Prompt: It’s cool to love learning. What excites your intellectual curiosity? (200-250 words)
Essay:
Right now, a baby is being born. As she cries, a thousand questions run through her parents’ brains. What clothes will she wear? What foods will she enjoy? What dreams will she pursue? But as she grows up, her parents will begin to take on other concerns. Will I have to miss her performance to work overtime? Can I afford to buy her a present this Christmas? Will traffic clear up in time to see her before she sleeps?
While her parents ask these questions, public policy dictates their answers. From controlling the wages workers earn, to the congestion on our highways, to the food sold at our supermarkets, policymakers influence every aspect of our lives. They reform issues that have plagued us in the past, maintain regulations for our current safety, and prevent annoyances from becoming future catastrophes. Above all, I am excited by the ripple-effect policymakers have—how even the most marginal changes can affect generations down the line.
With the research I will conduct and the policies I hope to develop in the future with a Political Science education from Tufts, in seventeen years, that baby will be much like I am now, but surrounded by a world infinitely better.
Tips for writing:
Start early!! I wish I had taken advantage of the free time I had over the summer to begin writing my essays. For me, the hardest part about writing the essays was brainstorming ideas and creative ways to convey what I wanted to say in my essays. The only way to come up with good ideas is to give yourself enough time to think of them, so it’s important to start early so you can have as much time as possible to work through the different ideas that you might have. Another tip is to not stress too much over making your essay overly embellished with fancy words and synonyms if you don’t naturally write that way. I think it’s better to write similarly to how you would speak in everyday life so don’t go overboard with flowery language if it doesn’t sound authentic to you. If you don’t think you’re a great writer, another good way of showing your creativity is writing about unique ideas. Writing has never really been my strong suit so keeping this in mind really helped me through the essay writing process.