<p>In the princeton supplement essay, two of the options tell you to use a quote as a starting point. How did you guys do this.</p>
<p>Bump 
heeeelp</p>
<p>The focus of the essay isnt the quote. Its about what the quote means to you…or how this quote can be used to represent a facet of your life.</p>
<p>I realize that, but do they want us to mention the quote in some way in our essay? Or to actually describe how it relates to what we are writing about? Or just right an essay with that same idea in mind, but never actually referring to the quote.</p>
<p>The way I approached it was similar to how at the front of some novels, there are some pertinent quotes to the theme/message/events of the book. So I would use that as a guideline. If your essay is about how, despite physical handicaps, you trained yourself to be an expert rower, you might want to have a relevant quote from Lance Armstrong’s autobiography talking about perseverance or something at the top. You don’t need to explain the quote or your choice. I don’t think you even need to explicitly relate back to it (although I did at the end of my essay… just a stylistic decision) It’s literally just like a preface to the greater meanings of your essay.</p>
<p>^This. You might consider using an essay you’ve already written and finding an applicable quote.</p>
<p>decillion’s post is great advice</p>
<p>I didn’t use the quote directly in my essay (I did the motto), but my essay was about service as a global effort and how my goals pertain to that. The quote should just have to have something to do with what you write about. Your essay does not have to center on the quote.</p>