HAHA,
Solid advice there, can't agree more with what you have said.
DrRH,
You will, in addition to the above, need to demonstrate some motivation to a flying career. It might be you have a PPL, or were in the UAS, have family connections etc etc.
And yes, part of the selection process requires you to hand-write paragraphed responses to questions, they are testing your ability to use logical, coherent and correct English here.
Good luck!