Claudia Gold - The applicants

College essays that made a difference - Princeton Review 2010

Claudia Gold
The applicants

Claudia played piano for eleven years and taught private piano lessons to children. She helped teach an autistic child to speak, read, and write under the guidance of a psychologist. She was president of her high school’s math club her senior year and its treasurer her sophomore year. She was active in theatre and drama and took ballet classes for ten years. She attended the Young Scholars Program at Florida State University, where she worked on a research project involving gamma emissions from fused rubidium. She also participated in an exchange program in Spain, which included classes at the University of Salamanca.

Stats

SAT: 1520 (740 Critical Reading, 780 Math)

SAT Subject Test(s): 780 Math IIC, 670 Biology

ACT: 33

High School GPA: 4.20 weighted

High School: Spanish River Community High School, Boca Raton, FL

Hometown: Boca Raton, FL

Gender: Female

Race: Caucasian

Applied To

Brown University

Cornell University

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

New York University

Rice University

University of Chicago

Yale University

Essay

Claudia used the following essay in each of her applications.

Please write something that will help us get to know you better.

It is a statistical fact that about three percent of babies are born breech. It has not been determined, however, whether prenatal upside-downness affects spatial orientation during the rest of the baby’s life. But in my case, reversed entry into the world appears responsible for at least one significant subsequent event.

During my twelfth year of life, while attending a performing arts summer camp in New York, talent scouts from Nickelodeon Studios in Orlando arrived on campus to search for kids possessing unusual and entertaining talents. I didn’t give it much thought until a bunkmate reminded me of my unique skill: I had developed, after considerable practice, an ability to play piano upside-down. To do so, I would position my back and shoulders on the piano bench and reach up to the keys with crossed forearms. Along with 350 other hopeful campers, I stood in line to show off my talent, aspiring to become the next Nickelodeon television star.

Foolishly, I was ecstatic when I received a phone call from casting agents three months later inviting me to participate in the pilot episode of Figure It Out, a show in which kids with unique talents appear before a panel of so-called celebrities who try to guess the hidden talent through a series of yes/no questions.

Despite dreams of a stylish arrival via Nickelodeon’s private jet, my parents packed up the family minivan, and we arrived three hours later in Orlando, Florida.

Upon arriving at the sound stage, I was whisked down a corridor. As I neared a room labeled “Hair and Makeup,” what sounded like the tantrum of a spoiled child became louder. When the door opened, I was surprised to see the back of the bleached-blond head of a grown woman, obviously infuriated, surrounded by hair stylists and makeup artists. When she heard me enter, she stopped arguing abruptly and swiveled her chair to greet me with a huge, collagen-enhanced smile.

“Hello, I’m your host Summer Sanders!” she announced a little too cheerfully. “You must be our special guest! I hear you have a special talent. But don’t tell anyone. It’s a … shhhhhhh … secret.” With that, she grabbed a vat of Vaseline, smeared it across her front teeth, and walked out the door.

With my “specialness” confirmed, I was subjected to a complete makeover. The stylists repeatedly complemented my features yet painted over each of them until they were no longer recognizable as my own. (I still don’t understand why I needed a pedicure when I would be wearing sneakers.)

Later, in the coffee room, while searching for any reading material besides Nickelodeon Magazine, I stumbled upon something that solidified the experience as one that would forever change my conception of the world: there, lying next to the sink, was the script for my show! The show, whose essence was spontaneity and suspense, was entirely a sham. Although to the viewers the celebrities’ comments appeared cleverly improvised, each word had been carefully crafted, and even the destiny of the player, pre-determined. To my simultaneous horror and glee, amongst the final words of the script were “Claudia wins!”

I learned a lesson that proved to be a guiding principle for my life. My realization that Figure It Out, a seemingly innocent children’s show, was nothing more than a derivative, commercialized, and manipulative institution, was the equivalent of many children’s realization that the tooth fairy is a myth. As children, we look up to those older than us for the paradigm of how we ought to live our lives. As each facade was unveiled, my perception of the adult world was transformed. Figure It Out has become, for me, a metaphor that has helped me to identify the kind of person I strive not to become—one who is deceptive, hypocritical, and superficial. Thus, it has helped me understand the kind of person I hope to be. It helped me to “figure it out.”

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