Prompt: Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence.
For this essay, don’t spend too much time describing. Rather, focus on analyzing a character, person, or work and its influence on you. When did you come across the essay’s subject? What attracted you to it? How and why has it influenced you? The explanation is the core of this type of essay, as it will reveal your personality and passions.
Remember that a “creative work” doesn’t necessarily have to apply to the studio arts or literature. Every field, from engineering and math to psychology and medicine, requires creative thinking for progress. Focus a bit more on the subject’s “influence on you.” After all, admissions officers are reading your essay to learn about you and no one else.
Example: Degas’ ballerinas appear as if they are delicately dancing off the canvas or they are mid-twirl captured through his bronze sculptures. Their ease and grace are interpreted through the artist’s touch and eyes as he shows them in the dance studio practicing tirelessly. Since the age of three, I too have been studying ballet and although I initially hated wearing a leotard and tutu because I found it to be constricting and itchy, by the age of 12 it had become my favorite attire, especially before taking the stage at my dance recitals. Every time that I see one of Degas’ works depicting his lovely ballerinas I can’t help but place myself inside of his canvas as well, knowing that those girls who more or less are my age also put their heart and soul into each practice and performance through one of the most classical yet expressive dance forms. I can feel the excitement of his ballerinas as they are mid movement and are in first or second position anticipating their next step or twirl.
Quick analysis: The writer chooses to discuss their personal experience as a ballerina and parallels her passion for dance with that of artist, Degas’ paintings and sculptures of ballerinas as they too enter into the dance studio that he created over a century ago.