美国私立高中的申请已经到了冲刺的阶段。大多数学校的截止期是明年的1月15日到2月1日。这里转载美国顶尖的十所寄宿高中Essay 的题目，供参考。

 

一．Choate Rosemary Hall

Short Essays

Essay 1 - Contribution to a school community comes in many forms. Please tell us how you see yourself contributing to the Choate Rosemary Hall community. (150 words)

Essay 2 - At Choate, we value creative ideas and thought. Please share yours by answering the following question: Tell us the title of your first published book and share its synopsis as it would appear on the back cover. （150 words）

Essay 3 - You are faced with a dilemma. Your boarding school applications have to be submitted within the next 24 hours to meet the deadlines. In addition, you have a math test tomorrow to study for and a history paper that is due in two days. Meanwhile your parents are expecting you to complete your chores and you accepted an invitation from your best friends to the movies. Give specific details on how you would manage the situation. （200 words）

Applicant Personal Essay - Write an essay about a personal trait or value with which you identify. Tell us how this trait or value came to be or has been developed over time. （500 words）

 

二．Deerfield Academy

Short Essay

1. What is the most important piece of advice you have ever received and what role does it play in your life? Please limit your answer to 1600 characters (about 300 words).

Personal Essay

2. Most of the information about you that the Admission Committee considers comes from others. The essay portion of the application is our recognition of the importance of what you say about yourself. How much you write is less important than what you say. Remember that we are trying to get a sense of you as a distinct individual. Consider your personal essay not as an obstacle but as an opportunity to tell us what you think is important. Each student at Deerfield has a faculty advisor who guides his or her academic choices and serves as a personal counselor. Please write an essay on what you think would be valuable for your advisor to know about you. Include your goals, hopes and expectations, as well as the influences that have most shaped your life.

 

三．Groton School

Short Answers

At Groton we want to know our applicants well. Learning about your values and life experiences will help us greatly. The following questions involve topics both lighthearted and serious. Please provide us with a few sentences to answer each question.

1. What do you love to do?

2. Which three words would you use to describe yourself?

3. Describean activity you have found to be especially absorbing.

4. How have you been helpful to other people?

5. What makes you laugh out loud?

6. What is the most interesting thing you have learned in the past year?

7. What do you like about the school you are attending now?

8. What is your favorite place to be?

9. Describe one of your talents and how you developed it.

10. For what are you grateful?

Essays

Please respond with approximately 150 words to the single question in Part A and 300-400 words to one of the three questions in Part B.

A. What in particular do you like about Groton?

B. Please respond to one of the following questions:

1. What are the ingredients of a meaningful life?

2. True or False: “What goes around, comes around.”

3. Which people, places or experiences have had the biggest impact on your character and view of the world?

 

四．Hotchkiss School

Short Answers

1. Choose a song whose lyrics describe you and where you come from, and discuss your choice.

2. Hotchkiss is a diverse, international community. How would you contribute to this dynamic and unique place?

3. What current event has mattered to you? In what ways have you engaged with this issue?

Essay

Please respond to ONE of the following three prompts. Your response may be written, with a maximum of 500 words in length.

1. What have you done to try to improve the quality of life in your school or community?

2. Hotchkiss’s efforts towards environmentalism and sustainability, including building a biomass power plant and sourcing crops from The Hotchkiss Farm, are a priority. What initiatives have you encountered that make a difference? What else might the school do to help protect the quality of the environment?

3. The Hotchkiss School is an engaged community of teachers and learners. About which academic topics are you curious?

 

五．The Lawrenceville School

Short Answers

1. List and describe your level of interest and participation in school activities (school, volunteer groups, athletics, music, etc.). List any awards or honors you received in the past two years. In which activities do you plan to participate in the future?

2. List and describe your level of interest and participation in hobbies, activities, and groups not associated with school. List any awards or honors you received in the past two years.

3. What reading have you enjoyed most in the past year and why?

4. Please note anything more you would like us to know about you.

5. Please choose one of these statements and then write a 250-500 word response to it.

5a. Describe a person you admire or who has influenced you a great deal.

5b. What makes you the interesting person that you are? (Be sure to include the qualities you like best about yourself.)

5c. Explain the impact of an event or activity that has created a change in your life or in your way of thinking.

Essay

At Lawrenceville, asking good questions is just as important as answering them. Now, we would like you to do both. Ask and answer a question that reveals something interesting about you.

 

六．Middlesex School

Short Answers

1. In which academic subjects are you most interested?

2. In what extracurricular activities, including sports, are you involved at school/outside of school?

3. Do you have any special interests or hobbies?

4. Have you won any prizes or awards in school within the last two years?

5. What extracurricular activities at Middlesex do you expect will interest you most?

6. What books have you read recently for pleasure?

Essays

Please limit your response to 350 words. Please respond to one of the following essay questions:

1) Write a letter to your new faculty advisor in which you introduce yourself, define your goals and aspirations for high school, and explain why you believe Middlesex is a school that fits you well.

2) You are granted a seat on the Middlesex Admissions Committee. What characteristics would you weigh most heavily when evaluating applicants to the school and why?

3) What are people most surprised to learn about you?

 

七．Milton Academy

Short Answers

1. Tell us about a recent school project or assignment that you really enjoyed.

2. If you were to create a personal library, which three books would you be sure to include (in any genre)? Why?

3. Of the activities listed above, which is most important to you? Why?

4. Milton Academy is a vibrant and diverse place. Being a part of the Milton community is an experience that extends well beyond the classroom. How do yousee yourself contributing to this community?

Essays

Please write two essays. The topic for essay #1 is required of all applicants. For essay #2, please choose one of the topics listed. Each essay should be no more than 500 words in length. Your essays will be evaluated for the quality of writing as well as for content.

Essay #1.Required of all applicants.

Describe the environment in which you were raised - your family, neighborhood or community - and how it influenced the person you are today.

Essay #2. Choose one of the following topics. (Maximum 500 words)

A. Conversations can sometimes affect people long after the talking is over. Can you tell us about a conversation that changed your perspective, or that held particular meaning for you?

B. Please select one of the following quotations and write about how it is meaningful to you.

"Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view...until you climb inside his skin and walk around in it." Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

"Whatever you think, be sure it is what you think; whatever you want, be sure that is what you want; whatever you feel, be sure that is what you feel." T.S. Eliot, Milton Academy Class of 1906

 

八．Phillips Andover Academy

Short Answers

1. What do you like most about yourself? Why?

2. Choose one situation below (either A or B). How would you handle it?

A. After two weeks of living with your new roommate, you determine that you have little in common. He/she has different sleeping and eating habits, listens to music that grates on your nerves, and seems to have a different viewpoint on most topics.

B. Your parents always have helped you organize your schoolwork and extracurricular activities. At Andover, you are adjusting to a more rigorous academic program and exciting opportunities outside of class, not to mention fun time with friends. Managing your time is becoming a challenge.

Essay

Please answer one of the questions below in 500 words or fewer.

A. Discuss a matter you once thought you knew “for sure”—but of which you are no longer certain.

B. Writea children’s story with you as the main character. It should be autobiographical/semi-autobiographical and include a lesson that you have learned.

C. What is the most valuable piece of advice you have been given? How has that advice changed the way you see yourself, others, and the world?

D. Imagine you are creating the ideal school. Describe it. What would be important to have in your school and why? (Your school must be different than Phillips Academy.)

E. If you were given one day and a budget of $1,000 to make a difference in your community, what would you do? Whom would you involve? What would you hope to achieve?

F. Imagine you are asked to do a one-year research project in either your history/social science or science class. What kind of research project would you design, and what would you hope to learn?

 

九．Phillips Exeter Academy:

Essays

Please respond to two essay questions in your own handwriting, and keep each response to between 200 and 400 words. You may write on this form or attach separate sheets. We ask that you also include a typed version. Mail this form to the Office of Admissions, Phillips Exeter Academy, by January 15, 2013. Please retain a copy for your records.

1. Tell us about something you learned on your own.

2. Tell us about your neighborhood and how it has shaped you.

3. Describe a moment when you felt challenged, successful, or overwhelmed, and how you handled it.

4. Write on a topic or activity about which you are passionate.

 

十．St. Paul’s School

Short Answers

1. St. Paul's School is a fully residential community where faculty, their families, and all students live together. We believe that community relationships are essential in shaping the whole person. Tell us about your current residential community, which may include your neighborhood, hometown, friends, family, and mentors. How has this community shaped who you are?

2. Mark Twain is known to have said, "It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare." Describe a moment when you demonstrated moral courage and stood up for what you believed was right...or wish you had

3. Service is an important part of our School's mission. How do you imagine yourself being a good citizen and serving your community?

Essay

Choose one:

1. Where do you find beauty in your life? For example, you may find beauty in the pattern of numbers in a math equation, in the tempo of chirping crickets, or in the smell of your old baseball glove.

2. If you had a billion dollars to donate to science and technology, what would you support and why?

3. How do you define success? Name someone who best lives up to your definition.

4. At St. Paul's School, we believe that learning from mistakes is an essential part of growing up. Tell us about a time when you stumbled in life. How did you handle it? What did you learn?