i do think it can be a little bit strange this game that colleges have us play of trying to fit our entire character and potential in 650 words but i've played this game before so hopefully i can shed some light on the college essay writing process by sharing the two essays that i've written that helped me get into two ivy league schools and also to join bsmd medical programs beyond just that also sharing the insights that in retrospect i wish i knew when i was starting my college essay and just what really makes what really
makes an original and strong college essay if you're just getting started thinking about what you might want to write your essay about it can be a really intimidating experience at least it was for me i remember entering into my senior year of high school i just um i didn't know where to even begin i started reading essays online and watching youtube videos like this one about what people had written and and like seem to be have success with and with a lot of essays it just seemed like some sort of avant-garde contest of who could
come up with the quirkiest topic to write their college essay about like i've read essays about traffic lights um like ice cream socks just random topics and people would be rewarded for choosing just some random thing to write their college essay about and to me it just felt so disingenuous like the only way you'd be able to get an admission officer's attention is by just coming up with some quick and quirky topic and because just being forthright about your life isn't good enough so when it came to that i just felt very discouraged and then
on the other hand i read a lot of essays where people would talk about their uh their accomplishments and the things they've achieved up until that point of being in high school and at the time i did feel quite intimidated like i didn't have any supreme like world-renowned talents that some of these kids seem to have so on one hand i didn't i didn't know like where i fit i didn't know where i fit into this whole thing i didn't know how to spin up some sort of silly topic to insert myself into but on
the other hand i didn't feel like just writing honestly and objectively about the things i've done i didn't feel like that was enough either i just seriously didn't know where to even start so if you feel that same way that i did what i would recommend is taking the time to really introspect and ask yourself first what are the best things about you really if someone didn't get the chance to meet you what are the few things you would really want them to know about you is it that you have like a really unique sense
of humor or are you like really intense and know how to put in hard work and persevere when you need to or is there an interest or hobby or a talent that you have that you really would say even defines you to a large extent really take the time to think about what makes you different and take the time to give yourself some credit because if you don't do it in this essay no one's ever gonna know these things about you and just write them down in a list and when you're writing this list there's
no need to be strategic about it you shouldn't be thinking about what you're supposed to be writing or what you should have as a strength you you kind of have to really set aside those thoughts for some time and i mean i know high school is all about competition and comparison but for this time really set aside all the people in your ap lan class or your ap cal class or whatever and really just focus on on you that's what your essay is about so don't dilute yourself with what you think other people might be
writing about and i know it seems really methodical to boil yourself down to just a few bullet points like this but i think in retrospect when it comes to writing an essay like this you do need to be goal-oriented while it is a personal essay you can't take everything so personally and you can't take everything to heart because then if you do you'll start wondering to yourself how am i supposed to put down my entire past present and future all in 650 words and here's the thing you're not supposed to you're not supposed to you're
not looking for the greatest deepest moment of your life to put on paper you're just looking for a moment that you can use to convey who you are and what's more than that is that it's not what you choose to write about as much as how you write about it that's why a lot of essays that seem to be about mundane things can work because it it's not about what you write about it's how you connect it and demonstrate those things about yourself that make you stand out from other people so when you're looking at
those three or so qualities that you want to focus on think about different stories that act as evidence for those things that you know to be true about yourself but that you need to convey to someone else who doesn't know you i'd recommend talking with your family with any friends or people who know you well and just having conversations seeing how where those conversations go because um you you never know what could be a great idea you never know what could be a good story to use as your essay and i think just my final
thought for now is really um use the essay as an opportunity to build a case for yourself as to why you're unique and why you uh you deserve and should go to the school you want to go to and i think at the same time you want to build a case but you do it in a subtle way and that's the whole concept of storytelling that all along you have a goal in mind you want to show these three points or two points or one strong point about yourself but you don't just you don't outright
tell a person you tell it through a story and along the way it's the insights of that story it's the choices you make in that story it's the reactions you have it's the the introspection it's the it's the things you add along the way the takeaways that it's not about what you write it's about who's writing it and that's you so i just think be forgiving with yourself be open-minded um write down as many ideas as you can and then later go through and find out what works for you and i just wish you luck
because uh it's it's college admissions is not an easy season for everybody especially in the middle of an ongoing pandemic but if you put in the necessary time and energy and if you're genuine and you don't let other people's stories or essays or expectations dilute your own then i think that you will write a really strong essay that speaks for itself so i wrote this essay when applying the princeton i didn't get in but i still kept the essay for um other schools i applied to and i just loved the prompt it it says culture
is what presents us with the kinds of valuable things that can fill a life and insofar as we can recognize the value in those things and make them part of our lives our lives are meaningful and this is a quote from gaijin rosen the steward professor of philosophy and director of the burman undergraduate society of fellows at princeton university so i love that prompt and this is the essay i wrote in response to it this is the essay that i included in my application to the university of pennsylvania which is where i currently study i'm
a rising junior so here is my essay in a dimly lit table in seville a girl is sitting on a chair with the opening strums of a flamenco guitar she rises striding forward light snaps progressively build speeding with the guitar in a burst of fury she hammers out lightning fast footwork forcefully precisely whipping around her red shawl a flame in front of my eyes i'm captivated worried even that she will smash through the wooden board floor she too appears afraid of the passion overtaking her in a carpet weaving school in istanbul a girl is sitting
on a bench alongside other women she is quietly pulling strings through a loom working from sunrise to sunset she has been weaving the same carpet for three years and she is only halfway done sitting on the benches the women perform an ancient tradition for which nowadays they are paid patiently enduringly they weave most of the day most of the year producing their beloved craft i enter the room where the rugs are probably hung up i am drawn to vast carpets of iridescent silk kaleidoscopic visions with colors of dragonflies wings four million knots total seven years
of labor these two sites from family travels remain vivid in my memory both are extremely fine acts of labor tradition and heart but i've wondered which is the right way to live is it better to be an anonymous carpet weaver patiently transforming my ears into my masterpiece or should i live as a dancing flame instead a flamenco dancer whose years of training crescendo into the height of a sublime moment in a home in suburban new jersey a girl is sitting at a kitchen table listen to the family dialogue you'll hear english intermixed with bulgarian glimpse
inside the refrigerator you'll find ketchup next to luteinizer and pizza next to bonita every first day of school my grandma intentionally spills a glass of water from the front door may it go upon water she cries hugging me as another year begins this bulgarian tradition ensures that my success flow as surely and naturally as water more than a tradition to me it is the outpouring of my grandma's yearning for my happiness i am one to seek meaning in traditions because they express visions of life that is why between patient carpet weaving and exuberant flamenco dancing
i wondered which was better but does it even matter passion and patience what are they without each other who i am now is a brewing culmination of all moments past all sights i've seen all people i've met i'm inspired by the sirtaki dancing life living zorb of the greek i am consoled by the grave painful dissonances of the moonlight sonata i am enchanted by the unabashed liberation of nina simone's music my love of culture is why i joined an indian dance team it is the reason why i learned spanish unbeknownst to me that years later
i would be standing at the peak of the temple of the jaguar in guatemala my own culture is a gift given to me from birth but the countless colors of other cultures expand my world us three girls the spanish dancer the turkish weaver and my bulgarian american self cannot be so different after all we simply express our humanity in different ways i could claim to be weaving together the moments that have inspired me but i realize that life is my weaver and i'm an unfinished carpet meaning is everywhere in knots and ties stomps and snaps
faces and stories a splash of water it assumes many characters from a song in the ear to a meal in the belly a carpet under my feet to dance in front of my eyes culture has taught me that often life speaks without words it is up to us to realize what it says
