College essays that made a difference - Princeton Review 2010
Lillian Diaz-Przybyl
The applicants
Lillian was an honors student and a four-year letterman in varsity swimming. She also played saxophone for her high school’s wind symphony, jazz combo, and award-winning jazz ensemble.
Stats
SAT: 1520 (750 Critical Reading, 770 Math)
SAT Subject Test(s): 800 Literature, 720 World History, 800 Biology, 740 Chemistry, 740 Spanish
High School GPA: 4.46 weighted
High School: Lexington High School, Lexington, MA
Hometown: Lexington, MA
Gender: Female
Race: Latina
Applied To
Williams College (early decision)
Essay
Common Application: Topic of your choice.
I am a stargazer. Something about the sky, especially at night, intrigues me. The stars represent both science and poetry, two things I love. I remember one Christmas when I was little and I received a big, black telescope and a little blue dress with tiny silver stars on it. Both gifts made me want to explore, to make a difference in the world, discover a new solar system or maybe even track down far away signals from a little life form in a different blue dress looking back at me across the light years.
I grew older and out of the blue dress, but I couldn’t outgrow the telescope or my love for the sky. The few times a year when we would bring it out to look at Saturn’s rings, a distant nebula, or a double star, were always exciting times for me. I was fascinated by books about the sky and what was going on in it. There was so much wonder and mystery out there, only barely perceptible to the naked eye, which unfolded itself for the curious mind with a few lenses stuck on the ends of a tube. Stars change over time, and like humans, eventually grow old and die. Their mortality made them all the more beautiful to me, because in the gas jets of a supernova and glowing clouds of dust, new stars and solar systems are born. I read everything I could get my hands on, and even as I turned more to fiction than science, the way authors used the stars as metaphors for purity, distance, hope, or humanity itself captivated me.
However, in addition to the thrill exploring the heavens, astronomy involves a lot of sitting alone in the dark, waiting for stars to come up, skies to clear, instruments to function, or just for lightning to strike. Literature can be equally lonely, involving long searches through library stacks for references and literary criticism, and hours upon hours of reading and writing in isolation. There is adventure and joy to be found, it just takes time and patience.
Where in my life do I find companionship, then? Well, pretty much everywhere else: at school, at home, at swim team spirit parties, at jazz ensemble rehearsals. (Now that is one thing I love that is not at all lonely!) One of my favorite quotes is from Carl Sagan’s novel, Contact; “For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.” I want to go to a college where I can find a community that will respect my interests and whose interests I will respect, where I can work with people who are interesting and challenging. I want to go to a college where I can find friendship and love to fill in the vastness (which really isn’t so bad-everyone needs their space, after all). In short, I want to go to Williams College, for literature, astronomy, and love.
See this page to find out where this student got in.