reading the essays that got me into *almost* every school (yale, stanford, and more)

Hello

every

one, welcome back to my YouTube channel and if you haven't already, check out my latest YouTube video on tips for writing college

essays

. Well, this video is a kind of continuation of the last one. I'm going to read some to you. from my college

essays

and I'm just showing you those tricks in action, so full disclaimer. I haven't read my essays since I submitted them. I wrote my common app essay. I think I finished in September or October, so it's been

almost

a full year since I read it at the beginning of my senior year, my dad was like, "Let's go visit some colleges," and I was like, "Okay, which ones," and then he said, "Let's go to Harvard and Yale first," and then I said, "Oh, I don't want to." go there like it's like I don't want to go to

school

, I'm not going to get into anything, I had a really bad attitude about going, but then he says no, let's go and I tell him it's okay, so we spend two days there, we went to Boston, we went to Connecticut and then on the way back I suddenly had a feeling of inspiration, so I didn't have a computer or anything with me, so I wrote down my entire comment, I mean. on my phone like in the notes app and then I email it to myself and then I just put a document and that's how it turned into an essay basically this essay is about my family so it's about my parents and my older children. sister and how things that happen in her life have impacted or shaped my life fifty years ago in asmara, eritrea, the eldest son of six children sold cigarettes on the street to keep his family afloat his mother held a candle over her books Every night as he studied until the wax melted on his fingers, he worked tirelessly to send each of his brothers and sisters out of a corrupt country.

He became one of 37 chosen in Eritrea to leave and pursue higher education. That young man is my father, Johannes Baraki, his. I learned from him perseverance, the drive to achieve greatness regardless of injustice. I learned the value of family to sacrifice for those we love. Forty years ago, in the same country, lived the daughter of four, she walked hours with her brothers behind her back to the Bahá'. At the center, she sacrificed her childhood to make sure they stayed off the streets. He dropped out of high

school

to support his mother after his father died in the war.

She lived apart from her husband for five years in hopes of giving her daughters a better life. She raised two. young girls alone in America a country that she did not know that young woman is my mother Lydia Buraki from her I learned that success is not defined by a diploma but by the determination of the individual from her I learned to embrace the unknown 23 years ago To the eldest daughter of two children was denied the right to leave her war-torn country and her parents convinced her it was a game of hide-and-seek. She was smuggled out and she sought refuge in a new home.

She later became a fearless woman and defender. for the unheard of she became the first in her family to go to college in the United States she became a guiding light for her younger sister that girl is my sister zoey baraki from her I learned the strength of my voice no matter who was there Listening to her, I learned to lead instead of living in the shadows of others. Finally, I, Laleida Baraki, was born the year the government closed the Bahá'í center. I was forced to run away from home at the age of five, leaving me with few memories of Eritrea.

I grew up. I was left without a sense of identity trying to be like those around me. I gained confidence from the acceptance of my peers as a child. I avoided the sun to keep my skin as fair as my friends' and burned my hair to be as straight as theirs. It took me years to see the beauty of my history and heritage to recognize that identity does not come from a place today I am a black woman proud of her unruly hair someone who sunbathes instead of hiding in the shadows my identity is my contribution to society, not the words written on a certificate or labels they give me today.

I call

every

new place home and every new face, friend. I have learned to recognize unity within diversity through my participation in grassroots initiatives. I mentor young people in hopes of helping them develop confidence. Just as I have, I use the privileges I have been given to further my success and improve my community. I spend hours tutoring students helping them understand the importance of education. The story of my life is the story of those who have touched mine. I am a group of people from many walks of life creating the path I walk today in the same way I have learned.

I hope my journey inspires others to learn today. I work to combat injustice and uplift today's marginalized communities. I value education recognizing that it is not accessible to everyone today I work diligently under lights remembering my father's candles okay that was my common app essay. um, yeah, I haven't read it in a year, so it's kind of crazy that I like, I guess, seeing how my writing changes and also just. I see the mindset I had when I was working on my college essays. I was going to read my Yale supplements, but I don't really like them, so I'll read one and then this same essay that I sent to Hopkins because only Hopkins asks a question, so I just explained it because Yale had a word limit and Hopkins is a little

more

, but it's still the same topic.

The same idea four years ago, the pre-youth group Rayos de Luz was formed with 14 high school students. The students and I since then have spent every Friday afternoon together

reading

books about service, reaching out to each other, and identifying the changes we want to see in our communities. My role is to enhance their spiritual and moral insight while instilling a love of service as As part of the spiritual empowerment program for junior youth, I facilitate our discussions and service projects in the hopes of helping them see their capacity as infinite and their contributions to the society as invaluable.

At first they were hesitant to take ownership of our projects, but now I find myself struggling to do so. keep up to date with your brilliant ideas last year we started a literacy initiative with another group in belize as part of our broader discussion on international inequality young people were immediately inspired by this project we made leaflets we went door to door and asked schools donations to this day we have collected and sent

more

than 5,000 books supporting an event that became known as technological time to read looking back at our work I owe a large part of my personal development to each of them I am attracted to initiatives of basis where gradual change becomes sustainable growth.

I have learned how to build an environment focused solely on service. The work that began four years ago with light rays will continue to spread just as light does. Next up is Stanford supplements. Stanford had a ton. I started

reading

it a lot, write a note to your future roommate that reveals something about yourself that will help your roommate and us get to know you better, so basically at first I said hi, I'm Elena and then I liked the pronunciation. something like the read and then um, I basically did like, you know, those videos like what's in my bag, the videos that I like wrote that, so I was like I have this in my bag and that's how it describes me, how I talked that I have homework.

I have a task folder in my bag like I'm very organized. It's about school, but the same doesn't apply to my room. I talked about my car keys because I drive like a bright orange smart car. I thought it was cute. like a personality thing, um, that I talked about, oh, this is something special, that I talked about like a post-it note, basically, in eighth grade, our counselors would put post-it notes with quotes in the lockers of all and I don't know why, but I like it. I loved the quote that was in my locker so I kept it for years and years until the post-it note fell apart and yes, but it's my favorite quote to this day, tell us about something that's meaningful to you. and why I wrote about the ring on my middle finger and so I will read it.

A stripe of my left middle finger remains visibly lighter than the rest of my hand. It has been protected from the sun for the last three years. rests a simple, ordinary silver band when I'm in deep thought I twist it around my finger when I brush my hair it gets tangled in the curls I'm so used to it so connected to this piece of metal that I

almost

forget it there, the ring is decorated with a subtle gold oval that has a symbol of the Bahá'í faith engraved on it. It serves as a constant reminder of my life's purpose, to serve humanity, no matter what I'm doing, no matter where that ring is.

It is with me on the days when I hear stories of young children being shot, the days when I hear about another school experiencing violence, the days when I see people suffering while others sit, I look at my hand and I I assure you that we can do better, we will do better. The objects themselves make no sense over time, they decay and fade to my memories. It is not the ring that remains present in my heart, but my desire to change humanity to create a better future. The simple uncomplicated band that rests on my finger has perhaps the greatest value in My life reminds me that it is always good to be rescued, yes, and this ring was actually given to me as a birthday gift by my sister a few years ago and literally, I never take it off, so I actually have it. like a tan line around it, I had a lot of schools, I would say why this school, why this school, so I created a very similar one, not generic, it sounded like specific, but I reuse it each time as an introduction to the content presented within a The academic institution is as important as the environment that surrounds it.

I hope to further explore my interests in biomedicine by learning with and from intellectually driven students and faculty. Blank provides a unique platform where I can grow not only in terms of academic rigor and structure. but the campus community and the opportunity, that blank I literally put in the school and then that was like my hook for each school and then I wrote specific things that made me interested in that school and the last essay was my favorite, but also something like you weren't chicago so they have two supplements one of them is like why are you chicago and you know you just research and write that then the other one is really hard basically you can choose any essay topic or you can write. your own message, right, and so, these are some of the problems, okay, done, so what can actually be divided by zero? um find x the seven liberal arts in ancient times consisted of the quadrille astronomy mathematics blah, blah, blah, um, what do you think is essential for everyone? to find out what Sally sells her seashells for how much wood a groundhog can throw wood if a groundhog can throw wood choose a favorite tongue twister either original or translated from another language and then consider a resolution to the riddle So where is Waldo really?

Did they catch you or didn't they catch you? I was like I'll just come up with my own message so I was thinking a lot for a few days and I was actually getting close to the deadline so I was like stressed and I was like ah what do I do and then it's like It occurred to me so I said when children lose their parents they are called orphans when wives lose their husbands they are called widows what would parents who have lost their children be like? The emotions that come with loss are so confusing that it is almost impossible to put a word to them.

We dismiss concepts like sadness or grief, but what does that really mean? That feeling in your gut when you know something is about to go wrong. The uncontrollable tears. What bubbles up in the corner of your eyes is that pain is the realization that something has been lost and will not return the millions of thoughts that race through your mind as you imagine how your life will change. These are not enough words. to capture the feeling of loss so how do we decide orphans? All the loss of our protectors in this world, our heroes, our champions, comes down to a simple word, orphan, orphan, comes from the Latin root orbus which means dispossessed or weak child, I guess in some ways it is true that a An orphan is deprived of the joys and pain of having a father, the car ride to school, the family dinners, the arguments about where you are not allowed to go out when children lose their parents, the simple word orphan cannot begin to describe the millions of emotions that swirl inside them the way they question their identity the way they wonder why this had to happen to them the deep loneliness they feel like orphans seems pale and inadequate when we delve deeper into the complexity of the emotions of the bond between parents and children What happens to parents who lose their children?

What about mothers who carry their children only to facecomplications in the delivery room? The pure pain. The loss of the opportunity to see your child grow up. The human being they swore to protect was torn from her arms too soon. As? Does anyone describe that it is simple, you can't, the parents are the roofs that protect the house, the leaves that protect the branches without the walls, the roof collapses without branches, at least they fluttered to the ground, maybe our inability to create a word for these parents? those who have lost their child is the word itself perhaps the word is nothing when the leaves fall to the ground the wind scatters them without leaving any memory of their existence the loss of a child is so deep and painful that it destroys the English language itself What do they do?

We call the parents who have lost their children we call them the roofs that were never given a chance to protect from bad weather the leaves that never even had a chance to decorate the branches okay, that was Chicago and I think the The purpose of the difficult message I was given was simply to gauge if you are a creative person, can you, I guess, adapt to something super unorthodox in terms of college essays? There are tons of other essays like in my little folder, but they're not that exciting and I don't want to spend like 10 minutes reading essays, but yeah, I hope this helps in some way, maybe it will get your creative juices flowing to start writing your essays, so That's all for this video.

Thank you very much for watching, be sure to like it. and subscribe and follow my instagram. I am also tic tac if it is not prohibited and yes.