What's an 'intellectual experience'?

Hey, I'm starting on my college essays and one of the prompts asks about an 'intellectual experience'. I'm not exactly sure what this means or what would qualify as one. Could someone help me out with some examples?

Absolutely, happy to elucidate! In general, your "intellectual experience" could broadly be considered any experience that has stimulated your mind, piqued your intellectual curiosity, and perhaps made you delve more deeply into a topic than you otherwise might have. This experience could come from a formal setting like a classroom or research project, but it can just as easily come from an informal situation like a thought-provoking conversation, a book you couldn't put down, or something you stumbled upon while surfing the internet.

For instance, perhaps you stumbled upon a photo of a beautiful cathedral online, and it led you to embark upon a deep dive into the field of architecture. You pored over architectural design books, studied famous architects, and maybe even started creating your own architectural sketches. This could be considered an intellectual experience as it was a rigorous exploration driven purely by your own curiosity and fascination.

Another example could be finding an engaging book that sparked a new perspective for you. Say, you read "Sapiens" by Yuval Noah Harari, and it made you rethink your perceptions of human evolution. This subsequently influenced you to take more anthropology and sociology classes, and inflamed a passion within you to study sociocultural evolution.

Remember: what you're being asked to show in your essay isn't just that you read a book or attended a lecture. It's about demonstrating your intellectual vitality and your quest for understanding—it's about that moment or experience that sparked a period of personal growth and changed the way you view yourself and the world around you.

Now, keep in mind that this is merely a guideline. Don't feel like your intellectual experience has to be a grandiose epiphany. It can certainly be smaller, more personal moments that had a dramatic impact on you. The key is to articulate how this individual experience stirred your curiosity, how you pursued it, and most importantly, what you learned from it or how it helped you grow intellectually.