50 Successful Ivy League Application Essays

Balancing an Out There Topic with a More Conservative One
“I wrote two primary admissions essays because I used the Common 
Application, and most schools had supplements that asked for another piece 
of writing. This worked to my advantage because the topic of my ‘first pick’ 
essay was a little out there, and I had the chance to give colleges a funky es-
say as well as a more normal one. I am a quirky person and wanted to reflect 
that in my admissions essay, so I pretty randomly decided to write an essay 
comparing my love of bacon to my love of learning. I don’t even like bacon, 
but I certainly wrote about it as though I did it in that essay!”
—Mariam Nassiri, Duke University