Why Do You Want to Study This Program? Sample Answers
“Why do you want to study this program?” is the question every applicant expects and most answer with a compliment. The program is highly ranked, the school is prestigious, you have always dreamed of it. None of that is about you, and none of it could not have been said by the other four hundred people in the queue. The answer that works has a moment, some evidence, one specific thing about this program that you could not say about the one down the road, and a sentence about what you intend to do with it. It is asked in Ivey, Sauder and Queen’s Commerce interviews, in engineering and health sciences videos, and in written form on nearly every supplementary application.
What the interviewer is listening for
Students hear “why this program” and reach for reasons the program would like to hear about itself, on the theory that flattery is safe. It is safe in the sense that it cannot go wrong, and it cannot go right either. The interviewer already knows what their program is ranked. They’re listening for three things:
- Whether the interest is real. A moment when the subject stopped being a word on a course list and became something you did, and what you have done about it since. Evidence beats enthusiasm every time.
- Whether you know what you are applying to. One thing about how this program is taught or structured that you have actually looked up, and why it fits how you work. Not a slogan from the homepage.
- Whether the decision is yours. Interviewers can hear a parent’s reasons. An answer with a specific moment and a specific detail in it is almost always the applicant’s own; an answer built from rankings and job prospects often is not.
The structure, in four beats
- The moment. One specific time the subject became real for you. A project, a job, a problem you could not stop thinking about. Ten to fifteen seconds.
- The evidence. What you did next, because you wanted to, not because it was assigned. A course you chose, a thing you built, a role you took. This is what makes the moment believable.
- The specific thing about this program. One feature you have researched: the way first year is taught, a co-op structure, a course that exists nowhere else, a way the program assesses you. Then the link: why that feature fits how you work.
- What you will do with it. Not a job title; you are seventeen and nobody expects one. A direction, a problem you want to be closer to, or an honest “I want to find out which of these two things I am.”
In a sixty-second video that is roughly fifteen, fifteen, twenty and ten seconds. In a 250-word written answer it is one paragraph each, with the third one longest.
Three example answers
I ran the concession stand at my little brother’s hockey tournament for two seasons, and the first year it lost money, which I found genuinely interesting rather than upsetting. I spent that summer working out why: we were buying in quantities that assumed every game sold out, and about a third of them didn’t. The second year I cut the order by a third, tracked sales per game on a spreadsheet, and we made about $900 for the association. That is why I want to study commerce: I like the part where a number tells you something is wrong and you have to find out what. The specific reason it is this program is that you are put on a real case in first year, in a team, with a presentation at the end, and I have done my best work with a deadline and a room full of people waiting. I don’t know yet whether I want to end up in finance or operations. I want a program where the first two years let me find out by doing both.
In Grade 10 my family’s dishwasher broke and instead of calling anyone my dad and I took it apart on the kitchen floor. It was the drain pump, a $40 part, and it took us six hours, four of which were figuring out how it came apart at all. I have fixed or built something most months since: a bike, a desk lamp from scratch, a temperature logger for my mum’s greenhouse that ran for about eight months before the sensor died. So I know I like the version of engineering where you have a thing in front of you that does not work yet. What draws me to this program specifically is that first year has a design course with a physical build and a client, not just problem sets, and that co-op starts early enough that I would have done two work terms before I have to choose a discipline. I think I am mechanical. I would like to find out on a work term rather than guess now.
My grandmother was in hospital for eleven days in Grade 11 and I was the one who went most afternoons, because I had the fewest commitments. What I noticed was not the medicine, which I didn’t understand, but that she got three different explanations of the same test from three different people and was frightened by all of them. That is when I got interested in health as a system rather than as a set of facts. Since then I have done about 120 hours volunteering on a hospital ward, taken Grade 12 biology and chemistry by choice, and read more than I expected to about how patients get information. The reason it is this program is the way it teaches: small inquiry groups where you are given a problem and have to work out what you need to know, instead of lectures. That is how I learned everything I actually remember. I don’t know whether I end up in medicine, public health or research. I do know I want to understand why a patient can be told the same thing three times and still not know what is happening to her.
The answers that lose
Rankings and prestige. “It is one of the top programs in Canada.” True, possibly; and the interviewer works there and did not need telling. Worse, it implies you would be equally happy at whichever program ranked one place higher, which is exactly the opposite of what the question is asking.
“I have always dreamed of.” Nobody has always dreamed of a commerce degree. The phrase tells the interviewer that you do not have a moment, so you have reached for a feeling instead. If you do have a real origin, it has a date on it. Give the date.
The job prospects answer. “It leads to well-paid careers.” Not wrong, and not yours; it is the reason a parent gives. It also answers a different question (why this degree) when you were asked why this program.
The homepage answer. “The program is known for its collaborative environment and world-class faculty.” If a sentence could be pasted onto any program’s website without edits, it is not a detail. Interviewers can tell a researched feature from a marketing phrase because researched features are boring and specific: a course code, a co-op schedule, the number of people in a first-year section.
How to research a program in twenty minutes
You need one detail, not a dossier. This finds it.
- Minutes one to five: the first-year course list. Not the program overview; the actual list of courses a first-year takes, usually under “program requirements” or in the academic calendar. Find one course that surprises you or that you would pick first, and note its name.
- Minutes five to ten: how it is taught. Look for words like co-op, capstone, case, inquiry, studio, lab, placement, and for numbers: section size, work-term count, when specialisation happens. Pick the one that matches how you already work best, and be able to say why in one sentence.
- Minutes ten to fifteen: what the program says it wants. Most admissions pages list the qualities they read for, and supplementary-application pages say what the questions test. Read that list once. You are not going to quote it; you are checking that your moment and evidence are the kind they care about.
- Minutes fifteen to twenty: write the third beat. Two sentences: the feature, and why it fits you. Say them out loud. If they sound like a brochure, go back to step one and pick a duller, more specific feature.
That is the whole job. Do it once per program you are interviewing with, keep the notes in one place, and the answer changes by one beat per program while the first two stay the same.
Other ways the question gets asked
- Why do you want to study this subject?
- Why this school?
- What made you apply to this program over similar ones?
- What do you hope to get out of your degree?
- Where do you see yourself after graduation?
- Why should we choose you?
Same four beats, different weights. “Why this subject” wants the moment and the evidence, and the program detail can be one sentence. “Why this school” wants the third beat, and it is the question most likely to draw the rankings answer, so have the detail ready. “Over similar ones” is asking you to name the difference explicitly, which is allowed: “the other program I looked at starts co-op in third year; this one starts it in second.” “After graduation” wants the fourth beat honestly; a direction and an open question beat a job title you cannot defend. “Why should we choose you” is the same answer turned around: the evidence beat goes first and gets the most time.
Where to go from here
This question usually follows tell me about yourself, and the two should not repeat each other: the opener carries the person, this one carries the fit. The thirty-question guide puts it beside the other motivation questions, and if you are answering it in writing, the Ontario supplementary applications guide has the word and character limits for each program. Then say it on a clock: AcceptMe’s interview tool will ask you one of the variations above unseen, with your program’s prep window and timer, and the transcript will show you whether the specific detail made it in or whether you ran out of time on the moment. If your answer is written, the essay coach will pin its notes to the sentence that could be pasted onto any program’s website.
Keep reading
- Tell Me About Yourself: University Interview Sample Answers How to answer 'tell me about yourself' in a university interview: a 60-second structure, three sample answers, and the openers that lose the room.
- University Interview Questions and Answers (30 Questions) Thirty real university interview questions grouped by what they test, with sample answers and the mistake each one is designed to catch.
- Supplementary Applications in Ontario: Every Program Compared Every Ontario business and engineering program with a supplementary application: what each asks, the video and written timings, and all the deadlines.