The Overcoming Adversity Essay

The Overcoming Adversity Essay

We have selected several successful application essays from Harvard, and have organized them into four categories: essays that show an applicant overcoming adversity, essays which present the uniqueness of an applicant, essays which tell a particular story, and essays that emulate an influential person/people through the applicant’s eyes.

Today’s essay comes from the overcoming adversity essay category.  This type of essay presents the student as a survivor of extreme circumstances, and shows, by example how they overcame the obstacles that stood in their way.  The overcoming adversity essay shows a change in thought and/or deed as an outcome of such circumstances.

A common thread among these types of essays is turning lemons into lemonade, or misfortune into strength.  The most successful essays of this type show with examples how the applicant has overcome obstacles and has through those experiences, developed a positive and engaging attitude toward the world.

 

Essay Topics

Diversity, illness, poverty, inequality, and family struggle are common topics of these types of essays.  The challenges overcome do not necessarily need to be earth shattering, but can be subtle or small hurdles and victories.

“The Freedom To Be Different” by Charlene Wong is a successful example a personal, yet common story told of a challenge in an interesting and entertaining way.  Wong was accepted into Harvard University with the following essay.

 

“The Freedom To Be Different”

By Charlene Wong

“My mother returns home from work at 6:00PM and begins to prepare our family dinner, just as she has for the past thirty years.  Growing up, I would watch her as she stirred sun-dried goji berries and dappled dang gui roots into the boiling pork broth of her bak kut teh soup, a savoury Southeast Asian dish comprising hunks of pork bones with slivers of meat that escaped the butcher’s knife.  Instead of conveniently following a recipe or setting a kitchen timer, she stands over the pot to periodically taste and adjust the heat setting, relying only on her ability to agak – agak, or approximate from memory, to make the soup just right.  She knows there is an easier way; on her drive home, she passes at least two fast-food chains and a Chinese take-out restaurant.  Yet, she refuses to change her routine, continuing a practice that she had established years before we emigrated from Singapore to America.  Then a homemaker, she has neither adapted her practices to suit her new schedule as a working parent, nor has she accepted certain conveniences of her new life as American.  Her staunch decision to be just who she is, despite her transplant halfway around the world, has forced me to consider how I can reconcile my early youth in Singapore to my nine years spent growing up in America.

For an immigrant, the most intuitive and easiest way to become a part of one’s new country is to assimilate.  This was the route taken by my cousins, who when aged nine and thirteen, embraced and adopted all things “American,” which for them in Georgetown, South Carolina, included drawing out their vowels to pronounce “pen” and “pin” in the same way.  In contrast, my parents’ dictate was to preserve who I am.  I still speak with the Singaporean accent.  My daily meals consist of the curries of Singaporean cuisine.  I interact with fellow countrymen (not least my parents and siblings), and make an annual visit to my native island.  For a long time, I struggled to find a common ground between my identification as a Singaporean and the call to be “American” as represented at school, in the media, and by my friends and neighbors.  It was especially in the wake of 9/11, which occurred so close to home and soon after I arrived in America, that I questioned whether my non-assimilation was unpatriotic, “un-American.”  To be sure, I fully embraced the liberty and individualism guaranteed by the Constitution, the most American of documents.  But I did not know if I cold dovetail the quintessential red-white-and-blue-blooded American with my heritage that is the Southeast Asian pastiche that colored Malay roots with British rule and Chinese trade.  Standardized test forms told me that I was “Asian-American,” but I could not comfortably append a whole culture to my identity.

Yet, as I matured and read the works of immigrant writers like Maxine Hong Kingston and Julia Alvarez I realized that my non-assimilation is the embodiment of the most American of ideals – the freedom to be different.  America is the only nation where it is tolerable, if not celebrated, for me to say certain words a different way, to crave a quarter-pound burger accompanied by sup kambing (mutton in spiced coconut broth), and to wear a cotton sarong instead of sweatpants at home.  In France and Germany, society’s message to immigrants is: If you want to live among us, you should at least appear to be like us.  It is extremely telling that America has no official language (more than 170 nations do).  America does not call upon her people to give up their cultural identities as soon as their right hands touch their hearts to pledge allegiance.  America has never, and would never, in exchange for the privilege of being American, ask that I revoke my Singapore citizenship, abandon the accent of my origin, or break with the traditions of my ancestors, who called themselves Cantonese, Teochew, Perankan.  To be American, I did not have to assimilate.  My cultural identity made me a part of America.

Less than a year ago, I became an American citizen as a by-product of my mother’s naturalization.  While my citizenship was not a conscious election on my part, as I held my navy blue passport for the first time, and saw my face and name under the “United States of America,” I was struck with a deep and abiding sense of belonging.  I am an American, and it feels just right.”

 

Essay Analysis

While immigration experience, is a popular topic, this essay is successful because it uses stories of everyday life and comparisons to show life changes before and after.

From the very beginning, we already understand clearly what the essay will be about; how Charlene, like her mother, maintains her Singaporean heritage while living in America.

Wong’s use of foods is a common technique used by many applicants.  Food has an emotive quality linked to memory, social interaction, satisfaction and comfort.  She does well to inform her readers just what these cultural dishes entail, flicking on her light switch and leading the reader further into the cultural delicacies of her story.

Using her cousins as an example, Wong illustrates how she has chosen to hold onto her heritage, while they chose to assimilate.  This directly implies that she is a strong character that cannot be easily influenced by her environment.

 

毕业于哥伦比亚大学社会学专业的Nico是一个热情洋溢的New Yorker。她在常青藤的学习经历和对美国社会的充分了解让她成为了51UStudy的一名SAT高级讲师和留学咨询顾问。现在,她正澳洲帮助高中生们一起实现他们的美国名校梦。 A graduate from Columbia University and a real New Yorker, Nico is now in Melbourne helping students here to realize their American college dream. Her understanding of US higher education and experience in the Ivy League will guide you through both the SAT exam and the entire admission process.