College Admissions Essay: The Journey

Going through adversity is one of the toughest things anyone can do. But, feeling like you are going through it alone is a completely different animal. I’m sitting in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Chicago, and studying advertising at one of the top institutions in the country, DePaul University. Yet, despite all the effort, and years of hard work it took me to get to this moment, all I can think about is one cliché line I heard in a song awhile back, “home is where the heart is.” Years from now I know that I will be able to look back at this moment and say that I got through this tough time, and I became a better version of myself. But for now, all I can do is stay patient and keep lacing up my walking shoes.

I have high aspirations upon receiving a diploma and I feel that your school is an excellent select to reach my fullest potential. It is more to me than simply experiencing the college life as I will be the first person in my family to attend any type of college and I hope to make my supporting family proud. I come from a Spanish speaking family thus I have learned to speak English and Spanish fluently. I am honored to possess these abilities because it allows me to maneuver with ease among the various communities and also break the language barriers acting as an interpreter. Due to various factors my parents and family member were not able to finish their education to compensate for the lack of education my family proceeded through life with hard work. This hard work has been a value instilled to us through the generations. With this I have surpassed obstacles that many of my peers doubted I would ever overcome. Graduating college is another goal I will accomplish to prove many wrong.

Former baseball player Tommy Lasorda once said, “The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination.” The journey of our life is full of winding paths and concrete obstacles whose sole goal is to slow us down, and to attempt to block us from reaching our ultimate goal in life, whatever that may be. These barriers are there for several different reasons, whether it be mental or physical. Sometimes these obstacles are motivated by fear, other times they exist simply because we have to make a decision, and that decision can be life changing. But through our determination, and through our perseverance, we can achieve what these barriers told us was impossible, and can pursue the path in our life that leads us to our ultimate self. Throughout my life, I have had thousands of barriers stand in my path. And the only way I was able to defeat them was through conquering my fears, and breaking my limits in order to achieve excellence.

In December 2014, The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education published “Rethinking the Admission Process.” This article was written by Frank DiMaria, who takes a look at the research of the former president of the University of Wyoming, Robert Sternberg. DiMaria explains Sternberg’s stance against the current admissions process. Sternberg has research that depicts, “GPA, standardized tests, and essays do not successfully measure the true talent of a college applicant.” He believes that the policies need to change. Sternberg offers an alternative to the current process. Sternberg has been a part of a new admissions policy testing students not just on their memorization and analytical skills, but on their creative, practical, and wisdom-based skills as well. Sternberg’s ideas stem from his experience with disadvantaged youth and their ability to adapt and overcome obstacles. Sternberg claims that students who grow up in the upper middle class tend to have an environment which better values the analytical skills that the current tests measure. He argues that, because of this, colleges may not be getting the most creative and adaptable students. He shows that some of these less privileged students are capable of handling a college workload even though they may not have been able to score as high on the SAT or other tests. DiMaria believes that through Sternberg’s Kaleidoscope policy may be a solution. The Kaleidoscope way of admissions administers tests which ask open ended

Everyone has to make choices in their life. Some are everyday choices, like what to eat or drink. Others are more critical, like choosing a job. Important decisions take time to comprehend. Like with me, the decision to go to college was the most critical choice in my life and for my future, and I will never regret it. Going to college is important because it helps me find a job, it expands my knowledge, and it is a wonderful experience.

Every day, every one, in the world goes through a challenge, big or small. They affect and impact us significantly. They change the way we think, love, act, and approach or do things. Challenges either frighten or motivate us, but they are what make us the person we are today.

Four years ago, as a freshman in highschool, attending a liberal arts school was not important to me or my aspirations. I just knew I wanted to go to a “good” college. I did not learn what liberal arts really was until I was a senior in high school, and even then, it did not play as much of role in my college decision process as it should have. To me, it just meant do I want to learn about more subjects, or just my area of study. I had this form or thinking just one year ago, but now, as a member of a liberal arts institution, I am finding a new appreciation for the importance of a liberal arts education in my life because of the society that we live in today.

If someone asked me where I am going to be in ten years, this would be my answer. I will have a great, high-paying job, and beautiful wife and family, and a nice sports car parked in front of my lovely house. When I look into the future, I see myself being successful and happy. Even though I always pictured myself this way, I never worried too much about how I would get there. I feel the Suffolk University can lay the groundwork for making these dreams into reality.

What you see is not always what it is. We learn to perceive what we're looking at, and we get used to how things are supposed to be. I was always fascinated by the illusion pictures that at first glance is strikingly simple to guess what it is, if you give more attention to detail you see another picture in it. What inspired me the most and made me a curious person was how missing one detail can change the whole outlook of the picture – just as missing one aspect from patient’s evaluation can lead to a wrong diagnosis. This taught me the importance of thoroughness in doing anything in my life. My meticulous nature has been an incredible driving force behind who I am

The pure pleasure that comes from frivolously smashing small pots with a wooden spoon was every child’s dream. But for me I wondered, How does the sound work? When I was young, the garage door seemed like magic and I was always wondering; How does that work? That question filled me with curiosity, and to this day I want to know how everything works. I remember my dad giving me the book: The Way Things work And I was astounded because it was full of colorful, fun illustrations that explained everything from simple machines to aeronautical masterpieces. I spent hours upon hours (a long time for a kid) just looking upon the pages filled with mechanical drawings amazed like I had found Da Vinci's notebook. But even today many, many years later with most of

The city of New York is where I reside, mostly when I'm not flying around the world in my elegant, exclusive, exorbitant jet; I'd always mention with a wink. I'm living the dream. Waking up to the warmth of the sun as my alarm, the view of the alluring country from my apartment and Mr. Awares, my butler the man who dresses me... haha okay, I’m not that lazy. Where do I see myself 10 years from where I stand now? A question I could never answer until 10:03pm or was it 10:05pm? Well, who knows, I fell asleep.

Martin Luther King once said “If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, whatever you do, never stop moving”. When I first read this quote I wasn't able to comprehend it's meaning, after all I was in the third grade. One thing was clear, my admiration for his courage and tenacity to stand tall in the face of fear. That admiration transcended into my own life when I faced the departure of my father, the reality of the poverty my family lived in and my dark history with concussions.

Health, deaths, and lack of confidence. These are obstacles that I have faced in various life events. There are two options on how one can overcome these obstacles: one could try to ignore the pain while the second is to look in the direction of God. Those who choose to go down the path of pain have not experienced that way of God or may not have taken a chance to see what he can do for them. People, like me, who choose to look towards God puts their trust in God and know that he has a plan for them. When family members were dying, a health issue rose and I was lacking confidence, I looked towards verses in the bible that would help me look for the positive outcomes than the negative thoughts. I then noticed God was going to show how he speaks

We have the freedom to do what we want, be right or wrong. I believe in doing the right thing. It gives a certain feeling of achievement, to have the courage to stand up against all evil and defeat it. This is why we have our heroes.

When I was 21, my son was born and I left college; as a result, I spent the next nine years working in dead-end jobs and making excuses as to why I could not return to school. I spent the next seven years earning three English degrees. Along the way, I had many excellent professors who reignited my love of learning and my desire to teach. I secured a job teaching English at a vocational school, and discovered that there was nothing better than seeing the spark in students’ eyes when they learned a concept or skill that had never before made sense. Unfortunately, the school closed less than a year after I was hired. With such little experience, I was unable to find a full-time position at the college level. However, the dean of the Liberal Arts