Why I Loved Writing My College Essays
The one aspect of college applications that I always hear students complain about is the dreaded college essay. The long-winded personal statements that are meant to stem from personal experiences, yet simultaneously, cannot be like any others. They cannot be mere clichés. At least, that is the golden rule if you want to get accepted into the university of your dreams… right?
Well, I disagree. For me, drafting my college statements was probably the most engrossing aspect. It invited me to reconnect with a version of my younger self, to watch her train to be a chef in culinary school, despite, ironically enough, struggling to cut mere tomatoes. I felt reinspired by this past version of myself and how far she has come, how much she has persisted. Seniors tend to find the entire application process extremely rigorous, and pour out hours and hours into it while juggling academics. But I found myself gaining a sense of direction through these personal essays. From a deeply reflective standpoint, they guided me to understand my work ethic, manage my priorities, and learn to handle pressure. They forced me to reflect on my experiences throughout high school, reuniting me with the purposes, motivations, and commitments that always were and always will be, the core values behind everything I do, establishing a structured sense of purpose in my overall application.
My Profile and the Path to NYU Abu Dhabi
My name is Salama Albahrani, and I am a 12th-grade student from a government-owned school in Abu Dhabi. After graduating from the Elite program at my school, where I’ve taken six American-based AP courses in addition to the mandated local curriculum, I will be starting an undergraduate course in mechanical engineering at New York University Abu Dhabi, with a fully-funded scholarship as an Emirati student.
As part of my early decision application, one of the biggest challenges I had to tackle was acquainting myself with the American college application process, which required me to prepare early and tailor my extracurriculars to the structure, which is vastly different from that of local Abu Dhabi universities. I had an IELTS score of 8.5, with a 9 in the reading and listening components, and an unweighted GPA of 93/100 (~4.0/4.0). Furthermore, NYU is a test-optional school, but I still chose to submit my SAT score of 1430. My one regret regarding the SAT process was my preparation and research. As a student without external tutoring, I wish I had researched the optimal resources to understand the SAT syllabus before planning my study schedule. Despite dedicating time and effort to studying regularly, I should have been more organised in terms of websites and resources to use, to improve my score in a time-efficient way. Therefore, I recommend that every student avoid the ‘trial-and-error’ period where they experiment with different study methods, and instead research what works for them in depth and apply it consistently.
I recommend sending a score in, especially if it’s considered competitive based on your school average, even when it is below the median score on the common data set range for competitive colleges. According to my experience, a 94th+ percentile score still establishes a sense of competitiveness with other applicants, eliminating any doubts of grade inflation due to internal-school grading systems and giving admission officers some concrete proof that you’d be able to keep up with their university’s coursework. Sending in my SAT score proved to be highly advantageous, as it was a rather high score compared to those of my graduating class.
Despite the rigorous admissions process, I felt this innate urge to dedicate myself to the application process, especially considering how big a dream this university is and has been to me. Ever since I first entered the campus, surveyed the classes, and met with alumni, professors, and students alike, I felt a resonating sense of belonging at NYU Abu Dhabi, and this feeling was greatly magnified when I was able to go to the ED 2 Candidate Weekend. The environment fosters this hub of learning and ambition, which makes me feel, deep within, that this is the right university for me.
Building Extracurriculars With Intention
Early on, I was deeply inclined towards the STEM subjects at school, and knew I wanted to pursue a field in that space. This led me to focus my extracurriculars around STEM and leadership, allowing my application to be well-intentioned and impactful. One of my proudest achievements is leading the ADNOC Scholars’ Team of five, for the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League Competition, to a third national rank. During this competition, we went through about 40 hours of training and fully built and deployed machine-learning models for motor vehicles to race autonomously, and promoted youth STEM racing online. Furthermore, I was selected as 1 out of the 6 2025 Abu Dhabi Endeavour Scholars, where I was sponsored to study at NASA’s Advanced Space Academy. Following this incredible opportunity, I became a youth ambassador and shared my experience with over 1000 students on both national and international stages through exhibitions and public talks. Even before this, I’ve always loved making an impact through public speaking and outreach, delivering over 15 speeches to a combined 4,000+ audience, winning three pitching competitions, and helping 10 of my peers prepare for presenting at their own major events all throughout my high school career.
Additionally, I also joined a youth fellowship where I co-authored methodical research on nationwide engineering processes in energy industries and presented it to a judging panel to deepen my exploration of STEM. I was also selected at a 4% acceptance rate to the Abu Dhabi Department of Education (ADEK)’s RIZE Honors program. Using the knowledge and experience I gained there, I went on to mentor over 20 students regarding their academics, possible career fields, and extracurricular interests.
Aside from my major-based interests, I dabbled in entrepreneurship by founding and running a baking business for 3 years, where I managed orders and donated to many community events along the way. Moreover, I led an app prototype team for a challenge to increase cultural awareness, sharing UAE traditions, and making them engaging for younger audiences.
Through these activities that all connect through a desire to build real community impact, a morsel of advice I picked up was that while it is good to try out a variety of different things, it is still important to choose what skills you want to learn intentionally and what you think you want to gain from them. If you build a schedule surrounding activities that look good on paper but don’t resonate with you, it will become a daily challenge to motivate yourself to work harder, and you will end up with a resume of experiences that don’t truly show who you are.
The Support Systems Behind My Application
In terms of college guidance, I had various support systems throughout my junior and senior years. Early on, I received a guidance mentor from the RIZE Honors Program that I had gotten into, and was able to receive a structured system to work through my admissions forms. My mentor assigned me an array of introspective questions that prompted me to consider how my application can reflect my personality, aspirations, and career pathways. These helped me form my Common App essays piece by piece.
Furthermore, this was largely supplemented by the resources from the Borderless App. I leveraged the AI chatbot at all hours of the day, constantly refining my work based on its suggestions. I ended up with over seven drafts of refinements for each essay, with pointers from the AI, as well as rigid marking guidelines from the Essay Review tool. These were crucial to help me clarify my application, removing all the necessary waffle without over-editing.
Lastly, I made my application watertight by exceeding the two letters of recommendation required, and submitting three letters that each vouched for the different aspects of me integral to my application. I realized that completing this early in the application process through thoughtfulness and clear communication is a significant step towards meeting the submission deadlines, as it is a big ask of mentors and teachers in your academic spheres, and it will take up their time.
