College essays that made a difference - Princeton Review 2010
Diana Schoofield
The applicants
In high school, Diana was a four-year letterman and captain of the varsity swim team. While on the swim team, she achieved several state honors, and was voted MVP twice in a row. She also was concertmistress of her high school’s faculty/student orchestra, attended Governor’s School for violin, and participated in the Spoleto Study Abroad program for orchestra. She was a member of the National Honor Society and was nominated for the Morehead Scholarship.
Stats
SAT: 1380 (700 Critical Reading, 680 Math)
SAT Subject Test(s): 660 U.S. History, 680 Spanish
ACT: 31
High School GPA: 4.23
High School: Ravenscroft, Raleigh, NC
Hometown: Raleigh, NC
Gender: Female
Race: Caucasian
Applied To
Boston College
Cornell University
Emory University
Georgetown University
Harvard College
Northwestern University
University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill
University of Pennsylvania
Washington University in St. Louis
Essay
Diana used the following essay in each of her applications, with the exception of Georgetown.
Cite a meaningful first experience and explain its impact on you.
I greatly appreciate the concept of taking a siesta in the afternoon. I love the fact that the salad comes after the main course, and the cars are all the size of Volkswagen beetles. Olive oil really can accompany any meal. You can’t go anywhere without seeing a duomo or a fresco. Punctuality is not a necessity of life. No one in Italy ever seems to be in a rush, because there is no time.
E.M. Forster wrote, “The traveler who has gone to Italy to study the tactile values of Giotto, or the corruption of the Papacy, may return remembering nothing but the blue sky and the men and women who live under it.” Such was my experience as I, a student of music, spent a month in Spoleto, Italy this past summer. I originally applied for a spot in the Spoleto Study Abroad program in order to play the violin, study opera, history, and learn Italian. But what I came away with was the influence of the Italian culture, which will follow me wherever I go.
As I lugged my overweight, eighty-pound suitcase (nicknamed “The Big Mama”) down a narrow cobblestone alley, I wiped the sweat-smeared makeup from my forehead and worried about what the lack of air conditioning and overwhelming humidity was going to do to me. And no email? Nevertheless, I couldn’t wait to start classes, begin rehearsals, and get out into the city. I couldn’t seem to get over my American ways of rushing from one activity to another; “exhausted” became my only response to the typical Italian greeting “Come stai?” As I wearily walked to class one morning, I noticed this incredible view overlooking most of Spoleto. I stopped dead in my tracks and studied the fog settling over the tiled roofs of modest stone houses. Laundry lines hung from window to window like vines. This was not the Italy of the Olive Garden and Parmesan cheese commercials. This was Italy. Why had I not noticed this magnificent site before? I took a picture, and every time I passed that spot, I paused to study the amazing world below me. My American schedules and routines were discarded, along with my makeup and hairdryer. I slowed down, took many scenic routes, began sampling new flavors of gelato, and trying out my nascent Italian skills on vendors in the piazzas. I could spend literally hours sitting in cafes chatting with friends, and in a very “Lost Generation” style, writing in my journal. Living in Italy for a month is more than eating the food, purchasing postcards, and attempting to decipher the language, it is living the life and the culture. In that month I became an inhabitant of the country, an Italian by my lifestyle and mindset. When I physically returned to the States, my thoughts were in Spoleto, Florence, Siena and in other beautiful cities. As I readjusted to life in Raleigh, North Carolina, I never lost my Italian flair. I discovered that Italy is not only a place, but also a state of mind.
See this page to find out where this student got in.