College Admissions Essays

Top 147 Successful College Essays

Get into the college of your dreams! We hope these essays inspire you as you write your own personal statement. Just remember to be original and creative as you share your story.

Most children acquire the same eye color or a similar shaped nose from their parents, but I’ve inherited much more: a passion for learning and an insatiable curiosity which has served me well throughout my academic career. My father, an electrical engineer, taught me to explore the world with inquis...

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Most children acquire the same eye color or a similar shaped nose from their parents, but I've inherited much more: a passion for learning and an insatiable curiosity which has served me well throughout my academic career. My father, an electrical engineer, taught me to explore the world with in...

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Looking back at freshman year, my life was like a cityscape, busy and vibrant.  I was just another young soul eager to meet life’s challenges. I proudly reached certain goals that defined the student I wanted to be: made it into the science institute: check, varsity soccer: check, a natio...

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Violent staccatos of the jackhammer coupled with rhythmic pounding of nails and muffled obscenities comprise the symphony of the construction site that has been my father’s accompaniment more than half of his life. While initially a position as a laborer seemed appealing to a junior in high sc...

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Dreams are shaped by ideals and families shape the beliefs we grasp so strongly. Someday I want to save and change lives through a medical career. Because my family has taught me that change can be positive and radical in altering lives, I hope to hold that ability someday. I seek the power to impro...

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I am an Internet entrepreneur. Since age 12, I have coded and designed websites -- for my school, the local community, and as a personal hobby and pastime. In fact, I started my own Internet business in 2004 and was hired as a webmaster by Intel Corporation this past summer. I also volunteer my free...

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Mirrors exist to show our outer appearance but nothing beyond that. Only our actions, words, and ideas could possibly represent the personal qualities that matter. The true worth of a person is revealed in those glimpses of light in the midst of adversity and darkness. Those traits that are highly a...

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I am an Internet entrepreneur. Since age 12, I have coded and designed websites -- for my school, the local community, and as a personal hobby and pastime. In fact, I started my own Internet business in 2004 and was hired as a webmaster by Intel Corporation this past summer. I also volunteer my free...

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Each weekend, I teach karate to kids ages 3-12. As I show the "Little Ninjas" how to position their hands to do a clean shoulder roll, or I help the "Young Tigers" break down a tricky section of the Two-Man Bo Staff form, any frustration or tiredness I might have felt before ente...

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When I moved from Long Beach, CA to Philadelphia, PA in the seventh grade, I encountered an environment far different from the one I had become accustomed to. In Long Beach, every day was a struggle for survival. By the age of nine, I had witnessed the death of my mother and one of my best friends g...

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I wended my way through the first through fourth grades mostly without speaking. My presentations during that time went in two parts: a stilted “My name is ---,” then some sort of pantomime. So I was surprised when I got a part in the class play, notwithstanding that everybody got a part. I played t...

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The Matrix series, for the intriguing philosophical questions and the ground-breaking originality of the action film-making.

Success Built to Last, by Jerry Porras, for its great pieces of life wisdom that encourage me to follow my passions in a way that serves the world and me.

Wired News, a sleek ma...

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I'm a fifth generation Californian who's picked up a few of the habits of the region, among them surfing and computer programming. What does this mean? Having a foot in both worlds gives me a sense of balance and perspective. Beyond that, surfing has influenced my software coding and future ...

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Last night I was thinking about ink. When rain falls on a handwritten page, the ink spreads out a bit, loses its crispness. It’s rarely pleasant. But every now and then, hidden colors emerge. Suddenly you discover that simple black ink is green and shades of blue and a fragile pink edge. If so...

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Last Sunday I realized, again and more fully than ever, why I want to immerse myself in engineering. I awoke in the midmorning, still drifting yet well-rested. In those dreamlike moments before opening my eyes, fragments of thought, old and new, began to coalesce into ideas that I immediately felt a...

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"Place yourself in the middle of the stream of power and wisdom which animates all whom it floats, and you are without effort impelled to truth, to right and a perfect contentment." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, Spiritual Laws

As a transcendentalist, Emerson found inspiration in places where "the str...

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It is my belief that paddling out into the lineup through a bank of heavy mist and suddenly finding yourself unable to see the shore is among the most surreal and inspiring experiences a person can have. As fellow wave riders – strangers and friends – wink out of your sphere of sight and...

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In grade 9, I started messing around with Google Sketchup. It began casually and soon blossomed into an obsession – I would refuse repeated calls for dinner, intent on figuring out the placement of a room or object. I remember trying to virtually remodel our apartment when my brother looked ov...

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As soon as I walked out of the salon, though, I received looks of ridicule and sneering from passing strangers, the first showings of mockery that I soon learned to endure alongside jeers like: “When did you fall into a pit of radioactive goo?” “Who forgot to clean up their crayon ...

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 “—ington, party of thirty, your tables are ready,” announced the hostess.

After being seated at three large white round tables with folding white chairs, the real Clam Bake began. We attacked the buffet tables, buttered our lobsters, and still had room for dessert. While devou...

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At the corner of each eye lie little crinkle lines, tip-offs to her mood: they might be laughing, or exhausted, or some days furious and fed up with people. If she’s worried about her own affairs she tries to hide it, but rarely can. She never hides her anger, her glee, or her fierce, well-deserved ...

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            While looking through my stacks of pictures, I realize how important the memories in my all-school photos are to me.  One particular picture, from ninth grade, is especially significant not because I like to look at what my classmates or teachers l...

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Over the phone, my dad described what was happening as he lifted the cover off of the viewing portal. Suddenly, he began to laugh uncontrollably: the robotic mousetrap I had built out of LEGO Mindstorms had actually caught a rat! On the other end of the line, my 8-year-old self also collapsed in lau...

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It’s never easy to appreciate something unconventional. Just ask the people who attended the premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s , a performance infamous for sparking a riot, reducing the proud composer to tears. Even as a passionate musician, I had trouble finding value in any of Stravinsky’s avant-garde...

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I never intended to hire anybody. In fact, I never sought to obtain employment myself. I was too busy having fun with computers to be bothered with any of that. But as soon as you know how to hit "ctrl-alt-delete," it seems everyone wants tech support, and one thing leads to another.

All I&...

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    I step up to the starting line-palms sweating, heart racing. Three short blasts of a whistle followed by one long blast and the trembling commences. After three nerve-wracking seconds, the gun goes off.

    I am perfectly content when I set foot on the track. The tra...

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Dear Jack Daniels, Bacardi, Budweiser, the other suppliers of my mother's closet laundry basket, and Edna Ferber Elementary, Thank you.

It is the summer before Kindergarten. Face ashen, she stumbles toward me, the heavy footfalls syncing with my throbbing heart. I wait as she feebly attempts to p...

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It is incredible how social environment plays such a great role in a person’s holistic development. It is like the butterfly effect on an individual, yet grand scale. Each decision is like a ripple that spreads out uniformly, increases many fold, and eventually changes the person’s futur...

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I tried to hold the canvas as close to me as possible without risking touching it. It was dry, but with oil paints you never really know. It’s painting care 101: Don’t move your painting around when it’s wet. Any artist worth her salt knows that. But if you had spent the bett...

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I am very attracted to the opportunity to explore the offerings at MIT’s 

 

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I'm hoping to do an MS in Computer Science at Stanford so that I can become more technical and obtain the skills I need to build the software that I want to exist, rather than just imagine it. I've had several jobs in technology-related fields, as an investment banker and as an early non-technical e...

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As much as I had hoped our introductions would be made in person, I am just as glad that we will know each other before we even meet.

Like the people around me would say, I try my best to brighten everyone’s mood. But first, I have to keep myself in high spirits in order to help others, right? ...

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Mr. Trupe, World History teacher and former Torrey Pines volleyball coach, was taken aback when he heard I was an athlete. "Kevin—you play volleyball? I could knock you down with my breath!" It's true—I'm 5'10" and a flimsy 130 pounds. I don't have the fram...

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I love listening to hard rock and heavy metal music. I find these music genres liberating because they pump me up and help me release stress. I enjoy doing this so much that I am an expert at games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band, which I play with friends or alone just for the plea...

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Post-Colonial African Conflict

            After World War II, the people of Africa fought to end the effects of European imperialism to achieve political independence and reclaim African culture. After many years of being controlled by Eur...

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I see the beauty in our natural assembly of neurons, the splendor of circuits in digital chips, and of course the undying symphony of computer code running through a compiler. As a firm believer of the values of interdisciplinary education, I embrace Benjamin Franklin's drive to create an intellectu...

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Passionate about both science and music, I find Northwestern’s exceptional undergraduate engineering and music programs extremely appealing. The unique opportunity for me to combine McCormick and Bienen into one dual-degree program is even more attractive, allowing me to receive certification ...

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"Thank God for Starbucks," I mutter under my breath when I spot the all too familiar siren inspired logo as we walk into the hotel lobby. With my mocha in hand, I set about exploring the Marriott Copley Square, home of United Synagogue Youth's International Convention 2012. Slowly but ...

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As my thoughts drifted by with snapshots of scenes of the most memorable parts of my summer, I realized more fully than ever why I love engineering:

June 21st, 2014

Standing in the dim auditorium at the University of Texas in Austin, I nervously gulped as I nodded at my First Bytes computer science ca...

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She wore a fluffy elf cap—powder pink, of course—and at barely an arm’s length, she already sported wispy hair and delicate fingers and toes. Still, her puffy eyes seemed too big for her tiny visage, which seemed curled into an eternal…scowl? Gingerly, I poked one chubby cheek. “Not cute at all,” I ...

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     My life is a series of intense fascinations, which I dive into headfirst.

    Age ten. My dad shows me a family tree, and genealogy piques my interest. I collect data about my own family, interviewing relatives whenever I can, and construct a tree spanning hundreds ...

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​In 7th grade, a classmate told the table that all East Asians were either  hot or  ugly. It won a few agreements, but I sat stunned. “What am I?” I demanded. His face scrunched up a little. At the time, I was 12-years-old, and I was plain. He, however, had summed up ...

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The letter X is a two-dimensional figure, but it takes three dimensions to draw. After tracing the first line on the paper, you need to pull the pen upwards and move across a third dimension, through the air, before dropping it back down onto the paper and making a second stroke to complete the X.

Th...

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The air was that of a stagnant summer, stifling hot and stubbornly unmoving. The dirt road that snaked through the idyllic Taiwanese countryside had rattled the old, blue pickup truck for over an hour before it had shuddered to a stop. Stepping out onto the muddy riverbank, I anticipated the surpris...

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I have a disease, an ambiguous disease that coerces me into festering in a ridiculous situation until it’s even more ludicrous resolution and compels me to exacerbate the event by my own capricious nature. With neither cure nor vaccination for this disease, it can develop at any age. Its sympt...

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Lord of the Rings/The Silmarillion - Tolkien; Gödel, Escher, Bach - Hofstadter; Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman - Feynman; The Code Book - Singh; The Elegant Universe - Greene. Films: Gattaca, Chariots of Fire. Music: Simon & Garfunkel, Basshunter.

NYTimes.com, ScientificAmerican.com, ...

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2 months of coding and design. Endless all-nighters. Now, the time had come. The service was set to go live the following day. 1 day later: 6 countries. 1 week later: 14 countries. 3 months later: 78 countries.

My first attempt at creating an online service was the result of a desire to help those st...

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I was in 9th grade the first time I stumbled upon a copy of What caught my eye was its trademark title: white type, red highlight, a connotation that stories of great consequence lay beneath. Such bold lettering gave me a moment’s pause, and I was prompted to leaf through its glossy pages...

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At a college visit this year, I met a Columbia alumnus named Ayushi, whose stories helped me develop a thorough understanding of Columbia. Ayushi told me that Columbia funded both her summer trip to Syria to interview refugees and her seed money for a start-up she launched. As an aspiring entreprene...

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Computer Science, Economics, Italian

I see computer science as a refined way of thinking that allows me to find solutions to all types of queries. To me, economics is finding patterns in the ways that people make choices. I want to study both computer science and economics to develop a solid understa...

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Everyone longs to be <a href="http://www.happy.com">happy</a>. Some people seem happy regardless of whatever they are going through in their lives. Others feel secure and satisfied even when they do not have the material things that other persons have. Another group seems happy...

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Double-period AP Chemistry at my high school was notorious for its brutality. Come the spring, my grade in the class was hovering at an 89% for the first time ever, in any subject.

When someone found the answers to the textbook problems online, there was a rush on the part of many students to use the...

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I remember one of the worst moments of being a child is when you're bursting with something to say, and your parents just don’t have the time to acknowledge you. "Listen to me!" I would roar inside my head. Perhaps they could have turned and said, "Alex, you've...

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And I stand up, my dark blue dress cascading down my legs, the last note still echoing in my ears.

    Silence.

Then, a thunderous applause rattles every bone in my body. I bow. It gets louder.

Carnegie Hall. This was supposed to be a dream, seemingly unattainable. Yet, here I am. Looking bac...

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I love sitting by the Haft-Seen, surrounded by family, at the turn of another solar year on the first day of spring. I love listening to my dad pray for us with the Quran before him. I love the smell of our traditional foods wafting from the kitchen.

For that one day I am truly an Iranian; before I r...

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    I am an artist; a strange blossom of creativity sticking out awkwardly from a long lineage of electrical and later electronic engineers, like a lonely flower on a big, rigid cactus plant. Behind me, I have eight consistent years of rigorous education in the practice of Fine ...

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However, unlike them, since my childhood I constantly thought about and tinkered with the things that permeate our everyday lives — often technology items, like phones and software. But stories, ideas and how to communicate different messages was equally of interest.

My enthusiasm in both areas...

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Cybersecurity is a fascinating intersection of two of my passions: computer science and political science. It is relevant to every aspect of society today, from the military to the medical sector. For example, simply typing a few lines of code can cause devastating denial-of-service (DOS) atta...

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“Look at her. She’s your baby sister.” I curiously walk over to the crib on the right of my mommy’s bed and stare down at this so-called “sister.” Suddenly, her mouth twitches as she chews on a strange object.

Memories. My first was of March 2nd, 1998, the day my s...

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Sweat drips onto my violin as we are filing into the auditorium.

I just arrived from a basketball game, I’m not nervous. However, that changes when I realize that I still have my basketball shoes on. And that I still have a plethora of edits to make in the newspaper room. And that I have three ...

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After a long school day, I frequently come home and rush straight to my piano, where I close my eyes and play out my emotions. But though I have been playing traditional piano for ten years, you will be hard-pressed to find me churning out a vigorous Chopin etude for fun; instead, my greatest joy co...

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Break your wrist. Feel your bone cracking, your sinew twisting, your nerves splitting. You slipped while doing roundhouse kicks and landed on your wrist instead. The paper-thin padding of the dojo does nothing to cushion the impact with the concrete beneath. The master wraps your broken wrist in the...

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To understand why I want to attend the University of Chicago, take a look inside my mind. Hundreds of years ago, you would identify me by my scarlet-and-gold family crest, proudly painted on a battered yet unbroken shield. I would dismount from my midnight black stallion, long hair spillin...

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For the last three years, I have savored the intellectual stimulation and pressure-filled competition of Public Forum debate, but I have also grown tired of my favorite activity being dominated by boys. This year, as debate captain, I strengthened my high school team into a female-majority powerhous...

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            Many scholars have come up with different definitions for the concept of education. Some motivational speakers call it “the key to success”. Others refer to it as the backbone of our society. Many leaders, especially duri...

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“Let’s use sodium sulfide,” I decided.

I snatched the bottle labeled NaS and placed three drops of the foul-smelling liquid into a well on the well-plate. Then, I added some of the clear unknown solution I had been given and watched the reaction unfold. Upon contact, the two combined to form an obvio...

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My brother and I have never thought twice about the technicality of being twins. It has always been, for us, a matter of fact. Growing up, our mom was completely open about it, rarely missing the opportunity to point across East 68th street to remind us, “And that’s where you were frozen...

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I told him that it was like aliens. Like flying saucers. Like Star Wars. Like Transformers. But no matter what analogy I made, the little boy standing in front of me could not grasp the concept of science fiction.

“Does that mean you can’t shrink this?” The little boy revealed a small, green H...

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Dear Jack Daniels, Bacardi, Budweiser, the other suppliers of my mother's closet laundry basket, and Edna Ferber Elementary, Thank you.

It is the summer before Kindergarten. Face ashen, she stumbles toward me, the heavy footfalls syncing with my throbbing heart. I wait as she feebly attempts to p...

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I want to use technology to change the world through innovation. Through the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology, I’ll pursue a Bachelor’s degree in both Computer Engineering and Economics. As a Bay Area native, it’s no surprise that I’ve grown up with an entre...

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Six a.m. and my mom’s shaking me awake. I open my crusty eyes and stare at her, bleary-eyed. My eleven year old eyes struggle to focus, in need of glasses and lacking the money to purchase them. She’s dressed in sweats and a ratty T-shirt, and it’s obvious where she needs to be.

&ld...

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Greetings future roommate!

I look forward to sharing a room and a brand new experience altogether as college freshmen! If there is one thing that you should know about me, it is that although my personality is splotched with hundreds of shades, akin to a Jackson Pollock painting, you can most certain...

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73. Vagary

I should have been on a train back home, hours ago. Instead, I was standing under the looming flicker of the departures board, weary of the word . Suitcases packed, stacked and shipped, I had just enough to escape. I needed, more than anything, to escape. Sharp inhale. Dial.

“I’m going to Europe.” I ...

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"We are going to visit Rice today" My mom leaned back in her front row seat and said to me.

 My brain went into a frenzy.

All other questions flooding my thoughts dissipated, however, when my eyes lay on Rice's beautiful Byzantine styled buildings with its magnificent archways...

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 I am overwhelmed by the rules and precepts that are observed in the college. Harvard is a school built on strong christian foundations and this has influenced my body, soul and spirit to be in that college. I am someone who is so much concerned about my spiritual life and all the rules and pre...

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I only allow myself to watch one movie in theatres every year. Although some people may view me as cheap, my frugal nature has been a strong source of my self-identity. This sense of resourcefulness is apparent throughout my family’s activities, whether it is cooking our own dinner or bargaini...

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Position/Leadership description and organization name, if applicable: Key Club: Club President; Kiwanis Coordinator (1)

Details, honors won, and accomplishments: High school community service organization which I helped coordinate as Club President. Earned the Gold Member Award as well as 300+ servic...

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Often, people look back on their failures and obsess over how they could have prevented their mistakes. They ask themselves, "What could I have done differently?" The answer is not worth discovering. Focusing on unforeseen outcomes hinders our ability to pick ourselves up and move forward ...

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Had my synthesis reaction worked—yes or no? It was a simple question, but I had already spent hours trying to answer it in vain. As much as I loved chemistry, my patience was wearing thin. Midnight had come and gone three hours ago, and the long evening had taken its toll. With bleary eyes I pored o...

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Ubiquity is a beautiful piece of software. With constant use, it becomes part of you. All the world’s knowledge resides in your fingers. It’s the extension of a man’s mind, the slow but inevitable fusion of the brain and the computer.

But, sitting on a soft couch at a Starbucks in c...

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It moved timidly at first, its gears slowly churning as it felt the spark of life flow through its wires. Slowly, it turned, rotating on its treads, as it scanned the arena for any signs of movement. Its light sensors on the alert, it sensed that something was near. It nudged forward as it felt its ...

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82. New Me

It was always, and still is, entertaining to listen to the botched attempts of my teachers to pronounce my last name. Lost in a fusion of languages, I entered the English Language Learners Program where I felt the pressure of always being a step behind those around me. Outside of class each day was ...

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I never knew I’d find a second home. I guess it waltzed itself into my life the moment I timidly walked into the advanced journalism “pub,” sitting down next to the only other freshmen who had been accepted onto staff that year, a tall, ungainly-looking boy with a brilliant grin and a girl who looke...

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One bead of sweat splashes across the newspaper headline. Still dressed in full football pads, I sit alone in the journalism computer lab, editing copy a few minutes before 9 p.m. Three hours after football practice, my cleats, untied, remain stuck on my feet and I have barely even made a dent in th...

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Through our educational years, my fellow students and I were incessantly forced to read books on racism and inequality. The towers of books grudgingly read by the most dedicated students, but mostly left untouched by the general population, always stirred groans of, "Why should we even care, &q...

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Perseverant, intelligent, and a problem solver. I would use these three words to describe myself and to say why I believe Carnegie Mellon University is the school where I would find the most success. Carnegie Mellon has a rigorous academic environment and will allow me to reap the rewards of an educ...

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The Illuminati changed my life. Three years ago, I found my first ambigram in one of my favorite novels, by Dan Brown. I turned the page, and there it was: the word “Illuminati” printed into the exact center of the book. It was styled like a newspaper masthead, exquisite and complex, ye...

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My house has never been quiet, and I do not think it ever will be. Living with six siblings is not the definition of tranquility. My parents’ affinity to invite perfect strangers into our home only adds to the chaos. However, I have learned more from this revolving door than I could have ever ...

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For as exclusive as it was, Copley's soloist room was rather simple, furnished with only a piano and a bench. It was narrow too: the architect must not have considered the consequences of claustrophobia before a solo performance. In any case, I took a seat on the bench and started to set up my clari...

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"Take my advice, I've been here for a while." How long? What did you do? "Don't get on anybody's nerves, don't tell the doctors the truth, and don't forget to smile."

The car comes to a quick stop, the kind that should have smashed my knees into the back of the...

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There has always been a disconnect between the have and the have-nots in society. Wealth and poverty has been perhaps the single biggest dividing issue since the introduction of money thousands of years ago. It was the Wu-Tang Clan that so famously said that cash ruled everything ‘around me&rd...

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    Increase the pressure in my bow-arm. Bring the bow closer to the bridge to get a resonant sound. Pull the bow while keeping all my weight in my shoulder. Build up the slow pulsation to a swift vibrato. It is all of these motions and thoughts that lead to one beautiful ...

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Small things make big differences. This is a truth I have come to see in my own experiences and in the world.

A tech-addict since a young age, at thirteen I decided the best way to get my hands on a few smartphones was to start a YouTube channel dedicated to reviewing them. Within nine months, I rece...

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In AP Statistics, I often utilized the Least Squares method to find correlations between two data sets. First, I would generate a curve that minimized the residuals: the differences between corresponding values of the two sets. Smaller residuals implied greater correlation, with a residual of r = 0 ...

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As my thoughts drifted by with snapshots of scenes of the most memorable parts of my summer, I realized more fully than ever why I love engineering:

June 21st, 2014

Standing in the dim auditorium at the University of Texas in Austin, I nervously gulped as I nodded at my First Bytes computer science ca...

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Every weekend after my karate class, I volunteer for an hour and a half teaching kids ages 3-12. The first class is the "Little Ninjas," who are just 3-5 years old. These are among my favorites to teach because they have no preconceptions or attitude. They look at you unjudgmentally and li...

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Daydreams are often regarded as a distraction and a sign of laziness. However, I believe in the creative power of daydreams, which allows me to escape from reality. Daydreaming allows me to look within my mind, which I need as an introvert. It's essential for introverts to recharge themselves af...

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Imagine you are 18. Imagine this is the most important day of your life.

We are the best. One class. 35 people. One goal. Four years of hard work. Three days of campaign. Together. Arguments. Tears. Bad days and good days. Great ideas. Movie. Fans. Costumes. Enthusiasm. Dance. I even have learnt how ...

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America stepped in the twentieth century with great ambition. They already produced more of everything then the world combined and the people had better living standards than anywhere else. Little did they know that producing more things than the rest of the countries, gets you in a bigger hol...

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Sometimes all it takes is one person, or one assignment, to make an indelible impact. In my case, freshman year Western Civilization and my eccentric teacher allowed me to learn the benefit of hard work and determination. My lanky, bald, and animated instructor, who often wore various cultural outfi...

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There were few dull minds in San Jose the spring of 2010. Around 1600 teens from around the world streamed into the heart of Silicon Valley for the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair; for me, it was an unforgettable first glimpse of the talent and imagination of my global peers.

Yet eve...

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My life was drastically changed on January 6th, 2014. It was about 7 A.M. on a Saturday morning. I was awakened by the sound of an explosion. When my eyes opened I found myself suspended in the air and unable to move. Below me, the floor began to cave in and split, the ceiling started to crumble abo...

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Key Club is not simply another community service organization, it is my high school family. Key Club spurs excitement within me as it represents a tolerant organization that brings positive change through community service events and fundraisers. My commitment to Key Club increased as I gained the p...

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Bare skin meets raw iron. Such a relationship can only be found in this exact situation. The focus is so intense that nothing else matters. Pure concentration and expression translating into perfect execution - it's a physical marvel. It's the art of the perfect lift.

Each time I grab the str...

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Garbed in wrinkled footie pajamas, my younger self would sit in front of the television screen for hours watching the misadventures of the lovable clown Loonette and her silent yet sassy rag doll Molly in the show, “The Big Comfy Couch.” The show’s premise is that one can experience an exciting life...

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Favorite:

Favorite:

Lack of tolerance.

Society, and the world, would be greatly improved with greater tolerance. For extremist groups, criminals, and corrupt and/or inefficient leaders—their harm in failing to consider and tolerate others' feelings/beliefs leads to a stagnation of social prog...

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I worked for my father's business during the summers designing and assembling testing devices and prototypes, and helped at the company’s Midwest Renewable Energy and Sustainable Living Fair booth.  In addition to volunteering at the San Lorenzo Valley Museum, I often visited my grand...

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"Yes!" I stared excitedly at the "program completed" text shown on the Statistical Analysis Software. Graphs and data charts showing various statistical relationships between different biomarkers and cognitive functions are strewn across the screen in victory. Exhilaration rushed...

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In 2007 my school collected 30,000 pounds of food for local families in its 9th annual drive. Then it started floundering. As the drive had grown, extra processes were continuously piled on and, like Microsoft’s old operating system, overall organization and relative value were not reexamined. Nobod...

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I sauntered under the rotting wooden arch, careful not to hit the throng of dwarf-like minions that ran and clung to my side.

"SEPHORA, Natasha said she would show me her booger but it was just mud and water and I just don't think that's fair and she's being really mean and I need he...

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The clock struck four, and I was lost in the city of Zaragoza. I meant to take the five-minute walk from my Spanish exchange summer school to my host family’s apartment on Calle Don Jaime. Distracted by street musicians and fascinated by chance encounters with structures that were already anci...

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On Christmas 2010, the one person I was working hardest for disappeared from my life.

My Dad fought leukemia all throughout 2010. In his struggle for survival, I found a means to work harder in my academic studies as a means to please him. I had disappointed him in my middle school years before, and ...

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Good morning friend,

I tend to greet others with a “good morning” simply because I love mornings. This is ironic though, because I also have a great desire to stay up and really venture into the late night. Late night, when one resides in barren quiet and introspective analysis, is often ...

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Ninth grade geometry began my fascination of the world and its principles. The unified and coherent system of geometry built around simple concepts--lines, circles, and polygons--captured my interest, as the idea of a system with so much clear depth seemed so unreal. How can an individual such as Eu...

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My Intel STS project originated while I was hiking during a thunderstorm. I was pondering, with some trepidation, what determines the paths of lightning bolts; I reflected that they must take some course of least resistance. Suddenly I was struck (by an idea): could an electronic hardware model of t...

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My experience designing websites and Internet applications landed me a job as a Webmaster for Intel Corporation this past summer. I had the opportunity to work for Intel’s CIO on the development of an Intranet Video Channel to improve employee communication and productivity. My task was to research ...

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My grandmother was born and raised in Nigeria. Eunice Iwuchukwu was an old soul, who used to preach the word of God. My grandma had lived with my aunt, but moved in with my mom to assist with my care. Since I rarely saw my mother, or my father, or really any of my family, I had no one to teach me th...

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To me, the real hero of the James Bond movies isn’t James Bond - it’s Q, the genius hacker who engineers Bond’s gadgets, cracks his codes, and makes all of his missions possible. When I was fourteen, I watched a real-life Q demonstrate ethical hacking at a presentation hosted by my...

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While grabbing lunch between games at a water polo tournament, I noticed one of my new teammates rarely looked me in the eye. Instead of taking the empty seat next to me, he opted to sit across the table. Even when I tried to start a conversation with him, he only looked down, and mumbled, &ld...

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I wasn’t sure why I had come to this temple. To get away from the stares and the vulnerability I felt on the streets? The shameless leering and whistling of Indian men made me feel exposed to my core – a constant reminder that I didn’t belong in this country, that no matter how muc...

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What matters.

It's one of those riddles a kindergartner knows they can sincerely answer and adults think they can logically answer. I, however, am a teenager, stuck awkwardly between that simplicity and heightened logic, and my dilemma is evident: is it my actions or feelings that really mat...

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Books: Wuthering Heights, Harry Potter, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Rebecca Films: V for Vendetta, The King’s Speech, The Social Network, Transformers Musical Artists: Chopin and Prokofiev

Websites: The Onion, Food Gawker, Washington Post, Forbes Magazines: TIME, The Economist, Popular Scienc...

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Hey roommate!

Looks like we both made it. Great! Just wanted to let you know a bit about my best traits, and hopefully in the end we won’t end up as room-hates.

I hail from the burbs of Chicago, and, yes, it snows all the way to your nose, and blackens your toes, but in the Windy City ...

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So many characters and universes appear before me as I sit in front of the television screen, watching cartoons. Nothing quells my thirst for an escape from reality more than animation. When seeing animated worlds unfurl, senses of absolute euphoria, freedom, and tranquility surge through me. Anythi...

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There is an old saying, “there is no place like home.” That philosophy has been spread everywhere from generation to generation, lands to lands, and families...

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You may have heard of the importance of “STEM education” and “STEM jobs.” It seems like everyone is talking about it, from President Obama to officials at your university. So what exactly does the acronym STEM stand for?

STEM is an acronym for the fields of science, technology...

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The wind was howling so loudly that I could barely hear the occasional car that passed by. It was raining very heavily. Muddy water clung to my pants as I made each step. "I have to go on!" I said to myself.

As I reached school at 8.05am, I noticed that the hall was almost empty. Only four ...

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    The modern teenager craves information. Be it personal, political, or pointless, information has become the American teenager’s drug of choice. Information is an inebriant, and smart phones are the bottle in which it is stored. Without a comfortable flow of status updates an...

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Rather than a single idea or experience, an entire series has been key to my intellectual development. Manifesting itself as a pointy-eared, green tunic-clad, tunic-wearing, Master Sword wielding hero on a quest to overthrow a treacherous warlord, sorcerer, or other malcontent and rescue the princes...

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Abstract The health effects of air pollution have been subject to intense study in recent years. Exposure to pollutants such as airborne particulate matter and ozone has been associated with increases in mortality and hospital admissions due to respiratory and cardiovascular disease. These effects h...Read more

The most important research project I have worked on is the massively parallel propagation-delay algorithm and FPGA (field-programmable gate array) microchip I independently designed for the Intel science Talent search. The chip was demonstrated to solve certain computationally difficult problems - ...

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Stepping back from Chopin, I throw myself into the world of Prokofiev. He is a man of strength and authority and so I must be, too. A female pianist can only exert so much force before her muscles stress out and catapult the performance to an unfortunate end. However, when I become Prokofiev, my pow...

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I came out to my best friend as bisexual the summer before ninth grade. Unlike the countless "coming out" YouTube videos I had watched to prepare myself, I don't really remember the sigh of relief or heart fuzzies of acceptance when she said that it was fine. All I can remember is the ...

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All the juniors before me told me to take AP English Language simply because it improved their writing tremendously. But the individuals before me never told me about the intellectual growth that comes from the English language. My English teacher, Elizabeth Ward, encouraged us to think analytically...

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By all accounts, I have lived a blessed life. Though my family has never been wealthy, my parents’ self-sacrifice provided me with more than some children ever dream of: a nice home and access to a quality education. I am forever appreciative for this and have striven to make the most of the o...

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By allowing myself to realize a greater connection to the rest of humanity, in the respect that health is a major essence of the human experience, as well as excavating deeper into my own interests, my experience interning in Dr. Loeser’s lab at Wake Forest was by far the most remarkable.

Being...

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    October 29th, 2011: I am alone. I am tired. I am at a Snoop Dogg concert. The drumbeat rattling my teeth is nearly overpowered by my deafening crash onto rock bottom. The 2011 school year cut me to pieces. I was a sophomore – a year notorious for being easier than the rest at my ...

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The first week was horrific. My only work experience had been a counseling job that consisted of being expected to lounge around in a lake, eat pizza, and ensure that seven year old kids didn't drown (which, while easy and resulted in one of the greatest tans known to humankind, was so bori...

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I find it really hard to be perfectly content. I'm always distracted by math homework and that book I need to finish and the scarf I'm knitting and my friends and getting my license. Worrying consumes my days and I don't always realize it. Sometimes I get tired of it and I'll go outs...

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The whistle pierced through my ear drums, heralding the end of a 90-minute session of utter humiliation. I left the pitch, eyes fixed on the turf that has just witnessed this football massacre, as the gleaming summer sun of Dubai sent its flaming tongues licking the back of my stooped neck, and the ...

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I can sit there and stare at it for hours - sometimes watching, not watching others. "There" is a stair case of the 1st floor of a business center, and "it" is a view of the pavement outside through a 100 X 100cm window directly in front. To the open-minded, it is classically pic...

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As a gentle breeze from the Thüringen countryside blows by, I anxiously approach the Altenburg, the residence of the pianist/composer Franz Liszt.   When I reach the door, a maid greets me and gestures toward the piano room. 

         &...

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One thing that bears great importance to me is that those who cannot otherwise provide safety and security for themselves are given the appropriate help. To me, this matter manifested itself in the form of animals. Ever since I was little, my life was filled with the abandoned, the left behind, the ...

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A command window pops onto my laptop screen; “C:\Users\Admin>” is written in white against a black background as I stare curiously at what this means.

Just at the end of 10th grade, I applied to intern for a technology consulting firm, COMPANY_NAME. As it was a newly founded company, t...

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I can honestly say that my most recent intellectually stimulating experience was a trip to the movie theater; I saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Of course the CGI was visually stimulating, and talking monkeys are always intriguing, but what really hit me was the rapid adv...

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I can sit there and stare at it for hours - sometimes watching, not watching others. "There" is a stair case of the 1st floor of a business center, and "it" is a view of the pavement outside through a 100 X 100cm window directly in front. To the open-minded, it is classically pic...

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Shí shì shī shì shī shì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī.Living in a stone den, the poet Shi loved eating lions and swore to eat ten of them.

Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den

Okay, stay calm-, I’m not about to explain how the poet stewed, bak...

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