What Do You Know: College Admission Essay Sample

Pose an original question and answer it.

The traditional greetings of the hipsters in my area never really caught on with me. A “What’s popping?” or “Holla at yo’ boy?” coming out of my mouth would’ve screamed “trying too hard,” so I always refrained. Instead, my greeting of choice is to catch unsuspecting victims off guard with a casual “What do you know?” I like to attribute this to my constant quest for knowledge, but it’s more likely a combination of my acerbic wit, personable nature, and underlying desire for dominion, as the victims typically become submissive after this subliminal assertion of power (It’s a problem, I know. I’m working on it). Seeing as I’ve flustered countless numbers of victims with this technique, I think it’s time that I explore my own answer to this question. I don’t know if I’ll get to enjoy the same feeling of superiority that usually accompanies, but it’s all for the sake of fairness.

What do you know?

I know that the majority of suicides occur on a Monday, the plane attendants at the end of Casablanca were actually midgets, Bill Gates’ house was designed by a Macintosh computer, and tampering with someone else’s crab pot is a felony in Florida. These tidbits of knowledge represent my love for the randomness of the world. While I support the goals of institutional education, I’ve found that I’ve learned the most in my life outside of school. I consider myself a student of the world, and I wake up every day excited to learn more about it.

I also know the specific differences between “liberal” states and “social democracies,” the record-holder for FIFA World Cup goals, Rawls’ theory of justice, Emerson’s thoughts on transcendentalism, and Martin Scorsese’s signature filming techniques. Evidently, this question I pose can also serve to identify areas of expertise or interest in an individual. While the typical response to this question is a bewildered “Huh?” I was once surprised to hear an answer of substance. Upon being introduced to a friend of a friend, my assertion of power was reciprocated as my “victim” sharply responded, “I know that Picasso had to burn his own paintings to survive the cold winters when he was young.” Obviously, I was taken aback, but pleased to have found a response. Clearly this person was interested in art and/or homelessness. Manifested in my answers, I’m ascertainably interested in politics, soccer, philosophy, the Transcendentalist movement, and film.

Finally, I know that I know very little. The day I become content with how much I know is the day I stop enjoying life. On a day-to-day basis, I’m humbled and motivated by the mass of knowledge that is waiting for me to grasp and utilize it. I don’t know what awaits me at Macaulay Honors College (should I be so blessed) but I want to find out. The unknown is inherently enticing; I know that I want to know all that there is to know.