Kristin Shantz - The applicants

College essays that made a difference - Princeton Review 2010

Kristin Shantz
The applicants

Kristin was valedictorian of her high school class and a National Merit Finalist. She competed in piano and voice, winning first place at the California State Talent Competition in each division her junior year. She was granted the Arthritis Foundation Summer Science Research Fellowship the summer following her junior year, allowing her the opportunity to do ten weeks of research at Stanford University in the Department of Immunology.

Stats

SAT: 1520 (740 Critical Reading, 780 Math)

SAT Subject Test(s): 790 Math Level 2, 690 Chemistry

High School GPA: 4.00

High School: Valley Christian High School, San Jose, CA

Hometown: San Jose, CA

Gender: Female

Race: Caucasian

Applied To

California Institute of Technology

Claremont McKenna College

Harvard College

Pepperdine University

Princeton University

Stanford University

University of California—Berkeley

University of California—Los Angeles

University of California—San Diego

Essay

Kristen used the following essay in her application to Caltech.

What event or events have shaped your life?

It was the most agonizing moment of my life. I hesitantly climbed the three stairs that led up to the seemingly enormous piano and slowly approached the bench. As I sat down, my tiny hands shook and my face flushed with fear, but somehow I managed to get through my little song … and then the moment was over. Everyone clapped, and I sat down with my mom to watch the rest of the recital. As I listened to numerous other students play song after song, each progressively more difficult than the previous one, I began to feel more and more insignificant. My short, simple little song seemed worthless in comparison to the other amazing pieces performed with style. The experience was a bit too much for me, a mere five-year old, to handle, and I began to cry … and cry. But I kept practicing.

I have played the piano for twelve years. I have practiced for over three thousand hours. I have performed at least fifty times. But each performance is still pure agony. Each moment of performing is painful, as an intense fear of making a mistake or forgetting my song overwhelms my entire being. I fear utter and complete embarrassment more than anything in the world. And it has happened. I have made mistakes that seem to echo throughout the room, and I have forgotten notes so entirely that I am forced to start the song over. But I have kept practicing.

Some may wonder why I keep persevering through the pain, through the sheer agony of performing. I tolerate the trauma, because after my very first experience performing, I realized that success would only be achieved with hard work. Now, when I perform, the moment when it is over is the greatest feeling in the entire world. There is no moment like the one right after the final chord is struck, when the audience wildly applauds my beautiful ballads or spicy Spanish arrangements. As I take my deep bow, and the people clap, I realize that all my practice is worthwhile. No feeling is greater than the feeling after a successful performance. And at the very moment when the 1st place trophy was handed to me during my most recent competition, I knew that I had achieved my goal.

Piano performance has taught me so much that has truly molded and changed my mental perspective on life. When I was young, I used to think that I would be able to coast through life, and in the end, life’s problems and challenges would work themselves out. After my first recital, however, I learned that just as the great, after-performance feeling must be preceded by pure torture, all great successes in life must be preceded by hard work and many struggles. I’ve realized that if I want to make a difference in this world, and make a contribution to society, I’m going to have to give it some elbow grease. But I don’t mind … I’m ready for the challenge.

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