Writing Essays

Writing Essays We spent the next weeks building solar ovens, studying the dynamic of paper planes, diving into the content of the speed of light and space vacuums, among other things. We did this with no textbooks, flashcards, or information to memorize. This is a college essay that worked for Duke University. This is a college essay that worked for Harvard University. Nice, confident kids who've worked hard don't ask us this question. So the risk dramatically outweighs any potential reward. And when you sign your college application, you're signing a formal document stating that all of the information is true to the best of your knowledge. There will be no apologizing your way out of it. I reach in and let my fingers trail around the surfaces of each object. I select my first prey arbitrarily, and as I raise my hand up to eye level, I closely examine this chosen one. I attended the SPK Program, a five-week enrichment program with New Jersey’s best and brightest students. I lived on a college campus with 200 students and studied a topic. On the first day of class, our teacher set a box on the table and poured water into the top, and nothing came out. Then, he poured more water in, and everything slowly came out. We were told to figure out what had happened with no phones or textbooks, just our brains. We worked together to discover in the box was a siphon, similar to what is used to pump gas. So don't let the pressure of college admissions influence you to lie on your college application. You don't need an admission to Princeton or NYU or UCLA badly enough to lie. If you've made mistakes, be mature enough to own up to them. If you lie on your college application and a college finds outâ€"no matter what the lie is or how they find outâ€"that's it. And it wouldn't be unheard of for colleges to tell your other colleges what you did. Colleges know that kids who are willing to take that risk are more likely to do things like cheat on a test or plagiarize a paper. They do it to make sure they have accurate information. Remember that the college essay has to be about you. I was taught essays should be 7 paragraphs long, not 5. My teacher said 3 central paragraphs never gives enough detail to the topic, so we should write 5. It makes sense to me and that is how I’ve always done it. A miniature Flamenco dancer stares back at me from the confines of the 3-D rectangular magnet, half popping out as if willing herself to come to life. Instantly, my mind transports me back a few summers before, when I tapped my own heels to traditional music in Spain. Colleges know how to spot inconsistencies in your application. They notice when things you say don't match with what your teachers or counselors say in the letters of recommendation. And colleges won't hesitate to call your counselor to verify information that doesn't seem right. I am reminded of my thirst to travel, to explore new cultures utterly different from my familiar home in Modesto, California. I have experienced study abroad in Spain, visited my father’s hometown in China five times, and traveled to many other places such as Paris. As a result, I have developed a restlessness inside me, a need to move on from four years in the same high school, to take advantage of diverse opportunities whenever possible, and to meet interesting people. This is a college essay that worked for Cornell University. This is a college essay that worked for University of Pennsylvania .