submitting an essay to discuss at interview...

Hi there,

Im applying for Oriental Studies (Japanese)... the thing is almost EVERY college require you to write an essay "from recent coursework corrected by your teacher"... The thing is, I left school 2 years ago, after trying another degree at another university (turns out it wasnt for me)

I ONLY have a science background, so a) I didnt do coursework back then, b) i'm not at school (on a gap year now)

I emailed admissions and they said "ok, explain this when you send essay... you could submit a recent piece of work"

Has anyone come in a similar position as I? Can these essays be on anything at all i.e. personal experiences in Japan or something like that? Sorry for not being too specific, but it's just that I'm not too sure what to do in the first place!

Thanks

Reply 1

Ayumi

well you could always dig up some old hw during your A levels that has been marked.
im submitting some mini essay i wrote 2 weeks ago on WW2 in french and my english essay from AS.
be careful which you pick though because they might ask you to talk about it at the interview.

or...you could write about japan and make it dissertation style.

Reply 2

kitsunechan

Do you have a set college that you want to apply for? I'm applying to japanese too and having looked at the list, there are a few nice colleges (well, they're all nice really :smile:

) that don't require submitting essays, maybe if you're worried you should try applying for those. Off the top of my head i remember Queen's, Robinson, Sidney Sussex don't require essay submission... Probably best to check the Cambridge website ^^

good luck, hope that's of some use!

Reply 3

Jucus

I went to a Hungarian school so I didn't have any essays in English (plus Hungarian essay writing is very different) so I just translated one and then wrote one on my own that was marked by my English tutor.And it was ok :smile:

Try to dig or write something completely new.Or as said by kitsunechan apply somewhere where they don't want any essays!