In 650 words or less, tell us a little about yourself. You have thousands of essays and paragraphs explaining how this event changed this person’s life or how they want to fix a specific problem; or what someone’s interests are. As Socrates once said: “Words are not a complete representation of knowledge.” He believed that written words watered down the meaning of what is actually said. I completely agree with him. How can I convey who I am within only a few words and with the interpretation of someone who has only seen transcripts and letters about me from other people’s perspectives?
Humans are very complex creatures. It is hard to label them as such when they can be so much more than one thing. I, for example, I would like to go into engineering because I like to see how things work. I love solving problems and helping people which can be seen as a trait that doctors possess. I like to be constantly learning about things and finding new and better ways of doing something, anything really. That is who I am even though it is a very vague detail about me. As a college admissions manager reading this, you would very well be thinking this applicant is very indecisive, or unsure about herself, when in fact I know who I am.
Could you imagine putting seventeen years of you developing and living your life onto a paper, trying to explain who you are to a complete stranger? Every single event or action that I did or somebody else did brought me here to this moment, writing this. How is it possible to pick one moment that shaped me when my entire life I am being shaped and I continue to be? From my parents putting pressure on me to do good in school to being hit in the head with a baseball bat to maybe even a pencil dropping. I could easily tell you that when my pencil dropped I was completely entranced with the physics of how it bounced first before coming to a complete stop, but I won’t because that’s not me. The only way of truly knowing me is sitting down with me for a good deal of time, not just a few minutes of scanning an essay and some paperwork.
I am supposed to show you that I think differently from everyone else around me. I do. Can I show you how? No. Not really. When you meet someone, and you really get to know them, it is easy to describe the tangible things about them; like how their favourite colour is green (I like all colours by the way) or how they like indie music. Then you try to describe their personality and you could say they are funny and smart, but you could use those words for almost anyone and those words just don’t grasp the entirety of who they are. When you know something or someone you just know.
My transcripts and letters of recommendation coincide and probably say the same thing: “Maya Kaul is a wonderful student, she is very bright and works diligently. She has a very unique way of thinking. She also enjoys helping her struggling peers with the material.” Blah, blah, blah. You have honestly heard all that before. Me too. On all my report cards. Thousands of applicants would have that same thing as well. The problem being that these applications are all based on what we, the applicants, think you want to hear instead of who we actually are and because of that people who look good on paper won’t necessarily look good in person.
Depending on what events brought you to this moment in time, you could consider this essay a satire to college applications, or a complete waste of time or even maybe an admission (most probable, of course).
留言