College Prep: Writing a Strong Essay

with Leigh Ann Chow

Sample Supplement Essay

Prompt: The primary focus of your college interest essay should be what you intend to study at
Cornell. Please respond to the essay question below (maximum of 500 words) that corresponds to the
undergraduate college(s) or school(s) to which you are applying

College of Engineering: Tell us about an engineering idea you have, or about your interest in
engineering. Describe how your ideas and interests may be realized by—and linked to—specific
resources within the College of Engineering. Finally, explain what a Cornell Engineering education
will enable you to accomplish.

Building a Better Alarm Clock (485 words)

“JENNY!” my dad roared as he stormed down the stairs in his bathrobe. “What did you do to my alarm
clock? It never went off this morning and now I’m late for my breakfast meeting!”

I mumbled an apology as he stomped back upstairs. I was sorry that he was late, but I was more
disappointed that I had failed to restore the clock to working order. It was a fairly simple piece of
electronics. I hadn’t even needed to solder anything back together once I removed the circuit board. But I
must have missed something.

My penchant for taking things apart makes me a source of frustration for my family and a figure of curiosity
to my classmates. While the other kids in my small rural high school seem content to study the physics
that theoretically makes things work, that’s not enough for me. I live in the world of the tangible: I want to
know what makes it work. I want to see it with my eyes and move it with my hands.

One of the most exciting things I imagine about college is being surrounded with other students who are
like me: Not satisfied with just memorizing a formula to get a good grade on a test, but so curious about
how something works that they have to know—even if it means taking it apart to figure it out.

And as if my obsession with mechanical engineering doesn’t make me nerdy enough, imagine how out
of place it is to be a teenage girl more interested in a soldering gun than a curling iron? I am the only girl
on our school’s TSA team. Seeing how many women were listed on Cornell’s website in positions on the
faculty and staff of the College of Engineering, I finally might have a chance to not feel like an outsider.

Right now, a network for support and mentors for inspiration seems like a distant dream. But the
opportunities for undergraduate research and the support Cornell offers are a reality that I plan to
take advantage of. To someone like me who obviously has a passion for hands-on learning, Cornell’s
Engineering Learning Initiatives would offer a direct opportunity to turn my clock dismantling into
something more productive. Through faculty mentors and other programs like this I will be able to indulge
in my passion for hands-on learning with others who share it. I can discuss problems or challenges in my
own research with others to collaboratively problem-solve.

I can’t go back in time and avoid my dad’s fury over missing that breakfast business meeting, but with the
opportunities and education I receive at Cornell I can make up for it. With a Cornell engineering degree,
I’ll not only understand the theory that makes the clock tick, but I’ll also be able to apply the skills I need
to build him an even better one.

College Prep: Writing a Strong Essay with Leigh Ann Chow