I'm a recent graduate who has been drafted in my home country. So my PS is about my current experience + my love of learning.
This first draft probably have a lot of minor grammar mistakes, but please ignore them for now and focus on the topic / structure / flow / etc.
Oh, one more thing: Penn is my first choice and I'll probably ED there. That's why I somewhat focused on the inter-disciplinary theme.
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Looking around, all you can see is endless ridges of mountains, camouflaged tents, and soldiers fully equipped for battle. In the situation where a person would not expect to observe a non-battle related activity, I open one of my favorite books: The Federalist Papers (mention it or leave out?). One soldier patrolling the area looks at me and smirks. His reaction is understandable; almost all my fellow soldiers agree that studying during the military service is a joke. Considering that I and other soldiers barely have time to rest, let alone to do studying of any sort, reading a book to learn does seem like a waste of time and energy. However, I never gave up an opportunity to acquire knowledge even when it meant that I had to take on challenges.
Since I was young, I’ve been in love with the learning process itself. Reading about basically anything excited me, and I spent countless hours reasoning about what I read to understand how the world and all the things within work. However, when I began high school in Korea, I experienced for the first time in my life a major challenge: a system that denies what I love the most. The Korean education system forced me to accept and memorize information given by its teachers without question. When I did question the teachings, I was ignored or even punished for “disturbing the classroom.” Having experienced a truly open class environment with class discussions in Britain and the United States before, I didn’t want to continue my study in this restrictive environment. Wanting to study in a place where reasoning is valued more than memorizing, I begin to consider attending an American high school.
Studying in the United States, however, meant that I had to sacrifice my future significantly. Despite my distaste with the Korean education system, I was doing well in the system. If I had stayed, I would have easily gotten into one of the top universities in Korea, which usually provided their students a guaranteed life of the upper class. In contrast, starting the second semester of the 11th grade in a foreign school meant that I would not have enough time to prepare for college. Nevertheless, I had no choice but to leave the country; I would rather take on the challenge to keep do what I love than surrender myself to a life that discourages me from doing what I love. Eventually I came to the U.S. and, as expected, I ended up not getting into what most people consider to be a top school. Still, with the class environment that encouraged open discussions and logical reasoning, I had no regret on my decision of accepting the challenge instead of following the easy path.
While in college, accepting challenges for the sake of learning didn’t stop. Although most of my friends were concerned about getting through college as soon as possible with minimal efforts, my perspective was quite different. I often said that I would love to stay in school forever and major in everything. Going to classes, reading course materials, and discussing them were some of my favorite activities, and I wasn’t afraid to take difficult courses even if they could hurt my GPA. By my sophomore year, it became apparent that taking classes in many areas unrelated to my major was hurting my GPA and, eventually, my chance of getting into law school.
However, I reasoned that I would only have one undergraduate experience in my life, and that it was the only time I could enjoy a variety of college level courses in a broad range of disciplines. In addition, by taking classes from different disciplines, I would acquire an ability to analyze problems from various aspects and produce a better answer that incorporates more than one view. With that reasoning, I accepted the challenge and sat in as many classes as possible without hurting my financial situation, instead of only fulfilling minimal graduation requirements like many of my friends did.
In the end, I was satisfied. Taking more classes than I was required did hurt my GPA and I didn’t graduate with a Latin honor. However, I graduated with two B.A. degrees with a reasonable GPA and Phi Beta Kappa, which I value more. More importantly, I walked away from my graduation ceremony knowing how to see things beyond their apparent characteristics. If I hadn’t challenged myself to learn more, I might have graduated with higher GPA and a better chance at getting into law school; but I’m glad I was able to grasp as much knowledge as possible during the once-in-a-life opportunity.
In the place where learning anything unrelated to military is perceived as foolish or waste of time, I continue to challenge myself for the sake of obtaining knowledge. After hours of training, patrolling, and performing my specialty, I barely have time to sleep and rest my body. However, my love of learning never disappears. Despite my body’s urge to lay down myself in a sleeping bag, I open my book and continue to read on, doing what I love the most.
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Here are my concerns:
1) I heard that it's not really advisable to write a "why I want law school" type essay. But is it gonna hurt that I didn't
mention why I want law school explicitly?
2) Is this yelling "nerd!" too much? I somewhat fear that law school might think I'm a socially awkward nerd who lives in the library all the time. I am not, but given the two page limit, it's hard to take a different route that won't yell "nerd!" too much.
3) Is it okay to compare myself with my friends in the college part? I fear that I could sound snobbish talking about friends putting minimal efforts in school.
4) One minor thing... it could sound like I’m at war (the beginning part). I am not, it’s just a training scene. Is it necessary to clarify?
Edit: Added several changes to the draft.
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