Hometown: Denver, CO

Year: First-Year

College: Jonathan Edwards

Major: History

Extracurriculars: Women’s Tennis

Sample college application essay

Profile

Yale’s student athletes strike a balance between sport and schoolwork that most would find difficult to keep. But Samantha Martinelli has been wearing the hats of the classroom and the court for some time now.

Samantha, a native of Denver, Colorado, plays on the varsity tennis team at Yale. In her first year, Samantha played number 1 for the team, finished the season on the First Team All-Ivy in both singles and doubles, earned Rookie of the Year in the Ivy League and the Northeast region, and was voted Yale’s most valuable player. To her, as with so many dedicated athletes, tennis is more than just a game. The sport is not only a part of who she is, but also a source of motivation and inspiration in other spheres of her life.

What makes Samantha’s life perspective unique is not her exceptional ability as a tennis player, but “the value of hard work and perseverance in order to achieve one’s goals” that tennis taught her. The dual experience as a student athlete in the classroom and as a presence on the court strongly influenced her maturation into a young adult.

“Being a student as well as being a dedicated teammate [who] positively impacts the people I am surrounded with defines who I am,” she says.

Samantha’s high school experience involved a substantial development in her behavior and personal standards. She recounts her early years in high school as a time when she was unmotivated and lazy. In light of the person she is today, she still finds this difficult to believe.

“It wasn’t until around my sophomore year that I really dedicated myself to school and became more focused,” Samantha says.

Outside of the classroom, she spent her time sharpening her skills on the court while competing in tournaments. Attending a school like Yale with a strong academic reputation was not originally on her radar. Instead, Samantha wanted to be recruited to a reputable athletic school on a tennis scholarship. She was, in short, looking for a strong tennis team and a warm location. But after a friend of Samantha’s decided to attend Princeton, Samantha visited her and realized that she wanted to attend school on the East Coast, at an institution with strong traditions not only on the court but in the classroom.

Danielle McNamara, Yale’s women’s tennis coach, recruited Samantha toward the end of her junior year of high school. Samantha’s relationship with McNamara quickly flourished as she came to respect the coach’s approach to Yale’s tennis team. Before confirming her matriculation to Yale, however, Samantha was considering another college. She scheduled official visits to both, but visited Yale first. Once she stepped onto campus, she said that she immediately “knew Yale was the place for [her]” and committed at the end of her trip. While Samantha recalls that the college application process was stressful, she says that Yale still exceeds her expectations every day.

“The people here are so passionate and dedicated while also being kind and humble,” Samantha remarks.

At Yale, Samantha says that she has grown to appreciate learning for its own sake, rather than for a letter grade. The campus’s beauty also still stands out in her eyes. She calls Yale “one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.” Her favorite spot on campus is the library in her residential college, Jonathan Edwards. In her free time, she can be found with a friend at Vivi’s, a popular bubble tea cafe in New Haven.

Samantha’s essays include her Common App personal statement.

ESSAY 1 (COMMON APP):

Personal Statement

Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.

At thirteen years old, I was pushed headfirst into the freight train that is adulthood. At this point, I had dedicated ten years of my life to being a competitive tennis player. These years of dedication lead me to becoming a top ten player in the country. My family was elated. Being a top ten player from Denver, Colorado, was next to unheard of due to the lack of elite players and coaches in the state. My family and I knew that if I was going to continue my success and hopefully play college tennis one day, I would need to leave my childhood home and seek training elsewhere. After lengthy deliberations, we decided I would be sent to the gambling capital of the world, Las Vegas.

I arrived in Las Vegas in the autumn of 2012 a completely free agent. I was randomly placed with a host family who I had never met before who set absolutely no rules or guidelines for me to live by. For a brief time, I was living the dream. No parents and no rules to live by. I was completely independent and I couldn’t have been happier. Until the brutal reality hit; I was all alone. There was no longer anyone to hold me accountable for my choices or clean up my mistakes. Those burdens now fell on me.

My life rapidly descended into chaos. The pressures of adulthood and independence had me extremely overwhelmed. All the added stresses had my tennis suffering, the opposite of what moving to Vegas was meant to do. I became a shell of who I was, riddled with anxiety and depression. I was nothing more than a frightened child who felt abandoned and alone that couldn’t handle the growing pains that went along with growing up. As my dreams of college tennis began to crumble around me, I knew it was time to make a change. My parents had trusted me to come to Vegas and truly make something of myself. It was time to prove that that trust had not been misplaced.

Tennis and school became my whole life. I threw myself into training and studying with everything I had. I put the same dedication and heart into every aspect of my life. I cleaned my room, cooked my meals, and saw to all my responsibilities. With these efforts, my depression was lightened until it finally disappeared. My tennis followed and began to get better and better, eventually leading me to the number two ranking in the country and two national titles.

During this transitional time, I learned valuable lessons about adulthood. Having independence is a privilege and this privilege must not be taken lightly. In this time, I learned I owe it to myself to give every aspect of my life the attention and dedication it requires in order to succeed.

From 50 Yale Admission Success Stories: And the Essay That Made Them Happen, edited by the Yale Daily News Staff. Copyright © 2020 by the authors
and reprinted by permission of St. Martin's Publishing Group.