Wednesday 6 November 2013

Amukelani, Grade 12, on Supplementary Essays


Supplementary essays are coming out of my friends’ ears!

Living in the boarding house, we are in each others’ space a lot of the time so, more often than not, we know exactly what’s on each others’ plates. My dear friends have no space for dessert because the Common App (and all its glitches) have taken up all the space. It’s a little amusing to watch everyone channel their creative juices as they attempt to fit in how awesome they are while sounding humble into 650 words.


I have had to do the same and I must say, having something to say really helps. Filling in my Common App has been a relatively hassle-free process for me, which I am grateful for. I do wish I had some more exciting supplementary essay topics, though!
One friend has to respond to the prompt, “If you were a professor teaching a university course, what course would you teach and why?” I can think of so many. One is “How to come to the terms with the fact that university is closer and closer everyday 101.”



The closeness of graduation and university is an exciting prospect for me and one that I think we are all going to be more than ready for, whether we believe that to be so right now or not. UWC has taught each of us so much and in different ways and thus has given us plenty to write about in those wonderful supplementary essays. The direction you take your essays in must reflect what you see yourself doing in university and, potentially, your life. Like CAS reflections, this is making us think of how far we’ve come and how far we want to go and looking at my peers, I’m proud to report: very far.



My university list is very different to that of many of my friends and we’re realising that this is going to scatter us all over the globe. That’s OK, though, because that’s the extent to which we’re needed.