Nomination Essay Help

[K-Night017]

I'm getting ready to send my packet for my congressional nomination in in the next few days, but I'm having trouble deciding on exactly how long to make it. My representative only gave one question for the essay portion:

Discuss why four rigorous years at a military academy and at least five years of active duty as a commissioned officer are attractive to you.

I know my basic ideas I want to touch on, but I am lost when it comes to deciding how long it should be. I'd not sure...one paragraph, 2, 4... Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[robinhood17]

I wrote one page, single spaced times new roman 12 font.

3 paragraphs, and it came out to about 600 words. Definitely do not go over that,and do not stretch it out because it will become "cloudy"

I will send you mine if you need help. just pm me

one senator and my congressman specified length at one page, and my other senator specified 150-200 words. Make sure you check this.

 

[LFry94]

To those reading this, make sure you follow the instructions you were sent in the nomination packet. That is the most important thing you can do. Both my senators and my congressman requested that my essay be between 300 and 450 words. Mine ended up being 350 words. If your MOC didn't give you a restriction on word count, I wouldn't write anything longer than a page, because then it really becomes more of a second resume rather than a letter answering an essay question.

 

[marciemi]

Having read a WHOLE bunch of essays at the interviews yesterday, my recommendation would be to make sure that the essay is actually about YOU. On average we had 5 minutes to review a candidate's entire file before we had to get them for the interview. Meaning we had to find out what academies you want, your GPA, ACT scores, class rank, school, if you took any AP's, what sports you did, what leadership roles you had, etc. We REALLY skimmed the essays and letters of rec from teachers. And honestly, they all say the same things. "It would be an honor to serve my country". "I've always been interested in the military", etc. Not saying that there's anything wrong with that but it doesn't tell me anything.

If you do have any good stories in there about you, your experience with the military, a leadership role you had and what you learned - something that would be interesting and catch our attention, it gives us a jumping in point with you. I realize not everyone does - or what would be interesting to me might be totally different than another panel member. But, I'd guess the bottom line is that the essays are far less important than you'd think. In my case at least, I'm looking for what you say, not how you say it or in how many words. And on that note, our candidates were restricted to 500 words and just by eyeballing it we decided that all of about one of them actually followed this rule. I suggested we DQ everyone who couldn't follow directions but was vetoed!