Reading my Ivy League Accepted Essay (Common App Personal Statement) – Transcript

00:00Hello. I'm going to be reading you the college essay that got me into Columbia, Brown, Northwestern, a bunch of other schools, and likely changed the directory of my life for the better. I think without this essay, I wouldn't have gotten in. I think this was I think I wrote my way in basically. So, I hope you enjoy. Um, I think it's pretty creative, but I guess I'll let you be the judge of that.

00:26Nearly every second of my life, I felt them. Their scorching gaze seared into my flesh, branding me as theirs. No matter where I went, they weren't far behind, feasting on my terror. Although they had stalked me for years, my neck hair rose and my heart grew cold each time I heard their condescending chroles. And with every taunt, a familiar thought crept into my mind.

00:49They are perfect rectangles. The horror began in preschool. I was taking an exam for early entrance into kindergarten, and my teacher had asked me to name the evil shape. Easy. It's just a a I blinked. Staring into my teacher's large circular eyes, I hesitantly said, "Triangle."

01:16Despite my error, I received a letter inviting me to move up a grade. I was thrilled until the invitation shape reminded me I had missed one of the 134 questions. The letter grew hazy, morphing into a blank rectangle that spat, "You are not enough."

01:34That day, they became everything. The rigid buildings on soft sloping land. The mirrors where I hunt for imperfections. The flags people die over. And the frames on social media posts and videos that crop out the truth. They're the dollar bills and credit cards that divide the world. They are the boxes that we're supposed to think outside of.

01:57But there's no way out. So I ran. I ran from every rectangle I saw until I ran straight into one. For a moment, it was peaceful. But when my head stopped spinning, I found myself in front of a movie camera. It watched me silently, as did the walls, the 16x9 parameters of a monitor, and when I looked down, the papers in my trembling

02:23hands. I couldn't beat the demonic shape. So, I closed my eyes and imagined the perfect rectangular hole the gravediggers would carve for my casket. I pictured my tombstone forever trapping my name on the thing I hated the most.

02:40But laughter interrupted my funeral, and hope emerged when I realized it was coming from people. They recited jokes, jokes that sounded familiar, jokes I'd written. I carefully opened my eyes and looked closer at what I was holding.

02:56It was the screenplay I could never get perfect. But it was no longer words on paper. It was three-dimensional and all around me. My setting had materialized. My characters were alive. And my ideas became a world.

03:12I gaped at my creation. It wasn't perfect. It was much more beautiful. Actors rehearsed lines as the director and cinematographer shared ideas to improve the scene. They were what the script needed. They were what I needed to look past the shape of the camera's viewfinder and see the story unfolding within.

03:35That day, as if by magic, rectangles changed and the world became a sphere again. I now find beauty in the rounded edges of the pande I bake with my mom and adore the wrinkled sticky notes decorating my room with ideas, poems, and songs.

03:53I've realized perfection isn't human, and I'm no longer afraid to make mistakes. I'm willing to wander the depths of my imagination and see where my thoughts lead me, knowing I can always ask for help if I get lost.

04:08Rectangles are still everywhere. But that's okay. They are walls, but also windows. They are books, theater tickets, and chocolate bars. They are the canvases I get to paint on.

04:25As I write this, my laptop hums with each letter I type. But it doesn't mock me like the rectangles of my past. It sings with my voice, encouraging me. Closing it shut, I notice a golden door handle on the wall before me. With courageous steps, I approach and turn it. A passage appears in the shape of something I am eternally grateful for.

04:51And I step into a future I can't wait to see. That's my college essay. So, this isn't really about trauma. This isn't really about anything super super serious, but it's about something real. It's actually about a fairly common issue but just told in a creative way. I know that a lot of emissions officers are used to the trauma dumping and sometimes I mean people have just gone through really really awful things but luckily I'm so

05:17fortunate to say that I haven't. But I have dealt with an expectation of trying to be perfect. I just capitalized on that and I tied it into what I love. It mostly was real. Well, I mean, there was some fiction elements obviously about running away from rectangles, but I mean, it was just kind of like my problems just put into a little short story that was only I think like 649 words, which is

05:44right at the limit. I do like this piece and it did take me a long time to write. Um, I had a few people look over it, but at the end of the day, I kind of stayed with my artistic vision. I didn't really change that. The prompt was I'll put it up here, but I think it was about like coming through a challenging moment or whatever. I mean, that's kind of what I answered, but I honestly it's kind of more the last prompt, which is just like write about whatever you want. College essays are definitely the way to make you stand out

06:12amongst all the other applicants, especially if they're creative, but especially if they're still genuine. Thank you for watching. I hope you enjoyed listening to my essay. And bye.