While composing a short story for my English class the other day, I serendipitously stumbled upon a line, in the dictionary, written by one Bill Shakespeare. He wrote, in Hamlet:

"Brevity is the soul of wit"

Now, I have come to realize just how true that little quip is. I have spent the vast majority of my time this fall weekend composing essays for college admissions. The first essay, for the Common Application, remains incomplete after nearly seven hours of travail. Alternately, it only took me about an hour to write a halfway decent first draft of Princeton's supplemental essay, which brings me back to the brevity.

I am slowly coming to the conclusion that the Common Application essay has proved more difficult to compose because I have such a simple message that I attempt to convey through far too many words. The Common Application essay should comprise some 500 words, as opposed just 300 for the Princeton essay. The essay written with more brevity has more wit. As we might say in math class, QED.

Though, I would also argue that the Princeton essay gives a slightly less vague description of what to write and also provides a tad more in the way of inspiration. The Common Application - a time saver to be sure - has some very open prompts, ranging from, "Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you," to the incredibly open, "Topic of your choice." Some might see that as a boon, however, I feel that it, in many ways, detracts from my creativity.

Princeton, on the other hand, provided a number of very interesting quotes to prompt potential undergraduates. I chose the Einstein quote below, which, in a somewhat enigmatic fashion, shall end this entry.

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when one contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries to comprehend only a little of this mystery every day."

- Albert Einstein, Princeton resident 1933 - 1955