College Essay Examples

Natalie Kaplan
AP English
Unit 1/ Lesson 8
Ms. Smith
9/12/14

College Essay
Essay topic: “If you were to describe yourself by a quotation, what would the quote be? Explain your answer.” I’ve always wondered how people see themselves when it comes to what they are and what they aren’t good at. Most, I’ve deduced, feel that when they have a certain weakness, they find it hard to overcome it. However, one can rise above one’s weakness if one believes in oneself enough. Anuj Somany states: “One who sees the weakness of his strength can also leverage the strength of his weakness, readily, to his advantage.” This is a valuable saying because it imparts great wisdom and truth. I have found that many of my strengths come from my weaknesses. My hard work and dogged persistence brought me to a stage in life where I believe in my abilities. One person could sit and sulk about their dilemmas while another could get up and continue on till he/she finds his/her inner strength.

This occurrence happened when I was in my freshman year of high school. Back then, I was just starting to find myself and also my weaknesses. Although there were various times when I felt proud of myself such as standing up for my friend Hope when she was being bullied, I felt ashamed when it came to my slowness in school subjects such as in math and science. Since elementary school, I’ve struggled to comprehend rudimentary skills such as basic geometry and math principles. For instance, in Physical Science I managed to keep my head just above the water, although I wasn’t fooling anyone. Each day I would compare myself to fellow classmates who easily understood how to weigh and calculate the mass of an object on a triple beam balance scale or labs, for