Hometown: Charleston, WV

Year: Sophomore

College: Branford

Major: Molecular, Cellular, & Developmental Biology (MCDB)

Extracurriculars: Yale Journal of Human Rights, founder; Yale Global Medical Brigades, president

Free example college personal statement

Profile

For most high school students, their daily worries include school, family, friends and extracurriculars. But, in 2014, Drew Gupta’s hometown—Charleston, West Virginia—suffered one of the largest chemical contaminations in U.S. history.

As thousands of gallons of the industrial chemical MCHM spilled into a local water supply, many residents of Drew’s hometown were unable to drink the water for weeks. Children were especially affected, and Drew was given the entire month of January off from school.

The catastrophe inspired Drew to begin thinking about the world, and its problems, in a more serious and deliberate way. Drew has since spent his career as a student focusing on health policy and medicine. At Yale, he hopes to take advantage of the University’s five-year BA–BS/Master of Public Health program and is currently a neurobiology major on the premedical track.

“Something happened with the water crisis that made me realize, Wow, Yale is absolutely the best place for this,” Drew says.

Drew’s favorite part of Yale is its diversity of classes. While some Yale classes survey huge fields of study, he says, others go into depth on a single topic. Comparing his time at Yale to high school, he notes that the academics are “surprisingly easier” in New Haven—not because the subject matter is easier, but because he is able to take classes of genuine interest to him that do not feel boring.

But Drew’s Yale experience has not been all about classes or medicine. For him, college is primarily an opportunity to “broaden” his mind and, in his case, explore everything Yale’s New Haven campus has to offer.

With an abundance of extracurriculars to choose from, Drew has not shied away from getting deeply involved in various activities. From cofounding the Yale Journal of Human Rights to serving as president of Yale Global Medical Brigades, he finds time to balance his commitments and still hang out with his friends, including his twin brother and fellow Yale student, Arka Gupta.

“All your friends are within max a 10 to 15 minute walk away from you. To have so many peers around you . . . is just very valuable,” he said.

In fact, one of Drew’s fondest memories is the annual Yale–Harvard football game. There, he said, you get to hang out with all your closest friends and unite against “one common enemy” for a weekend full of concerts and late-night dancing.

Still, Drew says that playing the balancing game between his different engagements is not an easy task. And it is important, he adds, to also find time to relax with some time alone.
Drew’s essays include his Common App personal statement and two Yale supplemental essays.

ESSAY 1 (COMMON APP):

Personal Statement

CALL ME BILLY

Pressed against my jugular artery as I was about to drown in a puddle of my own blood, a four-inch blade was my first introduction to health disparities in Appalachia.

Earlier that morning, I had enjoyed waking up in the semi-dilapidated “hollar” of my host family to the melodious chirping of birds, the scampering of squirrels, and the shouts of laughter as kids played. Even though the cold tap water had been poisoned from forty years of coal mining, a warm feeling of acceptance emanated in Welch, West Virginia. As the day advanced, so did the thermostat, and an enormous crowd of homeless individuals gathered to escape midmorning starvation and the blazing sun. Once a center of economic prosperity, the area now embodied despair, poverty and addiction.

Volunteering to distribute donated food supplies to churchgoing residents on a Sunday morning, I wasn’t expecting much action. Nevertheless, a hunched-back man in his fifties wearing scruffy denim overalls had to make things a little interesting. He passed me a box of tomatoes to hand out. Being courteous, I responded “Thank you sir”—that’s all I had said. Unfortunately, he took it the wrong way; he preferred that I call him by his real name: Billy. My new acquaintance “Billy” then unsheathed his Swiss-army knife, tracing it against my neck.

At that moment, I feared for my life. Was I supposed to defend myself in this melee match of death, or surrender and cry for help? My jugular was one sloppy jerk away from flooding the floor with my own blood. My eyes darted toward my identical twin across the kitchen and I felt afraid not just for my life, but also his. After what seemed like hours, the man muttered, “Don’t call me sir. Call me Billy.” Moving beyond our little misunderstanding, we got to know more about each other. I told Billy some interesting tidbits about myself, like how I binge-watch Bollywood movies (at least the ones available on Netflix) or my obsession in constantly checking my Twitter feed. In contrast to my lighthearted habits, Billy revealed to me the events that have shaped his life story. Billy was raised in a humble shack with no electricity or running water and abused by a single alcoholic mother living in a county with a life expectancy at par with Haiti. He wished he could have earned his high school diploma, but had to drop out to support his mom and younger brothers by working in West Virginia’s coal mines. Billy’s situation exemplified a lack of opportunity that profoundly contradicted my prior philosophy that anyone, no matter what their circumstances, could pursue their aspirations as they saw fit. Billy felt powerless to either advance his socioeconomic class or escape from the clench of poverty. While I was taught the concept of personal ambition and individualism as a way to control one’s destiny, Billy could afford to focus on only one goal—survival.

When one suffers a lifetime of poverty, it manifests itself in the greatest inequality of all: healthcare. Billy and many others in a similar situation face disproportionate rates of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, premature teen pregnancy, substance abuse (especially opioid addiction), mental illness, suicide and the list goes on. Because of the economic situation, these folks are forced to prioritize saving a few bucks instead of their own well-being. If we as a society hope to help those who need it most, we must build a solid infrastructure for supporting social determinants of health. As an aspiring physician, I understand that healthcare is not limited to just four walls of a clinic, but to entire communities. Prescribing a pill isn’t enough in the 21st century to treat a disease; instead, we need to provide a stable job market, suitable living environment and opportunity. If the aforementioned are accomplished, then we can help my friend Billy back in Welch, WV.

ESSAY 2 (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.

Every U.S. citizen deserves the human right to access clean water—but that was violated in my hometown. In January of 2014, 4-methylcyclohexanemethanol (to make it easier, let’s abbreviate to MCHM) leaked into the Elk River and contaminated the water supply for 300,000 West Virginia residents. For weeks, one could not drink, shower, cook, clean nor wash with the water without risking the chance of nausea, vomiting, dizziness, diarrhea, reddened skin, rashes and even cancer. Despite assurances from state officials that the water was safe, everyone was skeptical because the black-licorice odor still lingered. As a trained interviewer in a community-based research initiative, I assisted in evaluating the impact of this unprecedented historical event on residents’ physical, mental and economic health. This study revealed a negative psychological impact, making me wonder: What happened inside our brains that causes us so much stress? While working on an AP Psychology assignment on neuroanatomy (a fancy term for parts of the brain), a revelation suddenly dawned upon me. Of all human senses, only smell is not routed through the sensory processing center known as the thalamus. So while smell warns us about the water, taste says otherwise and encourages us to drink to be hydrated. This psycho-physiological melee between olfaction (smell) and gustation (taste) is essentially two independent entities combating one another for dominance, the anatomical dilemma that leads to anxiety and depression.

Discovering this phenomenon, I immediately published my research in the state’s largest newspaper to educate others. I was startled to receive a call from a faculty at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (Dr. Henry Taylor) requesting my permission to utilize this hypothesis as a case study for graduate students. What started as an AP Psych assignment mixed with a dash of inquisitiveness evolved into a theory that was crucial to our state’s recovery from this federally declared disaster.

I was truly thrilled by the opportunity to contribute to the academic conversation surrounding response and resiliency, but my mind once again wondered, “Are we any better prepared for another disaster?” I wanted to do more to create an injury prevention atmosphere and so began studying the concepts of emergency preparedness in youth. With paucity of existing evidence, I realized that to engage my fellow students, I must speak their language: YouTube! So, I traveled across the world (Lake Zurich, Taj Mahal, and even Pittsburgh) to film a video on risk communication and youth preparedness encompassing cultural, language and other barriers often uncovered during emergencies. After winning a national video competition, I was invited to complete an internship at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Working with scientists on innovative and trendsetting research in youth emergency risk communication, I recently submitted my project to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While I was thrust into the field due to a disaster, I now look forward to the opportunity to continue my research endeavors and further strengthen my fundamentals in public health science.

ESSAY 3 (YALE SUPPLEMENT):
Why does Yale appeal to you?

Chatting with a Yale Student Ambassador inspired me to explore all the university has to offer. After diligent research, I discovered a gem that only Yale offers: a five-year B.A.–B.S./M.P.H. degree program. Incorporating my previous experiences of promoting health awareness in McDowell County and an internship with the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, I hope to continue my endeavors in this interdisciplinary field.

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.