Emory Supplement 1.0

Essay
Walking into Trimble Hall for my orientation of Emory’s Pre-College program two summers ago, I began to feel the pressure that had since been conspicuously missing. This was not my first summer camp, of course—there was Space Camp and three Band Camps prior to this program—but one key difference worried me: I began friendless this time.

This set-back, of course, would change quickly, and not just because of the miniature “Coke Toast” and residence-hall song competition that the counselors put on that first night. Obviously, I’d find friends at any program. However, I do doubt that I’d find as eclectic a group of friends I found at Emory anywhere. There was an Iranian clarinetist, an outspoken Emma Stone look-alike who brought up bioethical debates (usually unprompted), and a tall Swiss hermit. I hesitate to call the hermit my friend, though, since he only left his room to go to a Braves game and to leave on the third day, reproaching the blandness of the school.

At a surface glance, I wouldn’t necessarily disagree with him—Emory is neatly tucked away in a safe neighborhood of Atlanta, away from its dangers (while still open to its boons), and Trimble Hall isn’t the Taj Mahal of residence halls. However, had he stayed a few extra days for the Carlos Museum tour or had the opportunity to go to an Ellmann lecture (I recently saw Margaret Atwood speak), he would have realized the school’s interesting international flair, which, for me, is essential in a college choice.

Credentials
SAT 2310: 720 Reading/800 Math/790 Writing Act 35 (composite)