Running: College Admission Essay Sample

Running and I have a complex relationship. Despite the exquisite torture of sprinting two miles around and around in a circle, feeling as if both lungs have collapsed and death by dehydration is imminent, it is unlikely we’ll ever break up: I had never felt so keenly the very throbbing of being until I was flying around that track. Running has taught me to trust myself, to breathe deeply, and to endure. If five, six, seven miles are manageable, so are school and work and sleepless nights. To Running I owe my curiosity, my impulse to explore an unknown road or a novel subject and see where feet and heart and mind will lead.

Running and I, we belong at Stanford. 8,180 acres is more than enough for us to cover and academically speaking, our spirit of exploration translates well. With the Farm’s strong emphasis on interdisciplinary programs, undergraduate research and its bevy of exceptional resources, I’ll blow with the wind, combining my passions for the humanities with my interests in medicine. I hope to spark lively debate in small-group courses, amble thoughtfully through the Rodin Sculpture Garden, and laugh helplessly over marching band antics. My name would be on the roster of Pi Beta Phi, the Archery and Badminton Clubs, and Arabesque Middle Eastern Dance. I look forward to immersing myself in the eight million volumes of Stanford’s twenty libraries, delving backwards into the whys and wherefores of literature and history with professors like Jack Rakove and Gordan Chang, and propelling forward onto the very forefront of neurological and dermatological research. Stanford offers its undergraduates a freedom no other school can quite match, and the possibilities for growth and exploration, for running further and effecting change are endless, in every direction.