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College Admission Essay in Under 200 Words?
If you were one of the students to breathe a sigh of relief when the Common Application reinstated its 500-word limit on personal statements, this will come as good news to you. University of Iowa's Tippie College of Business is offering a full-ride scholarship to the applicant with the top tweet. Yes, you read that right. While at least one standard length personal statement is still required, applicants now have the option of replacing the second essay with a 140-character tweet. It is the ultimate marriage of social media to university admission.
Naturally, the challenge doesn't sit well with everyone. Critics say it undermines the prestige and genuine value of a graduate education in business. Curmudgeons worry that Twitter and social media in general is little more than a badge of the short-attention span and self-absorption of today's youth. The University of Iowa begs to differ, citing the clear relevance of social media in the current business climate. Can anyone remember the last time they clicked on a major website that didn't ask to be "followed" on Facebook or Twitter? Perhaps the university has a point.
Even the most adroit tweeter will be hard-pressed to sell themselves in shorthand, but the real challenge isn't so much brevity as it is creativity. If you had just 140-characters to describe yourself and convince a university to give you $40,000 of free education, what would you say?
It's a little early to say whether promotions such as this will really change the ways of college admissions, but it sure does keep the process interesting.
USA Today
Labels: college essay in under 200 words
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