application essay ivy league

How They Got Into The Ivy League (25 essay examples)

Andrea Schiralli , Jun 09, 2021

Introduction 

If you are even considering applying to an American college, you are well aware that the process is quite laborious. From researching schools, to test prep, to test taking, it is easy to become overwhelmed. Writing a personal statement essay is perhaps the most daunting aspect of the entire college application process. Your test scores may be perfect, your transcript spotless, your activity sheet full of awards and accomplishments, and your recommendation letters may extol your intelligence as well as your virtues, but without impressive essays, all the aforementioned is rendered null.  

Fear not! This ebook presents examples of personal statement essays that got Ivy & Quill clients into Ivy League universities. By perusing these essays, you will understand how to present yourself as the type of student an admissions officer is looking for. You will learn what is expected from your college admissions essays and how you can play upon both your strengths and weaknesses to shape yourself into an ideal candidate for admissions: an introspective, self-aware young man or woman with the ability to grow from the vicissitudes of life. 

Personal Statement 1 

Accepted into: Yale, Dartmouth, Cornell, Columbia, Brown  

The first time that I attended a water ballet performance, I experienced a synesthesia of sorts as I watched the swan-like movements of the swimmers unfold with the cadence and magic of lyrical poetry, the precisely executed sequences melding with the musical accompaniment to create an ethereal beauty that I had never imagined possible. “You belong out there, creating that elegance with them,” I heard the quiet but powerful voice of my intuition tell me. For the next six years, I heeded its advice, training rigorously to master the athletic and artistic underpinnings of synchronized swimming.  

I flailed and plunged with all the grace of an elephant seal during my first few weeks of training. I was quickly and thoroughly disabused of the notion that the poise and control that I so coveted would be easy to obtain. During the first phase of my training, I spent as much time out of the water as in it, occupying myself with Pilates, weight training, and gymnastics in order to build my strength and flexibility. I learned things about the sport that outsiders seldom realize: that performers aren’t allowed to touch the bottom of the pool, relying on an “eggbeater” technique also used by water polo players to stay afloat; that collisions and concussions are all too common; that sometimes the routine demands staying underwater for so long that the lungs burn and the vision becomes hazy. My initial intervals in the water were marked by a floundering feeling that seemed diametrically opposed to the grace that I sought. I began to question whether I was really cut out for the sport.  

I persisted through all of this and slowly but certainly I saw myself progress. My back tucks became tight and fluid, my oyster maneuvers controlled and rhythmical, my water wheels feeling so natural that I could have executed them in my sleep. Moreover, I became comfortable enough with my own role in the water that I was able to expand my awareness to the other members of my team, moving not just synchronistically, but also synergistically. During one of my first major performances, our routine culminated as I launched myself out of the water in a powerful boost, surging upward on the swelling currents of the symphonic accompaniment. I owned the elegant arc that I cut through air and water, my teammates and I executing the leap with the majestic effortlessness of a pod of dolphins frolicking in the sea. I reveled in the thunderous applause at the conclusion of our routine, for it meant that I had helped to create the kind of exquisite beauty that I had so admired years before.  

Though I never would have guessed this at the outset of my training, synchronized swimming has provided one of the central metaphors of my life. The first and most fundamental lesson that I learned was persistence, which I absorbed humbly and viscerally by way of aching muscles and chlorine-stung eyes. More subtly and powerfully, the sport also lent me an instinctive appreciation of the way that many parts interact to form an emergent whole, an understanding which I have applied to every area of my studies, from mechanical systems to biological networks to artistic design. I have become cognizant of the fact that, as when I am in the water, my own perception of myself is narrow and incomplete, that to really understand my role in life I need to see myself in terms of my interactions with those around me. Six years after my training began, I still pursue the sense of harmony and unity that synchronized swimming has instilled in me, riding the soft swells of destiny forward as I move on to the next phase of my life.  

Personal Statement 2 

Accepted into: Columbia, UPenn, Dartmouth, Brown  

Every night when the clock struck seven, I was tormented by the “entertainment” Mary provided. In oversized pants and a dazzlingly shirt, she would sing and dance awkwardly to Latin music. Mary was my host mother last year during an international exchange program in La Porte high school, and apparently, also a salsa aficionado. Upon hearing that I had taken piano lessons for over ten years, she encouraged me to take part in the school’s annual musical.  

“It’s the biggest party of the year! Cathy, you’re good at this. Just go for it and have fun!” Unable to say no to such an enthusiastic face, I nodded, auditioned, and eventually scored a role in the chorus. It was a backstage role, which might be the only reason I had so quickly acquiesced to Mary’s request.  

Practices went smoothly—I made several new friends and shared laughs with the other cast members. Just one day before the performance, however, the director announced an unexpected change: the chorus members were to perform in the middle of the audience instead of just standing behind the orchestra. While most of the others cherished the chance to publicly display themselves, I became uncontrollably anxious. The memory of my last stage performance haunted me.  

You see, my first (and only) piano concert was a catastrophe. At first, the notes flowed smoothly from my fingertips, effortlessly dancing across the ivory keys. Unwisely, I lifted my head from time to time to steal a glance at my parents and teachers in the audience. Trying to distinguish their emotions through their facial expressions, I found my attention gradually drifting. Before long, the melody completely escaped me! Empty-minded and petrified with embarrassment, I froze on the bench for the longest two minutes of my life before dashing offstage. All I could see when I finally mustered the courage to peer out from behind the curtain was the disappointment in my parents’ eyes and the overwhelming darkness of the stage.  

Since then, I have avoided such public shows, lest I re-experience such humiliation and fail to meet others’ expectations. But this time, it was too late to quit. I had already made a commitment to not only Mary and myself, but to the entire cast of the musical. Despite being just one member of the chorus, every voice mattered and my duty simply could not go unfulfilled. So, I rehearsed repeatedly that evening. Unfortunately, the more I practiced, the more nervous I became, and the more mistakes I made. My nerves were shot.  

The dreaded moment still came. I stood in the darkness like before, awaiting the guillotine. Unintentionally, my eyes found Mary’s face in the audience, and it was a sight to behold: it gleamed with appreciation, joy, and grace as her body swayed to the music. Her rhythm was not perfect, but it evoked my remembrance of my initial impetus to practice music. Something in me changed in that moment, as I observed Mary freely surrender.  

Spellbound, I sang naturally and danced harmoniously. For the very first time, I did not feel that I was performing for someone else, neither my parents nor my teachers, but for myself. Even when the music ceased and the applause rose, I was still singing. Not until the other choristers came to hug me and roared with excitement did I realize that I had successfully completed the show.  

For years, I had been a timid girl always content to hide behind others and blaming my diffidence and cowardice for my lack of familiarity with the circumstance I faced. Now, I realized that what intimidated me were never actually the expectations from my parents or the audience’s gaze, but rather, my inner insecurities. With the new understanding of music as a means of creative self-expression, I finally embraced my newfound strength and maturity.  

Personal Statement 3 

Accepted into: Yale, UPenn, Dartmouth, Columbia, Brown  

Spencer looked directly at me rather than at the camera for the first time, her pale blue eyes muted and melancholic.  

“To my parents, it's like losing me,” she explained, “as though the child they raised had died and a stranger had walked into their family.”  

I glanced again at the questionnaire, which I had developed as a guide for the interviews that I was conducting for a documentary film I was making on transgender issues, a much-talked-about topic at the time. I was intrigued on a personal level, my fascination leading me to conduct extensive background research on the subject, focusing especially on criminal justice and anti-discrimination legislation. I hoped to become a pundit who could compassionately educate viewers on transgender individuals' struggles and rights. On the basis of my research, I compiled a questionnaire that I believed would elicit important insight into the plight of the transgender individual.  

My first scheduled interview was with Spencer, who sat down in front of the green screen and politely deflected my attempts at small talk, no doubt anxious at the prospect of revealing her transgender identity, of which few people outside of her family were aware. I dutifully moved down my list of questions, and Spencer dutifully produced the same facts and figures that I had encountered in the academic papers I had reviewed while preparing for the documentary. It became clear to me that I needed to break through the cold objectivity and impersonality that had suffused our conversation, so I abandoned the next item on my questionnaire in favor of a simple inquiry regarding how Spencer's family had reacted to her “coming out” as a transgender individual. It was at this moment that Spencer locked eyes with me and equated her decision to change her gender to a kind of living death in the eyes of her family. Spencer's candid confession led, in turn, to more personal, interesting, and original questions. I was awed by the raw truth of Spencer's story, which included therapy her parents had forced her to undergo; her mother's continued rejection of Spencer's decision to take puberty-delaying drugs that would facilitate her eventual gender reassignment surgery; by the precious refuge she took in a gender-neutral bathroom near her house, which she fled to as the one location that accepted her true identity completely, shielding her from the scorn and criticism of the outside world. In the face of such sad and shining virtue, of such intimate and potent human connection, I quickly abandoned my role as wannabe pundit, adopting instead my true identity, that of faithful listener and humble ally.  

The golden rule of my film education was that stories must always be told truthfully, and the documentary I made on transgender individuals was the first time that I fully lived up to this fundamental precept. During this and other projects, I love feeling myself becoming part of a story, connecting with the people who populate it and exploring their fervor and their frights. I convey these elements to my viewers through light and sound, blessed with the vision and the technology necessary to render such intimate revelations accessible to my audience. Filmmaking has allowed me to share my own passion and perspective on a wide range of topics, from scientific advancements to social justice. The results of this particular quest for truth were that Spencer was able to “come out” to the whole school and that the school itself decided to transform its sex education curriculum to embrace transgender individuals.  

When the lights go out and the screen lights up, I hope that I can give my audience insight into the complexity of a human mind, celebrating with them the beautiful, difficult, defining diversity of the world—the way I did when Spencer looked at me for the first time, on that day that now feels so long ago.  

Personal Statement 4 

Accepted into: UPenn, Dartmouth, Cornell, Brown  

Can a beauty turn into a beast? In my first year of high school, my classmates would praise my porcelain skin and lovely face. My smile was like sweets, spreading dopamine to others. During breaks, girls would ask me to accompany them to grab snacks, and boys surrounded me asking for academic help. After class, we would play badminton, and I even joined the cheerleading team. Feeling like the center of my group, I savored school life.  

Alas! Perhaps Maleficent envied my beauty and put a curse on me. When I awoke one fateful day in the tenth grade, the surrounding areas of my eyes and jaw were covered in a painful rash. I didn’t want to go to class, as I feared tarnishing the impression my friends had of me. I couldn’t even look in the mirror: I didn’t recognize the horrid reflection. The sorceress’s power was so strong that the medicines prescribed to combat my diagnosed Atopic Dermatitis proved useless. Rashes covered my whole body within months. The itch made sleeping impossible; I lived in a zombie-like state. My skin resembled a hundred-year-old tree bark, and when I shook my arms, scurf fell like snowflakes. I felt helpless and disappointed, not only with my physical condition, but also with my friends’ attitudes. They promptly ignored me, except to flash despising eyes. I was alone, walking in the dark hallway listening to girls’ ringing laughter in their rooms. The popular girl had turned into a monster.  

After that semester, my condition became so severe that I had to be hospitalized. The AD had turned into Erythroderma, and doctors wanted to inject me with medicines that would cause life-long reliance and have harmful effects on my kidneys and liver. I refused, unwilling to put my long-term health at risk for short-term alleviation of symptoms. Instead, I decided to only take the anti-inflammatory treatment while exercising, as my background in alternative medicine had led me to believe that allergies often stem from weak immune systems.  

At first, I could only do gentle exercise like hiking. Every time I sweated, the itch felt like millions of ants running through my body. I had to grit my teeth and divert my attention to resist the impulse to scratch. The biggest motivator that steadied my faith of persistence is the last line of Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind : If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? When I came across that line one ordinary afternoon, it was imprinted in my heart. I would repeat the line like a mantra when hope seemed dim. Determined to become healthy again, I continued exercise and finally witnessed miracles. The itch gradually diminished and I perspired more, which meant that toxins were being expelled. Then, I worked my exercise up to badminton and tennis. I am now fully recovered, with no recurrence.  

However, when I went in for a routine hospital check-up, I noticed countless allergy patients, which stimulated me to help. On weekends, I would head to hospitals and send them skin-care handbooks and creams. Most importantly, I shared my recovery story to ensure them that nothing is insurmountable. I also set up a social media platform to reach more people. In forums, patients’ parents could share their pains, solutions, preferred creams, and medical tips. Seeing their thankful notes and patients’ happy faces, I realized the worthiness of my experience.  

This experience taught me that no matter how difficult adversity seems, confidence, persistence, bravery, and hope can direct me to light. No matter how powerful Maleficent is, good always trumps evil. This experience also helped me realize the importance of making social contributions, and I hope to found my own charity for helping AD patients in the future. Now when I look in the mirror, not only do I see a beautiful reflection, but I also see an altruistic, fierce, modern-day Princess smiling back at me.  

Personal Statement 5 

Accepted into: UPenn, Columbia, Brown  

I simply couldn’t hold back the deluge of tears that flooded like water through a leaky dyke. Our new music teacher, Ms. L., hadn't shown up for the orchestra rehearsal, and we had been plagued with problematic microphones and harassed by security guards who insisted on closing up early. Accustomed to how our old teacher had helped us prepare, we had focused on perfecting the pieces, paying little heed to tedious administrative issues. Consequently, we were facing a grim and disordered reality as the big night of our annual concert.  

When I vented to a close friend, he told me my frustrations fell under the umbrella of the “small stuff,” which he believed must be compartmentalized for the sake of emotional survival. I recalled the recurring pings of the microphones, the off-putting demands of the new teacher, and the last-minute editing of emcee scripts and I knew that in this case sweating the small stuff was a necessity.  

The rest of the arrangements for the concert proceeded with much sweating on the part of all concerned, which was not only a result of Singapore's warm weather. Ms. L.'s approach to things was radically different from what I had grown accustomed to, and we butted heads over issues as trivial as the color schemes of the posters and the prospective candidates for emcee. Many members of the orchestra had given their grudging acceptance to Ms. L.'s new regime, but I maintained my obduracy. I found it difficult to accept that “this is just the way things have to be,” a phrase that I believed was often employed to absolve ourselves of personal and communal responsibility.  

As I meandered home in the balmy Singapore weather, I turned on some Janáček, whose melodies have never failed to bring me comfort. I started to ruminate on the orchestra issues in a logical, quasi-detached way, as the soothing music spread across me like a gentle painkiller and rendered all related negative emotions remote. I realized that the problem with refusing to deal with the small stuff as it arises is that this becomes the accepted norm. Within the shadow of this norm, we often confuse weakness with resilience, continuing to make concessions, unable to back away from the Faustian bargain that we make in exchange for short-term comfort.  

My playlist reached Sinfonietta when I had finally plopped into bed. The piece begins and ends with a phalanx of fanfares—not the usual grandiloquent kind that you hear in festivals, but one that connects a subtle web of melodious relationships, branching out into many variations on the original theme, so that its return at the end of the work seems not just a glorious, riotous coda, but also the logical conclusion to a compelling symphonic process. It begins subtlety, even quietly, intertwining shifting musical ideas to create a cinematic effect, moving somewhat counter to the conventional symphonic principles, paving the way to the sheer, blazing thrill of the coruscating brass salute at its very end.  

The Sinfonietta created an epiphany for me—a sense that I had to find a way to create order from chaos, beauty and meaning from broken pieces. The solution, I realized, was neither relinquishing focus on the small stuff, nor ignoring the reality of the situation, but finding compromise by maneuvering deftly through it. By understanding the needs of the various parties involved, I could navigate toward a Nash solution that, although not ideal, was the best that the situation allowed. Later that night, I took out my cello and played a part of the Sinfonietta in silence, feeling the music ebb and flow, rise and recede like water moving over rocks whose sharp edges had been smoothed by grace and time. 

Personal Statement 6 

Accepted into: Yale, UPenn, Columbia, Brown  

After 21 hours of flights and bus rides, I was finally smack in the middle of downtown Concord, standing in a record shop called Pitchfork. It was a cozy little shop that smelled faintly like McDonald’s and had hardcore rock music on, with a cashier whose belly was so big that his suspenders were audibly tearing.  

I surfed through the racks, hoping to see some familiar names of American pop icons, such as Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber. As I flipped through thousands of records, however, I was only greeted by simple yet extremely American-sounding names like Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, and Paul Simon. There were also some oddly familiar graphics that were almost too abstract to be true: a prism with dispersed light; a crotch wearing tight black jeans and unnecessarily visible zippers.  This must be true American pop culture.  

The mixture of smell, sound, and visuals gave me a strong dose of America. I could feel my feet moving and my head shaking to the guitar riff, the drumbeats, and the singer’s tearing voice. Everything about this shop clicked in my heart, so I purchased a box of albums and a turntable and spent months in my room soaking up this addictive American music. I wanted to become part of this culture!  

It took me a couple of school dances to realize that my perception of America was a whopping thirty years off. As one of my peers put it, I had the music taste of an old man. Instead of modern America, I was living in the time of Afros, bell-bottoms, and disco-skating rinks.  

Since then, I always walk past Pitchfork with my heart aching from a failed, anachronistic assimilation, until one day, I saw my engineering teacher, Mr. Wardrop emerge from the shop. We chatted about my situation and he invited me to a session in his lab, where a group of oldies, young and old, gathered together for some quality lunchtime music.  

Surprisingly, these people didn’t listen to music quietly as I did. They rambled about their family fishing trips, about their experiences through the Cold War, and their Christmas traditions. Although half a century apart, people in this group bonded over the memories that these songs carry.  

I soon realized that the American thing about these songs, which were mostly made by British artists, were the American memories they created. What my peers possess and I don't are memories of a grandfather nagging about ‘Nam and parents who grew up wanting to become rock stars. What I didn’t have were the unpleasantly long road trips and the tense Thanksgiving dinners with foul-mouthed drunk uncles—the moments when music flows and continues like a tradition.  

This group encouraged me to really live this country, to drive up and down I-93, to learn the pronunciation of obscure Massachusetts town names, to knock on doors and get to know my community. This group, which is now the Music Appreciation Society, crafted my American memory that usually takes decades and generations to foster. As all of us share a shiver to Dylan’s desperate cry for peace and Fleetwood Mac’s gentle whisper of love’s bittersweet nature, we are all reminded of the memories that makes us who we are in this country.  

I guess I did assimilate after all.  

Personal Statement 7 

Accepted into: Dartmouth, Brown  

Growing up, I took no interest in Barbie dolls. Instead, I would strut about with my beloved remote-control cars and transformer toys, jump up and down on the sofa with other boys, and roar like Mufasa on all fours in the kindergarten playground until concerned adults would chide, “How can a girl be as naughty as boys?” Yet my coming of age witnessed my steadfast rebellion against such social dos and don’ts. Why couldn’t a girl be like boys?  

Soccer was my first step to fight such stereotypes. It was almost like a ritual for me during the European Champion Club’s Cup to wake at three am and watch the game in the freezing February winter. As I enthusiastically started a discussion about the game with the boys in my class the next day, however, I received no more than their taunts. “Girls know nothing about soccer. You can’t even play soccer!” Trying to prove them wrong, I started to join my dad’s weekly games at the amateur club, juggling, scoring a spinning goal, mastering every new trick, and enduring the subtropical humidity. As I finally earned my place on the school soccer field, I became the only girl warming up in a group of boys before a match. No one could help but stare at the only flapping ponytail on the field!  

After conquering more physical arenas, I started to extend my exploration to another male-dominated field—competitive gaming. Yet prejudice emerged almost instantly: seeing my feminine avatar, other male players, in the worst-case scenarios, would immediately quit the game before it even started; when teaming with me, they would either be patronizing or blame me for every loss. Infuriated by their unfair stereotyping, I changed my username to a gender-neutral one. And as I tactically triumphed over my enemies, scoring aces and penta-kills and eventually leading my team to victory, I would then reveal my identity as a girl. Seeing their astonishment, I gained an unprecedented sense of accomplishment.  

Yet, my supposed invincibility in both physical and intellectual domains was soon faced with an insurmountable challenge – cooking. As someone who despised all feminine traits for years, my hands were tied in the kitchen. The chiffon cake that was supposed to puff high and fluffy turned out as thin and solid like pancake; the sugar in the sweet and sour ribs became carbonized instead of caramelized. Hearing of my woes, my friends advised me to simply give up. “Arwen, just accept the fact that girly is not your thing.”  

Having been a fighter of gender stereotypes for years, I ironically became another stereotype in people’s eyes. Is femininity something I should break away from? Is embodying masculinity the only way of proving myself? I itched for an answer, and mastering cooking seemed to be my very first step. Consuming dozens of charred chiffon cake and scraping dozens of burnt woks, I painstakingly endeavored to develop my culinary talents. When I finally brought the fluffiest chiffon cake to my friends, I once again received the expected look of shock – yet this time, I aimed not at proving them wrong, but at proving myself capable of putting on any identity I desired.  

One’s character goes far beyond the limited factors defined under male and female. Every Saturday, I would start with a drenching yet fulfilling soccer practice; in the afternoons, I would devote myself to playing DotA with my friends; around dusk, I would remove the marinated beef from the refrigerator to prepare a big dinner for the family. Now, I have found an answer for my rebellion: to go beyond the troubling two-dimensional definition of an individual and to embrace the undeniable fluidness of identity.  

Personal Statement 8 

Accepted into: Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, UPenn, Cornell, Brown  

“Not so nasty now!” I thought with satisfaction as a pleasant organic aroma drifted upward from my experimental apparatus, within which reddish pupae squirmed with the distinctive discomfort of all newborn beings.  

Two years earlier, I had subscribed to the commonly-held notion that flies were disgusting and harmful pests. After all, they hang around garbage, are dirty and smelly, and spread dangerous bacteria. One day, my father brought home a hundred flies in a glass container. Although I wanted nothing to do with them at the time, this event marked the beginning of my unlikely passion for insects.  

I learned from my dad that the larvae of flies, called maggots, will feed on decomposing organic material, which they transform into organic fertilizer and animal protein. Intrigued by this concept, I decided to do an experiment to validate the environmental effects of the loathsome creatures. Under my father's careful tutelage, I placed a waterlogged sponge in a small container, making sure that the sponge occupied nearly all of its volume. This way, I knew, the flies would be able to perch on the sponge to drink without drowning. I created a cube-shaped metal framework using thin wires, fashioning it so that it optimized visibility without allowing the flies to escape. Meanwhile, my father made an egg-gathering container containing crusts of wheat and ammonia. With our experimental set-up ready to go, we added the flies, half male and half female, and prepared to track the outcome.  

For two weeks, I patiently observed the processes unfolding. For the first three days, the flies buzzed around their enclosure, seemingly without purpose, and nothing of note seemed to happen. By the fourth and fifth days, however, large amounts of eggs appeared in the egg-gathering container. These were tiny, white, and spherical, their clusters forming strange runes and sigils. Three days later, the eggs morphed into wiggly maggots whose reek was intense. Struggling to overcome my nausea, I collected the maggots and scattered them over the food scraps, covering them with a transparent container to ensure that they did not escape. Imperceptibly but inexorably, something was changing. When I removed the containers two days later, some of the maggots had become reddish, ellipsoid pupae. Most amazingly, the foul smell had disappeared from the container, implying that the maggots had in fact transformed the decaying organic material into more palatable elements!  

Having experienced my first major entomological excitement, I was inspired to share the bug that I had caught, so to speak. I reported on my experiment at school and was encouraged to find that my peers were more interested in it than I had expected. Out of continued curiosity, I founded the Biodegradables Environmental Science Club, as part of which I repeated my initial experiment several times both to instruct new members and to collect data on different variables. When I look at newborn maggots now, I feel not revulsion, but rather interest and wonder. Most gratifyingly, I have seen other club members experience the same shift in attitude as we put science into action together. With time, our club became popular enough that we decided to organize a “Pest Camp” for this coming summer, during which we will teach younger students how to transform what humans have always been bothered by into some of nature's best gifts.  

Much to my surprise, I have been changed from a girl who screamed at any kind of bug into a budding entomologist who finds insects captivating and beautiful. Though they might at first glance appear to be the lowliest of this world's creatures, flies and maggots have much to teach us about life: That the value of raw material can rarely be assessed at first sight (or smell!), that nature can transform coal into diamond, and that science can weave spider webs into steel.  

Personal Statement 9 

Accepted into: Cornell, Columbia, UPenn  

History has always been my greatest interest, yet through my years of learning I have come to understand that teaching history is anything but an easy job. My years of suspicion were confirmed in the first class of my history tutorship. With students resting their chins on one hand like a half-hung telephone and staring at me with blank, unfocused eyes, I knew I had to figure out some way to grab their attention. I returned home that evening with the best intentions, yet after I opened up my fifth blank Microsoft file in a state of pure frustration, my concentration and confidence faded. It seemed strange that even though I was surrounded by various historical artifacts in my father’s library, I was unable to garner inspiration from such an ambience. I was like a waif lost in the crowd until I noticed a thick, familiar album that whisked me into a remembrance of the days my father and I used to spend pouring through its crisp pages.  

When I was a child, instead of fairy tales, my father would tell me stories about the antique porcelains in the album. I obtained an unexplainable pleasure from sitting on his knees and unraveling the intricate veils from those charming porcelains, the intense aroma of which indicated their historical nature. But not until I climbed the two-meter tall shelf to see the porcelain jars atop it did I begin to discover the real source of my father’s pleasure. Holding a reading glass and a dictionary of seal characters, I would stand on the table for hours trying to understand the depictions on the jars until I was convinced it was impossible. Frustrated, I would relent and ask my father, who patiently illuminated whatever mysteries I came across. Inspired by his brilliance, I started my journey of learning Chinese calligraphy in hopes of one day being able to appreciate the porcelains like my father did.  

Spurred by these sweet memories, I stood up and headed towards the shelf. My eyes strayed to a section that had been my favorite as a child, one containing fragments from a porcelain vase that I had accidentally broken long ago. Although shattered, every piece represents a moment of the Stone Story with its vivid painting. Throughout childhood, I tried many times but failed to glue these pieces together, yet always found it exhilarating and thought-provoking to rearrange the broken segments and build my own Stone Story in different ways.  

That was it! I rushed back to my computer and without hesitation abandoned the clichéd presentation format that only showcased my personal interpretation of historical events. I began typing up my plan for centering the course around storytelling. This way, everyone could present their opinions and imaginations by telling stories just as I did for myself based on the vase debris.  

My new plan for the tutorial class proved itself effective almost instantaneously. Students were filled with passion when they presented their own understandings of history. As we dove into the history of the African Americans, various perspectives were introduced: the “musician” in our class turned his sight to the connection between aboriginal African music and modern genres such as jazz and blues; the feminists actively explored the sufferings of African American women, highlighting their importance in combating racial discrimination; our “poet” probed into Walt Whitman’s attitude towards slavery with an in-depth reading into his poetry. Everyone found their respective niche and together, we weaved an intricate and fascinating picture of African American history with our diverse conceptions.  

History is like a broken vase. Its ultimate “truth” is always irretrievable, and thus any one-dimensional interpretation of history is prone to be problematic. Nevertheless, true historians get close to this “truth” by viewing the fragmented facts through different lenses, forming diverse perspectives, and seeing more clearly what history means for our present-day interpretations of the world.  

Personal Statement 10 

Accepted into: Yale, Cornell, Columbia, UPenn, Dartmouth, Brown  

What I most remember about my arrival in California is the ubiquity of the color yellow. It was mid-autumn, and golden leaves piled on the side of the road, crackling when I jumped on them. I shortly became close friends with a blonde German girl named Pauline in my elementary class, who invited me to pick ripe lemons from her family’s lemon tree. I remember holding a plump fruit under the sun, admiring how it glistened in the yellow light. The first English song that I completely understood was Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree. The song told the story of a man returning home from prison, hoping with all his heart that his wife still loved him; the yellow ribbon symbolized her positive answer. Yellow was the color of hope, anticipation, and enjoyment.  

Two years later, I returned to China, and my world was red. Every day I wore a red scarf, the item all my peers were wearing to symbolize the country; the outer casing of scholarship medals were bright red, and they had a fuzzy texture. In Chinese celebrations, crimson lanterns hanged on doorknobs, each with a candle glowing inside, lighting the streets with warm rays. During Chinese New Year, I received red envelopes containing lucky money from my parents and elder relatives that carried their best wishes to me. Red was the color of prosperity, happiness, and tradition.  

Every color had its own characteristic and emotion that linked to my memory in some way. I’ve started to think more about colors and the emotion that they carry in my artworks. If I’m in a joyous mood, my painting will be full of orange, red, and yellow; however, when I am feeling blue, my paintings will have a grayish tone. At that point in my life, I was satisfied using different shades of the same color in my paintings.  

As time went on, I started to feel that my painting lacked authenticity. There didn’t seem to be connections in my works: the colors were singled out, with clear, sharp boundaries around the outlines. My emotions are not sheer blue or complete green with straight lines surrounding them. No one color dominates me; my emotions are the result of a mixture of colors—all of equal importance—that synthesize, connect with, and interact with each other. Realizing this, I embarked on my search for a new way of painting that resembles the way my emotions are formed.  

I found the answer in watercolor. When my paintbrush touches the paper, the color diffuses on the page, another tint of a different color touches the first color, and a connection is formed. The colors seep into each other slowly and then stop, almost like water seeping into soil. When the colors dry, an irregular edge forms between them; this random, spontaneous natural interfusion is what makes watercolor breathtaking. The colors take on a life of their own.  

Watercolor is now more than a reflection of my emotions—it has inspired me to become a person who can effectively interact with those around me. In the end, life is about interacting with others, as humans are by definition social beings. Connections are vital to building relationships; in a society, different roles are of equal importance, and we need different elements to form a community. Just like how watercolor depicts emotions, the roles in our communities are not defined in straight, rigid lines. Rather, through interactions and communication, people can flux between roles and groups, creating a fluid society. Thanks to watercolor, the way I interact with others will enable me to lead a more colorful life.  

Personal Statement 11 

Accepted into: Yale, Cornell, UPenn, Dartmouth 

My sixth birthday dinner was illuminated by a magical dish—baked orange-spotted grouper. Beneath that nose-tickling scent of cooked garlic and the refreshing herb sauce was a tantalizing sweetness. Crisp shredded ginger and spring onion contrasted with the slightly seared, golden fish skin. I could not wait to grab my first slice, even dismissing the Chinese tradition that I should serve my parents first. The dish soon vanished before our eyes, yet the flavor lingered in my mind and has become one of my most cherished childhood memories.  

The memory of that flavor continued to tantalize me as I grew up. Every year on my birthday, my father would take me to that same seafood restaurant. Every time I browsed through the menu, I noticed that the price of the orange-spotted grouper increased while the prices of most other fishes, once as costly as the grouper, decreased. I asked the owner why the groupers were so expensive. Apologetically, he replied that because groupers can only survive in a very specific environment, they are much more difficult to raise than other types of fish.  

This experience aroused my curiosity—why were groupers so difficult to raise? I researched until I learned about concepts of DNA polymeraseandgel electrophoresis, which concerns the dissection of DNA and DNA analysis. I began to speculate that a virus might be the culprit. If we could extract the DNA of the virus, we might be able to solve the problem. To verify my hypothesis and gain hands-on experience of analyzing DNA so that I could take a concrete step in the direction of solving this mystery, I applied for an internship at the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, where research on viruses killing orange-spotted groupers are conducted and where vaccines are created.  

Working as a research assistant and under the guidance of my colleagues, not only did I learn to use equipment that had previously only existed for me in a textbook, but I also gained an appreciation for the importance of observation and intrepidity in a young scientist. Daily, I repeated monotonous experimental procedures to find the unknown virus. Most of the time, we ended up getting nothing. Every day, the pungent odor of buffers and agarose solution strongly contrasted with the lovely image of the grouper dish in my mind, infusing the lab with a pleasant, imaginary aroma. Like the path to revolution, the path to deliciousness is arduous. Still, with a firm belief that I would find the key to increasing the population of farmed groupers, I kept trying. During the following experiments, I photographed every result to record the brightness and the length of the bands, identifiers of the DNA’s characteristics.  

One day, the results finally captured my attention. The bands were bizarrely long and had a slightly different hue than I was used to. I immediately compared it with all the others. That’s it!  Believing that this DNA segment belonged to the virus, I immediately informed my colleagues. We redesigned the DNA primers, confirmed the difference, and found out the unknown virus SGIV. The lab is now designing vaccine for groupers based on the virus, and I feel honored to continue this research to help more people enjoy the delicacy of orange-spotted groupers.  

From this experience, I have come to understand that all science is not necessarily as metaphysical or complicated as string theory. Science can also be as down-to-earth as designing detergent or figuring out a vaccine so that more people can afford to enjoy a delicious meal.  

Our vaccine is now used by some fish farms, and we have already heard promising results. Some farmers even sent us groupers as a token of gratitude. The deliciousness of literally tasting the fruits of one’s labor is simply unparalleled!  

Personal Statement 12 

Accepted into: Yale, Columbia, Cornell, UPenn, Dartmouth  

Law enforcement officers are the first fence to impose public justice; meanwhile, this common notion holds them to higher standards and closer scrutiny in the justice system. The unique nature of the job can easily incite tension and often puts police officers under the spotlight. Therefore, when I heard about the controversies around ex-NYPD Officer Peter Liang’s indictment in early 2015, I curiously searched for more information.  

In addition to familiarizing myself with the case’s details, I began examining different perspectives on social justice in social media groups. As I saw myself agreeing with some arguments of each side, I wondered if such a case could ever be handled to satisfy everyone’s sense of justice. As we all hold our own values, it’s impossible for people to converge on a single belief, or a definitive justice. Instead, the justice system is based on compromises and the essence that people should be treated equally.  

It didn’t take me long to discover that Liang was the first NYPD officer indicted for a fatality in over a decade. Compared with other cases in which officers were set free of indictment due to “a lack of credible evidence proving the intentionality of shooting” in court, this case seemed to have gotten a harsher-than-usual response. Unable to determine the rationale behind this disparity, I was perplexed and irked.  

Eager to explore justice and raise awareness to the peculiarity of this case, I began sharing news articles and writing about my opinions on this in my school’s community forum. At first, my opinion seemed to be on the opposite side of campaigns against police brutality. However, as I went to different lunch tables and debated with those who dismissed my thoughts, I actually convinced many of my peers of my viewpoint: Liang’s indictment (and later conviction), due to its unusual deferral in comparison with other cases, distorted fairness, the cornerstone of a common law system. If we couldn’t restore this relative justice, people would fear getting different punishments for the same act. If we couldn’t respect precedents, the justice system would be more vulnerable to manipulation by individual power. However, I realized that merely talking in abstract terms wasn’t enough. To have a real impact, I needed larger platform.  

Luckily, I didn’t have to wait long. A few days after Peter’s conviction in February 2016, I came across savepeterliang.org . A white background with just a few grammatically incorrect sentences, the website was barren and boring. However, one sentence at the bottom of the page caught my attention: “Looking for more minds and hearts.” I immediately drafted an email to the contact address and attached my latest writing piece. When I was about to hit “Send”, however, I hesitated. How much impact could one website actually have? How much time would I need to put into this project? A series of questions flooded my mind, and I lifted my finger from the mouse.  

At the same time, I reflected on my initial motives for wanting to become involved. While police violence that violates people’s rights must be stopped, it is also important that we work to make sure that political pressure does not blur the justice system. With a crisp click, my email was on its way. After getting on board, I edited the site’s content and addressed the uniqueness of the case. I also created an online petition and worked with other volunteers to gather signatures for the judge. Before the sentencing date, over 20,000 people had signed our petition.  

While it’s impossible to say that my efforts had any influence on the judge’s decision, this experience strengthened my understanding of justice and the justice system: the best referee is not one who goes hard or soft on fouls, but one who is consistent. A definitive justice is hard to find, but fairness is always a resort. When the equality of justice gets violated, I’ll always stand up.  

Personal Statement 13 

Accepted into: Cornell, Columbia, Dartmouth, UPenn  

Enter Ava. Tall, thin, clad in black, eyes hardened by a mask of charcoal eyeliner. She struts nonchalantly in her combat boots, looking so incongruous (and dangerous) in the school. Appearances can be deceiving. More than a nonconformist, Ava would turn out to be the most courageous and independent girl I’ve ever met.  

I first met Ava at an art exhibition in Oregon. It surprised me that a girl so punk-rock could love still life paintings. Since then, we became friends and she would tell me her stories. She told me of her travels to Germany alone when she was just fifteen, how she devotes herself to gender inequality and LBGTQ issues, and how she swears to stop the demolition of old houses in Kyoto. Ava also told me that growth is the process of constantly breaking and rebuilding one’s current outlook, and that the only way to do this is to leave one’s comfort zone.  

Ava’s words shocked me. I realized that I had been stuck in my comfort zone for a while, and I did not want to leave it. For example, on the morning of my first Thanksgiving in the US, I was treated a bowl of white rice, without any side dishes or even a glass of water. That moment, I missed my mother’s Japanese dishes, made with love and care. I missed my buddies, not people who just treated me as a bookish Asian girl. I doubted my decision to have left behind the country I knew, to enter a nation where cultures collide.  

Ava made me realize that I had wasted precious time gingerly safeguarding my sensitive inner world and didn’t realize that those around me tried to care for me in their own way. Even the host family assumed that I, a Japanese girl, would prefer rice over pizza. Slowly, I started to empathize and see situations from other perspectives.  

Due to my fascination with Spanish culture, I attended a camp in Barcelona last summer, which was the most unforgettable experience. Starting from Placa de Catalunya at 8 am, my friend Sarah and I, who had also been admiring Gaudi’s works for a long time, walked along the Paseo de Gracia. We went to Casa Batillo, La Pedrera, La Sagrada Familia, and finally reached Park Guell twelve hours later. Gaudi’s architecture was simply fascinating; I was amazed by his magical use of curves, light, and genius ideas from nature. However, Barcelona shines not only because of Gaudi, but also the vintage buildings, the cozy sunlight, and the warm smiles on people’s faces.  

We decided to measure the city with our feet. Using a map as guide, we walked five miles. Rather than talking, we looked and experienced with our hearts. When this walking meditation ended, I felt a strong connection to Barcelona, as if I’d been acquainted with the city for a long time. I discovered a different me. I would never imagine walking five miles to explore a city with only a map, or traveling alone in Spain. I forgot my non-professional Spanish and the fact that I was a total stranger to the city. I even forgot my resistance to approach strangers. When I asked a passing elegant old lady for directions, when I danced to the music with buskers on the square, I was inexplicably satisfied.  

Humans’ greatest fear is uncertainty. Our comfort zones represent safety and ease. However, after constantly reaching beyond my limit, I found that Ava’s words were true: leaving one’s comfort zone is really the only way to grow. Stepping outside the boundaries of comfort, a much more glamorous and expansive world awaits. I hope that through the upcoming years, I can discover the art world of major international cities, further expanding my mind and heart. As Ava and this trip to Barcelona taught me, everybody is welcome by world, and I am no exception.  

Personal Statement 14 

Accepted into: Dartmouth, Cornell, Brown  

It was a cloudy spring day with mosquitoes in the moist air, yet I was thrilled. For the first time in my life, I was going to plant a tree.  

Dad and Grandpa shoveled a hole in our front yard. I gently lifted the sapling and placed it into the dirt and filled up the hole. Mom stabled the sapling with a few poles. Grandma watered it. For years, it grew in our yard, nurtured by sunlight and tropical rains, producing a kind of tart, juicy fruit named wampee . Twice a year when I pick the wampee, I am reminded of those in my family who planted the tree with me.  

My grandparents anchored the roots of my life. Grandpa was enlisted in the army for five years and later worked as an engineer in the ship manufacturing industry. Yet, he never lost his passion for literature and calligraphy. He taught me how to recite classical poetry, tucking me into bed with stories and parables. In contrast, Grandma spent her adolescence moving across the country with her family. Away from her hometown, she became independent and persevered in the face of challenges: bearing the hot weather and spicy cuisine, practicing burdensome physical tasks, and fitting into a new community. As the roots of my family tree, Grandpa and Grandma gathered experience from hardship, absorbed the marrow of life, and eventually passed them on to my parents and me.  

My parents are the supportive trunk of the family tree. Inheriting the trait of persistence from my grandparents, they founded an International Trade Corporation that exports household appliances. For the past ten years, they have achieved recognition in the local industry and made millions of dollars in annual trade volume. My parents were hands-on entrepreneurs: they worked long hours, negotiated deals with factories, trained new employees, and built relationships with clients. Though I did not witness the beginning of their entrepreneurship, I have seen the stack of contracts in their bedroom and heard their voices on the phone as the dinner on the table grew cold.  

Growing up under the sufficient moisture and fertile soil my family provides, I am increasingly aware of my responsibilities in the family business. Using statistical knowledge and information gathered from my family firm’s database, I conducted marketing research about the electrical fans we produce and export to Latin America. I noticed that the United States, which has been importing most fans made in China, would be a potential market for expansion.  

Moreover, since electrical fans are a seasonal product, I recommended my parents to export heaters to countries like the U.S. as well, since in such way the firm would run more evenly and profitably during the full business year. Through this experience, I was able to learn more about our firm’s operation, which is a micro-representation of the international trading system. I learned to write proposals, contribute ideas, and assist my parents.  

This summer, I went back to visit the wampee tree. The rising sun kindled the sky, and where we planted the sapling stood a leafy tree laden with fruits. Looking back, I have come to see how my family has shaped my identity from childhood to adulthood, just like the sapling that has transformed into a tree. The roots went deep, like my grandparents who nurtured my mind fundamentally; the trunk was erected steadily, like my parents spreading nutrition into my every veins. My grandparents have taught me the importance of traditional values, both cultural and personal. My parents have nurtured and protected me while allowing opportunities for me to develop multiple interests and widen my horizon. Their support enables me, the leaves, to reach the light and the air. Now, I will be replanted across the Pacific, where I hope to be nourished by the soil of my future college and blossom into someone my family would be proud of.  

Personal Statement 15 

Accepted into: Yale, Cornell, Dartmouth, UPenn  

I used to think that my camera only captured scenes of life; in fact, it delivers voices, voices of  p owerless children from Liangshan, one of China’s poorest regions. Every time I look through   my Canon 7D’s viewfinder, I’m eager not only to capture but also to convey and create, hence   empowering the lives of others.  

Capture.  

A group of kids playing rope-less tug-of-war. Bad angle, awkward placement, could’ve used a   larger aperture with a higher shutter speed. It's not a great shot, but it pictured the   fifteen-year-old me trying to immortalize a moment. The girls interlock their hands, some wrap   their arms around those before them, some clutch to others' shirts. My hands feel the friction  b etween their hands and the nylon. My scapula aches as the girls lean back. Innocent laughter   echoes around me. The rope-less tug-of-war might seem dull to us, but their faces sparkled with   glee. They didn’t have much, yet they lived with gratitude.  

From this point onward, every year these kids, who had never seen a camera before, patiently await my envelope full of photos: photos of them chasing hogs, photos of them planting potatoes, photos of them doodling on ragged walls, photos of them waving goodbye.  

Convey.  

A girl clings fast to the window frame, the glass separating two worlds. The texture of the  p itifully smeared glass, the placement of the dreadfully-welded iron…these elements jerk at   viewer’s heartstrings. Hope glides in those gazing eyes, penetrates the blurred glass, and incites   tears. Their hope, enthusiasm, and desire were never smothered by poverty but rather kindled by   life’s extremities. She hopes to break through that glass, to tear down that rusty iron frame, to   crack open the restraints set by destitution, to finally emerge into our world.  

Indeed, we dwell in opposite worlds. We have high technology and sports equipment for   entertainment; we travel thousands of miles to the Caribbean, to the Alps. They have nothing but   a backpack, maybe a few pencils; the adjacent town four hours’ walk away is the farthest they’ve  b een; eating three meals a day is a privilege. Everything we take for granted is mere fantasy to   them.  

Her eyes planted seeds deep in my heart. These seeds prompt me to sow their dreams in other hearts. These seeds prompt me to fundraise, to study architecture, to one day build them better schoolhouses with clear windows that do not separate, but join, our worlds.  

Create.  

A monochromatic background draws attention to the heart-rending shoes. The torn clothes,   dangling threads, and cracked rubber document the hours the kids walk to school. The dim and   coarse concrete illustrates their lackluster background: childhood. We all must tread up and down   countless muddy knolls through our trail of growth. However, these kids don’t have our   Timberlands to soften the journey; they don’t have a GPS to navigate the road. They only have   the roughly paved dirt road wriggling into the village. They have thorns and lurking vipers. They   have loot—woodchips, dirt, rocks, lichen—that their shoes collected, proof of their experience   and strength. We pray that they will walk out of the dirt road, out of the dark shadow, and pave a   wider, smoother, brighter future.  

Glancing through these old photos, I found myself treading through my own muddy trail of   growth. Desire, wonder, and desperation were vividly conveyed through texture, lines, and   colors. My photos morphed into powerful and touching storytellers who narrate my emotions and those of the otherwise ignored. Through these years, I gushed with pride at seeing the kids grow, a series of my photos reposted 600,000 times, and over 30,000 volunteers sign up to teach at  Liangshan .  

The word “grown” has now become less abstract. The camera—the responsibility—has grown heavier on my shoulders. I’m not sure whether it’s the camera itself or the development it captured that weighs me down, but it’s a weight I embrace.  

Personal Statement 16 

  Accepted into: (Oxford), Columbia, Cornell, UPenn, Brown  

“Where do you think you belong to, Chongqing or Canton?” In whichever city I happened to be, this was the most frequently asked question I encountered during numerous family meetings every Chinese New Year. Stuffing myself with mouthfuls of food was the best way to avoid the following awkward silence. Hastily wiping away the soup dripping down my chin, I mumbled under the gaze of countless of relatives, their eyes brimming with anticipation. “I…I have no idea,” was all I could lamely utter.  

I wasn’t lying. Having spent the first six years of my life in Chongqing and the next eleven in Canton, I have learned both dialects and grown used to the flavors of both cities. My family is a peculiar composition featuring two different tastes: my Chongqingnese mom, hot-tempered, addicted to chilies; my Cantonese stepdad, even-tempered, fond of every flavor but spicy. I savor the zesty flavor of Chongqing hotpot during mother-daughter dinners, while feeling a delicious shiver of pleasure when I sip the fresh and mild stock of Cantonese hotpot in my stepdad’s hometown. The two cities have been so intertwined in my memories that I can hardly tell which one I belong to. Yet this is not the case for my parents: their rooted cultural backgrounds have   endowed them with distinctive accents, different tastes for food, and unique temperaments.  

The other day, I saw a split pot in Wal-Mart which was divided by a copper slice in the middle,   resembling a “yin-yang” symbol. After bringing the pot home, I stewed a spicy Chongqing broth   in one half and a thin Cantonese stock in the other. The two coexisted peacefully in one pot, one   hot and dense, the other mild and light. My family resembles this yin-yang pot, with my   Chongqing mom and Cantonese stepdad living together in harmony, yet maintaining unique   attitudes towards life.   

My mum and stepdad have grown to love this pot. Gorging myself with food from both halves while my parents choose their preferred soups, I suddenly find the answer to the where-I-belong-to question. Experiencing the values of both cities, I am the copper slice in a hotpot. I belong to neither half, yet I have direct experiences from both, enriched with the  p rofound system of the two values. It is my existence that allows the two broths to coexist peacefully. I have helped each broth preserve its unique flavor while breaking down cultural barriers so that they have become more tolerant of each other. Bombarded by a constant ebb and flow of flavors from both sides, my copper slice absorbs both tastes. As I dip my spoon into one half, my taste buds explode, reminiscent of my stepdad’s upbringing. I dip it into the other half and am transported to my mother’s childhood. Being the copper slice in the middle, I am free to delve into whichever culture suits me most the moment. I have a multiple-entry visa between these two distinct worlds, and I plan taking advantage of it.  

“I belong to the middle,” I answered without hesitation the next time I was asked. My relatives shrugged, obviously not content with my strange, vague answer. But I like being the cooper slice between the Chongqing and Canton broths. Why shouldn’t I be able to taste both worlds, to experience life from two different cultural viewpoints? Likewise, I hope to be the hyphen in “Yale-NUS”, experiencing both the East and the West simultaneously. With my experience of living in China and studying under an American system, I wish I can better the understandings between different cultures, facilitating everyone to coexist harmoniously in the Yale-NUS campus and working towards a better future.  

Personal Statement 17  

Accepted into: Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, UPenn  

N o one is ever really his or her “own” person. Rather, we are all products of a larger societal   context and upbringing. The world I come from — m y family, my community, and my   school — h as shaped me into the girl I am today, presenting me with experiences and   opportunities which have allowed me to unearth my passions.  

My parents introduced me to animation when they took me to watch Finding Nemo . I loved the   movie so much that I begged my parents for the DVD, which I have seen at least thirty times.   This charming film left a deep impression on me, both visually and emotionally. T he advanced computer graphics presented the sea in such a unique way that each frame was resplendent with  b eauty. The more animated films my parents took me to, the more my love and fascination for   CGI animation grew. Movies such as Kung Fu Panda and Up taught me invaluable life lessons,   such as the power of faith and the importance of family, respectively. Through animation, my   family built a castle of love, imagination, and wonderment. These movies continuously shape my   dream: to be an animator, employing advanced computer technology to create art which will   hopefully spread optimism and happiness to viewers.  

My school allowed me to share my passion for violin with others. Standing onstage before the   chamber ensemble, I took a deep breath and raised the instrument to my shoulder. I slammed the  b ow on the strings and was instantly transported into Vivaldi’s Spring . The movement advanced   from the joyful chirp of birds to the languorous flow of a fountain to the climax- the tempestuous   storm. All eyes were on me, the orchestra’s soloist; as lightning and thunder clashed, my fingers   frantically danced across the strings. The storm calmed and the piece ended with a slow vibrato.   Thunderous applause brought me back to the real world. I beamed with pride, honored that my   classmates and teachers had delighted in my performance.   

My community has instilled in me a sense of belonging. Since 2014, I volunteered at a primary   school. During my last class, I decided to teach paper-cutting, as art is usually not emphasized in the curricula of smaller schools. I patiently watched an eight-year-old, Min, clumsily cut along   the pre-sketched lines on a triangular piece of folded paper. After twenty minutes, she unfolded   her work, exhilaration spreading across her face. "A snowflake! Whoa, how beautiful!" To my   surprise, she placed her masterpiece in my hand and covered it with hers; I could feel her warm   fingertips transmitting her appreciation. At this endearing gesture, the word “community”   transformed from a vague notion into a tangible one. Through actively volunteering in the   community, I created a strong bond with the local school and its students.  

Consciously and unconsciously, my world has provided me with opportunities and unforgettable   experiences which have given rise to my potentials. I have discovered what I love- animation and have learned the value of contributing to one’s academic and local community. I hope that   when I enter a new world, university, I will discover more fields of interest. Be it a programmer   or an animator, an artist or a professor, I know that my world will support me in becoming who I   want to be.  

Personal Statement 18 

Accepted into: Dartmouth, Cornell, Columbia, UPenn  

A mother’s love is something more often than not, taken for granted. A mother’s sacrifice—time, money, energy—for the sake of her child is a given in most parental relationships. However, growing up, my mother practiced a draconian child-rearing method, which caused me doubt her love for me. You see, my father left my family when I was just two years old. My entire life, I believed that it was my mother’s sense of bitterness at not being able to hold onto a family that caused her to speak to me so harshly and maintain an icy distance.  

As I found no comfort in my mother, I had no one to share my day-to-day events with. If things at school went poorly, such as a bad grade on an exam, my mother would rap me over the knuckles or make me stand in a corner. If I pushed it and answered back, she would send me to bed without dinner. Rather than simply making an imaginary friend, like most children my age and lacking maternal comfort would do, I found solace in the only outlet I could: the arts.  

When I was five, my mom enrolled me in drawing lessons. Sheets of sketch paper overflowed with elements from my overactive imagination- detailed, wordless stories. As I grew older, the process of creating helped me develop a habit of doing things earnestly and persistently. After school, I would escape to my room and draw for hours. When I am lost in the world of art, images in my mind materialize as sketches on a page. The feeling of satisfaction when I realize that my pencil or brush has accurately recorded my inspirations is inexplicable and incomparable. When I am in the art world, a world in which creativity is King, anything is possible.  

A couple of years later, my mother decided that it would be prudent to take music lessons, as she probably realized that academics were just not my forte. I chose the violin, which provides a totally different aesthetic experience than drawing. With the organic dynamics of tempo and notes come either fervent movement or peaceful tranquility. Whether picking up the pace in one of Bach’s Partitas, meditating almost religiously on Pachelbel's Canon in D, or reveling in self pity while playing a minor key, I learnt to interpret each piece for myself. I learned to interject my full emotions into the familiar notes, sprinkling each piece with my personality.  

As an artist and a violinist, creative aesthetics are as essential as air. Expressing myself through art allows me to share what I deem visually or aesthetically pleasurable with others in the hopes they that will derive joy from my works as well. Having such a creative outlet of self-expression saved me from an otherwise emotionless existence. No matter what my mood or thoughts, there were multiple ways of conveying them either through my sketching pencils or through that hollow wooden instrument. The arts became the means by which I grew on my adolescent process of self-discovery.  

By the time I decided to set off to high school in the United States, I was much more self-aware and developed than before. My artistic skills had empowered me with confidence to handle daily tasks on my own as well as hope for the future. However, the day of my flight, I received jarring news: my mother confessed that she had been suffering from cancer for the past XX years. However, she did not want to burden me with the stress and sorrow that comes with such a dreaded disease, so she kept quiet. She admitted that her strict ways of raising me were to guarantee that I would be able to take care of myself and earn my own living in the likely case that she did not survive much longer.  

Upon hearing this news, tears started to uncontrollably flow from my eyes. I forgave my mother for having been so strict and thanked her for the seemingly little ways that she demonstrated her love—spending precious money that could have been used on her treatments to keep me in art and music classes—that in reality, made the world of difference in determining my fate. Thanks to my mother’s sacrifice, not only have discovered my passion for the arts, but I have honed my art and music skills through years of lessons and practice. On a larger scale, I have become self-sufficient and am mature for my age, which I noticed while living in St Paul’s dorms with other boys my age. Despite not having been the warmest of mothers, in her own way, my mother helped me grow my wings to fly toward a better future, one in which she may not be a part of. And that, I will never take for granted.  

Personal Statement 19 

The black water, filled with a mélange of industrial raw materials but showing no signs of life, aroused in me a sense of unease. The gray grass, covered in colorful, organic garbage but no flowers, disturbed me. It wasn't until a weekend last spring, when I finally returned to my native village, a small town near Jiangsu, that I had my impression of Chinese rural communities profoundly overturned.  

The scenery wasn't tidy or beautiful like it was in my memories of times past. Rather, it had become a place of utter rubbish, dirty and disordered. The river where I had learned how to swim, once clear and bustling with playing children and even teeming with fish, was now dark, green, and silent. It showed no signs of marine life or human activity—only flies and floating garbage. Plastic bags floated upon the water’s surface, soda bottles replaced reeds, and the river took on the look of a literal liquid trash bin.  

Equally astounding was the fact that the villagers—both adults and children alike—seemed to have grown accustomed to this new state of affairs. To my dismay, they dumped their garbage at random, as if the world were their personal trash bins! I was horrified at the amount of reckless littering that I observed—not only in the river, but also along the sides of the roads. Every hundred meters or so was a new little “pile” of trash, competing to see which could mount highest, even though there were actual trash bins around. How could people simply act as if man had not invented trash bins? How could man disrespect nature so blatantly and shamelessly? How could one not care about what one’s hometown looked like? Dwelling on the similar scenes that I had witnessed throughout my life in China, I realized that the pollution of my village was unfortunately not a single, isolated, or accidental phenomenon. Rather, it was the norm, as was this disturbingly flippant attitude toward one’s physical environment.  

As soon as I returned from my native village, I decided to take action. I gathered together seven like-minded pals from my high school, and we set to work on the problem. We chose six typical villages around Jiangsu as our field survey destinations and carefully designed our survey parameters. I divided our group into three teams, each responsible for two villages, and we spent three weeks visiting, observing, surveying, and recording. We obtained a number of gruesome photos of pollution and interviewed local villagers as well as public officials, focusing our efforts on finding information and documentation about plastic and other daily pollution, tree-felling, and river pollution.  

We spent two weeks integrating the information we had gathered and writing up a proposal in which we detailed the current village pollution problem using representative data and photo evidence. We also analyzed the likely causes, stating our belief that the rapid economic development of rural areas, which had not been accompanied by expansion of the public environmental consciousness, was a key driver of the problem. Therefore, the proposal that we submitted to the government's advice e-mail address centered upon getting local government authorities to devote publicity to the issue. We made numerous additional recommendations regarding other measures that could be taken, including limiting plastic use, investing in more advanced garbage delivery and disposal systems, increasing penalties for tree felling, and implementing a strict fine system to help prevent river pollution.  

We weren't sure whether the government would immediately see the value in our proposal or whether all of its suggestions were even feasible at this time. However, the more important thing is that we have noticed this issue, drawn attention to the problem, and done what we could to help. We won't stop our efforts until Chinese villages are on their way to being restored to the pure, pastoral communities of my childhood. 

Personal Statement 20 

Accepted into: UPenn, Dartmouth, Columbia, Cornell, Brown  

Clang!  

The dumbbells crashed against the floor. I turned to see Moka lying on the bench, her arms dropping downwards.  

"How was that? Good, huh?"  

Moka glared at me, panting.  

"It's good when you feel the pain,” I say. It’s proof you’re alive.”  

"Then I’ve never been so ‘alive,’" Moka retorted.  

It’s been a few weeks since I first dragged Moka to exercise with me. Everyone in school was shocked that Moka, the stereotypical CS genius and antisocial library dweller, was frequenting the gym.  

It all started with a random discussion about a math problem. Moka was explaining the solution, which nobody else had thought of.  

"If the thought process can be compared to a tree, each branch develops when a certain assumption is made. You may think you’ve enumerated all the possible situations, and upon finding no feasible solution, you give up. But you actually didn’t realize that your initial assumptions were false, so you’ve reached a branch where no solution exists."  

"Interesting perspective," I said.  

"When you deal with these kinds of things all day, you have to try to make some meaning from it.”  

"You never get tired of solving theoretical puzzles?”  

"Sometimes. But it's not like I have anything better to do."  

"Like you just said, if you limit yourself to doing things you’re familiar with, your life will never change. You may think you’ve tried everything, yet you wonder why things turn out as normal. Maybe you can try things from the earlier branches."  

Something in this must have resonated with her, for the next day Moka met me at the gym after school. Watching her sweat on the elliptical, I realized that she was an outlier, her willing attitude a pleasant surprise. The only others in the gym were athletes; it occurred to me that those who benefit most from exercise are those who also resist it most. They think the gym is just a niche for jocks, somewhere they don’t belong. Inspired by Moka, I determined to see more students using the gym.  

So, I signed up as a gym leader and was given the opportunity to give grade-wide talks about my personal fitness journey. I organized weekly training sessions for girls, in which I give either a 40-minute Pilates or Spinning class during lunchtime; also, if there is a newcomer to the gym, I make sure that they know how to use all of the machines in proper form. My efforts have made the gym a less intimidating place for my peers, and I am proud to notice a significant increase in the number of people coming to the gym during my shifts as gym leader.  

In particular, I’ve been focusing on encouraging more girls to hit the gym, as in gyms girls are a rare species, usually only found in the aerobics corner, steering clear of heavy lifting as if weights were the plague. They believe they are intrinsically weak, and this self-fulfilling prophecy is difficult to rectify. Having been there, I know that the best way to overcome the fear couldn't be simpler: (pardon the cliché) just take it one step at a time. Another problem with girls is that many attempt to “shortcut” weight loss through eating disorders, which are rampant in Asia, especially amongst teenagers. To persuade girls to get fit in a healthy manner, I devoured psychology and sports science books, and reminded them that if they wanted to have a better body, there is no replacement for time or effort.  

My personal influence may be small - there's a limited number of people I can speak to, as well as a gym holding capacity - but the changes nevertheless make me feel warm and fuzzy. I’m on a mission to not only develop gym rats, but more so to build muscle and character and to help the other Mochas of the world “feel alive.”  

Personal Statement 21 

Accepted into: UPenn, Cornell, Brown  

The Initiation  

Sitting inside an Indian restaurant for the first time, I tweaked my imaginary mustache and tapped the tip of my fountain pen against the cream-colored paper. I was mentally prepping myself to document whatever would hit my taste buds first.  

“May I take your order, Ma’m?” The genial restaurant owner with a real mustache kindly brought me back to earth from my food-critic daydreams.  

“Uh… yeah… I’ll have the….”  

I skimmed the menu before I found a combination of letters that made sense. “… curry fish head,” I finally mustered. 

Back then, I didn't know that that dish was simply a Singaporean adaptation of an Indian dish, but who cares? It sounded exotic and exciting to this slipshod foodie.  

However, when the food arrived, the smell of spices and the “Pantone” overwhelmed my olfactory senses. The cauliflower, cabbage, eggplant, kidney beans, and fish were mushed into a monochromatic, soup.  

Coldplay’s, “they are allllll yelloooow” came to mind, and I chuckled.  

My initial fears faded fast. After all, nothing could be worse than that aloe vera with meat soup I tried when I was ten. With newfound courage, I fished a suspension from the soup.  

I opened my mouth and closed my eyes, bracing for the worst. I finally understood what “spicy” meant. After a brief dizzy spell during which I wanted to simultaneously faint and burst into tears, I started to notice the base note of various spices. And then, a slight euphoria started to spread throughout my body. “The effect of endorphin triggered by chili in the soup,” meticulous neuroscientists would say. I need no explanations. That fateful meal, I fell into a headlong love affair with Indian food and spices.  

As I pushed away the empty plate, it dawned on me that this was a love I’d been seeking all my life.  

School  

Despite this newfound love of spiciness, I was quite aware that Life doesn’t do a 180 with a single decision. If I wanted more spiciness, apart from changing a restaurant, I would have to start ordering spicier dishes.  

Joining Math Interest Group (MIG) was definitely such decision, one I almost found too spicy. I was plagued by an inferiority complex among the club’s Olympiad veterans and almost wanted to quit, to retreat back to my comfort zone, to reduce the spiciness to mild.  

Then, one day I noticed MIG’s shabby notice board pinned on the least strategic location in school. The papers on the board fluttered like handkerchiefs waving goodbye, and the letters disappeared to make us “Mth Intrest Grop.” I suddenly understood why everybody had this Is it some kind of secret society ? look on their faces whenever I mentioned MIG.  

To prepare for a new round of recruitment, my advocacy for a “less modest” publication was endorsed by the club advisor and soon implemented. Beginning with a notice board that I designed, more students started to contribute manpower, ideas, and resources. Members like me that had previously felt insignificant started to become more involved. I was glad to see the transformation from “handkerchief collection” into a well-organized and informative notice board.  

Throughout this process, I’ve become close with many MIG members, some of whom possess extraordinarily diverse talents. During our regular “notice board meetings,” I ended up learning 

to fold Kawasaki’s Rose, fill in 35*35 Magic Square, and play Dragons & Dungeons. This was a totally new level of spicy for me: simultaneously stimulating yet amusing.  

Present Day  

Now, sitting in front of the computer, mouse hovering on the “Submit” button, a similar fear creeps in. I’m that girl hesitating in the Indian restaurant again, both intimidated and fascinated by the uncertainty inherent in “spiciness.” Well, that girl hasn’t changed. I will take a bite of whatever spice life throws my way, confident that with a playful attitude and open mind, I’ll be able to handle it.  

Personal Statement 22 

Accepted into: (Cambridge, Oxford), Yale, Cornell, Columbia, UPenn, Brown  

I was haunted for weeks after first hearing the song “Memory” in the Japanese film Okubirito  (2008). The cello melody was so pained yet powerful that I could not let it go. I already had many years of experience playing the guzheng , or Chinese zither, but I begged my parents to let me take cello lessons. In the years since, I have grown proficient enough to perform the song flawlessly, and it is one of my favorites. Every time I play it, I cannot help but think about the film, which follows the life of a failed Japanese cellist who becomes a nōkanshi , a Japanese ritual mortician. His difficulties as someone working in this highly taboo field revealed to me the deep discomfort that people face regarding death.  

I recently got to confront this discomfort myself. This past summer, I attended Georgetown University for a summer course in Medicine. I vividly remember the day we performed a human dissection.  

The heavy smell of Formalin filled the room, reminding me of the taste of salted fish. The other students were white with silence. I could hear my pounding heart and the ticking of the clock on the wall. Cold and stiff, a female corpse lay in a half-opened bag on the table. Swirling feelings of respect and distance mingled when my gloved hand touched the corpse. The skin was unexpectedly hard, the arms and thighs scattered with brown speckles. The right knee was injured with a deep wound. Her painted pink nails presented a stark contrast with a burn mark on her left hand.  

I found myself shaking as I stepped closer to the table. I breathed deeply in an effort to calm myself down, and at the instruction of the professor began exploring the internal organs. I gently opened the corpse’s breast skin and took out her ribs. Her lungs were spotted black and abnormally tiny. Reaching deeply down to her abdominal cavity, I pulled out a long strand of solid fat to observe her dislocated stomach. The organs did not bother me, yet I was still uncomfortable. I paused and drew myself into meditation. The taboo from the movie suddenly made sense; there was something far too intimate about this experience. I was invading her privacy somehow, learning information never intended for me. Her lungs and fat, her burn and leg wound, were evidence about her private life. I could see that she had an unhealthy diet due to the accumulated fat; I knew she was a smoker due to the cigarette burn on her hand; and I knew she had trouble breathing due to her small thoracic cavity. Yet as I resumed the dissection, I realized her life must have had more meaning than these health conditions.  

What do we know about a person after death? We can see from the body if she was healthy or sick, injured or not. But the important things in a person’s life are rarely visible. As I mussed with her organs, my mind meditated on the melody of “Memory,” like a mantra. Every time I play that piece, I discover something new in the music. After I die, the music will be gone. Yet that does not bother me, because it obviously stops even sooner than that—I withdraw my bow from the strings and the room goes silent.  

Nevertheless, what I do in my life can never be taken away, no matter what happens to my body posthumously. The significance I give to my life is my own, just as the existentialists claimed. I cultivate my life’s meaning today and every day. I can make it beautiful or hideous depending on the actions I take and decisions I make at various stages in my life. Silence is inevitable, but I do not feel helpless to play. What matters is simply that the music was ever made at all.  

Personal Statement 23 

Accepted into: (Cambridge), Princeton, Yale, Columbia, UPenn  

A long, shrill whistle jolts me awake. As the other raucous sounds—the harsh bellows of strict officers and the heavy thuds of boots stomping in unison—precede my alarm clock, I jump to my feet and mechanically start making my bed. After I tuck in the sheets and compulsively smoothen the blanket, I sit by the windowsill and observe the scene below.  

Hundreds of uniformed soldiers stand in perfect lines. Backs straight, eyes forward, expressions stoic, their legs march up and down like disconnected limbs. After the morning processions, these soldiers run eight miles, train combat and weaponry skills, and perform a variety of menial tasks, such as scrubbing the barracks, before they are allowed a monochromatic lunch of rice and noodles.  

Observing these soldiers on a daily basis instilled in me a disdain for rules and routine. I pitied them for having to eat the same, insipid meals. Perhaps they were lucky to only have four-minute eating windows-their brains wouldn’t have time to process the grimness of their reality. I didn’t understand why these men had to live under such austere conditions. What if they never made it back home from a hypothetical war? Didn’t they deserve at least some luxuries now? The commanders’ rules seemed arbitrary and inhumane.  

Living in such an environment was stifling, but inescapable, as my father is an army officer. Since I was little, he has disciplined me like a soldier. I called him “Sir” instead of “Daddy,” and the only three acceptable answers for a slip-up were: “Yes, Sir; No, Sir; No Excuse, Sir.” I was strictly reprimanded for slovenly bed-making or slouching. I vowed that as soon as I was old enough, I would break free from the shackles of tedious rules and instead, write my own. ***  

As soon as I reached Dallas airport, I gulped my first taste of freedom. I instantly felt lighter, like a drifting balloon. Intoxicated with this newfound liberty, I began my journey in America.  

I had kept true to my word - as soon as I was seventeen, I left to study abroad. My history teacher, Mr. Lorenzo, passionately taught us through stories. This new teaching method intrigued me, but I was not prepared for it. Mr. Lorenzo didn’t provide students with packets of study material like Chinese teachers do; rather, he only put a few bullet points on each slide and said that it was our responsibility to do the assigned readings. Since he never “ordered” us to take notes, I didn’t- feeling triumphant leaning back while my classmates scribbled away.  

Unexpectedly, I failed my first exam. I lay in bed that night, thinking: Do I only need to do what my teacher assigns, or do I need self-discipline? I recalled the soldiers marching in the scorching sun. They needed discipline so they could be ready to fight for their country. As an individual blessed with newfound freedom, I had to impose my own restrictions in order to fight for future opportunities.  

Subsequently, I adjusted my attitude. Dismissing the idea that “rules are made to be broken,” I realized that perhaps they exist for legitimate reasons. In class, I became my strictest officer. I started recording each lesson, which I would transcribe afterwards. I did all of the assigned readings, even when there was no correlating assignment. I jotted notes furiously, no longer the nonchalant. Unsurprisingly, my grades skyrocketed.  

This experience taught me that my younger notions of rules were naïve. Though I still have not come to terms with every social rule, I nevertheless respect them. I have also created my own set of rules - of conduct and morality – which I live by. By following my own rules, as well as society’s, I can grow into the young lady I aspire to be.  

Personal Statement 24 

Accepted into: Yale, Dartmouth, Cornell, UPenn, Brown  

The sacred ceremony commenced again. The leader of our choir inserted the tuning fork—an acoustic resonator used to determine intonation—into her bun. The fork was the crown of impeccable technique and skill, only allowed to be held by the most skillful performer. Consumed with a desire to hold that fork, I painstakingly practiced my scales and melodies. Under our teacher’s instruction, I colored my tunes with the imaginations of sensory details after carefully researching the songs’ lyrics and historical background. My hard work paid off. While singing a ballad of the Yi ethnicity, The Spring Is Coming , I could understand how there was supposed to be a young lady dressed in lime green approaching, dancing in front of me. During our performance in Cincinnati’s competition, I still did not get the honor of holding the tuning fork despite my satisfaction with the music I created with impeccable technique and artificial imageries.  

After the competition, we started our tour in America by watching The Phantom of the Opera . Sitting in the back row without glasses and with a limited understanding of the dialogue and content, I was lost with the plot progression. Yet, I magically understood what they sang: I knew what their mood was, and I knew what they were trying to express. In show-within-the-show scene in which Christine suddenly pulled down Phantom’s robe, revealing the silver mask on his face, there was a sudden silence. That deafening silence was a prelude to a storm of emotional outbreak. A second later, Phantom slowly began to sing, plaintively but beautifully, with a voice so gripping and sorrowful. Something resonated within me, as my heart ached and my eyes involuntarily started to tear. Walking out of the theater, I couldn’t get my mind straight. A question emerged from the confusion— why was I about to burst into tears even though I could not follow what Phantom said?  

Two years later, I found my answer when our choir went to Latvia for the 8th World Choir Game. Becoming the second in command under my minister, I could finally put the tuning fork in my hair. Singing again, the feeling differed substantially. In the competition, we sang The White Crane , whose lyrics are derived from a classic Chinese poem. Sensing the responsibility brought by the tuning fork, I carefully gathered up all the imageries and historical background from my repertoire and memorized the most “emotional” version. Yet, maybe because of over-preparation or the weight of the tuning fork, my mind blanked and my delicately engineered imageries slipped away as I performed.  

My confusion continued until the solo’s high-note and crisp voice floated lightly aloft the stadium, and when approaching the climax, four departments neatly extolled “the white crane, please lend me your wings, I would not tour to remote places, but stay in Litang for a while and I would come back.” At this moment, a scene spontaneously emerged. I felt like standing under a cloudy and foggy sky, riding the enormous saint bird, and soaring to the dazzling light. The crane steadily flapped its huge wings as if every fluttering created potent wind. My eyes watered, and I was again shocked by this unprecedented experience. Why was I moved?  

Upon reflection, I found the answer to both this question and the one raised when watching The Phantom of the Opera . Emotion, the source of music, is not created; rather, it creates itself. It overflows from the music spontaneously. It transcends the boundaries of language, reason, logic, and intended human efforts. All I need to do is grant it ample freedom, and it will carry me into the heart of each audience, connecting mankind through spiritual commonality. This musical journey also reminded me that despite our growing emphasis on numbers and rationality, emotions are what enable us to better understand ourselves and this world.  

Personal Statement 25 

Accepted into: Dartmouth, UPenn, Columbia, Brown 

“Join the school choir – it will boost your team spirit;  

Learn how to folk dance – it cultivates your femininity;  

Study abroad – you will have better chances of finding a profitable job…”  

Growing up, I have been bombarded by incessant preaching about what I should become, forced into paths carved by my parents’ expectations. Oftentimes, I felt frustrated and disoriented – it seemed that my destiny had been predetermined, and I was hell-bent on escaping from it. The two-dimensional animated world had long been my safe haven: Miku Hatsune sings and dances perfectly for her millions of fans with adorable emotions; Homura Akime fights crime with her magic power in order to save the world she loves; Victorica buries her head in books by day and moonlights as an assistant crime fighter. Impressed by their outfits, abilities, and adventures, I fell in love with cosplay – the act of forging new, exciting identities for myself.  

Hunting for gorgeous costumes online, designing accessories, and sporting colorful wigs, I began to fulfill my wildest imaginations: Miku always wears short skirts and fancy tops; Homura carries a sharp sword and magic diamond while fighting; Victoria dresses like an old-fashioned doll with fancy dresses and hats, always carrying heavy books. Soon I discovered these cute, vivacious teenage-girl characters enjoyed a tremendous popularity, as all the posts of my cosplay photos received countless “likes” on social media. Drunk off compliments, I clung to the belief that cosplayer had become my newfound identity.  

My self-appreciation in cosplaying was, however, soon challenged when a senior cosplayer asked me a simple question. “Who is the favorite character you’ve cosplayed as?”  

Though a self-proclaimed cosplay zealot, I was startled that my mind went blank. I had cosplayed most of the characters solely because they were attractive and popular, and for the number of “likes” popping up on my personal page. Even in my safe haven, I was doing nothing different than in the three-dimensional reality: fulfilling other’s expectations and becoming who they wanted me to be.  

Yet, this time I resolved not to escape. I began to search for a character I truly adored, and finally came across Reborn. Cosplaying this character was an unprecedented challenge: for starters, Reborn was a male character, which meant I needed to cross-dress; and like his pet chameleon, he was constantly shifting his image – sometimes a cold mafia leader, the next moment shrunken into a cute, innocent kid with a high-pitched voice. As I strutted in man’s attire, with the cruelest grin one moment and the sweetest laughter the next, I felt not at all awkward but instead empowered. The magic within cosplay lies not in pleasing people’s eyes, but in the incessant exploration into identities that sometimes cannot be accurately defined. And maybe, being undefinable is the best definition of an identity, which grants it boundless possibilities in exploring, imagining, and transforming. And now, even all those teenage-girl characters of my previous endeavor made sense too – they were part of my journey in the exploration of a true self.  

In retrospect, I see all endeavors in locating one’s identity – whether in reality or in the animated world – as acts of cosplaying. We don garments sometimes of our own choice, and sometimes out of others’ expectation. Yet in both situations, we are down the path of exploring ourselves: I indulge myself in the resonances I create with my group members when I sing in the choir; I am surprised by the artistic expression through body language as I folk dance. In the acts of fulfilling others’ expectation, I also create boundless possibilities for my own identity. And as I look beyond, I aspire to see what further characters I am about to “cosplay” as when I set foot in the States. 

Additional Resources 

We hope you enjoyed reading our ebook, and more importantly, that you learnt from it!  

For more information on how we can help you tell your story to college admissions officers, check out our essay coaching process . Our services include detailed coaching for the perfect personal statement and supplementary essays as well as simple proofreading/editing.  

Confirm Deletion

How To Write Great Ivy League Essays (With Examples)

Introduction

College admissions are a tiresome process. The decision-making processes of hyper-selective Ivy League schools can seem mostly cloudy to applicants. 

You may have heard about the Common App Essay, and supplemental college application essays provide the opportunity for students to display some of the harder-to-summarize, technical aspects of their application. Through such essays, students give a chance to admissions officers to display a sense of their personality, likings that fall outside the scope of their resume, or moments that matter to them.

When nearing the personal statement and supplemental essays for hyper-selective schools, parents and students often wonder what Ivy League schools are be looking for. 

This article will discuss successful Ivy League essays’  qualities and offer step-by-step guidance to help you produce such work.

Let’s start by identifying what makes Ivy League applications and expectations qualitatively different from the others. There’s a type of trickle-down effect that we can see from Ivy League schools to liberal arts schools, so preparing your child for top schools’ applications can train them to apply to mid-tier schools as well.

But, mainly, we notice that the most selective colleges ask for students to demonstrate strong passion, leadership, competence, initiative, and memorability.

Admissions committees evaluate these essays as part of a holistic narrative of a student—a good essay doesn’t guarantee admission. Admissions—especially at Ivy League schools—is a complicated, multi-faceted, and ever-changing process. What might make one essay perfect in any given year might not apply to essays in upcoming years.

Keeping that in mind, we’ve collected successful Ivy League essays from applicants who were accepted into one or more Ivy League or Ivy+ institutions (such as Stanford, MIT, UChicago). By properly going through these essays, we’ve compiled a list of strategies for writing essay competition in a highly selective applicant pool.

Ivy League essay prompts

Supplemental prompts change a little bit every year. But we’ve systemized a list of the prompts from Ivy League schools from the 2018-2019 Common App. Between all of these questions and the Personal Statement, you will easily find several routes into demonstrating your best qualities. 

Keeping that in mind, we’ve first listed all of the prompts for the Ivy League schools. 

( Note: Cornell University is excluded from this list because their prompts vary by program. )

Princeton University essay prompt

In addition to the essay you have written for the Common Application, please write an essay of about 500 words (no more than 650 words and no fewer than 250 words). Using one of the themes below as a starting point, write about a person, event, or experience that helped you define one of your values or in some way changed how you approach the world. Please do not repeat the essay you wrote for the Common Application in whole or in part.

1. Tell us about a person who has influenced you in a significant way.

2.“One of the great challenges of our time is that the disparities we face today have more complex causes and point less straightforwardly to solutions.” Omar Wasow, assistant professor of politics, Princeton University. This quote is taken from Professor Wasow’s January 2014 speech at the Martin Luther King Day celebration at Princeton University.

3. “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.” Gideon Rosen, Stuart Professor of Philosophy and Chair, Department of Philosophy, Princeton University.

4. Using a favorite quotation from an essay or book you have read in the last three years as a starting point, tell us about an event or experience that helped you define one of your values or changed how you approach the world. Please write the quotation, title, and author at the beginning of your essay.

Harvard University essay prompt

You may wish to include an additional essay if you feel that the college application forms do not provide sufficient opportunity to convey important information about yourself or your accomplishments. You may write on a topic of your choice, or you may choose from one of the following topics:

• Unusual circumstances in your life
• Travel, living, or working experiences in your own or other communities
• What you would want your future college roommate to know about you
• An intellectual experience (course, project, book, discussion, paper, poetry, or research topic in engineering, mathematics, science, or other modes of inquiry) that has meant the most to you
• How you hope to use your college education
• A list of books you have read during the past twelve months
• The Harvard College Honor code declares that we “hold honesty as the foundation of our community.” As you consider entering this community committed to honesty, please reflect on a time when you or someone you observed had to choose whether to act with integrity and honesty. 
• The mission of Harvard College is to educate our students to be citizens and citizen-leaders for society. What would you do to contribute to the lives of your classmates in advancing this mission? 
• Each year, many students admitted to Harvard defer their admission for one year or take time off during college. If you decided in the future to choose either option, what would you like to do? 
• Harvard has long recognized the importance of student body diversity of all kinds. We welcome you to write about distinctive aspects of your background, personal development, or the intellectual interests you might bring to your Harvard classmates. 

Columbia University essay prompt

List a few words or phrases that describe your ideal college community. (150 words or less)

List the titles of the required readings from courses during the school year or summer that you enjoyed most in the past year. (150 words or less)

List the titles of the books you read for pleasure that you enjoyed most in the past year. (150 words or less)

List the titles of the print, electronic publications, and websites you read regularly. (150 words or less)

List the titles of the films, concerts, shows, exhibits, lectures, and other entertainments you enjoyed most in the past year. (150 words or less)

Please tell us what you value most about Columbia and why. (300 words or less)

MIT essay prompt

We know you lead a busy life, full of activities, many of which are required of you. Tell us about something you do simply for the pleasure of it. (100 words or fewer)

Although you may not yet know what you want to major in, which department or program at MIT appeals to you and why? (100 words or fewer)

At MIT, we bring people together to better the lives of others. MIT students work to improve their communities differently, from tackling the world’s biggest challenges to being good friends. Describe one way in which you have contributed to your community, whether in your family, the classroom, your neighborhood, etc. (200-250 words)

Describe the world you come from; for example, your family, clubs, school, community, city, or town. How has that world shaped your dreams and aspirations? (200-250 words)

Tell us about the most significant challenge you’ve faced or something important that didn’t go according to plan. How did you manage the situation? (200-250 words)

University of Chicago essay prompt

Choose one of the six extended essay options and upload a one- or two-page response. 

1. In 2015, the city of Melbourne, Australia, created a ''tree-mail'' service, in which all of the trees in the city received an email address so that residents could report any tree-related issues. As an unexpected result, people began to email their favorite trees sweet and occasionally humorous letters. Imagine this has been expanded to any object (tree or otherwise) in the world, and share with us the letter you'd send to your favorite. 

Inspired by Hannah Lu, Class of 2020

2. You're on a voyage in the thirteenth century, sailing across the stormy seas. What if, suddenly, you fell off the edge of the Earth?

Inspired by Chandani Latey, AB'93

3. The word floccinaucinihilipilification is the act or habit of describing or regarding something as unimportant or of having no value. It originated in the mid-18th century from the Latin words ''floccu,'' ''naucum,'' ''nihilum,'' and ''pilus'' - all words meaning ''of little use.'' Coin your word using parts from any language you choose, tell us its meaning, and describe the plausible (if only to you) scenarios in which it would be most appropriately used.

Inspired by Ben Zhang, Class of 2022

4. Lost your keys? Alohomora. Noisy roommate? Quietus. Feel the need to shatter windows for some reason? Finestra. Create your spell, charm, jinx, or other means for magical mayhem. How is it enacted? Is there an incantation? Does it involve a potion or other magical object? If so, what's in it, or what is it? What does it do?

Inspired by Emma Sorkin, Class of 2021

5. Imagine you’ve struck a deal with the Dean of Admissions himself, Dean Nondorf. It goes as follows: you’re guaranteed admission to the University of Chicago regardless of any circumstances that arise. This bond is grounded on the condition that you’ll obtain a blank, 8.5 x 11 piece of paper, and draw, write, sketch, shade, stencil, paint, etc., anything and everything you want on it; your only limitations will be the boundaries of both sides on the single page. Now the catch… your submission will always be the first thing anyone you meet for the first time will see for the rest of your life. Whether it’s at a job interview, a blind date, arrival at your first Humanities class, before you even say, “Hey,” they’ll already have seen your page and formulated that first impression. Show us your page. What’s on it, and why? If your piece is essentially or exclusively visual, please make sure to share a creator's accompanying statement of at least 300 words, which we will happily allow to be on its own, separate page. PS: This is a creative thought experiment, so please note: selecting this essay prompt does not guarantee your admission to UChicago or forgive poor grades, criminal mischief, or any other “circumstances” that “may” “arise.” 

Inspired by Amandeep Singh Ahluwalia, Class of 2022

6. In the spirit of adventurous inquiry, pose your question or choose one of our past prompts. Be original, creative, thought-provoking. Draw on your best qualities as a writer, thinker, visionary, social critic, sage, a citizen of the world, or future citizen of the University of Chicago; take a little risk, and have fun. You can find our past prompts here.

How does the University of Chicago, as you know it now, satisfy your desire for a particular kind of learning, community, and future? Please address with some specificity your wishes and how they relate to UChicago.

Yale University essay prompt

What is it about Yale that has led you to apply? (125 words or fewer)

Please respond in no more than 200 characters (approximately 35 words) to each of the following questions: 

1. What inspires you?

2. Yale’s residential colleges regularly host conversations with guests representing a wide range of experiences and accomplishments. What person, past or present, would you invite to speak? What question would you ask?

3. You are teaching a Yale course. What is it called?

4. Most first-year Yale students live in suites of four to six people. What do you hope to add to your suitemates' experience? What do you wish they will add to yours?

Please choose two of the following topics and respond to each in 250 words or fewer. 

1. Think about an idea or topic that has been intellectually exciting for you. Why are you drawn to it? 

2. Reflect on your engagement with the community to which you belong. How do you feel you have contributed to this community?

3. Yale students, faculty, and alumni engage local, national, and international issues. Discuss an issue that is significant to you and how your college experience might help you address it. 

Stanford University essay prompt

• What is the most significant challenge that society faces today? (50-word limit)
• How did you spend your last two summers? (50-word limit)
• What historical moment or event do you wish you could have witnessed? (50-word limit)
• What five words best describe you?
• When the choice is yours, what do you read, listen to, or watch? (50-word limit)
• Name one thing you are looking forward to experiencing at Stanford. (50-word limit)
• Imagine you had an extra hour in the day — how would you spend that time? (50-word limit).
• The Stanford community is curious and driven to learn in and out of the classroom. Reflect on an idea or experience that makes you genuinely excited about learning. (100 to 250 words)
• Virtually all of Stanford's undergraduates live on campus. Write a note to your future roommate that reveals something about you or that will help your roommate – and us – know you better. (100 to 250 words)
• Tell us about something meaningful to you and why. (100 to 250 words)

University of Pennsylvania essay prompt

How will you explore your intellectual and academic interests at the University of Pennsylvania? Please answer this question given the specific undergraduate school to which you are applying. (400-650 words) 

Dartmouth University essay prompt

While arguing a Dartmouth-related case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1818, Daniel Webster, Class of 1801, delivered this memorable line: “It is, Sir…a small college. And yet, some love it!” As you seek admission to the Class of 2023, what aspects of the College’s program, community, or campus environment attract your interest?

Choose one of the following prompts and respond in 250-300 words:

• “I have no special talent,” Albert Einstein once observed. “I am only passionately curious.” Celebrate your curiosity.
• The Hawaiian word mo’olelo is often translated as “story,” but it can also refer to history, legend, genealogy, and tradition. Use one of these translations to introduce yourself.
• “You can’t use up creativity,” Maya Angelou mused. “The more you use, the more you have.” Share a creative moment or impulse—in any form—that inspired creativity in your life.
• In the aftermath of World War II, Dartmouth President John Sloane Dickey, Class of 1929, proclaimed, “The world’s troubles are your troubles…and there is nothing wrong with the world that better human beings cannot fix.” Which of the world’s “troubles” inspires you to act? How might your course of study at Dartmouth prepare you to address it?
• In The Bingo Palace, author Louise Erdrich, Class of 1976, writes, “…no one gets wise enough to understand the heart of another, though it is the task of our life to try.” Discuss.
• Emmy and Grammy winner Donald Glover is a 21st century Renaissance man—an actor, comedian, writer, director, producer, singer, songwriter, rapper, and DJ. And yet, the versatile storyteller and performer recently told an interviewer, “The thing I imagine myself being in the future doesn’t exist yet.” Can you relate?

Brown University essay prompt

Why are you drawn to the area(s) of study you indicated earlier in this application? (You may share with us a skill or concept that you found challenging and rewarding to learn or any experiences beyond course work that may have broadened your interest.) (250-word limit)

What do you hope to experience at Brown through the Open Curriculum, and what do you wish to contribute to the Brown community? (250-word limit)

What do all of the prompts mentioned above have in common? 

Remember the qualities we talked about above? Intense passion, leadership, competence, initiative, and memorability! Every one of these prompts is, in some way, planned to get you reflecting on something original and enthusiastic manner. 

After doing the close-reading of the Ivy+ prompts, we can notice a few key things.

Whether it’s Yale asking about something you are “intellectually excited” about, or Brown speaking about something to reflect on the particularities of the Open Curriculum, or Stanford extracting a note to a roommate, these schools want you to detail their most particular obsessions, and to be able to speak about them in a way that shows intelligence and unique way of thinking. 

They want to be sure that you will share your passions with your classmates, roommates, etc.

Yet again, these are the things any university school would love to see in your Common App PS. But the Ivy+ colleges’ questions are mainly to test such qualities.

What follows is advice that can apply to both the PS and the supplementals, given the wide range of topics one can address across each type of essay.

How to pick an Ivy League essay topic

Successful students write about what interests them. The topic shouldn’t be something weird or reflects the student’s central academic and extracurricular activities. It should be about something the student can write about with belief, excitement, and specificity.

We’ve four examples of students who pulled off successful admissions cycles to Ivy+ schools. Let’s see how they chose their subject matter.

Our first example student is Angela. Angela is passionate about the environment, though she’s also involved in activities like playing basketball, and she is also part of the French club. When choosing a topic for supplemental essays, one might expect Angela to select something related to her interest or that in some way reflects on her academic prowess in the humanities. 

Instead, in one of her supplemental essays, Angela chooses to write about a topic that may at first seem unrelated to her application. She decided to write about one of her favorite teachers, who significantly impacted her life.

Our second example student is Jenna. She’s interested in politics and history.  For her supplemental essays, she decided to write about her love for the musical. Hamilton .

In each essay, the students’ genuine interest in the subject shines through. By way of their interests, we learn, indirectly, more about each student herself.

In other words, it’s not so much the topic but the voice and tone in which these students write about their chosen subject that will give an admissions committee insight into their personalities and characters. In the next section of this post, we’ll break down how Angela and Jenna use tone, voice, and detail to communicate something about themselves while writing about Hamilton or a favorite teacher.

Our third student, Simon, his grades and test scores are high in math, science, and history. In extracurricular he has achieved in a mock trial but has also succeeded in art competitions. One of his supplemental essays for Princeton asked that he respond to a quotation of his choosing.

Like Angela and Maria, Simon didn’t pick anything they used to do regularly: he introspected and chose something that had genuinely piqued his curiosity in the things he’d studied in the past few years. In response to the quotation, the resulting essay is associative and spontaneous rather than a rehash of Simon’s impressive resume.

Let’s look at another example of a student name Rhea, who is the opposite of Simon. Rather than being “well-rounded,” Rhea is what the Harvard Admissions website might call “well-lopsided.” She loves writing and reading and has shown interest through her involvement with her school’s slam poetry team and national writing competitions. Besides that, she struggles in subjects like math. Rhea’s supplemental essay for Yale underlines the quality that makes her “well-lopsided”—she writes about it with pure intensity. 

In short, you should try to choose a topic you’re excited to talk about. What could you talk about with your friends endlessly for hours? How you spend your free time? Who’s the person in your life in your everyday life that has influenced or changed you? Are there moments in your life that have made you feel part of something larger?

How to decide on an essay structure

Once you have chosen a topic that you’re interested in, the next step is to decide the proper structure for the essay. An Ivy League-quality essay is not just about five paragraphs. An Ivy+ quality essay takes narrative and storytelling thoughtfully. It must read like beautiful fiction.

If you are genuinely passionate about your subject matter, an organic design can emerge—indicating that they weren’t just following a static set of building blocks. While we can’t backpedal engineer passion, we can give you some advice regarding storytelling brain rather than their resume-summary brain.

Let’s start with Jenna’s Hamilton essay and her supplemental essay about her favorite teacher. The first design element that makes these essays successful is the opening.

Strategy 1: A “Hook”

Jenna starts her essay with a hook that 1) draws the reader in and 2) forms her voice and enthusiasm instantly. Here’s the opening to her Hamilton essay:

A coal scuttle. A woman on stage, crying, singing, and burning a series of old-looking papers the tea color. All this: a way to tell the audience about someone history has forgotten. This is what happens at one of the emotional climaxes of my favorite musical: Eliza Hamilton, spurned by her husband, removes herself from the historical narrative by burning their letters. I saw Hamilton when my father won a lottery for tickets on a visit to New York City. A drama nerd, I was thrilled to get a chance to see the Pulitzer- and Tony-winning production. I didn’t know how much it would affect how I thought about the past and the present.

For comparison, let’s look at Angela’s opening to the essay about her favorite teacher:

“ Uncertainty could be my guiding light .” – U2

“ Do or do not. There is no try .” – Yoda.

“ Life’s what you make it, so let’s make it rock. ” – Hannah Montana.

A broad group of unconnected aphorisms? Not at all. More like drops of inspirational “Zachary-isms” splashing the drab cinderblock walls with colorful insights.

Observe that these essays open with a focus on something beyond the student: they start by stealing the reader’s attention. They also start small. Rather than declaring what the essay is “about,” Angela and Jenna focus on the specific images to draw the reader in.

It can be unsettling to sit in front of a blank page, trying to convey a big idea. The subject of Jenna’s essay is Hamilton. The idea she communicates in the rest of the essay is that she’s into drama. As a way to take the spotlight and settle for your best self, this musical showed her how through entertainment, she could communicate big ideas about history and politics while inspiring present-day audiences to remember that they’re living through history all the time. She put an essay that subtly links back to her favorite interests while not always keep talking about them too directly.

Observe, that she initiates the essay not by instantly making her love for Hamilton into a metaphor. Instead, she starts with a concrete detail—the climax of the show.

If you are stuck—say you’re trying to write an essay about how your desire for antique shopping taught you to listen to different people, brainstorm specific details about the things they like and are enthusiastic about. What do they know, particularly, about this thing? Jenna knows about the type of prop used onstage because she geeked out and asked around when she dreamt of putting on her version of the show at her high school.

Starting small and going big is a great idea. Also, a successful essay opening can also begin to big. Simon’s essay, which is written in response to a Machiavelli quotation he chose, begins with the following. 

The cosmos call to me. Whether in a city, where only the brightest stars break through the noise, or away from all distractions, where their number can overwhelm, I welcome the perspective the heavens bestow. Even though I try to tame the sky with books or a telescope, it never ceases to make me feel powerless. 

Establishing your essay with the cosmos is about as big as you can get. But a critical similarity between Simon’s opening and Angela’s is that he still uses a particular image, provided with curiosity and joy. It communicates to admissions committees: this guy knows what they’re talking about, and they’re talking about it from a place of intellectual vitality.

Strategy 2: Establish Larger Significance

So, you started your essay. You finally settled on a topic that excites you. You’ve written an attention-grabbing hook that uses specific knowledge, a sensory image, or fs the essay’s perspective. What next? 

Yes, the essay is about the student’s selected topic, but it’s about the student. The next section of the essay, after the hook, should fulfill two things. First, it should exhibit the student’s voice. Second, it should show that the student has thought about why this thing might grab their interest.

Let’s begin with that first goal, establishing voice.

Jenna’s voice comes even in her hook, but her voice becomes even more vital as the essay goes ahead past the hook into the second paragraph. 

What defines a unique student voice in an admissions essay? It’s things like word choice, word repetition, and when the student writes more formally vs. more informally. 

Sometimes students writes using a formal SAT-word-strewn language in order to impress an admissions committee. On the contrary, ideally, using informal language can humanize the candidate and give the essay a voice. Here’s an example, from Jenna’s Hamilton essay:

Okay, okay. Musical theater can be hammy and campy. I should have learned to love history in school, right? But every year, my class began with the same old recitations about documents that seemed ancient. It wasn’t until I watched Eliza Hamilton rendered with such humanity onstage that I connected to what I later learned was called “historiography,” or how we write history .

Jenna’s voice easily blends the informal—phrases like “Okay, okay” and “right?”—with specific formal language—words like “rendered” and “historiography.” She displays a grasp of vocabulary without coming across as stiff or like a know-it-all.

Repetition can also be a good idea in structuring an essay and establishing voice. Let’s return to Rhea, our “well-lopsided” aspiring writer. One of her supplemental essays for Yale takes as its subject the realization that she uses the written word to understand herself and learn about her family history. The essay begins on a broad, personal note, with an organizing topic sentence in the second paragraph:

When I reflect on my life, everything ties back into the power of the written word.     

As the essay goes ahead, it opens up—Rhea links the personal importance of writing to something larger. Thi happens through repetition:

Words make me who I am. The terms of my grandparents told me how lucky I am to be growing up in America, instead of Nazi-occupied Poland or Stalinist Russia, like they did.

In both Jenna and Rhea’s essays, repetition and “opening up” to a larger topic are vital in establishing voice and great significance—both of which will help admissions committees gain a better sense of the students.

How to write Ivy League essay

Now that we’ve done a deep dive into structure—hook, voice, more considerable significance, takeaway—we’ll get into the nitty-gritty of what makes successful Ivy League essays not only structurally compelling but also fascinating and richly textured.

Tip 1: Mention lots of detail

Essays that are successful in the Ivy League stock often use very precise details to impress the essay. You should avoid cliché and generalizations as you write essay.

Let’s look back at Angela’s essay about her favorite teacher. Here’s how she presents him:

The rays beating onto his back seem to infuse him with an enthusiastic energy which he passes on to his drowsy students. The well-worn spine of The Brothers Karamazov is plopped in one open hand, complete with the ubiquitous highlighted passages and illegible margin notes. The other madly gesticulates.

Observe that Angela sets the scene here. We can see the teacher she’s describing: the sun rays, the tired high school students. Instead of saying “a book” she mentions a a specific title. She zooms in to show not just details, but telling details. 

We know that this is an lively and dedicated teacher from the description of his gesticulation and the description of the marginalia. Not only do these details tell us something about the teacher: by saying us what Angela see and admires about the teacher, we learn more about Angela. She’s the kind of  person who admires devotion to one’s work. 

Tip 2: Go with the a humble tone

Essays are not the place to brag. You are in the Ivy League pool, and the non-qualitative parts of the application—the Common App, the resume, etc.—will give the admissions committee idea about your accomplishments.

On the contrary, the essay is a good place to acknowledge faults, contradictions, and uncertainty.

Take Rhea. She writes: 

Words are the thread that ties me to the people and events around me. Words help me understand a universe that is at once united and divided. Words remind me that I am at once minusculeseesThese. Insignificant, and at the same time, an essential link in the chain of history.

In the last paragraph of the essay, Rhea ends by introspecting on her own insignificance, which can be a counterpart to an application geared to show an admissions committee how she stands out from the crowd. This ending suggests modesty, humility and perspective, as well as a contradiction. Writing is essential to her in part because she’s good at it, but also because it reminds her that the world is much bigger than herself.

Tip 3: Switch up your word choice

Simon and Jenna’s essays seldom repeat keywords—unless, as in Jenna’s, the repetition is helpful to establish voice. Don’t reach for formal words, but do try to use language that’s firm and particular.

Remember that, as former Princeton Dean of Admissions Janet Lavin Rapelye writes, your essay not only communicates something about you, but also should showcase your writing skills: “Your ability to write well is critical to our decision because your writing reflects your thinking. No matter what question is asked on a college application, admission officers see how well you convey your ideas and express yourself in writing. It is our window to your world .”

Tip 4: make your message simple and clear

You have to avoid bragging in these essays, but it’s essential that you are clear and confident in the subject matter and the message you’re conveying. We’ve touched on the “takeaways” as a practical structural element of a successful essay. It can also be helpful to pepper these “takeaways” throughout the essay.

Here’s an example line from Rhea’s essay: “ Words have whispered to me my whole life. They have been my comfort, my refuge, my outlet, my joy. ”

At first glance, this might seem like an generalization. But this clarity and communicates vital information to an admissions committee: this person is serious about their interests.

Tip 5: Add a title

In the full-length essays mentioned below, some successful essays have a title. This suggests that you have put extra effort into highlighting the essay’s central idea, and you consider it a complete, polished piece of writing.

Tip 6:  Try to read interesting people’s college essays

The students we’re highlighting in this post are great writers in part because they’ve been genuinely occupied with the narrative for many years. Check out a few essays by genuinely great writers. Not writers of college essays, but the great ones 

Try James Baldwin’s ‘ Letter from A Region in My Mind ’ or ‘Notes of a Native Son,’ Joan Didion’s ‘Goodbye to All That ’ or ‘ Notes from a Native Daughter ,’ Nora Ephron’s ‘ A Few Words About Breasts ,’  Annie Dillard’s ‘Total Eclipse,’ or any number of essays by David Foster Wallace, Zadie Smith, John McPhee, David Sedaris, Meghan Daum, Maggie Nelson, or Anne Fadiman.

Ivy League essay example

Check out successful college essay examples on our site.

Here’s Jenna’s essay on her favorite teacher:

Mr. Zachary’s Opus

“Uncertainty could be my guiding light.” – U2

“Do or do not. There is no try.” – Yoda.

“Life’s what you make it, so let’s make it rock.” – Hannah Montana.

An eclectic group of unrelated aphorisms? Not at all. I like to think of them as drops of inspirational “Zachary-isms” splashing the drab cinderblock walls with colorful insights. To call room 134 a “classroom” is an understatement. I prefer to think of it as a sanctuary where students are free to disagree, take risks, and derive their own sense of meaning.

Room 134? Hardly. It’s an extension of Mr. Zachary himself.

Each English class with “Zac Attack” is a unique experience. He sits on the windowsill digging his elbows into his knees, a panorama of hazy trees stretched behind him in the early morning sunlight. The rays beating onto his back seem to infuse him with an enthusiastic energy which he passes on to his drowsy students. The well-worn spine of Great Expectations is plopped in one open hand, complete with the ubiquitous highlighted passages and illegible margin notes. The other madly gesticulates through the air as he conveys the literary beauty of the passage he’s reading aloud to his awakening audience. He reads faster and faster, gradually increasing the intensity in his voice until suddenly he stops—catching us all by surprise with his silence. A smile spreads across his face as he watches the words he’s just spoken permeate our thawing brains. That is Mr. Zachary in his pure, unadulterated genius.

He finds subtle ways to sneak in references to his proud Irish-Catholic roots. One day, he recited all of Yeats’ “Second Coming” from memory. I could almost see the “widening gyre” behind his dancing eyes. Remarkably, he never intimidates with his boundless knowledge. To be honest, most of the ti, I forget he’s my teacher. I’m genuinely convinced Mr. Zachary is a kid stuck in an adult’s body. He’s the only teacher I know who will walk you to the cafeteria if a conversation spills over into the lunch period. He’s the only teacher I know who conducts class from a beach chair on Fridays. He the only teacher I know who has snappier wisecracks than the class clown. Mr. Zachary is half-Yeats, half-Bono—the perfect Irish combination of intellect with that classic “cool dude” persona.

His passion is contagious. Never before have I felt so liberated sitting in front of a blank computer screen. One of Mr. Zachary’s “inviolate rules” is to write for yourself, not for a grade. He’s taught me to catch the thoughts in my head and crystallize them on paper. He’s taught me to harness the therapeutic power of words flying across the page. He’s taught me to be unafraid of words—to love words. He’s helped me find the writer in myself. He’s a sage, a muse, a bard, a mentor, and a savant. More importantly, he’s my friend. 

No one totally figures how you out what the Ivy League wants. 

But here’s a summary of the strategies we’ve learned based on over a decade of working with successful Ivy League applicants. We’ve also mentioned the ways your begin outlining and prewriting for an Ivy League essay that impresses the admissions committee.

You Might Also Like

Apply for Federal Grants for College Education

Federal Grants are the popular sources of funding for higher education. If you are unaware of federal grants for college and how it works, then read our blog.

A Brief Introduction to College Scholarships

Do you know how to win college scholarship? Know detail information about college scholarship & how to get scholarship successfully? - Read our blog carefully

How to Pick the Correct College Majors For You

It’s quite a hard decision to make - choosing a college major. This guide will help you brainstorm, research and decide on the college major that is a perfect fit for you

Free Resources

How to Write Ivy League Application Essays

While all colleges hope that applicants will demonstrate passion, leadership, initiative, and intelligence in their application essays, the colleges and universities in the Ivy League as well as the Seven Sister schools and other top-tier colleges expect to see evidence of intellectual enthusiasm and curiosity as well. In other words, no matter whether a supplemental prompt asks you to reflect on part of the college’s curriculum (as does Brown’s) or asks you to write a note to a potential roommate (as does Stanford’s), Ivy League and other elite colleges want to know that your intelligence and intellectual curiosity drive you.

Above all, Ivy League supplemental essays must reveal your intellectual vitality

To help you write an admission-winning supplemental essays, we’ve compiled seven essential strategies that will help ensure your success. While reading these, you might want to refer to the supplemental prompts distributed by the Ivy League colleges and a few other top-tier universities that we’ve reproduced below (taken from last year’s Common App). As you review these prompts, please keep in mind that each year some of the Ivy League and other college supplemental prompts change a bit.  Please also note that we have not reproduced the prompts from Cornell University as their supplemental essay prompts are determined by program.

An Ivy League Expert on How to Write a College Application Essay

Harry Bauld has been helping students navigate the dreaded college application essay for more than 30 years. He has some suggestions for how to make yours better.

Every item on this page was chosen by a Town & Country editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.

On Writing the College Application Essay

The 650-word personal statement, or essay, is a centerpiece of the common application. For those applying for early decision or early action, it is due on November 1. For those applying for regular admission, it is typically due January 1. Untold legions have agonized over this writing assignment. Many of them have turned to Harry Bauld for help.

In 1987, during a break between working in the admissions office of Columbia University and teaching high school English at Horace Mann (where he still works), Bauld published a book called On Writing the College Application Essay . In it he laid out prescriptions for how to approach the essay and warnings about what to avoid. Since then, an entire industry has grown around college essay advice, but Bauld’s book (a revised version was released in 2012), and the services he offers as a member of the team at New Bridge Educational Consulting , remains the gold standard.

Fall is prime worry season and we, like so many others before us, reached out to Bauld for advice.

T&C: Do you get a lot of calls from panicked parents this time of year?

Harry Bauld: Absolutely, although at New Bridge we usually work with students who, prodded by their parents, begin in the spring of their junior year and even sometimes earlier. But just two weeks ago I got a call that was very, “It’s Thanksgiving Day and I burned the turkey!” But instead of the turkey it was, “I burned the essay.” So we did three quick sessions.

.css-4rnr1w:before{margin:0 auto 1.875rem;width:60%;height:0.125rem;content:'';display:block;background-color:#9a0500;color:#fff;} .css-gcw71x{color:#030929;font-family:NewParis,NewParis-fallback,NewParis-roboto,NewParis-local,Georgia,Times,serif;font-size:1.625rem;line-height:1.2;margin:0rem;}@media(max-width: 64rem){.css-gcw71x{font-size:2.25rem;line-height:1.1;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-gcw71x{font-size:2.625rem;line-height:1.1;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-gcw71x{font-size:2.8125rem;line-height:1.1;}}.css-gcw71x b,.css-gcw71x strong{font-family:inherit;font-weight:bold;}.css-gcw71x em,.css-gcw71x i{font-style:italic;font-family:inherit;} They become paralyzed because they’re used to writing for people who are paid to like them and help them.

Can you help someone in three sessions?

It depends on how badly the turkey is burned, but even three sessions is helpful for people who don't know what to do. In general, that feeling of needing help comes when a student realizes they’ve written something incredibly conventional. They have become paralyzed by the idea of writing for a readership they do not know, which is understandable, because they’re used to writing for people who are paid to like them and help them. It’s often the good students who just want to get things right who get paralyzed. A lot of what I do is say, “Let’s try writing the wrong thing, shall we?”

You’ve been watching kids go through this for more than three decades. Have they gotten better at the essay?

Yes and no. Yes, because I don’t necessarily have contact now with those who, for example, have read not only my book but the many other books, articles, etc. written about the college essay and just absorb all the advice and go off and do it. I work with people who can’t quite get their heads around it. Sometimes all they need is a little push. Other times they need to find a way to trust themselves more. For those students, in the first or second session, I’ll say, “Do you mind if I record this?” Inevitably, students will mention something they think is a throwaway idea or a joke. And I say, “Go back and do that! Go there!” One of my jobs is to give them confidence. That hasn’t changed in 30 years.

Something that has changed—I know it sounds facile—is that students read less than they did when I started in the 1980s. That’s true even in good schools. You used to be able to assign 30 pages of the Odyssey [per night], now it’s 20 or 25, max. There are so many demands on students’ time, some of which are legitimate. But reading makes you a better writer. If you’ve watched Nadal play tennis closely enough, you have a pretty good idea of how to hit a backhand when you go out there on the court yourself.

Is there more pressure now?

When my book first came out, many top schools were taking 20, 30 percent or higher of applicants. Now Bowdoin, say, is taking 8 percent and Columbia is taking 5 percent. So, yes, more pressure.

Have schools made it harder?

I’m very severe about what has happened in the aftermath of the institution of the common application. The idea was to make students’ lives easier while also making it easier for the colleges to administer their admissions programs. To make it so that students, if they were applying to 12 schools, didn’t have to write 12 essays. What happened, though, is that all the schools reacted with, “Well, okay, so we’ll just plug in all these supplements for students to write.”

So now, in addition to the 650-word common application personal statement, students have three supplemental 250-word essays and one supplemental 400-word essay to write. On top of that, they must also use every chance or opportunity they have to communicate about the things that they are interested in and who they are. When you are allotted 150 characters to describe activities, don’t just make a list. Let them hear your voice. Not, “I play violin.” Instead tell them about your instrument or what you are playing.

Is the “Why Us” question a different type of challenge from the personal essay?

Students think they have figured out how to do this, and they’re partially right. Google everything about the school, get the whole course catalog. If you’re interested in, say, STEM classes, look up the STEM classes and faculty at the school and write, “I'm really looking forward to studying string theory with Professor Knittingbottom.” This is something students are good at. Figuring out what a teacher wants and then giving it to them. But that’s the standard response. I ask, “What else can you add?”

The “Why Us” question is a weird kind of institutional vanity [on the colleges’ part]. The schools’ excuse is, “We have so many applicants, we’re just trying to sort out the ones who are just tossing an application our way.” Meanwhile they’re rubbing their hands together in glee after the huge recent increase of applications. Really, the truth to this question is often, “Because I’m applying to college, I’m a senior, and you have a college program that’s supposed to be pretty good.”

How do you make the most of a bad question?

You start out by asking, why are you really applying? Sometimes there is no good answer. You’re doing it because it’s one of the top 30 schools in the country. Well, then you need to probe and push to find what the personal thing is that is actually underneath your decision to apply. And it differs, and that, of course, is what I'm looking for. I don’t want them to just go through the catalog. This is one of the places where you must look, anecdotally, into your own experience and your own self first. A lot of times for one of these 250 word “Why Us” questions, they’re going to have to write 750 or 1,000 words in different directions until they find something that actually sounds like them.

Anyone who has had to write anything authentic for which there are some stakes involved understands that this is the process. There are conventions, you want to kind of acknowledge that the conventions are there and then you want to slightly subvert them. I think “Why Us” really is the toughest supplement. And unfortunately there is kind of a lot riding on that one because of the institutional vanities.

You recommend avoiding certain subjects: the Trip, the Pet Death, the Jock.

It’s about avoiding a formula. For the Jock it would be, “Through wrestling, I have learned fabulous attribute A, incredible quality B, and very, very good thing C.” It’s tempting because everybody tells students, “You have to sell yourself.” And this formula seems as though it does that. But I say, “Stop selling yourself.” Instead, find a way to connect with the reader.

Sounds stressful.

Yes, but that’s the point. If I’m Aaron Judge and I’m coming up on the home run record, if I think every time I have to hit a home run, I’m just gonna ground out or pop up. What I have to do is make contact. “Only connect,” as E.M. Forster wrote. If I make contact with a ball, the home run’s gonna take care of itself because of who I am. And my advice to students about this whole process is the same. Make contact. Just hit the ball in front of you.

It’s a way to take the process back from the universities. They’ve created their conveniences by adding all the supplements. Instead of surrendering to it, take it back. Make contact with what it is that you have to say and use this for your own purpose. Stop trying to get into college and instead start thinking about how you appear on the page.

Norman Vanamee is the articles director of Town & Country.

@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-1jdielu:before{margin:0.625rem 0.625rem 0;width:3.5rem;-webkit-filter:invert(17%) sepia(72%) saturate(710%) hue-rotate(181deg) brightness(97%) contrast(97%);filter:invert(17%) sepia(72%) saturate(710%) hue-rotate(181deg) brightness(97%) contrast(97%);height:1.5rem;content:'';display:inline-block;-webkit-transform:scale(-1, 1);-moz-transform:scale(-1, 1);-ms-transform:scale(-1, 1);transform:scale(-1, 1);background-repeat:no-repeat;}.loaded .css-1jdielu:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/townandcountrymag/static/images/diamond-header-design-element.80fb60e.svg);}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-1jdielu:before{margin:0 0.625rem 0.25rem;}} Education @media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-128xfoy:before{margin:0.625rem 0.625rem 0;width:3.5rem;-webkit-filter:invert(17%) sepia(72%) saturate(710%) hue-rotate(181deg) brightness(97%) contrast(97%);filter:invert(17%) sepia(72%) saturate(710%) hue-rotate(181deg) brightness(97%) contrast(97%);height:1.5rem;content:'';display:inline-block;background-repeat:no-repeat;}.loaded .css-128xfoy:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/townandcountrymag/static/images/diamond-header-design-element.80fb60e.svg);}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-128xfoy:before{margin:0 0.625rem 0.25rem;}}

Have College Admissions Returned to Normal Crazy?

Bronx Med School Receives $1 Billion Donation

Are Elite Colleges Really Done with the SATs?

Um, Can We Go Back to Class Now?

Executive Function Coach for Grade Schoolers?

How Ivy League Students Game the Grading System

Etiquette 101: Sharing College Acceptance News

How'd Vanderbilt Get So Hot?

How St Andrews Became a Top American School

Harvard-Westlake's Battle on the Back Nine

How to Cheat and Who to Call When You Get Caught

• Our Philosophy
• Why a Top College
• Why Invest with Us
• Testimonials
• About Sam & the Early Days of Ivy League Prep
• How Sam Developed a Successful Applicant Profile
• The Admissions Process: Who Evaluates College Applications?
• The College Application: An Overview

Writing the Personal Essay

• Developing an Application Theme and Narrative
• Preparing for the Admissions Interview
• Securing Strong Recommendations
• Developing a Competitive Transcript
• Performing Well on the Entrance Exams
• Participating in the Right Extracurricular Activities
• When to Start Preparing for Ivy League Admission
• Initial Consultation
• Complete Guidance
• Program Components
• 8-12th Grade Programs
• Common Application
• 2020-2021 Common App and Coalition Application Essay Prompts
• School Research Tools
• Connect with Schools
• Strategies for Responding to Common Essay Prompts
• How to Write a Compelling Personal Essay
• Choosing Potential Colleges
• The Current Admissions Landscape
• Ivy League Statistics (Class of 2024)
• Statistics by School (Class of 2024)
• Class of 2019
• Class of 2020
• Class of 2021
• Class of 2022
• Class of 2023
• Why Choose Us

Ivy League Prep is passionate about helping students craft outstanding college admissions profiles . In this article, we discuss our approach to an important section of the college application: the personal essay.

Your child’s personal essay is the ideal opportunity to take all the grades, scores, honors, activities, and other elements of their application and weave them together into a cohesive narrative.

The personal essay will show the admissions officer who your child is, how they think, and what they are passionate about. This brief snippet of prose should be the centerpiece of your child’s admissions profile, and all the other parts of the application should point toward it. Your child must effectively communicate their unique narrative through the personal essay.

However strong your child’s application is, they should strive to write a captivating personal essay that, if nothing else, takes a great application and makes it even better.

The Purpose of the Personal Essay

The personal essay is a 650-word written component of the Common Application that offers several diverse prompts. The short length of the essay and the narrow scope of each prompt means that the essay must provide a focused glimpse into who your child is and why they will be valuable to the college.

Most of the essays submitted to top colleges are average and don’t attract much attention. If your child’s essay doesn’t quickly grab the admissions officer’s attention, they might only spend a few minutes reading it.

So, what must your child’s personal essay communicate to the admissions officer to be interesting, effective, and memorable?

Quality Writing

Your child’s essay needs to show that their writing meets a satisfactory standard of quality and maturity. The essay should prove that your child has a firm grasp of English grammar, diction, writing style, form, and logic.

Effective Narrative

Admissions officers are looking for prose that effectively communicates your child’s narrative. If your child’s essay is banal and uninteresting, an admissions officer reading it will likely be bored. Your child’s essay needs to showcase their personality and unique perspective .

Conciseness

The online Common Application essay allows for no more than 650 words. While this may seem like too small a space for everything your child wants to communicate, it isn’t. Admissions officers have piles of applications to go through, so they consider brevity a virtue. Make sure you write concisely .

Narrow Focus

Being concise is not the same thing as having focus. It’s possible to write a short but scatterbrained essay or one that is longer but focused. The key is for your child to keep the essay both concise and focused. To do so, your child should focus on a single experience and use it to communicate their overall narrative.

Individuality

Admissions officers want to see a unique individual. Your child’s classes, grades, test scores, and activities will likely be common among college applicants. Therefore, your child needs to focus on their unique narrative, showing why they are exceptional . This means that your child must demonstrate authenticity, maturity, a unique perspective, and specialized knowledge or skills.

The personal essay is one more place to show the admissions officer that your child will add value to the campus. Your child should use the essay to show how their unique perspective, skills, and passions will inspire other students and enhance the college’s learning experience.

Top schools want applicants who are mature enough not only to handle the rigors of a challenging academic environment but also to take full advantage of those opportunities. The personal essay is one of the ways an admissions officer will gauge your child’s maturity level.

Passion and Ability

Admissions officers are looking for students with a high level of passion and ability. Passionate students tend to lead and inspire others, and highly skilled students tend to contribute to the success of the college’s programs. Your child’s application will likely already reflect their passions and interests, but the personal essay is an opportunity to breathe life into the facts included in the application.

In the personal essay, your child can use their unique experiences to show why they are so passionate and focused. Clearly, it is a significant part of the college application.

Partnered & Affiliated with the Best

• Why Choose US
• Contact Us Now
• Get Our Help
• Admission Statistics

Admission Services

• 8th-12th Grade Programs
• Connect With Schools

Contact Us:

Subscribe and Get News at your email

What are your chances of acceptance?

Calculate for all schools, your chance of acceptance.

Your chancing factors

Extracurriculars.

Applying to the Ivy League: Everything You Need to Know

Do you know how to improve your profile for college applications.

See how your profile ranks among thousands of other students using CollegeVine. Calculate your chances at your dream schools and learn what areas you need to improve right now — it only takes 3 minutes and it's 100% free.

Applying to college is no simple task, no matter where you apply, but for students applying to the prestigious Ivy League, the challenge is even greater. With acceptance rates consistently dipping below 10% and college applicants on the rise, getting into the Ivy League is a goal that most can only dream about.

At CollegeVine, we have coached hundreds of students towards their Ivy League acceptances. In fact, we even helped one amazing student gain acceptance to seven of them! But what’s success if we aren’t willing to share it? Here, we provide a home for our top Ivy League tips. To learn more about the Ivy League and how you can score an acceptance too, take a look at the resources below.

What Is the Ivy League?

The term Ivy League actually refers to a collegiate athletic conference composed of sports teams from eight private colleges and universities in the northeastern United States. Though the term officially refers to an athletic conference, it is more commonly used to refer to these same eight schools in other contexts.

Ivy League schools are generally known for their academic excellence and their extreme selectivity in admissions.

The eight Ivy League schools are: Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Yale University.

To learn more about some of these schools and what they’re all about, check out these posts:

Which Ivy League is Right for You?

College Spotlight Series: Everything You Need to Know About Brown

College Spotlight Series: Everything You Need to Know About Columbia

College Spotlight Series: Everything You Need to Know About Harvard

College Spotlight Series: Everything You Need to Know About Princeton

College Spotlight Series: Everything You Need to Know About Yale

Who Goes to the Ivy League?

The Ivy League is exceptionally difficult to get into, especially by today’s increasingly selective college admissions standards. To learn more about the standards expected by the Ivy League, check out these posts about Ivy League students:

What Are the Average High School GPAs of Admitted Students at Ivy League Schools?

Meet the Ivy League Class of 2021

CollegeVine Student Gains Acceptance to Seven Ivy League Schools

The Demographics of the Ivy League

Learning More About the Ivy League

Before you apply to any colleges, you’ll want to learn as much about them as possible. This can be through campus visits, interviews, college rankings, summer programs, or other avenues. To get started learning more about the Ivy League, have a look through these CollegeVine posts:

The Harvard Interview: What It’s Like, from a Harvard Student

2019 U.S. News and World Report College Rankings Released

An Insider’s View of Seven Top College Campuses

Into Engineering? Check Out Penn’s Engineering Summer Academy

Harvard vs. Wharton: A Guide for Pre-Consulting/Finance

12 Things to See On Your Campus Visit to Brown

5 Things to See on your Campus Tour of Columbia

9 Things to See On Your Campus Visit to Harvard

A Day in the Life of a Columbia University Student

A Day in the Life of a Harvard Student

How to Prepare for the Ivy League

As is the case with any school you apply to, you’ll need to be sure that your high school classes and extracurriculars qualify you for acceptance. To learn how you can prepare for the Ivy League in high school, check out these posts:

What Classes to Take Sophomore Year to Impress Selective Colleges and the Ivy League

How 9th Graders Can Prepare Now for the Ivy League

How Your Summer Plans Factor Into Ivy League Admissions

Do I Have To Do Something Extraordinary to Get Into an Ivy League School?

What Does It Take to Get Into Harvard?

Standardized Test Scores for the Ivy League

Although the overall trend in Ivy admissions places less emphasis on test scores than it did in previous years (thanks in large part to Harvard’s Making Caring Common initiative ), your scores are still important. To learn how they factor into Ivy League admissions, check out these posts:

Score Choice Policies for Ivy Leagues: A Complete Guide

What’s a Good SAT Score for the Ivy League?

Applying to the Ivy League

For more tips about Ivy League applications and essays, refer to these popular CollegeVine posts:

Should You Apply to Public Ivy League Schools?

The Ultimate Guide to Applying to Brown University

The Ultimate Guide to Applying to the Brown University PLME Program

The Ultimate Guide to Applying to Columbia

The Ultimate Guide to Applying to Cornell

The Ultimate Guide to Applying to Dartmouth

The Ultimate Guide to Applying to Harvard

The Ultimate Guide to Applying to Princeton

The Ultimate Guide to Applying to the University of Pennsylvania

The Ultimate Guide to Applying to Yale

How to Write the Common Application Essays 2018-2019 (With Examples)

How to Write the Brown University and PLME Supplemental Essays 2018-2019

How to Write the Columbia University Supplemental Essays 2018-2019

How to Write the Cornell University Supplemental Essays 2018-2019

How to Write the Dartmouth College Supplemental Essays 2018-2019

How to Write the Harvard University Supplemental Essays 2018-2019

Should You Send the Harvard Optional Supplement Essay?

How to Write the University of Pennsylvania Application Essays 2018-2019

How to Write the Princeton University Supplemental Essays 2018-2019

How to Write the Yale University Application Essays 2018-2019

Are you college applications signed, sealed, and delivered? Now you wait. For many students this is the hardest part of the process. Waiting and receiving college decisions can be stressful. Here are some CollegeVine tips to help along the way:

Dealing with Ivy Day

Important Next Steps After Receiving a College Acceptance Letter

Deferred From the Ivy League? Don’t Panic—Do This Instead.

How to Move Past College Rejection

How Do I Appeal My Admissions Decision?

Curious about your chances of acceptance to your dream school? Our free chancing engine takes into account your GPA, test scores, extracurriculars, and other data to predict your odds of acceptance at over 500 colleges across the U.S. We’ll also let you know how you stack up against other applicants and how you can improve your profile. Sign up for your free CollegeVine account today to get started!

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

The Ivy League College Application Process

In this article,  CollegeAdvisor.com  admissions expert Chloe discusses how the Ivy League college application process differs from others. For more guidance on applying to Ivy Leagues and the college application process in general,  sign up for a monthly plan to work with an admissions coach 1-on-1.

Everyone knows that admission to the Ivy League is extremely competitive. Each school receives tens of thousands of applications per year, and these numbers are only continuing to grow. Aside from its selectivity, however, there are several other aspects that set the Ivy League college application process apart.

Strong Academics as a Prerequisite

At many colleges and universities, academics are the most important factor in the admissions process. A moderately selective school will be impressed with high test scores and straight A’s, and these may be enough to earn you admission. The Ivy League and other top schools, however, look for more.

Harvard is known for rejecting about three-quarters of applicants with a perfect 1600 on the SAT. This is just one example of how  academic accomplishment is not enough to gain admission to the Ivy League.  Though you don’t need a flawless GPA and standardized test score to get into one of these schools, students who have them are certainly not guaranteed admission.

Of course, the stronger your grades, the more likely you will be accepted. Each school wants to see that you have the ability to thrive in a rigorous academic environment. Beyond that, though,  Ivy League admissions officers look for what unique and exciting attributes you will bring to their community.

You can demonstrate your unique qualities through your essays, activities, interviews, and supplementary materials. In many ways, these are the most important parts of your college applications.  Ivy League Admissions Officers will use these materials to determine whether or not you stand out .

Additionally, schools may offer applicants the chance to submit supplements such as artistic portfolios, academic papers, and extra letters of recommendation. If you have an unusual talent for music composition or a great relationship with your baseball coach, these are great opportunities to show that off.

A Community of Diverse Interests

From a business perspective, colleges and universities typically look for students with a wide variety of interests to join their respective communities. This is especially true for elite institutions: they want their students to excel in every quarter, both academic and extracurricular.

For this reason, developing a “spike,” or a specialized interest, can be useful when applying to selective colleges. Focusing your attention on one particular subject or activity allows you to accomplish more in that field. Bringing that expertise to the table will help you stand out in the application process.

Having multiple areas of interest will not necessarily hurt your chances, however: what’s important is that you truly care about what you do.  Cramming every possible AP class and extracurricular activity onto your resume just to impress Admissions Officers will likely fall short when it comes to the Ivy League.

The Importance of Demonstrated Interest

All Admissions Officers want to see that you care about their school. For one thing, they hope to maximize their yield (the percentage of admitted students that enroll) as well as their retention rate (the percentage of students who remain enrolled after a certain period of time). Colleges and universities also hope that their students contribute to their school community.

However, demonstrated interest matters more for certain schools. Prestigious universities like those in the Ivy League are typically more confident that students will accept their admission offers.  Thus, demonstrating interest (visiting the campus, attending a college fair, opting in to an interview, engaging with virtual materials, etc.) matters less when applying to selective schools.

Of course, you should still learn as much as you can about the institutions to which you apply for your own purposes. It’s also important that your knowledge of each school comes through in your supplemental writing.

The processes associated with demonstrated interest can be expensive and, therefore, less accessible to some students. Visiting schools, for example, requires a notable investment of both time and money. The COVID-19 pandemic has also impacted prospective students’ ability to engage with their potential schools. In light of this, colleges and universities are giving less and less weight to demonstrated interest as time goes on.

Restrictive Early Action

Restrictive Early Action, also called single-choice early action, is a program that is only available at several universities, including a few Ivy League schools. Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Georgetown, Notre Dame, and Boston College all offer students the chance to apply early to their first-choice private college or university. This application is non-binding, although the student may typically only apply to additional  public  institutions in the early round.

Restrictive Early Action has both pros and cons. Although candidates have the opportunity to receive their decision earlier, REA, because it is non-binding, does not significantly increase their chances of admission in the same way that Early Decision does. Additionally, the strongest applicants in the pool will often choose to submit their applications in the REA round, so the competition is especially tough.

No Guarantees

When it comes down to it, all admissions decisions are out of your control. Although you may have everything going for you as an Ivy League applicant, acceptance is never guaranteed. Some decisions are contingent on what the school is looking for that year in particular. For instance, you may be an extraordinary pianist, but your dream school needs more oboeists for their orchestra.

It’s also important to keep in mind that although the Ivy League offers an excellent education, there are many other wonderful schools that can provide rigorous classes, diverse extracurricular activities, and valuable resources.

This article on the application process for Ivy League schools was written by Chloe Webster , Princeton ’25. If you want to get help with your college applications from Chloe or other  CollegeAdvisor.com  Admissions Experts ,  register with CollegeAdvisor.com today.

Personalized and effective college advising for high school students.

• Advisor Application
• Popular Colleges
• Privacy Policy and Cookie Notice
• Student Login
• California Privacy Notice
• Terms and Conditions
• Your Privacy Choices

By using the College Advisor site and/or working with College Advisor, you agree to our updated Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy , including an arbitration clause that covers any disputes relating to our policies and your use of our products and services.

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

50 Successful Ivy League Application Essays

Related Papers

Jessica Early

One of the most important ways to scaffold a successful transition from high school to college is to teach real world, gate-opening writing genres, such as college admission essays. This book describes a writing workshop for ethnically and linguistically diverse high school students, where students receive instruction on specific genre features of the college admission essay. The authors present both the theoretical grounding and the concrete strategies teachers crave, including an outline of specific workshop lessons, teaching calendars, and curricular suggestions. This text encourages secondary teachers to think of writing as a vital tool for all students to succeed academically and professionally.

Richard Beach

How do students conceptualize writing college admissions essays for anonymous audiences, and how can teachers and admissions personnel develop practices responsive to these conceptualizations? In our study, we sought to understand how students were making sense of their audience and how they sought to engage with that audience during college admissions essay writing. To do so, we specifically attended to their languaging—how people employ language as actions to build relations with others, including audiences for their writing

Telma ALVES

Lopes L.B., Alves T.M., Stynen A.P.R., Mota P.M.P.C., Leite R.C. & Lage A.P. 2012. Parameter estimation and use of gamma interferon assay for the diagnosis of bovine tuberculosis in Brazil. Pesquisa Veterinária Brasileira 32(4):279-283. Embrapa Agrossilvipastoril, Rodovia MT 222, km 2,5, Caixa Postal 343, Sinop, MT 78.550-970, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] This study aimed to evaluate the interference of tuberculin test on the gamma-interferon (INFγ) assay, to estimate the sensitivity and speci icity of the INFγ assay in Brazilian conditions, and to simulate multiple testing using the comparative tuberculin test and the INFγ assay. Three hundredifty cattle from two TB-free and two TB-infected herds were submitted to the comparative tuberculin test and the INFγ assay. The comparative tuberculin test was performed using avian and bovine PPD. The INFγ assay was performed by the BovigamTM kit (CSL Veterinary, Australia), according to the manufacturer’s speci ications. Sensiti...

Journal of Contemporary History

Teboho Molete

Two competing perspectives have influenced the debate concerning the approach to be adopted in search of continental-wide integration in Africa. Although both perspectives argue for the idea of a "United States of Africa", the approach of former Libyan leader, Muhammar Gaddafi, advocated for holistic integration, whilst other African leaders, spearheaded by Thabo Mbeki, argued for incrementalism aimed at first strengthening regional integration. Whereas the African Union (AU) has accepted incrementalism as the preferred approach to continental integration, minimal emphasis has been placed on what this approach should constitute. Drawing from the successes of the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) and West African Power Pool (WAPP), this article argues that functional developmentalism is most suitable to strengthening Regional Economic Communities (RECs) throughout the continent. It postulates that functional developmentalism signifies a more effective role for hegemons whi...

Benedito Silva Neto

Petr Karlovsky

Andi Walther

Studies in Philology

Alexis Butzner

Jurnal Pendidikan Matematika dan IPA

Nova Hariani

This study aimed to determine the composition and structure of Semayang forest and the Importance Value Index (IVI) of riparian forest in its role of reducing the wave rate. The method used is multilevel plot method of 20x20 m for sampling of tree level, 5x5 m for sapling level and 2x2 m for seedling level. The result showed that the highest Importance Value Index at tree level was dominated by 3 species, they were L. javanicum (101,663), M. speciosa (76,201) and G. renghas (65,962). At sapling level dominated by P. indica (102,990). At seedling level dominated by M. pigra (95,004)andP. brevistipitata (70,109). In addition, Semayang riparian forest has an ecological function as a wave retaining. It can be seen based on the vegetation density and horizontal structure of species that make up the forest. Vegetation density is predicted to reduce the rate of Semayang lake waves that occur during flood season. Keywords: Composition and Structure, Riparian Forest, Semayang Lake.

Advances in Life Science and Technology

RELATED PAPERS

Bilimsel Madencilik Dergisi

alper demirbugan

International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences & Geomechanics Abstracts

Manoj Datta , G V Rao

International Conference on Kansei Engineering and Research

Catherine Pelachaud

Journal of International Scientific Researches

MEHMET KIZILOGLU

sriah sriah

Journal of Systems and Software

Carmen Sánchez Ávila

International Journal of Multicultural and Multireligious Understanding

Hawre Latif Majeed

Aesthetic Plastic Surgery

Damiano Tambasco

Data in Brief

Cristina Ortega

European Journal of Forensic Sciences

Dr. Ridhima Suneja

Stuart Waiton

Journal of Society of Surgeons of Nepal

Sagar yadav

Patience Kabamba

Educação e Pesquisa

JULIO FERNANDO PEREZ SAEZ,

Translational medicine communications

See More Documents Like This

RELATED TOPICS

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

• Test Preparation
• College & High School

Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime Try Prime and start saving today with fast, free delivery

Amazon Prime includes:

Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.

• Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
• Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
• Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
• A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
• Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
• Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access

Important:  Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.

Buy new: $11.99

Return this item for free.

Free returns are available for the shipping address you chose. You can return the item for any reason in new and unused condition: no shipping charges

• Go to your orders and start the return
• Select the return method

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

Image Unavailable

• To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

50 Successful Ivy League Application Essays Sixth Edition

Purchase options and add-ons.

• ISBN-10 1617601802
• ISBN-13 978-1617601804
• Edition Sixth
• Publisher SuperCollege
• Publication date June 13, 2023
• Language English
• Dimensions 6 x 0.75 x 9 inches
• Print length 240 pages
• See all details

Frequently bought together

Similar items that may ship from close to you

Editorial Reviews

From the back cover.

• How to select the best topic
• What Ivy League admissions officers want to see in your essay
• The 25 mistakes that guarantee failure
• The top tips from Ivy League students on how to write a successful essay

About the Author

Excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved., product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ SuperCollege; Sixth edition (June 13, 2023)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1617601802
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1617601804
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.75 x 9 inches
• #17 in College Guides (Books)
• #63 in College Entrance Test Guides (Books)
• #214 in Study Guides (Books)

About the author

Gen Tanabe and Kelly Tanabe are the authors of 1001 Ways to Pay For College, Accepted! 50 Successful Business School Admission Essays, Accepted! 50 Successful College Admission Essays, Adult Students, Get Free Cash for College, Get into Any College, How to Write a Winning Scholarship Essay, and Sallie Mae How to Pay for College. They live in Palo Alto, California.

Customer reviews

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

• Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

Top reviews from other countries

• Amazon Newsletter
• About Amazon
• Accessibility
• Sustainability
• Press Center
• Investor Relations
• Amazon Devices
• Amazon Science
• Start Selling with Amazon
• Sell apps on Amazon
• Supply to Amazon
• Protect & Build Your Brand
• Become an Affiliate
• Become a Delivery Driver
• Start a Package Delivery Business
• Advertise Your Products
• Self-Publish with Us
• Host an Amazon Hub
• › See More Ways to Make Money
• Amazon Visa
• Amazon Store Card
• Amazon Secured Card
• Amazon Business Card
• Shop with Points
• Credit Card Marketplace
• Reload Your Balance
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Your Account
• Your Orders
• Shipping Rates & Policies
• Amazon Prime
• Returns & Replacements
• Manage Your Content and Devices
• Recalls and Product Safety Alerts
• Conditions of Use
• Privacy Notice
• Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure
• Your Ads Privacy Choices

Waitlisted? No Brags. No Updates. Learn About Ivy Coach's Letter of Continued Interest

The Ivy Coach Daily

• College Admissions
• College Essays
• Early Decision / Early Action
• Extracurricular Activities
• Standardized Testing
• The Rankings

March 29, 2024

Class of 2028 Ivy League Admission Statistics: A Year in Review

The eight Ivy League schools have now released Regular Decision notifications to applicants to the Class of 2028. So, were applications up across the board for the 2023-2024 admissions cycle? Were they down across the board? Was it a year in which some schools were up and some were down? Let’s examine the year that was in Ivy League admissions.

Class of 2028 Ivy League Admissions Cycle Was a Mixed Bag

Ivy league admissions rates for the class of 2028.

Two of the eight Ivy League schools — Cornell University and Princeton University — have yet to release total application tallies, though Ivy Coach will be sure to publish them when they become available.

Of the six Ivy League schools that have thus far released data, applications rose at four of them: Columbia University (+3,119), Dartmouth College (+2,816), the University of Pennsylvania  (+~6,230), and Yale University (+5,215).

Of the six reporting schools, applications were down at only two Ivies this year: Brown University (-2,404) and Harvard University (-2,929).

So, of the six schools, the application surges at four were generally much more significant than the application declines at two of them.

Below is a breakdown of the application tallies and overall acceptance rates for the Class of 2028. We’ve also included the equivalent figures for the Classes of 2027, 2026, and 2025 so our readers can see this year’s Ivy League admissions statistics from a historical perspective.

Brown University Admissions Statistics

Brown experienced a drop in applications this year — to its lowest level since 2025. That’s right. It was still a banner year for the Ivy League institution. The Providence, Rhode Island-based institution secured the third-highest number of applications in the school’s history and the third-lowest overall admission rate.

Columbia University Admissions Statistics

Columbia bounced back this year with its third-highest application tally in history and its third-lowest overall admission rate. The school, after getting caught with its hand in the cookie jar misreporting data to  US News & World Report , subsequently plunged in the publication’s annual ranking.

And while Columbia would ultimately choose to withdraw from the ranking,  US News  would have none of it and ranked them anyway — significantly higher than last year. Did Columbia’s ruge in the  US News  rankings — from 18th to 12th — have anything to do with its uptick in applications? It’s possible but impossible to pinpoint with certainty.

Cornell University Admissions Statistics

Cornell has not yet released its total application tally, though it has published the number of students admitted to the institution’s Class of 2028. In all, 5,139 students got into Cornell during the 2023-2024 admission cycle. Without the number of total applicants, it would be impossible to discern the school’s overall acceptance rate.

Yet, from our sources within Cornell’s admissions office, we hear that the total number of applications to Cornell was up this year. We’ll be sure to confirm this scoop once the Ivy League school releases its data to The Common Data Set.

Dartmouth College Admissions Statistics

Dartmouth enjoyed a record year in admissions , setting a new benchmark for total applications and a historically low admission rate of 5.3%. Just about a month ago, after students had already submitted Regular Decision applications, the school became the first Ivy League school to reinstate an SAT/ACT mandate in admissions.

Dartmouth was also the pride of the Ivies this year — heeding the words of its own Robert Frost by “taking the road less traveled.” When its Ivy League peers struggled to combat rising antisemitism on their campuses, Dartmouth lit the way forward. But did the school’s remarkably simple and effective response to the rising tide of antisemitism on American college campuses have anything to do with the surge in applications? Who knows.  Correlation does not imply causation.

Harvard University Admissions Statistics

Harvard experienced a slight drop in applications to its Class of 2028 , though it still marked a strong year for the Ivy League institution. Harvard’s application tally was its fourth-highest ever, and its overall admission rate was also its fourth-lowest ever.

And while an irresponsible publication,  The New York Post , attributed the drop in Early Action applications to Harvard to its horrific response to unchecked antisemitism on its campus, such conjecture was correlation without causation.

The reality? When you comb through Harvard’s historical admissions statistics, which we have dating back over two decades, drops often follow historic highs. This year’s Harvard admissions statistics are entirely consistent with that pattern.

University of Pennsylvania Admissions Statistics

UPenn has yet to release the number of students who earned admission to its Class of 2028. Thus, even though we know the tally of applications (what a record it was!), we can’t yet discern the school’s overall admission rate. But we’ll be sure to publish it as soon as it’s made available through the Ivy League institution’s release to The Common Data Set.

Princeton University Admissions Statistics

Princeton, true to its recent track record, has withheld its admissions statistics, failing to yet disclose its Class of 2028 application tally or overall acceptance rate. However, we’ll publish these figures when they’re made publicly available through The Common Data Set.

Yale University Admissions Statistics

Yale University experienced a banner year for its Class of 2028. The school smashed its application tally and set an all-time low overall admission rate. The school’s applications climbed 9.1% year-over-year, and its overall admission rate was nearly a point lower than that of the Class of 2027.

A Forecast for the 2024-2025 Ivy League Admissions Cycle

With applications up and overall acceptance rates down at four of the six Ivies that have thus far reported sufficient data (and with applications up at five Ivies if you count what we’ve learned from a source in Cornell’s admissions office), Ivy Coach’s crystal ball hereby predicts a slight drop in applications next year and a slight rise in overall acceptance rates. 

Why? Sure, with Dartmouth, Brown, and Yale now requiring test scores, fewer students — ones we’ve long deemed “ Squeakers ” — will seek to get in without them, likely leading to slight drops. But, notwithstanding the fact that these schools are switching back to mandating test scores , drops often follow historic highs. Such patterns are evident in the Ivy League admissions statistics, data we at Ivy Coach have been curating for over two decades. 

So, Class of 2029 applicants, you might not be part of a record year for these schools after all — and that’s a good thing!

You are permitted to use www.ivycoach.com (including the content of the Blog) for your personal, non-commercial use only. You must not copy, download, print, or otherwise distribute the content on our site without the prior written consent of Ivy Coach, Inc.

Related Articles

Columbia University Class of 2028 Admissions Statistics

March 31, 2024

University of Pennsylvania Class of 2028 Admissions Statistics

March 30, 2024

Dartmouth Class of 2028 Admissions Statistics

Harvard University Class of 2028 Admissions Statistics

Harvard University Waitlist Acceptance Rate

March 28, 2024

Dartmouth College Waitlist Acceptance Rate

Toward the conquest of admission.

If you’re interested in Ivy Coach’s college counseling,
fill out our free consultation form and we’ll be in touch.

Fill out our short form for a 20-minute consultation to learn about Ivy Coach’s services.

Students will hear from Ivies on Thursday. Will demographics change since the Supreme Court ruling against race-conscious admissions?

Some predict fewer students from underrepresented minority groups will be admitted.

Students who applied to the eight Ivy League universities, including the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton, were to find out Thursday whether they got in.

They will also be the first group of students to be admitted following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year to ban the use of race as a factor in admissions decisions, forcing colleges to find new ways to achieve diversity in their classes. Many other selective colleges in the Philadelphia area, including Dickinson, Haverford, Villanova and Swarthmore, have already released their acceptance decisions. The six other Ivies expected to announce Thursday were Brown, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Dartmouth and Cornell.

Over the next month or so, students will decide where they want to enroll. That freshman class — and, specifically, its demographics — will undoubtedly be compared with prior years’ to gauge what impact the court’s decision has had.

» READ MORE: What Philly-area schools are saying about the SCOTUS ruling to end race-based admissions in colleges

What did the Supreme Court decision say?

The court ruled in June that colleges could not use race as a factor in deciding whether students should be admitted. It overturned more than 40 years of admissions policy at many of the nation’s campuses, raising concern that it could reduce the number of Black and Latino students at many elite colleges and harm schools’ efforts to create diverse classes.

» READ MORE: Colleges are bracing for a court decision on affirmative action. Here’s what Princeton’s president is doing to prepare.

The lawsuits were brought by Students for Fair Admissions, a group founded by Edward Blum, a conservative activist who has spent years battling affirmative action policies. Plaintiffs had accused both Harvard and the University of North Carolina of discriminating against Asian and/or white students through the use of race-conscious admissions policies.

Even before the court’s decision, considering race was already barred in certain states, including California and Michigan . In those two states, some colleges have reported a decline in Black and Latino students as a result.

» READ MORE: Penn students lament SCOTUS decision on race-based admissions: ‘All of our progress is disappearing’

How did the Supreme Court decision affect the admissions process this year?

Both Penn and Princeton declined to discuss the impact, as more lawsuits are expected to be brought against colleges in the coming months and years over their admissions practices.

But Whitney Soule, dean of admissions at Penn, said in a recent interview with the school’s alumni magazine that Penn had trained staff and adapted its process to adhere to the law.

» READ MORE: Colleges should shoulder the burden of SCOTUS admissions ruling, not students, say Philly college advisers

“Do we know the race or ethnicity of applicants, like we did before? No, we don’t,” she told the Pennsylvania Gazette . “Yet we’re reading every detail that they provide, and we’re trying to understand how they see themselves and how they want to contribute.”

Penn also collaborated more with Heights Philadelphia , an organization that helps Philadelphia school students get into and through college, said Sean E. Vereen, co-president of Heights. Penn’s provost, John L. Jackson Jr., also joined the Heights board, he said.

“There is already a long partnership there, but we’re also deepening that partnership,” he said.

Adam Nguyen, whose company, Ivy Link , advises students on getting into the Ivies and other elite colleges, said many colleges introduced new or altered essay questions to learn more about applicants.

Did students of color mention their racial background in their essays?

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. outlined in his decision a way that race still could come into play, particularly in the admissions essay portion of an application: “... nothing prohibits universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected the applicant’s life, so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability that the particular applicant can contribute to the university.”

Admissions experts said some students of color chose to write about their racial backgrounds as it related to their identities.

“There were students who spoke to it in their essays and really thought it was an important part of their identity,” Vereen said. “And I think there are some students [who had] some real trepidation ... and really did not talk about race in their application.”

Jess Lord, vice president and dean of admission and financial aid at Haverford College, said that “probably more” students “made reference to many aspects of their identity including their race and ethnicity.” But, he said, “not substantially more.”

“We did consider it in the context of students connecting their racial identity to experiences they’ve had and qualities and characteristics they had developed that were in some way connected to their racial identity or their experience with that identity,” Lord said.

Nguyen said students were advised to weigh whether including it enhanced their narrative.

“We have to take each student and their background and look at the race component in the full context of who they are and what they achieved,” he said.

Was it possible to see applicants’ race during admissions?

No, Penn’s Soule told the alumni magazine: “Anybody involved with application review and selection in Penn Admissions does not have access to any reporting or data fields that are related to race — in aggregate or at the record level. We just can’t see it.”

But the Common App, which many students use to apply to college, still gives students the option to indicate their race, but colleges are able “to hide (that is, “ suppress ”) the self-disclosed race and ethnicity information from application PDF files for both first-year and transfer applications,” a spokesperson said. “That means when they receive an application PDF from Common App, the race and ethnicity data will not be visible.”

Common App said it could not share how many colleges chose to suppress that information. Applications from underrepresented minority applicants increased 10% this year, Common App said.

When will we know the racial makeup of the incoming class?

It’s not clear when colleges will release that information. Some colleges may attain and release the information about their accepted students; others may wait until after May 1 when students declare whether they will accept the offer of admission and enroll; and others may wait even longer, until after the wait-list process when their final class is formed.

The Harvard Crimson, Harvard’s student newspaper, reported this week that the university isn’t expected to release its details until this summer.

Under federal law, colleges eventually must report the racial makeup of their classes, and that’s when a comprehensive look at colleges’ admitted classes will be possible.

“You will get data maybe in the fall,” Nguyen said.

When Penn issued a statement on its acceptance decisions last year, it did not give a racial breakdown. But the school said the group collectively represented “ the most diverse group of admitted students in Penn’s history in terms of racial and ethnic background, socioeconomic diversity ... and those who are the first generation in their family to attend a four-year college or university.”

What the university will say this year remains to be seen.

Do experts expect the diversity of the incoming class to be impacted?

“I’m concerned that this will have a negative impact on the racial diversity of the incoming class,” said Lord, the Haverford dean.

Heights’ Vereen, who worked in admissions at Penn from 2008 to 2012, predicted declines in diversity at more selective colleges on a national level.

“It’s a little bit of the Wild West for the next couple years,” he said. “Everyone is trying to calibrate to what is the new reality.”

Given Penn’s strong commitment to students in the Philadelphia area, those declines may be tempered there, he said.

Nguyen also predicted a dip in diversity, at least in the first year.

“When the [court] decision came out, colleges were scrambling to respond,” he said.

Cara McClellan, a Penn associate practice professor of law, said last year that the percentage of students from underrepresented groups at Harvard was expected to drop by 50% without race-conscious admissions. She worked on Harvard’s case at the appellate level for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and at that time, Black students made up 14% of Harvard’s incoming class, and Latino students and students from other underrepresented groups made up another 14%.

But John E. Jones III, president of Dickinson College in Carlisle, said he is “guardedly optimistic” that the diversity of the class will be similar to last year, when 25% were students of color. Dickinson reached out to organizations, including Heights, for more assistance in getting students of color to apply, he said. It had even started doing that before the court decision, he said.

“Anecdotally, what we believe is that has been extremely helpful in getting our name out there and connecting us with students and that will add to the diversity on campus,” he said.

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

After a Year of Turmoil, Harvard’s Applications Drop

With the exception of Brown University, some other highly selective schools saw a record rise in the number of students who applied for admission.

By Anemona Hartocollis and Stephanie Saul

Applications to Harvard College were down this year, even as many other highly selective schools hit record highs.

The drop suggests that a year of turmoil — which went into overdrive with a student letter that said Israel was “entirely responsible” for the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks — may have dented Harvard’s reputation and deterred some students from applying.

Harvard’s announcement on Thursday evening came as all eight Ivy League schools sent out their notices of admission or rejection, known as Ivy Day.

While Brown University also saw a drop in applications, applications rose at many other elite colleges, including the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth, Columbia, M.I.T., Bowdoin, Amherst and the University of Virginia.

Harvard focused on the positive.

“Beyond another strong applicant pool, we are delighted by the stunning array of talents and lived experiences the class of 2028 will bring with them from throughout the United States and around the world,” William R. Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions and financial aid, said in a statement.

College counselors and admissions experts said that it was difficult to pin down the factors behind the decline in Harvard’s numbers, but that the scrutiny has been intense and, by some accounts, the reputational damage severe. It began with a historic Supreme Court decision on June 29, striking down decades of affirmative action policy at Harvard that had become a model for higher education across the country. It culminated in the resignation on Jan. 2 of Claudine Gay, who was not just Harvard’s president, but its first Black president. At that point, she faced accusations of plagiarism in her scholarly work, which she stood by, on top of complaints about her evasive testimony on antisemitism in December before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

The effect on Harvard was so striking that a cartoon in The New York Daily News by Bill Bramhall showed a girl telling her parents, “Darn. I got into Harvard.”

A private college admissions coach, Hafeez Lakhani, said that the anxiety over campus climate was particularly acute in the fall. “Students were terrified about the doxxing trucks, the C.E.O.s calling for protester names, students losing job offers for speaking up about Israel-Palestine,” he said. “I think that drove some applicants to less-spotlight schools.”

Another coach, Deb Felix, said she had referred her concerned clients to a Facebook group Mothers Against College Antisemitism , which has gained 55,700 members since it was formed in late October, as a resource on campus climate.

But some families, even Orthodox Jewish families, were not deterred by the bad publicity.

“Getting accepted to Harvard is still getting accepted to Harvard,” said Rivka Scheinfeld, whose daughter, Tamar, a student at YULA High School, a Jewish day school in Los Angeles, was accepted early. Tamar said she applied after Oct. 7, and thought she could be a voice against antisemitism. “I want to go, I want to advocate for something that I know is right,” she said.

Many schools have been shaken by protests over the war in Gaza, as well as by complaints of antisemitism and Islamophobia over the last few months. Brown saw its share of campus conflict over the war, with dozens of students arrested for trespassing following two sit-ins on campus.

But the University of Pennsylvania saw record applications — 65,230 — a nearly 10 percent rise from the year before, despite criticism of its then-president, M. Elizabeth Magill, for her legalistic testimony on antisemitism in the House hearing.

One significant difference between Harvard and Penn: Ms. Magill resigned swiftly — on Dec. 9, four days after her testimony. Dr. Gay, who testified the same day, lingered on until Jan. 2, as accusations of plagiarism against her mounted on top of the complaints that she had not taken a strong enough stance against antisemitism.

Overall, Harvard received 54,008 undergraduate applications in this admissions cycle, compared with 56,937 last year, a drop of about 5 percent. That continues a trend that began with early applications, which were down 17 percent this cycle. Regular applications were down by almost 3 percent, to 46,087 from 47,384.

The college offered admission to 1,937 students for the class of 2028. Harvard said that despite the year-to-year decline in numbers, this was the fourth year in a row that the college had received more than 50,000 applications.

Application numbers have been high since the start of the pandemic, after Harvard and other schools dropped their requirements for standardized test scores. Mr. Lakhani, the college consultant, said that the boost was fading as more students realized that they still needed to submit test scores to stay competitive.

But at M.I.T., which reinstated testing requirements, applications were up by almost 5 percent. Its president, Sally Kornbluth, survived the congressional grilling that helped topple Dr. Gay and Ms. Magill.

Among the Ivies, applications to Brown were down by almost 5 percent from last year, still the third-largest applicant pool it has ever had. Brian Clark, a Brown spokesman, said that some students were put off by a longer application with more essay questions.

Yale and Dartmouth said they had received a record number of applications, both up by 10 percent from last year. At Columbia, which also was in the news because of student protests, applications rose by about 5 percent. Cornell and Princeton said they had made a policy decision not to release the number of applicants or the admission rates.

Applications also rose at the University of Virginia and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, which was a defendant in the landmark Supreme Court decision on affirmative action.

Because of the Supreme Court decision banning race-conscious admissions, colleges have said they will not be releasing the racial or ethnic breakdown of their applicants or admitted students until the summer or fall, after the waiting lists have been exhausted.

But it appeared that colleges were using other methods to enhance the diversity of their incoming classes, such as the recruitment of poor and rural students and students who would be the first generation in their families to go to college.

Harvard said that first-generation students made up about 20 percent of the class and that students eligible for federal Pell grants, a measure of poverty, made up almost 21 percent. Other colleges declined to release the poverty figures, saying the numbers were uncertain because of problems with the federal student aid application.

Anemona Hartocollis is a national reporter for The Times, covering higher education. More about Anemona Hartocollis

Stephanie Saul reports on colleges and universities, with a recent focus on the dramatic changes in college admissions and the debate around diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education. More about Stephanie Saul

I was just accepted into Princeton University after the repeal of affirmative action. As a person of color, I'm feeling conflicted.

• I'm a person of color who was just accepted into Princeton after the repeal of affirmative action.
• When applying, I made sure to prove I was a person, not just a grade. 
• I'm happy I got in, but I can't stop thinking about the other POC who weren't so lucky.

The college admissions process is a game. Unlike other games, though, you don't necessarily have the chance to fail, to practice, to test-drive, or to get good; you just have to win. You just have to play the game that has been impending since you set foot in high school.

I played the game. As a recently accepted student to Princeton University, it might've been the best I ever played.

But I had to because I was in the first class to apply to college post-affirmative action . As a person of color, I was the guinea pig round of the increasingly unpredictable admissions process. I wondered what would merit admission, how I could talk about my experiences, and what the "holistic" application took into account.

Luckily, I gained admission to my dream school , but I can't help but think about the other disadvantaged peers who didn't.

I tried to show the admissions officers I'm a person — not a score

I went test-optional. I didn't want to be quantifiable. Even though I am number one in my class, have a high GPA, and took 21 AP courses throughout high school, removing the SAT put a larger weight on my essays.

I figured it would be harder to reject a person than a number, so I gave them a person. I spent my essays talking about ideas I was passionate about and went in depth about my activities and why I did them. The "why" was a large part of my application — from my involvement in local and national journalism to my work at a local farm.

Related stories

I took any chance I had to write in the margins of the application, describing my circumstances, from the small notes about being in the first generation of my family to attend college in the US to how being a low-income student prevented me from acquiring specialized academic tools. The additional information section was my solace. I didn't pay for a single summer program, extracurricular, or club. Everything I did, I wanted to do — and a good measure of that is my hope to continue many of my high school activities in college.

Of course, I had always been doing these activities, but after the repeal of affirmative action, intentionally emphasizing them was one way I felt I could add dimension to myself. I wanted to show the admissions office that I was an actual person with actual interests beyond school.

But I have bittersweet feelings about getting into an Ivy League school

I'd be lying if I said the feeling after getting into Princeton was all sunshine and roses. I often think about other students like myself, who struggled to share their circumstances or lost a spot after affirmative action. Somehow, I survived the game when others didn't.

But the truth is I didn't have to beat out other poor kids, other POCs, or other minorities. I had to beat the majority. My competition was never the people from my background or tax bracket . I had to beat out the system that went against me, the larger injustice — even though some of my peers couldn't.

I remind myself I didn't steal anyone's spot, and the bittersweet feeling associated with getting in is actually a good thing. It means I still have my humanity in a world where "climbing the ladder" is the norm. But also, it means I survived; I didn't succumb. I played the game instead of taking the back door, which was offered to many affluent students and legacy applicants . For that, I am glad.

Ironically, this same feeling was verbalized best by playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer, whom I wrote about in my Princeton essay, when he says:

"This was a good thing, this was a bad. Of this, I feel guilty; of this, I feel glad…Some things I can change and some I can't fix. I'm alone, but as well, I'm part of a mix."

I do think I belong among the Ivy League mix, but like any good thing, I also feel like I have to answer for the flawed system.

Watch: Rikers Island is one of the world's most notorious jails — here's what it's actually like

• Main content

Wilmington Drama League offers young people theater adventures and life skills

I was a second-grader when I first got involved in the Wilmington Drama League , after watching my older brother Justin have fun on stage. Ten years and dozens of shows later, the fun of acting has led me to the fun of working behind the scenes.

I’ve done almost everything backstage, and I wrote my college application essay on how that experience has taught me life skills like socializing, maintaining relationships and problem solving. Being on the stage crew is like magic that transports everyone from one place to another.

My experiences are similar to many other young people involved in the Drama League. We enjoy creating theater for others, and yet we get so much back in personal growth and skills development.

“It shaped who I am,” said Lola Fenning, a Brandywine High junior who, like me, began by acting and moved behind the scenes over her five years of involvement. In college, she wants to double major in adolescent education and directing and minor in playwriting. “I fell in love with theater.”

Ross Morrell, like me, followed an older sibling into the Drama League.

“I thought it was really cool,” he said of sister Jessica Stamp’s volunteering backstage.

Ross, a sixth-grader at the Cab Calloway School of the Arts, has developed such a strong reputation that he’s been asked to work among adults backstage on main-stage productions. “It’s a really good environment,” he said of the Drama League. “It’s inclusive. They care.”

After many decades of producing theater for young people, the Drama League in 1989 established a Children’s Wing, which became the Chrysalis Players in 1996. We continued with that evocative imagery in 2022 with Imago, a monthly group for young playwrights created by Eric Merlino, the adult Chrysalis president.

“It’s really fun to have a community and be part of it,” said Ivy Jackson, a Wilmington Friends seventh-grader who is Imago’s youth leader. Like many young people who give and get so much, Ivy has also acted, directed and written plays.

“The Drama League has provided opportunities for leadership for young people that are rare to find in other places,” she said. “They value the input and involvement of young people and give them the chance to take risks and build leadership skills.”

Those chances meant that the Drama League has been the first stop for many entertainment careers. Our most famous alumna is Aubrey Plaza , an Emmy nominee for “White Lotus.”

Aubrey Plaza's new role: Aubrey Plaza & Dan Levy spell trouble in ridiculous Loewe commercial. Watch it here

Others who turned their childhood dedication and development at the Drama League into arts careers include KJ Johnson, who played Young Simba in “The Lion King” on Broadway and was back at our camp last summer; Charlie Kahler, who played Young Simba in “The Lion King” national tour; Tony winner John Gallagher Jr.; Broadway performers Ben Jackson Walker and Tatiana Lofton; “Saturday Night Live” writer Neil Casey; Los Angeles filmmaker and casting director Jeremy O’Keefe; actors/writers/directors Keith Powell and Seth Kirschner; Emmy nominee Carly E. Ciarrocchi; and Justine Ciarrocchi, a producing partner with actress Jennifer Lawrence.

Ross, Lola, Ivy and I all started at the Drama League in Pillow Plays. Presented by kids, for kids, Pillow Plays are an excellent way to introduce your children to theater, as an actor or as an audience member!

Mt. Cuba adventures: Spring flowers, events bloom at Mt. Cuba Center in Delaware

Our next Pillow Plays are “Not-So-Grimm Tales” (directed by Lola) on Saturday, April 6 at the Drama League and Sunday, April 7 at the Newark Free Library and “Goodnight Princess: Sleepless in Fairytale Land” (directed by Ivy) on Saturday, May 4 at the Drama League and Saturday, May 11 at the Newark Free Library.

More youth programs this summer include our popular summer camp, which runs from July 8 through Aug. 2, with performances of “Disney’s Descendants: The Musical,” on Friday and Saturday, Aug. 2 and 3, and the Jeff Walker Youth One-Act Festival, for and by young people as well, on Saturday, Aug. 10.

Next on the main stage is “The Psychic: A Murder Mystery … Of Sorts,” April 11-14; “The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical,” May 10-19, with Lola as assistant director and me as stage manager; and “Bonnie & Clyde” June 14-23, with Lola as stage manager.

After graduating this year from Cab, I will attend the University of Delaware. As for continuing in theater, I already have a UD connection: Seven years ago, I played Chip in a Harrington Theatre Arts Company production of “Beauty and the Beast.”

Jared DeStafney is youth president of the Drama League’s Chrysalis Players and the 2023 winner of the Bob Evans Award for youth volunteering. To find out what’s going on at the League, sign up at www.wilmingtondramaleague.org/get-our-e-newsletter