Let's be honest – in a time of need for bulk amounts of food, Costco is our safe haven. As we smugly show our membership cards to the greeters and wander through the aisles watching as absolute chaos ensues around the sample carts, we can't help but truly feel patriotic about our country's grocery shopping options. However, one girl took this love of Costco to an entirely new level. Costco was the subject of her college admissions essay.
Although this may seem like a joke, who would stake their future on the supplier of bulk everything? But apparently the joke is on us because this admission essay got this high-school senior into five Ivy League schools: Yale, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth and Cornell. She also got into Stanford and a plethora of other impressive schools with acceptance rates under 5 percent. Of course, she had an impressive resume: a 4.9 weighted GPA and a huge community involvement. But her love of food in bulk put her above other applicants.
The prompt of the Common Application essay was: Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
High school senior Brittany Stinson fueled this essay by connecting her time spent in Costco to her strengths and weaknesses in the real world. In the conclusion of her article, Stinson wrote:
"My intense desire to know, to explore beyond the bounds of rational thought; this is what defines me. Costco fuels my insatiability and cultivates curiosity within me at a cellular level. Encoded to immerse myself in the unknown, I find it difficult to complacently accept the “what”; I want to hunt for the “whys” and dissect the “hows." In essence, I subsist on discovery."
By explaining the vast amount of adventures in Costco, Stinson was successfully able to link her skills of curiosity and exploration into her college essay. While many people write about mission trips, family events, friendly bonds, or even a difficult class for their college admission essays, Stinson went above and beyond to explain her talents in a unique way. And the Ivy Leagues agree- she did a very good job.
You can see the entirety of Stinson's essay on Business Insider.
