After a week in Clarksdale, Mississippi, interviewing people in the Delta, and attending a QuestBridge conference for College Prep scholars in Atlanta, Georgia, I’m finally back home. Of course, I got right to work on my college applications. I finished the first draft of my Personal Statement, answering the question:
We are interested in learning more about you and the context in which you have grown up, formed your aspirations, and accomplished your academic successes. Please describe the factors and challenges that have most shaped your personal life and aspirations. How have these factors helped you to grow?
I wrote about how I was affected by my parents’ decision to immigrate to the US, and although my second draft is done (my first draft got changed a lot after hearing a few lectures at the QuestBridge conference), the essay still needs a lot of work. I also got started on a UChicago essay prompt. I had so many prompts to choose from, but ended up writing on this one:
The instructor said,
Go home and write
a page tonight.
And let that page come out of you—
Then, it will be true.
—”Theme for English B” by Langston Hughes
It may end up getting scrapped because UChicago likes a lot of creativity, but we’ll see.
For any who happen to be reading my blog, do you recommend hiring an essay coach to critique my work? I would share them with my English teachers at school, but some seem too personal to share with them (which makes me question why I’m laying it all out on the line for some colleges but that’s a whole other issue).
The Ivies And Me 