How to write the MIT short essays in your own voice

MMIT's admissions office asks for several short essays of roughly one to two hundred words each in place of one long personal essay. In the current cycle they ask about the field that draws you, a way you did something different from what was expected, the problems you hope to work on, and a challenge you did not see coming, though prompts change, so check MIT's page each year.

Short answers look easy, and families often treat them as the part of the file where a little polishing from a parent or tutor can only help. They are where an outside editor does the most damage.