50 Successful Ivy League Application Essays

Embracing the Past
“I did learn a lot about myself. When I was writing my essay for the 
Common Application, I wrote about many incidents that shaped who I was. 
I never really embraced those events until that moment. When I was writing, 
I had to sit there and really look within myself and see who I was. It was nice 
to know how my personality came about by past incidents.”
—Enrique Vazquez, University of Chicago
Reflecting on My Family
“I never really wrote about my family and my upbringing in such detail. It 
allowed me to really reflect on the uniqueness of my family and appreciate the 
values that my parents instilled in us.”
—Anne McPherson, Yale University
Being Thankful
“You know you have written a good essay if you go through a period of 
self-reflection. I learned about myself in the sense that I explored my indi-
viduality and what life meant to me at that moment. The essay forced me to 

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Chapter 23: What I Learned from Writing the Essay
count my blessings, which is something most people don’t do on a regular 
basis. I have been blessed with multiple opportunities in my life (i.e. being 
admitted to Stanford), and the essay made me realize how important it is to 
be thankful for everything in life.”
—Brian Aguado, Stanford University