Why Us?
One of the oldest and most common questions asked by colleges, often on applications and even more often in interviews, is, “Why us?” In one form or another, the admission office wants to know, before they choose you, how you came to choose them. As they look for that “match” of applicant and program, they assume you’ve already done the basic groundwork and have good reasons for wanting to attend their school.

Now of course the tricky part here is that schools aren’t all that different. Does your Mom have a really good reason for using Tide instead of All or Cheer? Ok, it’s not quite the same thing as laundry detergent, but there are classes, books, assignments, a vegan food option, and “not enough school spirit” at every college in the world.

Before you undertake an answer to this question, be sure you’ve been looking for schools based on some sort of “shopping list” of what you want in a college: program, location, size, teams or activities you plan to continue, study options (guest semesters at other schools, co-op programs, or study abroad), faculty-student ratio, facilities. If you have a well thought-out list of what you’re looking for, explaining your intention won’t be hard.

And do try to figure out a few of the distinctive features of these colleges. Some are easy to differentiate: the service academies, for example; engineering schools (duh!) where you can major in English (ah—not so easy—how about Stevens in NJ?); great books programs like St. John’s; block study programs like Colorado College.

Zina Jacque, a veteran and star in this industry, used to say that most seniors apply to at least two schools: the college their parents went to and the college that rejected their parents. That may not apply to you but you’ll need better and more specific reasons for the “Why us?” question than just “I think the excellent faculty and fine facilities will allow me to maximize my potential.” Yuk.