<p>I got into Yale, which I CAN NOT BELIEVE, and I actually got a letter from my admissions officer today telling me how much she enjoyed my essay. I applied to 11 schools (4 Ivies) and wasn't rejected from ANY of them, and I figure that has a lot to do with my essay(s).</p>
<p>I wrote about penguins... and physics. I was really satisfied with my essays after I wrote them, and they all felt really honest- I think that's the most important thing.</p>
<p>bumpppppppp</p>
<p>i wrote about being gay and got into a bunch of good schools.</p>
<p>I wrote about what could be termed as femicide in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico (since 1993) and how it has influenced me (I live right across the border in El Paso). I concluded the essay with how I wanted to join the Peace Corps after graduating college and eventually work in public service or an NGO to campaign for human rights.</p>
<p>I was worried that the essay may be to cliche or melodramatic or something, but others liked the essay, so...</p>
<p>With that Essay I was accepted into Bowdoin, Vassar, Grinnell, and Austin College. I really don't think my stats were great, but my essay (I suppose) and recs really helped me.</p>
<p>good for you matt </p>
<p>lmao...</p>
<p>(CMU)</p>
<p>for my "why these programs / why CMU" I wrote one about reading Rilke's poetry in German, and then English, and then I related poetry to programming</p>
<p>for my common app, I wrote about being the only girl on the programming team</p>
<p>For the colleges that offered strong Arabic programs, I gave them an essay about how I became involved in Arabic language & culture and about how I got in touch with my Chinese minority culture (I'm a little Uyghur--Chinese ethnic minority). I wanted to learn Uyghur but couldn't find any classes (too obscure of a language) so I signed up for the next best thing--Arabic (Uyghur uses Arabic scripture).</p>
<p>For colleges that didn't, I gave them the essay about having to overcome a difficulty. It wasn't an extremely big difficulty, but it showed my passion towards dance and my commitment to my friends. It was written more like a story--about how I got a bad case of food poisoning and had to dance with it and how I didn't want to let any of my friends down.</p>
<p>I think the Arabic essay was a lot more effective, got into almost all the schools where I sent it--Dartmouth, UChicago, etc.</p>
<p>Then again, my extra-curricular activities were pretty awesome.</p>