Hey guys, I am a senior and Emory University is one of my top schools. I am having difficulty with the supplemental essay though. This is the prompt:
Last August, Susan Grant, chief nurse executive for Emory Healthcare, said this of Emory’s choice to treat patients with Ebola: “We can either let our actions be guided by misunderstandings, fear and self-interest, or we can lead by knowledge, science and compassion. We can fear, or we can care.” Consider her idea of doing what is in the public interest despite potential cost. Please discuss an example in your life or the life of another that’s come to your attention.
How would you interpret the prompt and what are your thoughts? Please help!!! Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.
write about a time in your life shaped/changed you
Write about something courageous you did and how that impacted you and people around you, and what you learned from it.
When I think about that prompt and read it a bit deeper, I am now thinking it refers somewhat to risktaking. Specifically the risk of doing what is right versus giving in to social or any other pressure not to. Because their was a lot of sqeamishness over accepting and treating the Ebola patients at Emory initially. I don’t think it is typical that a risk being taken by younger people would be of that magnitude but you could perhaps think of a case where you did something that would either really benefit yourself or others where those around you were hesitant because they maybe probably thought you should do something else or b) what you chose to do could actually be harmful in some aspect.
Yes. It’s specifically asking for a case where you did something despite outside pressure to do something else.
The public scare in regards to allowing Ebola into the USA was real and widespread, and (unfortunately) many people were against Emory admitting those patients (of course, it’s better to do it that way in a secure facility that can handle it than take the chance that infected patients knowingly would enter the States for treatment through Delta flight 101).
“the choice between what is right and what is easy” ~ Dumbledore
Like Bernie said, Emory doesn’t expect you to have done something that polarizing. But that’s the gist of what they’re asking.
Good topic. Kudos to Emory for creating it.
“… Emory doesn’t expect you to have done something that polarizing. But that’s the gist of what they’re asking.”
But it’s usually wise to stay away from anything polarizing and controversial on college essays. What one may consider as “doing the right thing”, another may consider as “doing the wrong thing.”
Which is why I suggested that it must have been something that actually did end up benefiting themselves or others (I guess in the context of “commonly held” morals).
@bernie12 But one can do the “wrong” thing (supported by “community held” morals that see it as the “right” thing to do) and still end up benefiting themselves and others, and proceed to think it was the “right” thing to do. What if the Ebola patients did end up infecting other people? Maybe even a lot of people?
If Emory hadn’t brought the patient into the USA through its secure, intensively prepared means, then the patients would have come in secret through public flights in order to access US healthcare. The second case is much more dangerous.
Anybody who truly understands Ebola will say (and did say) that it was never a concern provided proper precautions were met.
I indeed understand your point, but you addressed risk assessment in terms of writing the essay. All I am doing is suggesting, in light of what you said, to more or less stick to I guess conventional wisdom in terms of what type of risk/benefit scenario is appropriate to address. I guess it would be one leading to the “right” choice as one would expect to be determined by a consensus. I’m ultimately suggesting a “softball” scenario to discuss, not a scenario from Harvard’s justice course lol.
I actually like the second prompt better “In the spirit of Emory’s tradition of courageous inquiry, what question do you want to help answer, and why?”
Kudos for Emory for actually putting challenging supplement questions that you can’t just copy and paste from another supplement.
I think the focus and the underlying idea behind both prompts is to find whether the applicant holds individualistic or “courageous” ways of thinking that aren’t necessarily restricted by conventional societal norms. Are you passionate enough about your activities and intellectual interests that you are willing to place your faith in your own passions rather than established societal trends? Are you bravely inquisitive or do you just follow what society teaches you?
Do your own individualistic passions drive your actions and interests or is it driven by someone or something else?
Your judgement is not always going to be “right”, but maybe, just MAYBE, Emory is looking for people who are passionate ( maybe even crazy ) enough to continue striving for what they love and what they believe in despite adversity and judgement…
Me too, I agree. I actually want to see how students think, so I feel that the other prompt better gauges writing skills in the context of creativity and intellectual curiousity. The other would be cool if it wasn’t for the discussions we had above about a student perhaps taking a risk by simply discussing a risk they took.
@RamenUniversity: Also, Is it just me, or does it seem like Emory’s application supplements are kind of looking more and more like old Chicago or current Stanford? Some may claim that Emory should join some others and just pump up its scores until USNWR is forced to reward…but my opinion is well established on this as I think it will weaken the type of students it has been getting so as to lower the quality and abundance of competitive national/international awards won at Emory. I also worry that certain trends in the sciences (or just in general) enrollment wise may begin to slip if Emory just focused on students who are enamored and too used to scoring high on every single test. As in, it seems at Emory there is a culture where students are very willing to receive challenging instruction (along with engaging in or even creating very ambitious EC’s) with little complaint as long as its good instruction. You don’t hear as many students complaining about how hard it is to get ultra high grades in certain signature courses (that are also known to be very challenging overall or vs. the department they are hosted in) and in fact students often flock to such instructors (how people like Dr. Weinschenk, Edwards, Soria, Walker, Giles, Morey, and a slew of others can become so respected and even popular is a miracle at an elite institution, especially one where a huge chunk of the student body is pre-professional). That’s actually quite different even from some near peers that have far higher scores than Emory where students seem to tolerate very high levels of challenge (it’s either that, or everytime the students are in such a class, the teaching isn’t that great…either way it isn’t a good luck) much less (because of ego, fear, or whatever). A decently large chunk of Emory students more or less roll with the punches, work hard, and hope it pays off (resilience and desire to at least attempt to learn at riskily high levels). They must be doing something right. It would be interesting to see if they can eventually increase the scores some while also keeping this sort of attribute alive (though it would be nice if the number of Big 3 pre-professionals declined a little).
This gave me the inspiration I really needed for my essay. Following a passion no matter what others think or set out in front of you are the unique parts of you that make you you. Hopefully I can get in too!!
@soccerrider26
Haha, no problem!
I’m actually a current senior also applying to Emory this year ( most likely ED ).
Hopefully we both get in and we can see each other at Atlanta next year! I’m sure your essays will be stellar.
Good luck! 
Okay, so I have a really good topic for this, but I wrote about it in my common app personal essay. Should I rewrite the same topic in a more personal perspective, change my common app, choose the other prompt, or find a new essay topic altogether?