What makes stellar essays?

Amen. I am in the same boat. I am an average writer at best. I am banking on cold logic and in-depth narration to make an impression.

Ha, bringing up an old thread..

Now that a lot of you have finished your essays... what do you think now?

Personally, my style of writing changed depending on the country the university was based in.
For the Asian schools, I was quite to the point and emphasised lessons learned and actions completed.
For the UK schools I was a mix of story telling, achievements in a descriptive and slightly modest.
For the USA schools I was more emotional, more personal and used more selling of my skills.

I adapted to the region due to perceived cultural difference in each country. e.g. If i was applying to Helsinki Uni, i would not use much emotion at all.

Now, what's that "goals vs aspirations" thing?

I do a lot of writing for work so didn't have a hard time with the essays (ok--they were torturous. rose-colored glasses). However, my two cents:

-skip the humor. it rarely translates verbally.
-be clear and concise. it gives you more space to sell yourself and you don't bore the AdCom by repeating yourself or going into too much detail.
-grammar!! poor grammar drives me nuts.
-make sure you reread your essays and have other people read your essays.
-be sincere
-show your excitement for the school and that you've done your research.

Wht shud we do for schools which specifically dont ask why school. I was in a deadlock whether to mention why school or not for Yale

It's a tough one. The only school that I applied to that didn't specify "why us" was Harvard. For them, I opted to avoid addressing the question directly, as they apparently removed "why us" from the application because they felt that most of the answers were too contrived. How many times can an adcom read about how great the case method is before the response loses any value? That being said, not specifically saying "School X is a perfect fit for me because of x,y,z" doesn't mean that you avoid the issue altogether. It can, and likely should, be done more subtly on these sorts of applications. For example, Harvard looks for a habit of leadership. By drawing upon experiences you can demonstrate this trait in yours essays, thereby showing fit for their program, which in most cases is more powerful than stating fit.

I think its still very appropriate to weave FIT into the essays even though it isn't explicitly asked.