Jenny Erickson

Students in the early stages of the application often call or email our office asking when they will be able to see the essay questions. Usually we sense a slight panic in their tone implying that writing essays may not be their favorite weekend activity, or that they need to immediately see the essays in order to have extensive time to prepare as no length of time will be enough for them to write, re-write, have peer-reviewed, throw away, retrieve out of the garbage, review again, throw away again, start over, and then submit the original draft their kind friends peer-reviewed. To answer the original question – the application process is dynamic and the essay questions will not appear until you have completed other parts of the application. So just keep moving forward and you should have no problem in viewing the essay questions. 

When approaching the essay questions, think about how you would approach a case interview. You have an opportunity to demonstrate to the evaluators how you write, how you think, and how you approach problems. This is a wonderful place for you to be able to express your passion and enthusiasm for public policy, to showcase your analytical mind and how you would approach policy issues, and to show some of your character in your writing. Great essays should give a sense to the reader of who you are and should show—not tell—about your interests and abilities in public policy. 

Keep following the blog all week, as we'll be sharing valuable application tips to ease your pain points. 

 

 
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