Common Application: Personal Statement
Please write an essay (250 words minimum 500 words maximum) on a topic of your choice or on one of the options listed below. This personal essay helps us to become acquainted with you as a person and student, apart from courses, grades, test scores, and other objective data. It will also demonstrate your ability to organize your thoughts and express yourself.
1. Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.
2. Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.
3. Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.
4. Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence.
5. A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community, or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.
6. Topic of your choice.

UC-Berkeley: Respond to both prompts, using a maximum of 1,000 words total.
You may allocate the word count as you wish. If you choose to respond to one prompt at greater
PROMPT #2: Tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you. What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud and how does it relate to the person you are?

William & Mary: Optional Essay or Submission
Beyond your impressive academic credentials and extracurricular accomplishments, what else makes you unique and colorful?
We know that nobody fits neatly into 500 words or less, but you can provide us with some suggestion of the type of person you are. Anything goes! Inspire us, impress us or just make us laugh. Think of this optional opportunity as show and tell by proxy and with an attitude, but please restrict your submission to what will fit on one sheet of paper.

656-word version
Qualifying for the Global Discovery Program was the most discouraging and yet enlightening experience for me as I literally went from rags to riches in just less than a month of time. As the program was sponsored by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, the department of government that administers all policies and regulations concerning female and juvenile affairs, numerous talented students from all across the country applied for the occasion...

494-word version
Qualifying for the Global Discovery Program was the most discouraging and yet enlightening experience for me as I literally went from rags to riches in just less than a month of time. To be selected as a student representative, applicants must undergo a very competitive selection process...

BC: Students frequently ask what they can do to enhance their applications and furnish us important additional insights about themselves. Toward this purpose, the Admission Committee presents you with four topics for consideration and reflection. Please select one of the questions below and write an essay of no more than 400 words. This is your opportunity to reveal how you think, what you believe, what you value, and what you hope to accomplish. This is your chance to let us hear your voice.
1. St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, encouraged his followers to live their lives in the service of others. How do you plan to serve others in your future endeavors?
2. From David McCullough`s recent commencement address at BC: "Facts alone are never enough. Facts rarely if ever have any soul. In writing or trying to understand history one may have all manner of `data,` and miss the point. One can have all the facts and miss the truth. It can be like the old piano teacher`s lament to her student, `I hear all the notes, but I hear no music." Tell us about a time you had all of the facts but missed the meaning.
3. In his novel, Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann writes: "We seldom know what we`re hearing when we hear something for the first time, but one thing is certain: we hear it as we will never hear it again. We return to the moment to experience it, I suppose, but we can never really find it, only its memory, the faintest imprint of what it really was, what it meant."
Tell us about something you heard or experienced for the first time and how the years since have affected your perception of that moment.
4. Boston College has a First-Year Convocation program that includes the reading and discussion of a common book that explores Jesuit ideals, community service and learning. If you were to select the book for your Convocation, what would you choose and why?

370-word version
Qualifying for the Global Discovery Program was the most discouraging and yet enlightening experience for me as I literally went from rags to riches in just less than a month of time. To be selected as a student representative, applicants must undergo a very competitive selection process...

UIUC: ESSAY #2
In an essay of 300 words or less, tell us something about yourself that isn`t covered elsewhere in this application, some interest or experience of yours that you think the University of Illinois should know about as part of the admissions review.

295-word version
Qualifying for the Global Discovery Program was the most discouraging and yet enlightening experience for me as I literally went from rags to riches in just less than a month of time. First, because I wanted to make a great initial impression, I wore a suit, little did I know then I would be embarrassingly overdressed...

JHU: Write a brief essay (250 words maximum each question) in which you respond to the following questions. (freshman applicants only):
2. Tell us something about yourself or your interests that we wouldn`t learn by looking at the rest of your application materials. (While you should still pay attention to sentence structure and grammar, your response is meant as a way for us to get to know you, rather than a formal essay.)

NYU: Please respond to each of the following questions using a maximum of 1,500 characters (spaces and punctuation included) in the space provided.
B. What intrigues you? Tell us about one work of art, scientific achievement, piece of literature, method of communication, or place in the world (a film, book, performance, website, event, location, etc.), and explain its significance to you. (1500 characters)

Emory Oxford: Please answer the following questions in max. 250 words per question.
3.What experiences have you had in encountering cultures that are different from your own?

Tufts: Think outside the box as you answer the following questions. Take a risk and go somewhere unexpected. Be serious if the moment calls for it but feel comfortable being playful if that suits you, too. The suggested length for questions 2 and 3 is 200-250 words.
Now we`d like to know a little bit more about you. Please respond to one of the following: (200-250 words) (1800 characters)
A. You may have heard the quote "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don`t matter, and those who matter, don`t mind." We don’t mind. Who are you? Respond in the medium of your choice: prose, one-minute video, blog, digital portfolio, slam poetry... For media other than writing, please share a link (video can be submitted via YouTube but we recommend using a privacy setting) that is easily accessible. .
B. What makes you happy?
C. Sports, science, and society are filled with rules, theories, and laws like the Ninth Commandment, PV=nRT, Occam`s Razor, and The Law of Diminishing Returns. Three strikes and you`re out. "I" before "E" except after "C." Warm air rises. Pick one and explain its significance to you.
D. Celebrate your nerdy side.
E. If your classmates were to honor you with a "senior superlative" in the yearbook, what would it be and why?

Lehigh: Please answer one of the following questions. As a guideline, your response should be between 150-250 words. (1250 characters or upload)
1. People face challenges every day. Some make decisions that force them beyond their comfort levels. Maybe you have a political, social or cultural viewpoint that is not shared by the rest of your school, family or community. Did you find the courage to create a better opportunity for yourself or others? Were you able to find the voice to stand up for something you passionately supported? How did you persevere when the odds were against you?
2. If you founded your own college or university, what topic of study would you make mandatory for all students to study and why? What would be the values and priorities of your institution and why?
3. In our ever-changing society, people have defined `equity` and `community` in many different ways. How do you define these terms and what are the implications of equity and community for our 21st century society?

246-word version
Qualifying for the Global Discovery Program was the most discouraging and yet enlightening experience for me as I literally went from rags to riches in just less than a month of time...