Wesleyan University

Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what lessons did you learn? Please write an essay (250-650 words) on the topic selected. You can type directly into the box, or you can paste text from another source. My fingers pirouetted up and down the fingerboard, spiraling faster … Read more The Synergy of Music

Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you. One hundred sixty-two days ago I was counting the days I had left to live. “Impression: Large right ovarian mass with cystic appearance periphery and solid tumor in the center…” I trembled as I heard … Read more Joy

Please write a personal statement. Please write a personal statement.The day Kurt Vonnegut died my friend Becca called me crying. “So it goes,” I said, and we chuckled in spite of our sadness. We had become devotees of Vonnegut since our introduction to Cat’s Cradle two years ago, and had long talked about holding an … Read more Nice, Nice, Very Nice

In his autobiography A Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela writes, “There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.” Write about an unchanging place to which you have returned. Explain how you have changed, and what you discovered about yourself. As I … Read more Homecoming

Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence. When my younger brother, James, was five years old, Jack Nierman bit him while they were playing in our favorite playground. I was sitting atop the monkey bars when I saw it happen. I swung down and pushed Jack away, … Read more Sticks and Stones

Discuss some issue of personal concern, and its importance to you. Fairness is a quality that I try hard to embody, and I admire those who demonstrate the impartiality necessary to be just. But people often mistake impartiality as the defining characteristic of someone who is fair. Empathy is more essential because it is necessary … Read more Fairness and Justice

Write a personal narrative about an event that changed you. I watched in admiration as the gentleman in front of me hoisted my fifty-three pound backpack onto his head and began nonchalantly hiking over jagged rock, leading me through the village of Dogbadzi, Togo, where I would live for the next two weeks. The rest … Read more Finding the Woman In a Girl

Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you. My father was born in a little village in the south of France called Le Chambon in 1944. In that village, 5,000 Christians saved 5,000 Jews, including my grandfather, my grandmother, and my father.Last summer, … Read more My Time in France

Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story. I woke up at six that morning. My mom had left an hour earlier to work her two full-time jobs. It … Read more Finding Christmas

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. I am from the “Arab Spring generation”: the generation that took the street in 2011 to fight for their dreams. I can no … Read more Building My Tunisian Dream