미국 대학 입학 에세이 사례

01 Sep 2018

“미국 대학 입학 에세이 잘 쓰는 법”에서 미국 대학 입학에 필요한 에세이 작성법을 언급했지만, 많은 학생들이 구체적인 사례가 있으면 좋겠다는 의견을 표명했습니다. 학생들의 에세이 작성에 도움이 될 수 있도록 일반적인 자기 소개 에세이와 전공 선택 에세이 사례를 소개합니다.

먼저 아래에 소개하는 일반적인 자기 소개 에세이는 838단어이기 때문에, 현재 공동 지원(Common Application)에서 요구하는 에세이 분량인 600단어를 초과합니다. 읽어보고 불필요한 238단어를 제거하는 연습을 해보기 바랍니다.

It might have been intellectual vanity. What has motivated my study of classical Greek and Latin is still a mystery. When I entered the high school, I met Dr. Chung, an excellent English teacher, who has explained the English vocabulary and syntax on the grounds of those of Latin and classical Greek. His approach to the text was very rigorous, but very interesting and enlightening. His demands for the class was so exacting that often I had to stay up half the night to finish the English class homework. As time goes by, I was enthralled by the desire to learn the ancient but obsolete languages. At the end of the semester, I persuaded my friends to organize a study club and begged the English teacher to teach us the ancient languages.

During the entire summer of the year, I read only two books, the primers of Latin and classical Greek. Every sentence in Latin and classical Greek was a labyrinth at the first glance. However, it was remarkably amazing that I was able to catch the clue depending on which I could escape from the absolute maze, as I had read the basic sections of grammar and was accustomed to the vocabulary. Even if at least once in each session I stood in front of the cliff of Latin and classical Greek that was thought for me not to be able to climb, I did not manage to tumble down. Even as the desperation devastated my deprived mind, the whispers to urge me to go on came in from the old sentences. Anyhow, I finished going through the elementary course of the headache-inducing languages.

It should have been natural that we all run away from the brain-harassed work. Instead we chose to study AP Latin and read Xenophon, a Greek general and writer. For all the complex conjugations of verbs and the various usages of the moods are still distant from anything comfortable, I could read the classical texts with the aid of Perseus Project which provides users with the possible morphological analysis for every word on the text online. Alas, the internet study tool is not perfect. From time to time it introduces me to another labyrinth, where I am bound to ransack the entire primers and tables of declension and conjugation again. Furthermore, I should have to devote all my Saturday just to read one page of Julius Caesar, and one page of Xenophon also should require all the Sunday.

Even after I recited part of Virgil for the Poetry Night in my high school, I could not seize on what means the study of the languages that are now forgotten and nobody speaks. It is said that the study of classical languages helps broaden English vocabulary and the horizon of mind. However, this achievement could not be hit on by the elementary level of study. I have trudged so far through the burden of English vocabulary and the myopic and illogical thinking. Nonetheless, some small might has certainly driven me not to quit the study of the ancient languages. What is this? Of course, it is not the Socratic question. It is rather the beginning of love through the little punctum.

We could not see all the aspects of a person, but still fall in love at first sight or make life-long friendship. What makes us to risk doing such rash and foolhardy behaviors may be the odd illusion that we could know the person from head to toes. We could sometimes see the brilliant portion in somebody’s mind through the little punctum that she or he reveals unwittingly. This self-fabricated but great mistake urges humans to understand and trust in the person in any events. Supposedly, I might have heard ancient souls whisper through the punctum of the classical sentences. Even though their mummer is not clear what it means, I love to hear their sweet nothings and ponder what they wished to communicate: the love of money and wisdom, the merit of aristocracy and the limit of democracy, the good and noble behavior, and the truth of the world.

Spending the whole weekend on two pages of the ancient text, I come back to the modern world on Monday. In the morning, I wake up and am ready to listen to the people who speak the same language. The ancient authors, however, also revive in the morning and speak to me not to accept the modern language superficially and to strive to mine the true mind below it. I would always welcome their interventions and hear both of the voices. Even though they did not use the Internet and believe in the supremacy of democratic polity, their advice is beneficial in almost all the aspects of life. The work to find the true mind begins with the language of from my parents, through my teachers and friends, to all walks of life. I would never cease to delve into the true mind of the text I read and the person I meet.

다음으로 전공 선택 에세이는 250단어 이내로 작성해야 하고, 아래의 사례는 246단어입니다.

My mother told the Creation to me in her womb. Although I was not a zealot, the created lives and world was too innate to doubt. I have been taught all the physical and biochemical theories as God’s prior planning. In the realm of Deism, science and religion could coexist peacefully. However, the book of “The Origin of Species” has changed all my views of lives and universe. I could see through the entire history of lives on earth with natural, sexual and kin selections of Charles Darwin, and evolutionary psychology of David Buss has provided me with an enlightening insight into human nature.

Despite his powerful narration, Charles Darwin could not make the origin of life clear. Where does life come from? If we held fast to biogenesis, life might have come from aliens on other planets. Even though I love these enticing myths, I will follow after more rigorous scientific research of cooperative phenomenon and emergence. As complexity of a certain system increases, new properties emerge with the cooperation of its components. The emerging new entity is totally novel and different from the earlier system. If the mathematical principle of emergence or the mathematics of turbulence were discovered, the emergence of life might be described. This description might also reveal the secret of the one-round forming of surface chemical states and be used in tailored medicine. I am zealous to take part in these endeavors encompassing biochemistry and physics and crossing theology and philosophy.