Describe the world you come from and how that world shaped who you are. I live in a white house on a hill. There are no children in my neighborhood, and behind my home are woods so thick that, in spring, all I see is green. Inside, it has always been dark and cool and quiet; I have a dozen bookshelves packed with more literature than I could ever hope to read. I heard Frank Sinatra before I saw my...

If there are any circumstances not evident in your application that may have affected your academic performance, explain the circumstances and discuss how you responded to them. During my eighth grade year, I was diagnosed with a chronic illness, a form of hyperthyroidism known as Grave’s Disease that is normally found only in senior citizens. For some time it had caused me to feel extremely anxious and jittery nearly all the time, affecting my sleep and concentration. Normal temperatures...

Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence. Mark Carder is not a man of any impressive stature, concerning either position or height. He is not a scholar, nor is he a gentleman. He is as quick to curse as he is to praise, as violent in his rages as he is manic in his passions. He is a great man or a terrible one, depending from which end of the spectrum of...

Justine di Giovanni What work of art, music, science, mathematics or literature has surprised, unsettled or challenged you, and in what way? Despite all efforts, some things I cannot accept even in the ephemeral plane of that undefined place called “art.” One of these is Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain,” (1917). “Fountain” is a work of art from the Dada movement. The piece itself is a factory-manufactured urinal, turned upside-down, with the signature “R. Mutt” scrawled on the porcelain. The work on...

The College of William and Mary is the kind of place that will really nurture a particular kind of student; if you're serious about learning and about truly being a scholar, it's the perfect place to cultivate that! I turned down the University of Virginia despite receiving...