How to Write the Worcester Polytechnic Institute Essay 2018-2019
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) is a technological university established in 1865, located around 50 miles from Boston in Worcester, Massachusetts. Known for its project-based curriculum, WPI features a 95-acre campus and aims to provide its students with quality resources.
WPI is ranked #59 by U.S. News and World Report with an acceptance rate of 48% for the Class of 2022. A unique admissions aspect of WPI is the test-optional policy—you need not submit an SAT or ACT score for your application to be considered. However, it is a STEM-based school, so you will need to have taken four years of math, including pre-calculus as an academic requirement.
While the college application process may seem overwhelming, don’t worry–CollegeVine is here to help you tackle WPI’s 2018-2019 application!
Prompt 1 (Optional):
Some applicants maintain an online presence that showcases their background, talents, or creativity. If you maintain such a site, please feel free to enter the URL here.
WPI is a school that prides itself on maintaining a global presence with over 40 project centers on 6 continents. Aligning with this aspect is WPI’s admissions essay: one that appears to embody the presence of a world that is growing more and more connected. Do you have an account on a blog website? A YouTube channel? Or maybe you even run your own website? If so, strongly consider providing the URL to it, if you are comfortable doing so. Here are some things you should keep in mind before you submit a URL:
Websites
When you click on the link to a website, what do you notice first? Probably the interface and how user-friendly it is. If you are maintaining your own website, it will be of utmost importance to ensure that it is accessible. If your parents were handed a laptop with your website on the front screen, would they be able to navigate it? If you don’t think that you can confidently answer ‘yes’ to that question, it would be in your best interest to make updates to your website.
For example, let’s say you are running a blog website on running. Instead of having all the different blogs and threads cluttered on one page, it would be helpful to organize them into several tabs or folders. For instance, categories could be Nutrition, Technique, Music, and Miscellaneous.
YouTube/Blog
If you maintain an account on YouTube or a blogging website, ask yourself if your content is appropriate and detailed. Would you be comfortable with your grandparents examining your online presence? Can someone who hasn’t met you glean aspects of your personality from your posts? For example, instead of writing ‘yes.’ as a response to a thread, you can back up your response with more detail. Write about that experience you had at the grocery store. Or maybe something interesting you learned from that Netflix show from the previous night.
Of course, if you don’t have an online presence, that is perfectly acceptable; in fact, it’s why this essay prompt is optional! However, you should compensate for this with a strong Common Application essay. Make sure you detail your extracurricular activities so that admissions officers can understand how you contributed to each one, and build close relationships with your teachers so they can provide further insight into who you are as a person.
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