"Make your passion your work, and work will become a game" That test night..(UIUC essay 1)

Prompt: Explain your interest in the major you selected. You may describe a related experience you've had to that area of study and/or your future career goals. Please limit your response to approximately 300 words.

Response: I got up from my bed having an 'after school evening nap', sweating a bit in nervousness due to my computer science practical test scheduled for the next day. I quickly gathered my laptop and powered it on. Recalling the necessary algorithms I needed to know for the test while the laptop went through self-checks. I clicked open the turbo C++ IDE and started off with the 'palindrome numbers'. Pretty easy. Armstrong number done. Stacked array done. Array List done. Linked list and linked stack done too!

Now remained the circular array and linked circular array. It left me worried and perplexed. On the contrary I also was enjoying the tease it gave me every time I tried running the program. I felt ambivalent. The errors weren't easy to spot and that intensified my determination for running the program. The clock already showed 11:15 pm. The situation started to hit my nerves. I ran the program again after a careful scan. Boom! It finally ran successfully. After reviewing all the algorithms for the last time I went to bed. While lying I felt accomplished, relieved and ready for the next day's test.

During my childhood whatever game I played, I always wanted to reach its end or its final level. This was because I loved the feel of attainment. Computers have always been intellectually stimulating yet enjoyable for me. I remember asking my father, out of curiosity, what software is? The intricacies and the build of the software would always catch my fancy...

I believe in the quote, "Make your passion your work, and work will become a game". I want to study a subject that is pleasurable and pulls me into it until I finish working upon it. I intend to major in Computer Science, for it will allow me to cater my interests and simultaneously act as a problem solver, thus allowing me to impact the citizens of this world positively.

This is an interesting response, but focus your essay more on the prompt. You focus most of the response on the "related experience" and only explain your interest in the major in the final two paragraphs. Also, you write that you want to "impact the citizens of this world positively." It's OK to be unsure about exactly what you want to do with your computer science major, but that sentence is too vague. You can speculate on areas to focus on, or you can be honest and then explain how Computer Science will bring innovation and the thrill of a challenge to any field.