50 Successful Ivy League Application Essays

The Process of Writing
“I learned I’m not really good at time management. It’s a great process. I 
really recommend for people in Egypt to apply to colleges in the U.S. because 

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Chapter 23: What I Learned from Writing the Essay
of the process of writing your essays. There’s a lot of self discovery. You want 
to tell people who you are, what you want, and what you like.”
—Anonymous, MIT
Cherishing High School Experiences
“I learned a lot about myself after writing my personal statement. I had 
never really thought about the many diverse experiences I had participated 
in and at the moment did not realize how they affected my ways of thinking. 
I definitely cherish my high school experience a lot more after writing my 
essay.”
—Angelica, University of Chicago
Tying Activities to the Future
“I learned a lot about myself from writing my admissions essay. I spent some 
time thinking about what experiences were important and relevant to what I 
want to pursue later in life. This made me realize how important my extracur-
ricular involvement was when it came to writing an essay for admission.”
—Cameron McConkey, Cornell University