Here is the UPenn creative question this year - "You have just completed your 300 page autobiography. Please send us page 217"
Chapter 12 A Dream Repeated June 12th, 2032
Just like most Monday mornings, my alarm went off at 6:30 am. At first, I wanted to smack the snooze button and roll back over, forgetting all the clients I had that day. But then I remembered - this wasn't an ordinary Monday morning. Today, I was returning to Botswana to work with patients in need of psychiatric attention, but could not afford it. I had been one of the dew selected of the few psychiatrists at The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, one of the first psychiatric hospitals in America, to travel to Botswana and join the undergraduate students from the University of Pennsylvania as they begin to start their own careers in social work. As an UPenn alumnus, I had been on this same trip myself, and I was so excited to continue the work I'd started almost 20 years earlier.
Back when I was a student at the University of Pennsylvania, I had only begun to imagine where my life would go. I arrived on campus only with the certainty that my passions lay in psychology and community service. How I was going to combine the two, I didn't know. But by the end of my freshman year, I already had my major selected and study abroad trips in mind. My incredible professors and advisors helped me focus my skills and desires into the most appropriate major for me - Abnormal Psychology. I had been interested in psychological disorders since I had taken IB Psychology class my junior year at the American School of Paris, and had completed independent studies and research papers on the subject throughout the following two years of high school. My particular interest was in schizophrenia, so upon arriving at UPenn I immediately began asking about the research opportunities available to me. Soon thereafter, my Undergraduate Studies Director Dr. Sharon Thompson suggested the Penn-Botswana Partnership. There, she said, I could research the development of psychological disorders like schizophrenia, as well as investigate possible treatments when modern medicine is not always an option. I couldn't believe I was being offered this opportunity at only 19 years old! So, the summer of my sophomore year, I set off to Gaborone, Botswana. Although this would be my second trip to Africa for community service, (after I volunteered in Ghana when I was 16 - Chapter 9) my nerves were still raging when the plane landed at Sir Seretse Khama International Airport. Not only was I going to be able to be a part of the top study abroad program at one of the nation's leading colleges, but I was going to be doing hands-on psychological work I had not dreamt possible until I was well into my career! I could not have been more excited.
After returning back to Philadelphia, I could still feel the effects of my experiences on me. After having seen the full extent of psychological illness and the dire need for more research, I returned to UPenn more determined than ever. I went straight to my academic advisor and decided to become a Double Major, adding Developmental Psychology to my course list. The people I met in Botswana, especially the children, had such an unforgettable effect on me that I felt a new passion running through my blood. My dream of being a psychiatrist was so intensified now that I worked even harder in my classes until I was elected to the Honors Program, became a leader in the research project for treatments for schizophrenia, and even started a club for international students to discuss the psychology of their lives, their countries, and the commonalities through them all. Now at age 40, I am full time doctor at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and I have clients from around the world with a range of psychological illnesses. My specialty is child-diagnosis, and I spend most of my lunch breaks playing with the children in their ward of the hospital. In fact, I asked each of them to make a card for the children in Botswana I was going to work with who were just like them.
Finally, I climbed out of bed and started to get ready for my flight. The memories of my previous trip to Botswana, my great college years at the University of Pennsylvania, and my career thereafter filled my mind, and I found myself as ecstatic as I was when I was nineteen. I was about to go to Africa, one of the most beautiful continents in the world, to use my passionate knowledge in psychology to aid impoverished children who desperately needed my help, and I simply couldn't wait. But just as I finished checking my bags and was about to leave, suddenly
*the cliffhanger is intended, as i figured in most books, each page doesnt end with a complete sentence
*while this is supposed to be timed at about age 40 (considering i would write the autobiography at age 60 or so) i decided to place myself in a career already, while still remembering my time at UPenn.Is there anything else i should add to enhance this idea?
it's a really creative essay and focuses a lot on the reasons why you wanna go to UPenn, but... take it or not, I'm not sure that's what the admins want.
if you read the essay written by the president of the school, you'll realize that she talks about her past accomplishments, and I really believe that it's what the school want. what have you done so far?
in this essay, you talk about your major and your plans for the future, but not really on who you were. In the main essay, the school already asks you what part of UPenn interests you, so I think that this prompt really wants to learn about your past and your most outstanding accomplishments, or challenge that had been overcome
i get this is an optional essay, so i guess...it really doesn't matter. it's up to you to decide whether the admin will take your interpretation as helpful to your profile, or not.
Today, I was returning to Botswana to work with patients in need of who needed psychiatric attention bu t could not afford it. ---> good start!!
Now, at age 40, I am full-time doctor at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and I have clients from around the world with a range of psychological illnesses conditions.
Well done! You approached this in a good way; I like the idea of doing back-story in para #2
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