getting started: college essay examples

It's been several years since I wrote my essays to get into college.  I remember that the question for Marquette University was something along the lines of, "If you were going on a cross-country road-trip in a car without a radio, who in the world, alive or dead, would you pick as a passenger?" I wrote about Janis Joplin and how I admired her strength.  But then I double-checked the lyrics to one of her songs that I wanted to quote in my essay.  I had always thought that the line went, "I'm gonna show you, baby that a woman can be tough."  Actually, it's "I'm gonna show you, baby, that a woman can't get tough."

WHAT.

So instead of writing about an empowered woman from whom I could learn, I wrote about how I would try to understand why she felt that way in spite of her wild success and lasting influence.  I was going to try to change her mind, I wrote.

Anyway, in looking for examples of college essays to refresh my memory about how they work, I found this site with lots of examples of essays written by teenagers today.  I especially like this one, titled "Waiting for the Bus," because even though it's about the applicant who's writing it, it's got a few interesting characters in the mix, like the guy in the first sentence, "a 38-year-old Filipino man named Peter who smelled like stale tuna, dirt, and a dream deferred."  I really like the way she's combined physical details with more ephemeral descriptors.  And I'm a big fan of the Langston Hughes allusion.

Grad school applications, though, are different from applications for undergraduate study.  No fun road-trip questions.  Here's the question I have to answer:

Please describe your previous academic work in your proposed field of study and include a personal statement regarding your goals for graduate study and a professional career. In your response, list memberships in honor societies and professional organizations; scholarships, prizes, honors, or other recognition; and give titles of publications, major papers, or theses of which you are author or co-author (if published, give citation). Please also describe any relevant research experience and what you have learned from it, and other educational and life experiences that you feel are important and relevant. If you have specific interests in your proposed field of study or are interested in working with any particular faculty members, please tell us about them. Please limit your response to 1500 words.