Duke Fuqua Essay Sample-------25 Interesting Facts About Me

Posted on November 13, 2012 by Jackie Mancini

This year’s application includes an untraditional essay question which asks applicants for a list of 25 random things. Read more about the new essay question in this blog post from the Director of Admissions. To give you a better idea of how you might respond to the question, here’s my list of 25 Random Things:

I love puns and clever jokes and plays on words. I love Scrabble but don’t like Words with Friends because you can use words that don’t really exist.
I quote Finding Nemo often. I once started a “Just keep swimming” chant during a UVa football game across the 60,000 person stadium when they were down in the final minute of a big game.
I love DIY television shows, blogs, and magazines although I don’t own a house or know how to safely use a power tool. Celebrating Holi in Jaipur, India.
I participated in Holi in Jaipur, India, this past March. My classmates from India didn’t warn me that my scalp and fingernails would be pink for a whole week!
I started reading
The Wall Street Journal
at age 18 (I had it delivered to my college dorm). However, I still skip the Money and Investing sections more often than not.
I organize my cookbooks by color. It’s just prettier that way.
I did catering in college and probably cut more than 50 wedding cakes (the secret is to dip the knife in hot water between slices for the cleanest pieces).
I met my husband at a leadership conference in high school . . . seriously.
I lived in six houses by the time I was 12 (various houses in Kentucky, Ohio, Washington, Oregon, Massachusetts and Virginia) and my parents were not in the armed forces.
When I play golf, I sometimes make people turn around so they can’t watch me tee off.
Every year we organize a “Generational Celebrational” in the fall and invite our friends from the University of Virginia and their parents for an Olympics between the ages. Then we head to a football game in our orange and navy.
I consistently have a pile of books on my nightstand ready for reading, yet I continue to buy new ones to add to the pile.
I drove to the 2012 Super Bowl in Indianapolis with 7 other people from Fuqua in an RV and camped outside the stadium for three days. We never made it to the game but we set up a TV outside of the RV with the stadium in the background.
I make my own spaghetti sauce that is my grandma’s recipe. Growing up, my sister and I wanted to have an exercise video based on making and rolling meatballs for the sauce.
I have a ridiculously good penguin dance. It was so good that I wrote my college essay about it and got in.
I have a freckle at the end of my nose that is perfectly centered. I have often wondered if people would look at me differently if it wasn’t. It’s also coincidental since my maiden name means “nose” in Italian.
I auditioned for the high school talent show singing a Dixie Chicks duet with my best friend. They canceled the show before we found out if we made it in . . .
I used to build model cars in high school and tried to bargain with my parents to buy a 1969 Chevelle but instead I got a 1996 Toyota Camry that was not mine but rather the “third family car that only I drove.”
My parents were each the first and only ones in their families to earn college degrees. My mom went back to grad school a few years ago to switch careers and go into teaching. She beat me to the first family master’s degree by four years.
I don’t like shows that make you feel uncomfortable and often have to leave the room when they are playing. This mostly includes anything that has the following actors: Jim Carrey, Dave Chapelle, or Sacha Baron Cohen.
I can’t work or read with the television on in the background but love listening to music instead.
I lost the second grade spelling bee in extra rounds on the word “friend” to this kid nicknamed “The Brain.” To this day, I am fearful of spelling any words that have “ie” or “ei” unless spellcheck is available.
I took a 4-week long cross-country road trip with two of my friends after college (to California and back to the East Coast). We slept in a place called the Border Inn which sat on the border of two time zones so the time changed when you walked between the bedroom and bathroom of the motel room.
It took me over two years, but I finally have the courage (and the fitness) to run the Washington Duke “WaDuke” trail.
I set my alarm at weird times (e.g., 7:23 am or 6:47 am). Subconsciously, I think it must be like those speed limit signs that are 19 mph in neighborhoods — it’s meant to catch your attention.