Dear College Admissions Board,

I hope all is well. I’m very excited to be applying to your institution, and would be honored to join your future class of 2023. I am confident I will bring a lot to campus not only in terms academics, but also activism, leadership, and impact. I hope you are impressed by not only the resume I have been cultivating since sixth grade, but also the academic achievements fueled by many late nights slaving over textbooks. Perchance the admissions essays, which I'm sure seamlessly weave together my three great loves of liberal politics, Judaism and pun humor, or my letters of recommendation written by people potentially more impressive than I will ever be, strike you as reasons to admit me. Still, I want to take this moment to explain to you what else I can provide to your school.

Education has always been of value to me and my family. It is because of this that I have worked so hard to maintain a pretty good GPA and a highly rigorous extracurricular schedule. Still, I feel that some of my best qualities are ones I can’t express to you on a resume, and quite frankly, are ones I’m not going to waste time tell you about on a real admissions essay. Thus, I stand here before you to seize this moment to share what other qualities I can offer to on campus.

I am a really good friend. I’ve rarely thought about it before, but upon reflection it does strike me as one of my qualities. I’ve been really lucky throughout my life, and tragedy hasn’t targeted me. Still, a blanket statement saying all of my friends have been so fortunate would be nothing short of an outright myth. While I am in no position today to attempt to convince that being a bystander to tragedy is in any way comparable to true struggle, it does take a certain set of skills to reassure and comfort someone in a time of need. College is a stressful time. The sudden surge of independence combined with the uncertainty of the increasingly imminent future can create a taxing environment. I am confident I have the skills to help not only myself, but fellow students cope. I’m unsure how many other students can say the same.

I’m also highly driven. I know that many other students would say the same of themselves, and I’m sure that's true, but I feel that universities make many assumptions about drive in the admissions process. I am aware that to a certain extent, academic performance can quantify drive, but in other ways it doesn’t. There are kids with 4.0 GPA's and perfect extracurriculars who have tutors do their homework and never show up to practice. Drive can be better understood in the truth of someone's character than the number of clubs they commit to. The drive to make everything you participate in the best, and make sure other people are in a position to succeed as well as yourself, it's what best exemplifies drive, and I can ensure you I have plenty of it.

Additionally, I have plenty of compassion. I never shy away from helping someone who needs help, whether or not I know them, or whether they are near or far. You want your campus to be a place people enjoy living. I can promise I will add to that atmosphere.

People put a lot of pressure on the college admissions process. They talk about grades, clubs, teams, service hours, and a plethora of other criteria that in the end, provide a shallow and incomplete portrait of a student. I’m not sure if there’s a better way to do it. Still, I present to you several reasons I can enhance your campus that you might not have been able to derive from a transcript.

Additionally, there are many non-academic qualities that draw students to specific universities. I'm sure your school offers a stellar writing program, an urban campus and small class sizes, as those are qualities important to me as an applicant. As an organization, your institution has boundless outlets to share the morals and ethics that make your school great outside of the classroom. It seems only fair I offer the same.

I look forward to introducing myself, perhaps a bit more formally, in three years.

Thank you,

Sydney Eden Gold