I’m applying for this summer research program and this is the essay prompt:
250-word essay (approximately 1 double-spaced typed page). In your essay you should address one of the following items:
a. Discuss your present academic focus. What interests you most about chemistry?
b. Which of your past achievements are most important to you and why? Describe one or two accomplishments or life experiences, your age at the time, and what each meant to your self-development.
c. Discuss an individual who has influenced you. What are the attributes of this person that you most admire? You may draw from fiction, biography, or your own experience.
I also applied to this program last year and my essay was about an art achievement and how the achievement helped inspire my creativity, but uhhh i got rejected…
i’m reapplying this year but i’m just totally stuck on the essay,
i’ve written 3 drafts so far but they’re all extremely bad (i asked a couple other people just to make sure, they said it was pretty bad too)
i just can’t think of anything to write, and i feel like pulling my hair out.
honestly i feel like any typical asian can replace me because i totally feel like a robot that can’t remember anything.
I think that prompt c gives you the most room for creativity. And I think you can approach it backwards.
Think about the person you want to be as an adult, the traits you hope to have. Then find an individual who has some or most of them. A fictional character may be easiest, since it’s sometimes easier to find the flaws in real life people. Think of your favorite books and movies and the main and supporting characters. And keep in mind, the character has to have influenced you-- not always in a positive way.
I’ll use Gone with the Wind, one of my favorites, as an example. Scarlett O’Hara is the main character. Scarlett battles on against incredible odds. She goes after what she wants. She sacrifices over and over again for family. She grows up so much in the course of the story, and at the end she recognizes real love.
But she’s stubborn and incredibly selfish and manipulative. So, yeah, there’s an influence there too-- things we have to be careful to avoid.
Or Rhett Butler, the other main character. He’s very decent at heart, though he wraps that heart in a shield of incredible selfishness.But he goes off to fight a war he doesn’t believe in ,he rescues Scarlett time and time again, he recognizes real goodness in the character of Melanie. He hates as passionately as he loves-- and he hates Ashley because he hates Scarlett’s infatuation with Ashley.
I’m NOT suggesting you use any of them as your essay-- particularly since the odds are decent that you’ve never read the book or even seen the movie. But I think it’s probably the easiest of the prompts to have fun with.
This is a summer science research program, right? Do not write about art – I’m sure it didn’t help you last year. They want kids interested in science. This isn’t like college where there are lots of majors and they know you are going to switch around. Their goal is to give some research experience to a future SCIENTIST. So focus on that somehow in your essay. Being well rounded does not help you in this process. Be pointy about STEM somehow.