Write a Public Interest Essay Or Sub Personal Stmt? Forum

[christinalsat]

This is specifically for NYU's Root Tilden Kern Public Interest Scholarship. The application instructions specify this:

If your admissions statement directly addresses your public service commitment, you may choose not to submit a separate essay and instead indicate on the admissions statement that you would like it to also serve as your public service essay.

I feel like my personal statement does, however, NYU is my top choice and this scholarship would be great so not sure if this is a case where "going the extra mile" would pay off.

Should I write another essay? I'm already submitting essays for a few other NYU scholarships and am told that the scholarship committees have access to your full application. I want to avoid being redundant and am not sure how much more I have to say on the topic. Will it hurt me to sub in my personal statement?

Any advice?

[sgtgrumbles]

I used my personal statement, but I'm a borderline applicant in the first place and don't really expect to win any of the scholarships. Regardless, I'd avoid redundancy. If you can write another compelling essay that doesn't cover the same ground, go for it. If not, I'd stick with what you have. Also, you don't have to submit all your materials for the scholarship until January 1st, so you could probably change your mind later on and write a new essay.

[christinalsat]

From what I understood from the application instructions, you have to submit your scholarship application with your NYU application -- so if I waited until then it would also mean my whole application would be in later than I'd like...especially since NYU is my top pick.