Daniel Komanoff is a 17-year-old high school senior from New York City.

One question that often appears on a college's supplemental form is why you want to apply to that school. This question is designed to assess each applicant's personal stake and reasons for applying to the school. Although this might seem like an easy question - if you're applying to a school, you'd hope you know why - it can actually prove to be a very difficult one.

If your college hunt has been similar to mine and you've toured several schools, everything seems to blend together after a while. Most of the schools I've looked at have the same type of liberal arts focus, and it can be hard to separate the reasons why I want to go to one specific school versus another.

The trick in answering this type of question is to find very specific experiences you've had with each school, and to draw upon them in your answer. If you talked to any students while visiting the school, discuss that in your answer. If you sat in on any classes while visiting, talk about that. If you didn't get a chance to visit, did you talk to anyone from the school? Did something in the catalog or on the website catch your eye?

Be very specific in your response, because no school wants to read a vague and cliched statement about "how you want to study in their deeply diverse environment and better the community around you." Think about why you really want to go to that school in particular, and draw upon specific experiences in your response.

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