About Me: College Admission Essay Sample

My middle school was a mess. Not in the sense that we had students crying, teachers screaming or chalk flying everywhere, but rampant homework copying and dozing in class raged all over the campus. It was just a place where learning was not cool. Students sick of spoon-fed lectures lived just for the moment when the dismissal bell rang - and I was part of that.

Then I came to Exeter. It was the turning point of my life. I came here for Japanese, and I found so much more. I discovered that I am not the only one on earth who will go as far as reading a particularly engrossing chapter in the shower. I made friends who regard a 45-minute walk to a supermarket on a snowy Sunday morning as a good topic for an English paper. Exonians are so genuinely passionate about learning that they stimulate my buried hunger for it. Put three Exonians together on a Saturday night and you get a parametric Mickey Mouse on your TI-89; we actually had fun refining the curves of its tail. Wearing a neon-green Chemistry 319 T-shirt might sound nerdy at first, but definitely not after a Harkness discussion with original ideas pouring forth, when the pieces start to fall into place. Nowhere else do I get the chance to debate about Brave New World with my English teacher, a PhD from one of the most renowned colleges in the world. I once e-mailed my history teacher about my essay’s structural problem at two in the morning, and he left me a voice mail by five. It was quite amazing.

And this experience extends outside the classrooms; when friends seek my advice in the dining hall, when a black, a white and an Asian snuggle under the same blanket for yet another late-night talk that bears a strange resemblance to an essay on Existentialism, or just the moment when I realize the tremendous opportunities to be constantly discovering at so many levels, my passion cannot help but unfold vigorously, like proteins in an inorganic solution.

Exeter is learning anytime, anywhere. As a senior, I am still grateful that I took that huge leap three years ago into an environment that unleashed my passion for knowledge. As I take another uncertain stride toward college, I thirst for a summit where there is no shame in being sincerely engaged in learning, a place where everyone is allowed to savor every moment. But even in this light of uncertainty, I would be running towards whatever else life would have in store for me, and hopefully not tripping on the way.