Prompt
In an effort to understand your interests and aspirations for college, we ask you to select one of the three topics below and provide a response
of up to 250 words. Please include your name, birth date, and your topic choice at the top of the page.
Bowdoin students and alumni often cite world-class faculty and opportunities for intellectual engagement, the College's commitment to the
Common Good, and the special quality of life on the coast of Maine as important aspects of the Bowdoin experience.
Reflecting on your own interests and experiences, please comment on one of the following:
1. Intellectual engagement
2. The Common Good
3. Connection to place
I think generally a supplemental essay aims to understand why we want to attend a certain college, so I wrote my Bowdoin supplemental essay like this. Please give me some comments. Thank you a lot.
Poverty! I have seen it. It subtly appears in the sweaty smell of manual workers in my hometown. It is painted in the messy and dirty clothes children in my old primary school wear. And it lies in the dark complexions of diligent farmers under the burning sunshine.
I have grown up in a place like that, where life is hard and people have to labor for an austere living. Although in every conversation I have attended, the word "poverty" rarely occurred, I can still see deep in people's eyes a restless hope of having a better life. Such hope has so far built up on me a desire to change my own life and to change the world. But unfortunately, it does not show me where to start. Being a billionaire? Maybe...
I used to think that changing the world is just the concern of someone like Bill Gates. But as I learnt about Bowdoin and the common good, I realized "someone like Bill Gates" is not the only one who could make life better.
At Bowdoin, there is the Common Good day held in a yearly basis. There are passionate professors and incredible Dining Service Staff who tirelessly contribute to a better life. And there is a long-lasting commitment to the common good launched by Joseph McKeen two centuries ago.
When people plant a tree, the Earth becomes greener and when volunteers tutor a kid, they are potentially sowing the seeds of a talent. I do not know whether in the future, I can be as influential as Dan Hanley or Franklin Pierce or not, but I know that at Bowdoin, I do not need to be a super hero if I want to save the world.
