College essays that made a difference - Princeton Review 2010
Caroline Ang
The applicants
In high school, Caroline competed on the speech and debate team for three years (winning the state tournament her senior year), the field hockey team for two seasons, and the softball and track teams for one season each. She was editor-in-chief of the school yearbook her senior year, held various leadership positions in the Choir Club and Christian Club, and worked part-time in a coffee shop.
Stats
SAT: 1500
SAT Subject Test(s): 800 Literature, 780 Math Level 2
ACT: 34
High School GPA: 3.96
High School: Leland High School, San Jose, CA
Hometown: San Jose, CA
Gender: Female
Race: Asian American
Applied To
Brown University
University of California—Berkeley
University of California—Los Angeles
University of California—San Diego
Please note: Caroline did not disclose information about other applications.
Essay
Caroline used the following essay in her applications to the schools listed above.
The personal statement is your opportunity to introduce us to you and to educate us about those personal aspects that you determine are vital for us to know. We ask only that whatever you write be honestly written and in your own handwriting.
Personal Statement
I am:
A dreamer who trembles in delight and terror as she considers what happiness and heartache the future may hold.
A humorist who continually expands her repertoire in pursuit of the perfect joke. (Two pretzels walk down the street. One of them was a-salted.)
An athlete who makes up in spirit and hard work what she lacks in talent.
A bookworm who, at 3 a.m., firmly promises that she will read “just one more page” before she sleeps …
A writer who strives to capture on paper the essence of life as she sees it, and who loves to pen short stories and reflective essays.
A daughter who is entering the last stage of the parent-child relationship- friendship with Mom and Dad.
A romantic who tries on her prom dress late at night and waltzes around her bedroom to music unheard by the rest of the world.
A conservative who supports the time honored values on which our forefathers founded this country.
A teacher who carefully plans her Sunday school lesson, but isn’t afraid to scrap it last minute to fit the kids’ needs at that particular moment.
An aesthete who waits outside her house for that instant when the lavender, fuchsia, orange, gold rays of the descending sun shoot across the sky and man has a glimpse of heaven on earth.
A student who loves learning for learning’s sake, not just to pad a college transcript.
A Christian who is continually striving and struggling to follow Jesus’ example.
A guitarist who strums and plucks out songs and instrumentals, some that she’s written herself.
A connoisseur who celebrates the beauty and diversity of the snack food aisle in supermarkets.
A leader who accepts being a role model with mixed pride and trepidation.
An optimist who can’t wait to seize her future and make her dreams of knowledge, writing and love come true.
A sleeper who escapes pressure and reality through a wonderful invention called the snooze button.
A worrier who compensates for general unluckiness through careful planning and anticipation.
A seeker who wants to get to the crux of the purpose of humanity- why we’re here and where we’re going.
A conversationalist who explores the heavy issues of life in depth, and chats about the lighter ones.
An economist who knows the value of money, now that she’s had to work for it.
A skeptic who wants to believe in the innate goodness of man but cannot gloss over the mess he’s made of the world thus far.
A sister who inundates her little brother with advice- how to pick outfits, deal with teachers and melt girls’ hearts.
A crusader who enthusiastically sets out to conquer the world but gets her cape stuck in the doorway.
A maniac who rides shopping carts at amazing speeds with her best friend in empty parking lots after hours- drunk not on liquor, but on life.
An idealist who believes with all her heart that indifference is the worst crime of all … that having passion for what one does makes all the difference …
A complete paradox who is one thing, then another, one extreme, then the total opposite. a bundle of earnest contradictions.
I am:
Caroline Chiu-Ying Ang.
See this page to find out where this student got in.