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Brody's Guide to the College Admissions Essay
Brody's Guide to the College Admissions Essay is available at bookstores and at online retailers such as Amazon.com. The book was written by a college counselor and writer who has appeared on national television to discuss admissions-related issues, and a dean of law school admissions at a major university. It has been used in high schools and in after-school programs.
For those students who would benefit from professional help with their college admissions essays, we recommend EssayEdge.com, which has been praised by the Washington Post and the New York Times.
Essay #2
My mother grew up on a farm, the daughter of a German-Swiss father and American-Swiss mother. My father immigrated to the United States from Cuba following the Communist revolution. Like all who grow up on farms, my mother has come to the belief that a teenage boy can do nothing better during the summer than toil away on a farm.
As such, the summer after my freshman year and each summer since, I have worked at Terry’s Berries, a local organic farm.
It started out as a part-time job. I would work from eight in the morning until noon, then go home for lunch. Terry soon asked me to work a bit later and a bit later. Soon, seven became a better hour than eight. By the end of my first summer, I was working seven to four, Monday through Friday. Work I did.
The conversations with the other workers are among the greatest pleasures I have had. Each year, a new group of men would arrive, mostly Guatemalan or Mexican. I value what I have learned from them. Julio, for instance, showed me how to weed without ruining my back, and Manuel explained why I should always vote for Democrats.
Every summer, inevitably, I would be asked about my future. What did I plan to do? I always dreaded this question because I would hate to isolate myself by mentioning college or some profession I wished to pursue. “No sé.” I don’t know, I would answer. “Ve a la universidad,” José would say. “Este es el alternativo.” This is the alternative to the university, he said, gesturing to the fields.
It is not that there is no virtue in farming. Holly, another worker on the farm and a college graduate, views her work as fulfilling, and therefore has chosen farming as her way of life. But she made the choice to farm. José and his compatriots have been limited by circumstance, and so appreciate the choices afforded by education.
I hope José’s words will always stick with me. They are a moving testament to the power of academic excellence. Beyond those professional inspirational speakers, the chats with my counselor and my parents’ advice, José’s simplicity has had the most profound effect on me. College gives me a choice in life, and a college of Harvard’s magnitude gives me the most choices. Harvard fulfills my highest expectations of higher education, and I believe that my attendance there will satisfy José’s mandate.
This author was also admitted to Harvard, but with a much different approach to the essay. While the first essay is intellectual and introspective, this applicant—the son of a Cuban immigrant—writes a much simpler story about working on a farm and what he learned during his time there.
The impressive aspect of this essay is that the applicant took a tough summer job that some would find tedious and apparently turned it into a tremendous learning experience. He understands how important his opportunities have been, and is grateful for the wisdom imparted to him by those less fortunate.
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