Why Duke? The physics department appeals the most to me. Supplementary Essay

Here is what I wrote:

Of the many departments at Duke, the physics department appeals the most to me. One of the biggest reasons is the numerous opportunities to do high quality research. I am eager to do physics research in laboratories such as the TUNL, which I visited as a junior in high school. Another reason is the large number of courses that explore different areas of physics. I intend to take as many courses as possible to gain significant breadth in the subject. Also, I deeply value learning from faculty who have extensive experience and are accomplished in their field.

The essay has to be less than 150 words.

You need to go in more depth why chose the physics department . what specifically about physics interested you. I would eliminate the portion about taking many classes in that subject it's insignificant and that is what expected of anyone interested in the physics department or any department for that matter.

Reiterating what hapij said above, your paragraph is way too general. Perhaps to demonstrate how the physics department exactly appeals talk about specific opportunities to do high quality research. For example, first demonstrate your interests and what opportunities are available. Remember to also talk about exactly what kind of different areas of physics you are interested. I know it is really difficult since you only have 150 words to work with, but my guess is these universities simply want to use these limited number of words to gouge how exactly are you interested in your intellectual interests.

Daniel, if the reason that you opted to try and enroll at Duke is because of their laboratories such as the TUNL, then you should center your response upon that. Why Duke? You can say that you opted to enroll at Duke because of your plans for future research in the field of XXX which can be easily assisted by the facilities offered by the TUNL laboratory at the university. Explain how your research ties in with say, the work being done in the lab and how by working together, you expect a certain type of positive result to come out of it.

Usually this type of prompt looks for a commonality between the university objectives and the student. In your case though, you already discussed that you have a penchant for research. So, since research is the reason you opted for Duke, then you should work on developing that response. By mentioning a specific type of research, you just might be able to catch the eye of the reviewer, who will remember you during consideration time as a student with an interesting field of research that you wish to pursue at Duke. It never hurts to have some sort of research aspiration on the horizon. Most universities look forward to such collaborations with their students because of the prestige or interest that it generates for the university over the long run. I think you can come up with a 150 word response along those lines easily :-)