College essays that made a difference - Princeton Review 2010

Brandon Molina
The applicants

Brandon was a four-year letterman in football, wrestling (best finish: third in state), and weightlifting. He was class president his junior and senior years and worked as a student coordinator for the Special Olympics. He was also a student representative on his high school’s Serious Discipline Committee, which recommends actions for the administration to take with students who commit serious discipline or honor infractions.

Stats

SAT: 1420 (690 Critical Reading, 730 Math)

SAT Subject Test(s): 710 Math Level 1, 800 Biology

High School GPA: 3.67

High School: Berkeley Preparatory School, Tampa, FL

Hometown: Lutz, FL

Gender: Male

Race: Caucasian

Applied To

Columbia University

Elon University

Harvard College (early action)

Stanford University

Tulane University

University of Pennsylvania

United States Military Academy

Essay

Brandon used the following essay in his application to Harvard, and a slightly modified version in his applications to Columbia, Elon, Tulane, and West Point. The prompt was something to the effect of:

Any topic you would like to discuss in 250 words or less.

The Real Thing

As a seven-year-old, I wrote a personal letter to the president of Coca-Cola, begging for his assistance. Having just returned from a ski trip to Stratton Mountain Vermont, I found my self unable to locate a specific product. At a convenience store on the mountain called “Bear Necessities”, my mom bought Coke in eight ounce glass bottles that were reminiscent of those she would buy when she was young (although thicker glass only allowed 6 1/2 oz. of beverage). Whether it was the novelty of the bottles or the nostalgia I knew my mom felt, something made the Coke taste better out of the little glass bottles. I saved the empty container and upon my return home (to Pleasantville, NY at the time), I realized that my local grocery store did not stock these bottles. Neither did the local pharmacy. Neither did the local 7-Eleven nor the one in near-by Chappaqua. In fact, after a day in the White Pages, I realized that the item of my desire was nowhere to be found.

That night at dinner, after telling my parents the story of my day, they suggested that I get some information about the bottles. My mom was a recruiter at the time and furnished me with a telephone number for Coca-Cola. The following day I got a mailing address for the President and CEO, and wrote him a letter. I suppose that not too many seven-year-olds voice their concerns to this man, for I promptly received a response. To my dismay, the letter was an apology. “Unfortunately,” it read, “we are unable to provide this product in your region.” It began to explain, in very simple terms, that it was not cost effective for Coca-Cola to distribute the product in my densely populated area. His only recourse was to offer me coupons for other Coca-Cola products. For the next two years, I got to sample the bottles on infrequent occasion, whenever we hit the slopes.

My interest in the Coca-Cola Company grew and I began collecting Coke memorabilia, starting with a bank in the shape of a glass Coke bottle, which helped afford later pieces. In sixth grade I was plotting a graph of Coke stock on my America Online account. Also in sixth grade, something great happened: My family moved to our current hometown of Tampa, FL. Here, the eight ounce glass bottles were available in many grocery stores, pharmacies, etcetera. By this time my Coke collection was overtaking my room, and the access to these bottles did not ameliorate the situation. I collected bottles of all ages and editions, some full and some empty.

My collection has meaning that is two-fold. Certainly, a relatively large portion of a seventeen-year life has been devoted to searching, saving, and organizing. However, at a young age, the love that I knew for Coca-Cola taught me lessons about initiative and perseverance that I did not know. Fortunately I learned about these two qualities through a personal interest rather than having to complete an assignment. Of all my Coke products, my Coke-labeled furniture, and my Coke Christmas ornaments, my favorite item is a circa 1920 Coca-Cola glass bottle that was given to me by a friend whose brother found the bottle in a riverbed near Jacksonville, FL. Whenever I look at it, I am reminded of the time when I first began my collection on Stratton Mountain, Vermont.

See this page to find out where this student got in.