College Essays
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Samples of Successful College Essays

This page features some of the sample college essays available within Inline, from Common App essays to college supplemental essays and short answers. Take a look to see the wide range of excellent essays that top schools are used to seeing, and get inspiration for your own application!

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A Few of My Favorite Things

University of Chicago
Essay
Amidst the piles of Elle and Entertainment Weekly that sit atop my coffee table, the one subscription that I always read backwards and forwards is Reader’s Digest.
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A Poetic Submission

Vassar College
Other
Where I'm From*I am from shin guards from Tide and OxiClean.
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A Room of My Own

Tufts University
2-3 Paragraph Short Answer
5:51am. I hear the alarm go off. I open my eyes, turn on the lights, and see the mural that has been on my wall ever since I was born. My oldest sister, Betsy, picks flowers while my middle sister Jenny swings and I host a tea party in the elaborate garden.
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A Tutorial with Marissa Mayer

Williams College
Essay
At Williams we believe that bringing together students and professors in small groups produces extraordinary academic outcomes. Our distinctive Oxford-style tutorial classes—in which two students are guided by a professor in deep exploration of a single topic—are a prime example
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A Walk in the Woods

Wake Forest University
2-3 Paragraph Short Answer
Verghese’s Cutting for Stone, Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods, and Colbert’s I am America and So Can You are five books that I would recommend to anyone as worth the read.
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Books Read and One Influenced Me

Carnegie Mellon University
One Paragraph Short Answer
These are the books I’ve read for pleasure over the past year
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Building Community in an Egyptian Village

Tufts University
2-3 Paragraph Short Answer
In 1995, when I was only 3, my father and my uncle made a decision to move their families from the sophisticated, bustling city of Cairo to a farming village on the fringe of the city.
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CA-PS Sample (Adulthood-Grownup Shoes)

Essay
If the shoe fits, wear it. For as long as I can remember, I have aspired to fit into one special pair of my mother's shoes -- the timelessly elegant (and oh so grown up) pumps she always tosses off in the kitchen the minute she comes home from a long day of work.
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CA-PS Sample (Background/Interest/Talent-Queen of Neglected Facts)

Essay
My home swaddles me in the history of my family. My ancestor's loopy cursive traverses the old documents hanging in our living room and each night I dive into the bed onto which my great-grandmother etched little notes when she was my age.
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CA-PS Sample (Challenge - Social Suicide)

Essay
I was “born again” as agnostic in 10th grade. This shift in my religious beliefs posed a challenge to everyone around me. I grew up in a Catholic household.
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