Entrance Essays

No matter how many reams are written about entrance essays, there is nothing like a sample to show how one should be written. Below is a sample essay:

There is order in simplicity and anyone who strives to live a simple life lives an orderly life. This is why I make an effort to keep my life as uncomplicated as possible. I begin every day with a simple plan. In my definition of a simple plan is the requirement that it should be achievable. I believe that the moment I let complexity into my life I would be pitting myself against improbable objectives which would eventually lead to frustration and stress. I swear by the Law of Parsimony, “the simpler of two competing theories is to be preferred.” History is full of examples to support this axiom.

"Keep-it-simple-dummy" is as American as apple pie. But the paradox is that this prescription is easier preached than practiced.

Complexity has its allure. Consequently, we often tend to look for convoluted solutions and this is a tendency that seems to be ingrained in the human psyche.  Many of us are convinced that if it is simple, it cannot be the best alternative.

In the 1960's the space race was at fever pitch. President Kennedy had declared that America would be the first to put a man on the moon and it was NASA's responsibility to win that race.

The success of the mission depended almost entirely on the design of the craft that would take a small crew to the moon and back.

Many different plans were considered. And the crux of the issue was deciding on a spaceship with the minimum risk to its occupants, not too costly and not very technologically intensive.

Four different plans were considered. There was little to choose from as three of them were all too unwieldy. One called for a rocket more powerful than any that existed then. Another required an entire spacecraft to land on the moon and then return to earth. Yet another required that an unmanned vehicle with fuel be sent to the moon in advance to fuel the return journey.

The fourth, however, involved a small lunar module that would separate from a lunar orbiting vehicle, take a two man crew to the moon and then back to the orbiting vehicle. This was the plan that was finally adopted. Its simplicity stacked advantage in its favor.

Keeping it simple is not an entirely new philosophy. It was first preached by a Franciscan Monk William of Ockham in the early 14th century. His philosophy is now popularly referred to as Ockham's razor. Put very simply it means that if a problem has more than one solution the simplest is the best. More often than not simplicity is preferable to complexity.

I can more than vouch for this. Both in my personal life and in my academic routines, I have kept everything as simplistic as I possibly could. I have found that a simple life is also an orderly one. As a result I am able to focus on whatever I set out to do and invariably meet the goals I set for myself.

So good a entrance essay must be both impressive and simple in presenting your own ideas.