Hello, I'm applying to UT Austin as a transfer student and am looking for some help on my essay, as I'm not the best with grammar or punctuation. Also, any critiques on the direction of my essay or anything you think will help in general, really is appreciated! The prompt itself, is kind of broad so I did my best to let them in on who I am as a person. Should I put more emphasis on anything, less emphasis on something? Just let me know! Thanks in advance!! :)
also, the format is kind of weird on here but rest assured I'll fix it!
Statement of Purpose
What do you want to be when you grow up? The age old question, we've all heard at one point (or several points) in our lives. This question, at a glance, seemingly simple, holds much more importance when it's no longer used amid small talk, and you're no longer in grade school. No, the question weighs much, much, heavier when you're on the cusp of adulthood, with a wide open road ahead of you, and the one asking the question is no longer your parents, friends, or teachers, but yourself. I wish I could say that I was the type of person who had always known exactly what I wanted to do with my future ever since I was a little girl. The kind that knew what I'd be great at and whose foot steps to follow, from my tender elementary school days.
In reality, that could not be further from the truth. Growing up, my interests were all over the place, never focusing on only one thing. My answer to "what do you want to be?" varied with the day of the week. I wasn't unmotivated or careless about what my future held; it just boggled me that anyone could choose just one thing to do for the rest of their life. Throughout my high school career, I committed myself to various extra-curricular activities that reflected my wide range of interests. These included anything from being the AFJROTC ground force orienteering commander, participating in the Architectural Engineering Construction (ACE) mentorship program, or even becoming my School newspapers comic artist. Being the curious person I that am, I wanted to try everything.
Naturally, as time passed by, and college, scholarships, and majors, became an everyday topic in my life, I felt more and more pressure to focus on choosing what major I wanted to pursue. It felt like our school counselors were getting us all packed up and ready for some huge road trip to our future and while all my peers had their GPS navigators all set to arrive at their destination, I had a flimsy map and a broken compass. If I was certain about anything, it was that I wanted to get started on my college education right after high school, whether I was sure about my major or not. When the time came, I made the decision to apply to UTSAs architectural program and was accepted. At the time, architecture seemed like it could be a fine fit for someone like me. I liked drawing, and designing, and had always been interested in environmentally friendly structures. While UTSA was not my first choice school, I felt staying in town for my first year would help me financially in the long run while easing me into the college experience. I was finally beginning to experience a sense of security that came along with deciding what do with my future.
The UTSA College of Architecture orientation days were a lot of fun, and allowed me the opportunity to meet a lot of great people, but tried as I might to convince myself that I knew where I was headed, I didn't feel like I was in the right place. After all of the briefings and information about the architectural field, talking to the professors and students, and after hours and hours of staying up late at night mulling it over in my head, I decided that architecture was a great major, but it was not a great major for me. Soon after talking it over with my advisor, I left her office as an undeclared student. Hanging my head in shame, I felt like I was back at square one. I was embarrassed to answer "What do you want to be?" with "I'm..uh, I don't kno- I'm undeclared." What were people going to think? That I'm apathetic? Or unambitious? I knew in my heart that I was nowhere close to those things, so why was I so lost?
Like anything worth waiting for, the answer didn't come to me overnight. My first semester of college as an undeclared student, who commuted from home to save money, I didn't feel a sense of belonging to my university. Being in a new environment for the first time, my classes were challenging and often times, interesting but after already making the mistake of choosing the wrong major, I knew that something was missing.
It wasn't until my second semester, when I enrolled in my first Geology course, that I discovered a field that really caught my attention and appealed to the curious nature I've had since I was a child. There was something so fascinating about learning about the earth and its history, so vast and unknown yet something that not many people actually take the time to learn about or appreciate. I learned that The field of geology is so expansive, branching out to so many areas of study that I didn't feel confined to learning about one thing. Taking this class, I found something that none of my other classes gave me, something I didn't even know I had been searching for until now, passion. I researched the field, and came across UT Austin's Jackson school of geological sciences, knowing right away that it was the perfect place to grow my new found passion and learn from the best.
To my dismay, even after finally finding a field I truly want to pursue, I began to catch myself with doubts, chalking my decision up to just another potentially wrong turn. And as easy as it could have been to fall back into that mindset, I quickly put those thoughts to rest for good in order to realize something more important. I shouldn't have to worry about always choosing the wrong path. Even though the question seems daunting, underneath it all, the answer to "What do you want to be?" was always very simple, I do know what I want to be when I grow up. I want to be passionate, educated and successful, and I know that UT Austin can help get me there. That is something I'm sure of!
Thomas Edison's famous words, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work" have helped me realize that choosing and deciding against architecture was not an entirely bad thing. Just like Edison, I'd found something that doesn't work for me and that's okay. I'm going to make a few wrong turns in life, but if I'm too afraid to make any turns then I will get nowhere and learn nothing. Luckily for me, it didn't take 10,000 attempts to get it right! Though it definitely didn't feel like it at the time, changing my major to undeclared ended up being one of the best things I could have done for myself because it led me to something worth waiting for, geology as a subject I love, a new sense of purpose, new goals to reach and an understanding of what it means to learn from my mistakes.
This fall, I want the chance to demonstrate my new understandings, and continue to grow as student and person while attending the best university in Texas, UT Austin. Granted the opportunity to study at the renown Jackson School of Geological Sciences, I'll already be able to scratch one thing off my new and improved list of what I want to be: a longhorn.
I know it seems kind of lengthy, but Its really only about a page and a half..maybe a little bit more. Anyways, If it really does need to be condensed, I can try and shorten it, otherwise I think everything I put in there was pretty useful to prove my point.
