50 Successful Ivy League Application Essays

An International Conference
“I wrote about my experience as a youth delegate to the United nations 
World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa. 
My participation in this conference was my most impressive achievement at 
the time, and the conference happened to fall immediately prior to the start of 

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50 Successful Ivy League Application Essays
my senior year of high school. As such, making it my admissions essay topic 
was a no-brainer.”
—Steve Schwartz, Columbia University
Showing Initiative through a Foundation
“I talked about a foundation I started when I was in 7th grade. It’s called 
Cuddle Buddies, and we collect new and slightly used stuffed animals for 
abused and underprivileged children. I chose it because it has been such a 
large part of my life, and it is something that I have worked hard on for so 
long. I also felt like it reflected my personality and values.”
—Anastasia Fullerton, Stanford, Brown
A Love of Music
“I wrote on music, specifically about my experiences in composition. 
Seeing as music was my primary activity in high school (I was in band and 
choir for four years, was the lead in the school musical, was a drum major of 
the marching band, sang in the select vocal ensembles, was in all-state band 
and choir) and music was what I planned to study in college, it was a fairly 
easy choice. It was basically about how much I loved music and why it meant 
so much to me; in retrospect, it was pretty cliché.”
—Samuel Linden, Harvard University