Unlocking the Keys to Success: My Winning College Application Essays

Unlocking the Keys to Success: My Winning College Application Essays

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction
2. Settling into Freshman Life
3. Sharing the College Application Journey
4. The Common App Essay 4.1. Prompt Choice 4.2. Clara's Piano Lesson 4.3. The Beauty of Teaching Music
5. University of Pennsylvania Supplemental Essays 5.1. The Academic Essay: Discovering Intellectual and Academic Interests 5.2. Exploring the Community at Penn
6. Conclusion
7. Highlights
8. FAQ

Settling into Freshman Life

Hi guys, um if You don't know me already my name is Anya and I am a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania. I just started here and this is actually my dorm room. Um, I just moved in last week and I'm starting classes tomorrow, and I posted my college decisions reactions video, which you can watch here. I also posted a video with my stats and extracurriculars, which you can watch here. A lot of you requested in the comments that I make a video with some of my essays, so that's what this video is going to be. I'm going to be reading my Common App essay as well as the two supplemental essays for the University of Pennsylvania. Um, and those were the essays that got me accepted. I also want to preface that it has been a very long time since I have read either of these essays, so this is like, me this is going to be like my raw reaction kind of to these essays. I'm just going to be reading them out loud, and this is my first time seeing them in not since I've written them but, since not long after that, so here goes.

The Common App Essay

Prompt Choice

Okay, so for the Common App, I believe there are seven different Prompts that you can choose from, and um the prompt that I chose was "Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so Meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story." The maximum word count is 650. So um, here's my essay.

Clara's Piano Lesson

Clara stares at the sheet music, her brow furrows in acute concentration. I nudge her gently, "Let's try it again." She's perched on the piano bench, eyes fixed on the song "Petite Minuet" from Faber and Faber Primer Level Piano Lesson Book. She takes a deep breath and reattempts the measure, wrong again. While I smile reassuringly, my mind races, devising new methods of translating the dots, squiggles, and lines that cover the page into meaning for a seven-year-old's brain.

For a moment, I reminisce on when I was a young girl in the initial phase of my 11 piano-playing years and shift my perspective to Clara's, remembering the effectiveness of mnemonic devices in helping me absorb new concepts. I decide to reiterate the acronyms I taught her for the notes on the staff. "Think 'FACE' in the treble clef. The space notes go F – A – C – E from the bottom up, remember? And the line notes go 'Every Good Bird Does Fly,' E – G – B – D – F, right?" Slowly, her brow unfurls, and I see the confusion fade from her eyes. "So, what note would that be?" I prompt. "G!" she exclaims, beaming with immense pride.

"Great!" I cry out, making sure to emphasize the excitement in my voice. "Let's try it again." What started out as a short-term gig to save up money during my freshman year has evolved into something much more. When I teach piano, I’m a multitasker. I studiously observe my four students, absorbing every Detail of their behavior and musical improvement. I pinpoint the areas in which they have difficulty, where they shine, and learn the nuances of their idiosyncrasies. I adapt my own teaching to their individual learning styles.

The Beauty of Teaching Music

Take, for instance, Alma. She struggles to maintain her focus as she goes off on tangents about Studio Ghibli and complains about learning new songs. I calmly concoct strategies for making piano engaging. Over time, I’ve learned that in order to keep a grasp on her Attention span, I must strike a balance between encouraging her own creativity and reeling her back into the heavy work of learning music. Thus, I alternate between having her write her own songs to mesh her love for composition and improvisation with reading notes and pushing her to learn new pieces.

For Kylie, the challenge is conveying rhythm. Despite her remarkable ability to learn music by heart, she struggles to perceive the differences between Patterns of sound. After discovering her knack for numbers, I decided to approach music through a mathematical lens, explaining note length in terms of fractions and drawing diagrams to elucidate the concept of a musical measure. Gradually, I've helped her incorporate these concepts into her playing, synthesizing the numerical elements with melodic ones to form songs.

And with Emmy, the difficulty comes in forging a trusting relationship in which she can communicate her needs. Although she's amazing at sight-reading and immensely dedicated to practicing, she often has trouble expressing when she doesn't understand something. After realizing this, I began to take note of her various facial cues and eventually started recognizing which ones indicate confusion. Furthermore, I've drifted our conversation towards topics beyond piano – from recounting a joke about pasta to sharing about my social insecurities that have arisen after I experienced a falling out with my best friend. Connecting with her on a deeper level, as she's grown more comfortable with communication, my capacity to help her through clapping rhythms or repeating measures of a song in a circuit has greatly expanded.

As I teach and explore how music interacts with each student's distinct mind, I Deepen my own musical awareness and fuel my Curiosity. In creating new avenues to reach understanding, I develop my ability to identify someone's needs and modify my actions to accommodate them. Every one of my students is fascinatingly unique, yet that's the beauty of teaching music – seeing each difference not as a barrier but as an opportunity for me to learn.

(Word Count: 895)