catalyst Mentorship program as a member of the Hexlabs team.

The student’s passion for CS shines through this essay. They explain what they love about the subject (the problem-solving aspect) and they share that they hope to make a difference through CS, demonstrating alignment with Tech’s motto of “progress and service”.

It’s clear that this student has done their research, mentioning specific academic programs, research, and clubs. We can see that they’d be greatly engaged with the campus community.

Finally, this essay is also down-to-earth. The student doesn’t try to use impressive vocabulary or formal language. In fact, they even describe some extracurriculars as “ridiculously fun.” While you shouldn’t get too informal in your essays, this student’s casual tone in this context makes them feel more approachable and more excited about the prospect of going to Georgia Tech.

This essay has a couple sentences that are confusing to read:

Every part of CS, from conceptualizing a plan to executing a solution, is another piece of a puzzle I’m eager to solve and affords the most opportunities for creative problem-solving and application.

This sentence could’ve been broken up and rewritten as:

Every part of CS, from conceptualizing a plan to executing a solution, is another piece of a puzzle I’m eager to solve. For me, the field affords the most opportunities for creative problem-solving and application.

This sentence also uses incorrect grammar—the comma should be replaced with a semicolon:

Exploring this revolutionary brain decoding software wouldn’t just involve me in cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology research, I’d be personally driven to ensure its success and accessibility.

These details would make the essay more readable.

The organization of the essay could also be reworked. The student mentions Tech’s motto of “progress and service,” but doesn’t follow up until later with an example of how they’d use CS for the greater good. Using CS for social good isn’t ultimately the theme of their essay, so this section would’ve been better placed at the end of the paragraph about AI technology research, or at the very end of the essay. The essay actually ends abruptly, so placing the section at the end might’ve tied it up nicely, if the student could’ve placed more emphasis on how they plan to use CS to improve society.

Do you want feedback on your “Why This College” essays? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays.

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

Importance of School Essay | Reasons Defining The Importance Of School

Importance of School Essay: The importance of school is necessary to understand as today’s children are gearing up for becoming the responsible citizens of tomorrow. This growth should be parallel to the future of our country. This can only be reflected through the education imparted in our country in the schools. The schools should make it important to generate curiosity in the young minds and provide them with skills to be a better human being.

It is very well known that learning is a process that requires instruments helping in shaping the child’s personality and the way he/she deals with different situations. Apart from bookish knowledge, it is important to impart knowledge of life too. People have already started to acknowledge the importance of school and how it helps in all-around development of the kid and not just getting a mere degree.

You can read more Essay Writing about articles, events, people, sports, technology many more.

Why Are Schools Important?

Education these days must also facilitate the harvest of a healthy thought process and improve cognitive abilities starting from the school itself. In the current world, Education is a necessity similar to food, health and clothes.

The school education must focus on following as it will add value to the development of young minds as they grow. Education plays an important role in a child’s life:

Mental Aspect: School is the first box of knowledge a kid is exposed to. It provides an opportunity for them to gain knowledge in different fields of education. Example- People, Maths, Political science, and numerous other topics. When one sees this for the first time, he surely gets influenced by the knowledge provided from many sources and his existence becomes vast.
Social Aspect: School is the first place where a child comes out of his comfort zone, so you must learn the importance of school. Until then the parents are the only humans he has interacted with. This familiarity sometimes stagnates growth. School plays an important part here, to begin with. They get exposed to other human beings be it kids or teachers and to new ideas. This instills the quality of friendship, empathy, participation which plays an important role in their adulthood.
Physical Aspect: A child goes through various physical development phases since inception. A child gets a restricted learning atmosphere at home whereas in school a child can get involved in other sociable avenues. And it is proven that a child learns better when exposed to same-age individuals and channelise their energy accordingly, so the importance of school must be given preference. Also, the familiarity of situations at home can hamper a child’s growth while an equal opportunity is provided to all kids in the school.

School is really important that’s why parents too focus on its importance and enroll the kids into it. A child cannot miss school as it can make him miss an important stage of life.

Four Major Reasons Defining The Importance Of School

Power of Knowledge: The basic and the first formal foundation of knowledge is imparted in school. It provides a chance for the child to gain knowledge on numerous topics and thereby generating curiosity. Once a person gets to know its interest and pursue it, he can help others by sharing the same knowledge. Also, it helps the child with the concerned topic and thus helps him to discuss the same in the future if needed.
A ladder to Success: Gaining knowledge is important and it can be done in various stages like a child goes to school and then college for his education. Like school, college is also important to succeed and achieve dreams. With education, one can be more aware of his surroundings and can make better decisions in life.
Helps to Earn: Whether a child chooses to do his own business or join a job after growing up, education plays an important role in the same. If he’s interested in any particular subject or topic in school, he can pursue the same in higher education and thereby landing onto his favourite work role.
Keeps a child Engaged: Isn’t it good to be educated and work rather than sitting idle. School provides an environment for a kid to grow and learn with fun. All play and no work at home will make him dumb. So going to school is a need for every child for his overall growth and development.
Overall Development: Nowadays, schools are not just a source of learning. It was a place to learn history chapters or to solve difficult mathematical problems. In the current time, a child must learn about other topics except just traditional learning. They are already being motivated to develop their mind through following a flexible curriculum and their own thoughts. A child gets free from the mental blocks through good education and his imagination grows through time. The importance of school along with the importance of imagination is much needed.

Education is the foundation of any society. It is important for a country’s social, economic and political development. The quality of education imparted decides the growth of society a kid grows in. So school is an important part of the all-round development of a nation.

FAQ’s on Importance of School Essay

Question 1. Why is it important for people to go to school?

Answer: It is really important for people to go to school for their overall development. Education is the foundation of society and needed for the all-round development of the nation. The quality of education decides the growth of the nation too.

Question 2. Why are schools important for modern society?

Answer: Schools are important for modern society to let the people understand how and what has required for their own as well as society’s development. The quality of education these days is different and superior to what used to be imparted before and helps the modern society in its overall development.

Question 3. Which is an important aspect of school?

Answer: The most important aspect of a school is to provide an overall development to the students and prepare them for the future. A school is a foundation for the next generation of a nation. It helps in creating a growth atmosphere for society.

More From Forbes

4 college admissions trends shaping top schools’ decisions in 2024.

Share to Facebook
Share to Twitter
Share to Linkedin

Locust Walk with students in fall, University of Pennsylvania, University City area, Philadelphia, ... [+] PA, USA

Ivy Day 2024, the day when top schools' admissions decisions are released, is a pivotal moment to explore the evolving landscape of college admissions and anticipate future directions. This year’s transformations are reshaping college application strategies in profound ways. Let's dive into the latest developments.

Return To Standardized Testing

The return to SAT and ACT requirements by institutions such as Dartmouth, Brown and MIT is a sign that many highly selective institutions may go back to requiring standardized tests. In a slight modification to the testing requirement, Yale’s test-flexible policy allows students to submit Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate scores in lieu of the standard SAT or ACT. This shift may be in response to a decline in college readiness benchmarks ; for instance, ACT exam scores are at their lowest in 30 years, even as GPAs in core subjects rise. This gap highlights a discrepancy between students' perceived readiness and their actual preparedness.

Although I foresee more colleges reinstating standardized testing requirements, I also expect the continuation of test-optional and test-blind policies. These policies serve not only to broaden application pools from underrepresented and disadvantaged groups but also as a strategy for financially challenged institutions to attract more applicants.

In other testing news, the College Board launched the first digital SAT earlier this month , introducing a significant shift from its traditional format. This new version is adaptive and adjusts the difficulty level of questions based on the student's responses, a departure from the fixed difficulty level of previous exams. Notably, students report that the math section was more challenging than anticipated, diverging from their experiences with practice exams. Unlike the SAT, which has transitioned to a fully digital format, the ACT continues to offer both digital and traditional paper-and-pencil options.

It's advisable for students to undertake diagnostic practice exams for both the SAT and ACT to ascertain which exam aligns better with their abilities. Should the practice scores be comparable, I recommend leaning toward the ACT. This preference stems from its stability in format over the years and the choice it offers between digital and paper-based exams.

Best High-Yield Savings Accounts Of 2024

Best 5% interest savings accounts of 2024.

Given the evolving landscape of testing policies, including recent SAT modifications, students should embrace a two-pronged approach: rigorously prepare for standardized tests while remaining flexible to the possibility of not submitting scores where test-optional policies prevail.

Rethink The Importance Of The College Essay

Duke University has made significant changes to its admissions process by no longer assigning numerical ratings to applicants' standardized test scores and essays . This adjustment took effect in the current application cycle. Previously, Duke assigned values from one to five for essays and test scores, contributing to a holistic score on a 30-point scale. Now, the point system is applied only to curriculum strength, academics, recommendations, and extracurricular activities.

The move to eliminate numerical scores for essays arises from concerns about the rise in AI-generated submissions and the possibility of essays being ghostwritten. Christoph Guttentag, the dean of undergraduate admissions, noted that although essays play a pivotal role in comprehending an applicant's profile, their reliability as indicators of a student’s actual writing skills has diminished.

This adjustment is not a response to the Supreme Court's ruling against considering race in admissions decisions. Nonetheless, essays have frequently been a focal point in discussions about fostering diversity through admissions. It is expected that other institutions may similarly de-emphasize essays, thereby elevating the significance of academic transcripts, the depth of extracurricular activities, and the relevance and demand for the selected major .

Apply Early

The number of early applications (a combination of early decision and early action) has jumped by 1 million, a 60% increase, over the last five years according to Common Application data in a New York Magazine report . In contrast, applications filed during the regular decision period increased by 26% over the same timeframe. This suggests a growing trend among high school seniors to leverage early application options as part of their strategy for college admissions, reflecting the competitive nature of securing admission to top institutions.

Navigate The FAFSA Challenges

The recent overhaul of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid has led to significant delays, affecting students who rely on financial aid to make college decisions. This FAFSA situation has left many students in limbo, uncertain about their financial aid packages and, consequently, their college choices. Some colleges and universities are extending decision deadlines to accommodate the delays, but the fear remains that this could deter a significant number of students from matriculating.

Alongside the FAFSA, it is imperative for families to engage early with platforms such as the College Board’s CSS Profile. They can help unlock a broad spectrum of financial support options, from federal aid to merit-based scholarships offered by institutions. For example, utilizing tools like the Federal Student Aid Estimator and individual college’s net price calculators can provide early insights into eligibility for federal financial assistance, guiding strategic financial planning for college.

Master Your College Admissions Strategy

As the 2024 college admissions landscape poses its share of complexities, students and families are encouraged to embrace a multifaceted approach tailored to the evolving standards of higher education. From adapting to the reemergence of standardized testing requirements at esteemed institutions like Dartmouth, Brown, and MIT, to addressing the challenges posed by the digitalization of the SAT and the nuanced evaluation of college essays at Duke, it's clear that flexibility and strategic planning are paramount. Furthermore, the rise in early application submissions highlights the importance of proactivity and informed decision-making in securing a favorable college admission outcome. By fostering a thorough understanding of these trends and deploying an informed application strategy, students can enhance their prospects of achieving their academic and career aspirations in this dynamic admissions environment.

Editorial Standards
Reprints & Permissions

Doctors can do more to help prevent gun violence, USF paper says

Sam Ogozalek Times staff

Doctors can do more to help prevent gun violence and offer counseling on firearms safety, according to a review by University of South Florida researchers, including a medical student who survived the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

The review, published in February in the journal Advances in Pediatrics, noted that many doctors believe they should talk to patients about firearms, but often don’t because of time constraints, a lack of training and discomfort with the topic.

In Florida, a law passed in 2011 limited what questions doctors could ask patients about guns. But a federal appeals court found the restrictions to be unconstitutional and struck them down six years later.

The law “had a very chilling effect I think for a lot of providers,” said Cameron Nereim, one of the review’s authors and an assistant professor of pediatrics at USF who focuses on patients ages 12 to 25 in Tampa.

The review noted that the American Medical Association calls gun violence a public health crisis and firearm-related injuries were the leading cause of death for U.S. children in 2020, surpassing motor vehicle crashes.

Doctors can ask patients about whether guns are kept at home and if they are locked, unloaded and separated from ammunition, according to the review.

USF medical student Nikhita Nookala, who survived the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and covered it as a reporter at The Eagle Eye, the school’s student newspaper, contributed to the review.

The Tampa Bay Times spoke with Nereim and Nookala about their work, which was published with two other authors from North Carolina and Texas medical centers.

The interviews have been edited for clarity and length.

What are the major takeaways you hope physicians get from this paper?

Nookala: It’s important to assess patients’ risks and to see if you can do some harm reduction in terms of encouraging safe storage or just telling kids to be careful around guns.

It doesn’t have to be super political. It’s just about children’s safety at the end of the day.

The paper noted some of the major barriers to physicians counseling on firearms safety are the lack of formal training, lack of confidence that patients will follow their recommendations and low perceived self-efficacy. Are there any ways to address that?

Nereim: I think there are. ... One of the things is how do we do a better job of incorporating this into our training, whether that’s while you’re going through your residency program, while you’re going through your medical school, making sure these things are actually being plugged into our curricula.

Keep up with Tampa Bay’s top headlines

Subscribe to our free DayStarter newsletter

You’re all signed up!

Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.

Is there a particular stage of education where you think this would be best emphasized?

Nereim: I think medical school, before students have even differentiated in terms of what specialty or subspecialty they’ll be choosing, that’s a great opportunity to make sure we’re relaying this information.

In school so far, have people talked about gun violence as a public health issue?

Nookala: Everyone acknowledges that it’s become a problem and it’s getting worse. I think a lot of people feel very helpless because it’s something that is hard to bring up.

You’re not accusing someone of “You don’t store your gun safely, you’re putting your child in danger.” ... You want to (tread) the line of “Oh, you have guns in the home, that’s fine, are you storing them safely, are (you) using gun locks?”

It’s just small things that you can remind people, nicely, without discouraging them from coming back.

During routine visits, do you ask patients or patients’ parents whether there are guns in the home, if they are locked, securely unloaded (and) separated from ammunition?

Nereim: Yes, we do.

With the ongoing mental health crisis that’s involving young people ... I think it becomes even more critical that we do our due diligence and we ask those questions about things like firearm ownership ... how ammunition is being stored, what level of training the family members or the kids themselves have in terms of actually using these objects.

How do those conversations normally go for you? Are they difficult?

Nereim: When you’re able to successfully create that nonjudgemental space ... the vast majority of patients and families are really receptive to the questions we’re asking.

Do you ask patients more often than not? Or do you ask their parents?

Nereim: I tend to do both.

Do you ask firearm-related questions in every visit with a patient, or do you only ask them with someone who would be considered high risk?

Nereim: I wouldn’t say we ask it at every visit. I think we’re getting better at making this more a universal thing that we’re screening for, in the same way that 15, 20 years ago we would make sure at every visit we’re asking “Are you wearing your safety helmet if you’re riding your bike? Are you buckling your seat belt if you’re riding in a car?” We’re moving in that direction.

It happens a lot more consistently in these higher-risk situations, so if you have a patient who’s experiencing mood symptoms, depression or maybe even anger, irritability, impulsive behaviors.

(The paper suggested) that physicians can link those at risk of gun violence to other programs that offer support in the community. Do you do that regularly? How common is that?

Nereim: It’s extremely common. ... In the space where I work, probably anywhere from 50 to 70% of patients may have some significant social need. ... A lot of young people confide in me that they’re fearful just to be outside and to be walking in the place where they live because there have been times where they’ve heard gunshots. Or they know there was a shooting that occurred in that same square, that same block.

As you can imagine, when you have these kinds of social needs that manifest over time, there can be pretty major health consequences.

Why is this research important to you?

Nookala: In the aftermath of the (Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School) shooting, the focus was on Parkland, and Parkland became this beacon of gun violence prevention. But the reality is that outside of that one incident, which was horrible, gun violence doesn’t really occur in cities like Parkland every day. It occurs in cities like Tampa every day in marginalized communities. … The focus needs to be shifted back to that.

Training to be a doctor, I wanted to know more about ways you could make changes on an interpersonal level with your patients without being involved in these really political movements that oftentimes (are) just kind of doing nothing or (do) a little something and it gets reversed a few years later. It’s frustrating to watch that.

Nereim: Violence leads to more violence. The only really, truly effective way for us to move forward as a society is we just have to realize that prevention is incredibly important. … I just don’t think we can ignore the role this is playing in the lives of our patients and their families.

Sam Ogozalek is a reporter covering the healthcare system and mental health. He can be reached at [email protected].

MORE FOR YOU

ONLY AVAILABLE FOR SUBSCRIBERS

The Tampa Bay Times e-Newspaper is a digital replica of the printed paper seven days a week that is available to read on desktop, mobile, and our app for subscribers only. To enjoy the e-Newspaper every day, please subscribe.

IMAGES

Top 5 Reasons why school is important According to my 4th Graders: So
Importance Of School Essay
Schools Essay
Why school is important Student Writing, Essay Writing, Vocabulary Pdf
An Essay on School Life (Importance of School)
Importance of College Education Essay

VIDEO

English essay on School Library
Mistake Was Made and New Progress At School
ମାଟ୍ରିକ ପରୀକ୍ଷା Real ପ୍ରଶ୍ନ କେଉଁଠୁ ପାଇବେ? 10th class board exam question paper 2024
importance of english language
WHY SCHOOLS DONT USE THE LETTER "E"
Top 10 Quotations From "My School" Essay 📚#quotations #quotes #myschool

COMMENTS

Why is School Important? (16 Best Reasons)
Here are 16 reasons school is important. School facilitates learning. School provides opportunity to the poor and disadvantaged. School teaches personal responsibility. Students develop reading and writing skills. School opens up career options. Helps students develop a sense of self.
Free Essay: Why School Is Important...
Having a good education is a great path to success. School provides knowledge, friendship, and intelligence. Education provides everyday skills, learning, and more. Several people in the world cannot afford for their kids to attend school, so its important to learn to read, write and communicate. The people that have the chance to attend school ...
Why Is Education Important? The Power Of An Educated Society
Nelson Mandela famously said, "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.". An educated society is better equipped to tackle the challenges that face modern America, including: Education is not just about learning to read and do math operations.
What Is the Purpose of School?
Perhaps the most promising model is actually a bottom-up one. The community schools movement aims to build academic and social-service partnerships on school campuses. And a recent review of 19 ...
Argumentative Essay: The Benefits of Going to School
However, going to school is incredibly important for your career, future education you may wish to pursue, and social and communication skills. Teenagers are forever being told that they need a good education so that their can have the career they want, but many do not listen. However, it is important to remember that your schooling, no matter ...
Why Is Education Important: All The Reasons To Stay In School
6. A Safer World. Education is something that's not only needed on a personal level, but also on a global level, as it's something that keeps our world safe and makes it a more peaceful place. Education tends to teach people the difference between right and wrong, and can help people stay out of risky situations. 7.
What's the point of education? It's no longer just about getting a job
This essay is part of a series of articles on the future of education. For much of human history, education has served an important purpose, ensuring we have the tools to survive. People need jobs ...
15 Reason Why School Is Important
Here are 15 reasons why: #1. Schools teach social skills. For most kids, school is the first setting where they learn to socialize with others outside their family. They learn to make friends, listen to teachers, and work through problems. Learning these social skills early on gives kids an important foundation for their interactions in society ...
Guide to "Why This School" Essays
The most important part of the why essay is showing that you are a good match for the school that you guys go together, it's not just how good they are, or how good you are, but that you are going to be great together. That is the most important part, of course, doing that authentically. And doing it with specificity.
Why Is Education Important?
Generally speaking, they all tie closely to a person's goals in life and to their future well-being. Below are some of the other most common reasons education is so important: Education helps a person hone their communication skills by learning how to read, write, speak and listen. Education develops critical thinking.
The "Why" of Education
Martin Luther King, Jr. identified "the goal of true education" to be "intelligence plus character." Schools that do well in terms of test scores don't always excel at developing character in ...
Importance Of School Essay
Importance Of School Essay: Education is one of the most important tools in our modern society. This is because education enables an individual to transform from an unskilled individual to a highly productive individual that can contribute to society. From the perspective of students, education can either be enjoyable or tedious. Regardless, it is important […]
Why Is School Important? (24 Reasons)
Schools teach students grammar, vocabulary, and syntax for precise expression, as well as reading comprehension for understanding complex texts. For instance, a student who learns to write persuasive essays is developing the skill to articulate and defend a viewpoint which is useful in any career where presenting proposals or ideas is necessary.
Why Is School Important Essay?
Key Takeaways: Why Is School Important Essay? Education in school helps you learn important skills for life. (For example, reading, writing, and problem-solving). School provides a safe and structured environment for learning and socializing with peers. Attending school regularly teaches discipline and time management.
Why Schools Are Important: The Benefits
Schools should ensure that students receive appropriate physical education. Physical education is part of a person's overall health and is part of the school programs. Physical education promotes the development of movement skills that are essential to developing and maintaining a healthy body and mind. A well-developed physical education ...
How to Write a Why School Essay
Schools ask this because they need to protect something called the yield rate. That's the percentage of students who accept the school's offer of admission and matriculate there, and it's an important factor that affects the scho. A "Why School" essay can make the difference in putting your application over the line at competitive ...
Why School Is Important?
40647. I believe everybody should have a good start in their life. Having a good education is a great path to success. School provides knowledge, friendship, and intelligence. Education provides everyday skills, learning, and more. Some people in the world cannot afford for their kids to attend school, so it's important to learn to read, write ...
Why School Is Important Essay? 2 Sample Essays
Conclusion. School is an important stepping stone on the path to success, but it's so much more than just a stepping stone. It's an opportunity for students to learn how to learn, be creative, make friends, explore their interests, and much more. So if you have the opportunity to go to school, don't pass it up.
How to Write a Perfect "Why This College?" Essay
college essay prompts: Colorado College: "Describe how your personal experiences with a particular community make you a student who would benefit from Colorado College's Block Plan." Tufts University: " I am applying to Tufts because…. Tulane University: "Describe why you are interested in joining the Tulane community.
12 Effective "Why This College?" Essay Examples
One thing this essay could do to make it stronger is improve the first paragraph. The student does a good job of setting up Sister Roach and the Five C's, but they don't mention anything about their desire to study or pursue nursing. The first paragraph mentions both Sister Roach and Penn, but left out the student.
Reasons Defining The Importance Of School
The quality of education imparted decides the growth of society a kid grows in. So school is an important part of the all-round development of a nation. FAQ's on Importance of School Essay. Question 1. Why is it important for people to go to school? Answer: It is really important for people to go to school for their overall development.
The Importance of Essay Writing Skills in Education: Why Students
Students are required to read and understand various sources, which broadens their understanding of the topic and promotes a love for learning. 4. Makes Writing Easier. By mastering the skill of essay writing, students will find it easier to express their thoughts and ideas in a clear and concise manner.
Why Is School Important Essay
Why Physical Education is Important Essay. Why Physical Education is Important Education can be defined as the systematic development of the mind, capabilities, and/or character through instruction or study. This is also the purpose of education.
4 College Admissions Trends Shaping Top Schools' Decisions ...
Rethink The Importance Of The College Essay. Duke University has made significant changes to its admissions process by no longer assigning numerical ratings to applicants' standardized test scores ...
Doctors can do more to help prevent gun violence, USF paper says
It doesn't have to be super political. It's just about children's safety at the end of the day. The paper noted some of the major barriers to physicians counseling on firearms safety are the ...