Support group - Yale - Free example college statement
Hometown: San Antonio, TX
Year: Sophomore
College: Benjamin Franklin
Major: Mathematics; Physics
Extracurriculars: Navy ROTC; Chaplain’s Office
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The summer before his senior year, Bryce Crawford filed into a classroom at the U.S. Naval Academy—complete with a model nuclear reactor—for a course on nuclear engineering. He had traveled a long way from his home in San Antonio, Texas, to attend the weeklong summer camp, and he listened attentively as the course instructor recalled the days he had spent as a navy submarine officer.
These stories piqued Bryce’s interest almost as much as the class itself. Back in Texas after the program was over, he began watching YouTube documentaries about submarines, and the more he learned, the more he felt his fascination deepen. “I see a submarine as a kind of spaceship underwater,” he explains. “The bottom of the ocean is a place we know very little about, and there’s a lot of military value to investing in submarines.”
When the time came to apply for college, Bryce, who was the leader of his high school’s Army Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, knew he wanted a college with a highly ranked physics department and an on-campus ROTC program. Now a member of Yale’s class of 2020, Bryce is double majoring in math and physics. He’s part of the inaugural group of students in Benjamin Franklin College who moved into the brand-new facility in the fall of 2017.
Most mornings, Bryce wakes up a few hours before his fellow classmates for Navy ROTC programming, which is usually a lecture course or physical training. But the time he spends with his fellow midshipmen is not overbearing for Bryce, who also spends time working at the Chaplain’s Office on Old Campus. As a first-year student, he was a regular visitor to the office, taking advantage of the free ice cream for students in between classes. He now works in the Breathing Space, an electronics-free zone affiliated with the Chaplain’s Office, and the Buddhist Shrine, a place where students can go to meditate on campus. In addition, Bryce walks the university chaplain’s springer spaniel, Phil, and helps run Global Grounds, a relaxed space for students to unwind in the evening on weekends.
Bryce also makes a point of exploring New Haven. He keeps a spreadsheet with all the restaurants he’s visited around New Haven and in neighboring towns and says that so far, he’s eaten at more than sixty-five different establishments. He says he tries to eat at a new place every Saturday night. Still, his best moments at Yale have been on-campus, he admits—especially nights spent watching movies with friends on the lawn chairs he keeps in his dorm room.
After graduating from Yale, Bryce will devote a minimum of five years to the navy in return for tuition. The work may be highly technical, but it also opens doors, he says. For instance, through ROTC, he’s been able to travel to India for a summer language program in the Himalayas.
“If you’re willing to spend six months a year under water, there’s a lot of benefits,” Bryce says. “It’s one of the coolest military jobs there is.”
Bryce’s essays include one of his Yale supplemental essays.
ESSAY 1 (YALE SUPPLEMENT):
Please reflect on something you would like us to know about you that we might not learn from the rest of your application, or on something about which you would like to say more.
I grew up loving superheroes. Individuals that take it upon themselves to risk their lives to help their society are definitely worth admiration. For instance, Bruce Wayne is exceptionally physically fit, a successful businessman, and has the mind of the most brilliant detective. Tony Stark is an extremely gifted engineer and entrepreneur. Peter Parker is a resourceful scientist, artist (photography is art), and family man. These are ideals I have wanted to live up to since I first watched Saturday morning cartoons. We can’t ever be exactly like them, but I want to convince the people around me that we can all be superheroes in small ways. Things as simple as a kind greeting and a helping hand can make someone else’s life a lot better.
College is like a second coming of age with a Lord of the Flies twist. The college community I want to be a part of is a group of friends that raise one another when our parents are no longer here to do it. Setting examples for one another and being heroes in each other’s lives is exactly what we’ll need if we want this to be a positive and enriching experience. I plan on being a helping hand to the people around me. In high school I’ve done that by tutoring my friends for free and participating in community service. In college I see no reason why that wouldn’t continue. My perspective is that of a community leader, one who wants people to work together to help one another past our individual shortcomings.
My chemistry teacher has been one of my favorite teachers because he never fails to teach beyond the required curriculum, including oftentimes giving us life advice. His number one item on a list of things we need to find while in college was a support group. This group would be a small group of close friends that we could count on for anything. I want the people in the environment around me to know that they can count on me when the going gets tough—that’s the person I want to be remembered as.
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.