50 Successful Ivy League Application Essays

Balancing Activities and Responsibilities
“My essay topic was the way I balanced being on the basketball team with 
my responsibilities to my family at home. As my father was constantly gone 
working and my brother left home, I was the ‘man of the house’ so to speak. 
The topic developed after I wrote and scrapped several essays.”
—Robert Lee, Columbia University
Starting the School’s Newspaper
“My essay focused on starting my high school’s newspaper. I spoke of my 
family publishing business and my summer internships in the media indus-
try and how those led me to start this newspaper. I discussed the challenges 
associated with starting the newspaper, the actions/steps that I took and the 
sacrifices that I made... and I related a lot of the situations back to growing up 
in a publishing family.”
—Zachary Richner, Harvard University
Zachary Richner is on the management team of Carter Admissions (www.
carteradmissions.com), a college admissions mentoring and essay editing service.