Segregation in Relationships - Harvard - College application essay help course
Hometown: Skopje, Macedonia
High School: Private school, 78 students in graduating class
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Female
GPA: 11.7 out of 12.0
SAT: Reading 690, Math 730, Writing 710
ACT: n/a
SAT Subject Tests Taken: Mathematics Level 1, Biology E/M, World History
Extracurriculars: Student council senior president; president of the General Assembly of Model European Parliament; president of Peace Corps GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) Club; debate team; teacher for Roma community
Awards: Valedictorian; Student of the Department for French, English, and History; first team placement on National Debate Championship; Head of Delegation at International Model European Parliament, first place
Major: Neurobiology
College application essay help course
The Vardar River carves its crooked way along the bisection of my hometown Skopje. Even though it might seem as if Vardar is just a body of water, to the citizens of Skopje it carries much greater social implications. Namely, the southern side of the river is populated predominantly by Christian and ethnic Macedonians, whereas the northern side is the Muslim and ethnic Albanian, Bosnian, Turkish and Roma side. Segregation has never been a policy explicitly institutionalized; however, especially after the large influx of refugees from the Bosnian and Kosovo Wars, it has been ubiquitously embraced by the citizens of Skopje. Apart from the prejudice that undoubtedly sur- rounds religious and linguistic differences, the people of Skopje are spatially bifurcated by their ethnic disparities. I am Macedonian, and have always lived in the Macedonian part of the city. Yet, I could never help but wonder what kind of a life there is on this Other side (in my eyes a ‘hinterland’), and why there is an Other side in the first place.
Clearly, I was thrilled at the opportunity to explore the issue of de facto segregation at my TASP seminar “Race and the Limits of Law in America” at Cornell University. As my final project, I was assigned the task of researching and analyzing a case from U.S history that has markedly affected social perception of race in America. Since the politics of pure racial and spatial categorization were, for me, the most compelling and relatable aspect of U.S. racial history, I decided to produce a research response on the case of Loving v. Virginia (1967). Having in mind the case’s broader social context (for instance, its proximity to Brown v. Board of Education and the Civil Rights Movement), I looked at interracial marriage as an extension to segregation—that is, a segregation of the private sphere. For me, a possible law student, it was quite exciting to see how American precedent law gives such weight to each court decision, and automatically a great deal of responsibility to the justices. Even today, the precedent of the Loving v. Virginia ruling is important in constructing the legal argument in favor of same-sex marriages.
Apart from looking at what law could do to regulate social and intimate relationships between individuals, I also examined what law could not do to dictate their patterns. Although from a legal point of view the court ruling in favor of the interracial marriage was a remarkable historical shift, the stigma surrounding these marriages took years, even decades, to wane. Thus, it is clear that more complex psychosocial phenomena were taking place. In that sense, what especially beheld my interest was the psychological analysis of the white perceptual field that, even after desegregation, continued to necessitate an acute line of demarcation between the races. A happy, con- sensual and Loving marriage between a black woman and a white man was assuredly novel and distressing to the conservative white eye. Here, I could easily draw a parallel between American and Macedonian society: in both, the privileged majority wishes to erase the racial (or ethnic) Other that disturbs their visual field. This perceptual disturbance is not necessarily intentional, yet the active and conscious removal of the foreign stimulus is what promotes spatial discrimination and segregation. I, probably one of the most tolerant Macedonians spending my days in the Macedonian part of the city, am not so used to communicating with Albanians, nor do I understand their language. Even though we share the same country, our ever-growing physical and cultural distance makes them strangers in my eyes. Indubitably so, this analysis helped me see that the more we, the Macedonian Christian and Albanian Muslim communities, isolate each other, the more simply we are disturbed by each other’s presence. And as the gap between the two almost parallel communities widens, segregation will continuously pervade interreligious and interethnic relationships and marriages that are still overwhelmingly scorned by mainstream Macedonian society.
Frankly, I found my TASP research project significant in that it allowed me to maneuver the legal and social aspects of a court case, while still letting me incorporate hints of my own individuality every now and then. Between reading analytical materials and writing the paper, I simultaneously deconstructed both the very American and the very Macedonian issues of any and all sorts of segregation: historically different, yet also strikingly similar. Hence I was, even for just two weeks of my high school career, a prolific and passionate student of comparative law and sociology.
REVIEW
This essay immediately captivates the reader by introducing the reader to Kristina’s hometown: Skopje. Rather than presenting a litany of facts, the writer weaves history with her own more personal thoughts, creating a more intimate narrative. Importantly, the last sentence of the introduction presents the crux of the essay: the author’s thoughts on what life on “the other side” is like. A great essay should be more than just an interesting story. It must have clear organization, and the author cleverly links her own personal story with a broader purpose.
Rather than dryly reciting her academic credentials, Kristina details the reasons behind her academic endeavors. She explains what most excites her academically and hints at a possible academic career. Kristina aptly juxtaposes her past academic history with her current scholarly ambitions.
While the essay is undoubtedly strong, the author could have written a stronger conclusion. The last paragraph is somewhat repetitive, and fails to “show rather than tell.” In the last sentence, Kristina exclaims that she is “a prolific and passionate student of comparative law and sociology”—a repetitive statement that is already evident in the paragraphs above. Perhaps concluding with an open-ended inquiry, or by mirroring the introduction’s broader focus would have made for a more engaging ending. However, these potential improvements are minor—and fail to detract from Kristina’s efforts to clearly show her intellectual curiosity.
From 50 Successful Harvard Application Essays, 5th Edition edited by the Staff of the Harvard Crimson. Copyright (c) 2017 by the authors and reprinted by permission of St. Martin's Publishing Group.
