Essay Category:
Essay Question:
This question was from the Common Application the year I applied. The question was something to the extent of "Describe your personal motto"
My Personal Motto: 'Think Globally, Act Locally' I am not a big fan of electoral politics. But I am a pragmatist. So the question is, do I promote global change through legislative action or through grass roots organizing that offers a tangible, satisfying effect on a smaller scale? As a student activist, I often find myself frustrated and overwhelmed by all the problems that plague the world. I question whether the countless meetings, phone calls and rallies will ever amount to anything more than a temporary flash of resistance. While volunteering at a food pantry is essential, there has to be some way to deepen the effect of this kind of work. Whether this deepening will occur because of new legislation or innovative social progress is unclear. In my junior year I lobbied classmates and faculty for the position of President of our school's Amnesty International Club. The Club's membership had been waning in recent years and I was determined to revive interest. The rights of political prisoners are a cause to which I have been committed and that I felt were essential to get my peers to rally behind. As the leader of this organization, I knew there had to be a way to increase student participation. The year before I had attended a conference, Critical Resistance East, at Columbia University about prison reform work in the United States. I wanted to incorporate this effort into our club's agenda to add more local involvement. I got in touch with people at Drop the Rock, an organization that seeks to reform the Rockefeller Drug Laws in New York State. We introduced this organization to the members of the club and voted to help their campaign. I organized several roundtable discussions for students to meet and discuss the relevant issues. In February, I conducted an onstage interview with one of the leaders of the organization for an assembly of 300 faculty and students. I was apprehensive about speaking in front of so many people because I didn't know how they would react. I didn't expect to get a positive reaction from the school community, if any at all. However, to my surprise, everyone was enthusiastic. Students and teachers eagerly helped distribute flyers, sign petitions and even attended a rally at City Hall. I was surprised to see a following of 'uninvolved' - or so I assumed - freshmen girls actually interested in helping to organize classmates and teachers. Perhaps those faces were a testament that I had truly achieved my initial goal; at this time, attendance at our meetings has nearly doubled from the beginning of the year. Our newly fortified Amnesty Club has been able to send out more letters to help those in the international community; at the same time we have not neglected our responsibility to our fellow citizens. The dilemma remains: given my grassroots, local experience, do I explore the world beyond the Yorkville Common Pantry and move into the world of legislative action? I intend to use my college years to investigate a variety of humanitarian oriented options. I've greatly enjoyed the labor rights work I've done and would like to look at organizations like Jobs with Justice or Human Rights Watch. Changing the face of local worker's rights - whether this is in New York City or Honduras - sounds like a lofty goal but it is also a happy medium between thinking globally and acting locally.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
"Describe your intellectual interests"
My intellectual interests have evolved into two categories that I believe are interconnected. The first, a catalyst for the other, is my fascination with the way people group themselves and come together. The second is the literature and culture of Latin America. Curious about what the evolution of democracy, and why it had become such a popular system of government, I began reading books on the subject in eighth grade. Unfortunately, there wasn't much information geared toward readers my age. With my interest piqued, I signed up for a summer course at Choate, called 'Roots of Political Theory'. Suddenly, immersed in the philosophy of Rousseau, Locke and Engels, I was aware of all the different philosophies and theories that people have created. I returned to New York fascinated with the power of the individual in relation to social movements and change and began to research organizations that would allow a fourteen year old to participate. There weren't many. I joined an organization, Students for Justice (S4J), that demonstrated in a concrete way the power of the collective effort. It put into action the ideas that I had been studying. My interest for Latin America began with a love for the poetry of Pablo Neurda and authors like Isabelle Allende and Octvaio Paz. However, this literary interest developed into a historical- political interest by the time I attended a conference in Cuba, the 'US-Cuba Youth Exchange'. I have taken a few courses in school that addressed these interests, but have mainly relied on outside reading as a supplement.
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Essay Question:
Please discuss your intended major
I am aware that the Government major tends to attract many students who are interested in law. Although I truly am keeping an open mind, this is not the path I envision for myself. At the present time, my interest lies with the defense of human rights as it pertains to labor, which is very broad. However, within the context of this general field, I want to thoroughly explore the many routes that stem from this idea. First of all, I want to study, in depth, the world of labor in relation to the global economy. I want to find out how this affects our interconnected world. I want to know the dynamics of a union and learn to understand the bargaining process to make demands more efficient and effective. Given my interest in socio-economics factors in different countries, I believe that having a strong grasp of micro and macroeconomics is very important to the overall process. While presently I am not set on the career I want to pursue, I intend to use my college years as an opportunity to explore all the choices that relate to my interest in labor rights.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
"What is your most valued award"
Of the honors I have received throughout my high school career, my most prized award is unlike any others. The 'Pat on the Back' award is given to a student or teacher and is voted on by the student body. I received this award in the Fall of 2000 for organizing my classmates in a rally against unfair work rights in front of a Gap store in NYC. My peers are some of the most compassionate, kind hearted people, yet given our relative prosperity, it is easy to forget that unfair labor conditions exist in Manhattan, just as they exist in places like Latin America and Southeast Asia. I didn't think my efforts to raise consumer awareness would attract much notice; to my incredible surprise and happiness, twenty fellow students joined me in a light drizzle to hand out fliers and picket the Gap. (One of them even arrived with a 'borrowed' bullhorn from the P.E. department; unfortunately, we were unable to make use of it thanks to the untimely arrival of the NYPD who were friendly but uncompromising in explaining that bullhorns are illegal without a sound permit.) This award means the most to me because it was given by my peers, which I consider to be the highest honor of all. Second to this, I was chosen out of numerous applicants for the position of Peer Leader to underclassmen. Training for this involved a weeklong course, given in Chicagos, in counseling and the understanding of how to handle social and emotional issues which might be discussed in weekly peer group meetings. Also, having been a member of the cross-country team I was voted Captain by my coaches and teammates.
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Essay Question:
Minor essay: Describe your intellectual interests, their evolution, and what makes them exciting to you.
As a young woman I have many intellectual interests that have evolved with my growth as a student. My first love was in fact literature and writing. When I was very young I planned on becoming a professional writer of fictional novels, however this has changed. In middle school I found that I prefer shorter forms of verse such as poetry and short fiction to long novel form. And so to this day I write poetry and short fiction whenever I need to vent something or I have a marvelous idea to jot down. My interest in writing has somewhat intersected with my love of fashion. My passion for fashion overtook my love of writing by the time I was in ninth grade. Then my experiences at the Fashion Institute of Technology (where I took some fashion related courses) and my job at a boutique solidified my desire to be in the fashion field. This is still how I feel today. Lastly, my third large interest in my life so far has been of government and politics. I first realized my interest in the subject upon complaining about some issues at my high school. I realized that the government is your voice in the world, the way to get what you want, and the way to make things better. I was excited by this thought, as I certainly like voicing my opinion, and so I joined student government and became a leader.
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Essay Question:
Ask, and then answer, an important question you would have liked us to ask.
What is one of your dreams, and how did it originate? My whole life, I have lived in apartment buildings. In fact, I have lived in seven of them. At a young age, I became used to moving frequently. As I grew older, I began to realize how hard these transitions were for my mother. She and my father separated when I was only one year old, and my father vanished from ourlives. My mother has done the best she can to provide for my two sisters and me. She works multiple jobs while, at the same time, caring for her family as both a mother and a father. I have never encountered anyone who works as hard as my mother does for her children, but no matter how hard she works, she never can make more than ends meet. Any money she saves, she eventually spends on her children, whether it be a birthday, Christmas, or just for fun. My mother always puts her children before herself. She has put her dreams on hold in order to help her children achieve their own. One of my dreams (I am reluctant to call it a dream because I am sure it will become a reality) is to one day buy my mother a home of her own. Living in apartments, landlords control much of our lives. The same pattern always evolves. My mother tries to live in one place as long as she can, but when the rent is raised too high, we move. In one case, we were forced to move before my mother could find another place for us to live. We lived in a shelter for about three weeks. I was only six at the time, and I actually enjoyed living in the shelter. It brought my family closer together. I did not realize the hardships it caused my mother. She hated living there. She hated not being able to provide for her children. When we finally found a place to live, my mother promised that we would not move again for a long time. She worked as hard as she could but was unable to keep this promise. We moved again a year and a half later. No one was upset with my mother for breaking her promise. The apartment she found was wonderful. It is the nicest place we have ever lived. The apartment we live in now lacks in comparison. Everyone had his or her own bedroom, we were allowed to have a dog, and we even had a backyard. For a while, it began to feel like a real home. We lived in this dream apartment for only three years. When we moved, I resented my mother for making me leave the one 'normal home' I had ever had. I did not realize how hurtful I was towards her. Not once did she make me feel like I was being selfish, but I was. I now understand that she loved that apartment more than I did. Leaving it behind, my mother felt like she was losing her last opportunity to settle down. Since then, we have moved twice. The apartment we live in now is dark and cramped. We have lived here for four years now, and to some extent, it has begun to feel like a home. I know my mother wants to move, but she does not say anything. Though she is by no means soft spoken, my mother rarely speaks about her own wants and needs. She is too busy worrying about the wants and needs of her children. However, when she does talk about her longings, she always mentions owning a home of her own. She sometimes says to her friends, 'You see this one?' referring to me, 'He's the one who's gonna make it. But when he does, he's gonna buy his mother a house. Isn't that right Shoa?' I always nod with a smile. My mother makes these comments jokingly, but I take her words seriously. I have many dreams of my own, but I also have a dream for my mother. She has been continuously weakened by the sacrifices she makes for her children. Still, she keeps pushing on. For giving me more than I could ever ask for, I want to give her the one thing she has ever asked for. I am going to buy my mother a house, so that she can finally settle down.
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Essay Question:
Minor essay: Consider the academic programs in the school/college you indicated on page one. How will you utilize them to further explore your intended major or field of interest?
I am a lucky young woman in the sense that I already have a strong idea of what I want to pursue in my life. I want to and will be in the fashion industry in some capacity. I believe that this capacity will be a job as a fashion designer or even a management position of some form. Now Cornell's College of Human Ecology will help me understand fully what it means to be a fashion designer or manager of some kind, and will therefore guide me in my choice of a specific career after college. By choosing the Textiles and Apparel option, I can take advantage of both the Apparel Design and Apparel and Textile Management programs to ensure that I choose the program and later the exact career that will make me happy. As of now, I believe I will end up choosing the Apparel Design program and go on to be a designer, however I know that through growth my ideas may change. Henceforth, I am excited to explore all options and learn all I can about the fashion industry at the College of Human Ecology.
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Essay Question:
Look at your list of activities and work experiences. Please tell us about the one you value most and why
Learning and teaching martial arts has been a life changing experience for me. I began taking lessons for Master Choi when I was six years old. Master Choi has earned black belts in many forms of martial arts. He has trained world champions in boxing, kickboxing, and grappling. He is a strict instructor who will only accept perfection. During his thirty years teaching in the United States, he has only given away seventeen black belts. At age fourteen, I became his seventeenth black belt. I am also the youngest person to ever receive a black belt from Master Choi. I am now one of four people to ever gain the title of instructor. As an instructor, I have most loved teaching a children's grappling class. One of my most rewarding experiences was taking three of my grapplers to the New England Open Grappling Tournament in Burlington, Massachuessettes. All three of them placed first, and one of them won the Outstanding Grappler of the Tournament award. I try to teach more than just grappling to my students. I have taught them how to create and achieve goals, how to discipline themselves, and how to work together. Through learning and teaching martial arts, I have learned patience, understanding, discipline, and respect. I have gained an unstoppable will to succeed, and I have learned about my passion for working with children.
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Essay Question:
Describe your intellectual interests, their evolution, and what makes them exciting to you.
My intellectual interests range from the study of advanced mathematics to religion and philosophy, from the life sciences to studying and performing Shakespeare's plays. 250 words could never do justice to the array of subjects I love to learn about. Therefore I will only discuss one of my 'intellectual interests,' political activism. I first became involved in political activism during middle school, when I joined TAHL (Transforming Ant-Hunger Leadership). I was the only youth in the group, but my input was taken seriously. With this group, I lobbied for food security in Washington DC. Also, I helped create the 'Portland Food Festival,' an event that raises money for soup kitchens and food pantries in Maine. Since then, my involvement in such activities has only grown. I spend much of my free time reading books and essays about the U.S. healthcare system, poverty in America and around the world, the affects of the media, and problems in public education. The reason I love learning about negative aspects of this world is so that I can find ways to fix them. There is no better sense of accomplishment than knowing you have saved a life. I know that by working for better public schools, better healthcare, more affordable housing, or food security, I am directly or indirectly saving lives. This thought is all the motivation I need to become involved.
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Essay Question:
Tell us what appeals to you about the school/college you indicated above. How will you utilize its academic programs to further explore your intended major or fields of interest?
As soon as I opened 'The Big Red Book' and read the lines, 'If you're interested in making the world a better place' Cornell's College of Human Ecology may be the beacon to light your way,' I knew I had found my college. What most interested me about this college is that it combines the two fields I plan to pursue: human sciences and social policy. The major that most interests me is Human Biology, Health, and Society. Working for this major at the College of Human Ecology, I would certainly be one of the 50% who are involved in an internship or externship. One internship that particularly appeals to me is developing hospital outreach programs. Also, working for the student-run Emergency Medical Service team would not only give me a chance to put my skills to work, it would allow me to do what I love, help others. However, for me, the biggest resource at the College of Human Ecology would be the 1,384 other students who are as motivated as I am to improve their community, state, country, and world. Working in and out of school, I have learned of the wonderful changes an organized group of students can make. The hard part, however, is finding the right students. At Cornell's College of Human Ecology, I would be surrounded by them. It would not take me long to find myself in some of the many clubs or organizations working towards the same goals as I am, whether it be healthcare reform or improved public schools.
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Essay Question:
Create your own question. (Major essay) The question I created was: "What are you passionate about?"
Nothing is a more vital part of my life than music. I play it, sing it, listen
to it, watch it, feel it, dance to it. I cannot picture living without music.
Some people go their whole lives without trying a musical instrument, joining a
chorus, or getting involved with a musical organization. That is a complete
mystery to me. They are missing something incredible. Without music, my life
would be bleak, monotonous, and incomplete.
As a child I always enjoyed music. It first became a major part of my life at
age six. My father had a keyboard with which I liked to tinker. My parents
noticed that I could play songs by ear and thought that I should take piano
lessons. I really liked the piano: being able to read the notes and produce
music
excited me.
After five years, however, I stopped playing and instead took up the
flute. The flute was an instrument that had always intrigued me; its sound was
beautiful and mystical. It produced the kind of music that was played in the
background during television shows about rainforests: haunting and delicate. I
have been playing the flute for seven years. I love it when a piece of music
suddenly comes together, all instruments playing correctly, blending together,
and you know that all of the practice has been worth it.
Singing makes me feel powerful. I have always loved singing: when I was a
toddler, I would stand up in from of my whole family on holidays and belt out
songs until they told me to stop. I am constantly singing tunes under my breath,
whether it's a song from chorus, a number from the school musical, or the latest
Destiny's Child hit. Singing helps to release my emotions. I love singing a
capella and hearing the voices blend to produce a wonderful, spine-tingling
sound.
Singing is something I will always do, even if it's only in the shower,
because I get such sheer joy and pleasure out of it. I listen to the radio
constantly and sing along to my favorite tunes. I love all music genres: pop,
rap, rock, R&B, country, oldies. My musical tastes are eclectic. Going to
concerts is a great joy for me, whether it's seeing my friends' band play at the
local coffee shop or attending a performance at the Jones Beach Amphitheater.
Music and meteorology are my two main passions. They both interest me greatly,
and no wonder: they are related. Weather has a music all its own. The music of a
thunderstorm is very different from that of a snowstorm. When it's thundering,
the melody is dominated by the lower brass section and the lower instruments of
the orchestra. You can hear the basses plucking out their tune amidst tubas and
trombones blaring. The percussion section leaps into action, cymbals crashing
and
snare drums tapping, pounding out the cadence of the rain.
During a snowstorm,
the woodwinds dominate. The snowflakes falling lightly are the flute's silvery
tones. The small breeze is the clarinet section. The percussion section is
silent, except for the occasional light shaking of sleigh bells. I feel as if I
am viewing a concert of nature and I love every second of its magnificent
performance. Throughout the ages, music has been composed around weather. Many
songs contain lyrics pertaining to weather and how it affects our outlook on
life: 'Rhythm of the Rain', 'I Can See Clearly Now', 'Singin' in the Rain', and
of course the plethora of holiday songs proclaiming the joys of snow and wintry
weather. Music and meteorology will forever be intertwined in a web of words and
sounds. I plan on being involved in that weaving.
Music connects you to its world. As a music lover, I am part of a global
community that walks to a different beat than the non-musical world. I love the
secret language of music, the technical terms that mean nothing to an outsider:
sharps, flats, clefs, accents, codas, crescendo, diminuendo, ritardando,
allegro.
I am enthralled by the design notes make on the page, only making sense to a
musician, telling him or her how to play or sing the piece. I love playing the
scales/major, minor, and chromatic, singing perfect fifths, and using vibrato.
Music provides me with solace no matter what my mood. It comforts me when I'm
upset, soothes my anger, gives me hope when I'm lovelorn, and encourages my
happiness. It is an intrinsic part of who I am, and I want to stay involved with
music throughout my life. I would certainly take advantage of Cornell's
flourishing music program by joining such groups as the Wind Ensemble and a
singing group such as Grace Notes A Capella or the Chorus.
I am looking forward
to expanding my musical talents in college and making music an even more crucial
part of my life than it is now. Sure, I could exist without music, but I need it
to thrive.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Major Essay - Personal Statement
Throughout my secondary school career, I have really dedicated much of my time to furthering my knowledge of science and conducting research. I have been involved in several different research endeavors over the last few years and have won numerous distinctions. Over the last three years, through my extensive involvement in environmental preservation, I came to realize that there are many severe problems that urban lakes are facing in our modern era. I chose to examine the effects of eutrophication (the process by which a body of water becomes rich in phosphate compounds and becomes shallow with marked deficiencies in dissolved oxygen) in local bodies of water in the Los Angeles Area, namely Madrona Marsh (City of Torrance) and Harbor Lake Machado (Harbor City), and found that phosphate pollution was extremely severe in these areas. After extensive research, I found that phosphate binders, common substances used to treat medical patients with phosphate retention, could be used in this situation, and I devised a filtration system to remove phosphate and ammonia through ion-exchange and accelerated denitrification. I was extremely excited to find that these filters were extremely successful, and currently, the City of Torrance is in the process of funding construction of these filters at Madrona Marsh. For this research, I was awarded best of category and first place at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Environmental Science in May 2002. In addition, I have won third place at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in 2001, as well as first place at the California State Science Fair and Los Angeles County Science Fair. I am in the process of patenting this filtration system and am submitting my paper for publication to several national journals. I am also participating in the Intel Science Talent Search and the Siemens Westinghouse Science Competition, in which I currently hold semi-finalist status, with this work. I hope that this research will eventually lead to the betterment of lake ecosystems throughout the world. In addition to this research, I have also worked under Dr. Vito M. Campese, M.D., chief of the Division of Nephrology, University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, for the past three years conducting research on neurogenic hypertension. I have worked extensively in this lab utilizing several techniques, including nephrectomy, femoral artery catheterization, DNA extraction, polymerase chain reaction, reverse transcription, and western blotting. This research has produced two papers for publication, entitled 'Renal Injury Caused by Intrarenal Injection of Phenol Increases Afferent and Efferent Renal Sympathetic Nerve Activity' (American Journal of Hypertension 2002; 15(8):717-724) and 'Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) Stimulate Central and Peripheral Sympathetic Nervous System Activity' (In Approval Stages), in both of which I am a co-author. I have spent over 1000 hours during the past three years conducting research at the University of Southern California, and this type of research particularly interests me. My ultimate dream is to pursue an academic research career. Research has truly been a rewarding experience in my life. I have worked more than 2000 hours during my years as a secondary school student, and I know that my future will be in scientific research and investigation. Through my counselors, previous university alumni from my school, and my own research, I have found that this would be a perfect fit for me in every way. The extensive research conducted there, specifically in natural sciences, and the caliber of the professors with whom I would be working would truly allow me to grow and mature as a scientist, which is my ultimate lifetime goal. I think that my intellectual curiosity, dedication towards research, and extensive experience will contribute greatly to the university community.
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Essay Question:
Major Essay - Describe the most important activity in high school?
My Efforts in Preserving the Environment Of all the activities in which I have been involved, I have been most passionate and committed to environmental preservation and restoration. I have dedicated much of my time outside my rigorous academic schedule to environmental service and have served and continue to serve on the executive boards of several organizations that are committed to this very goal. Since seventh grade, I have spent many hours doing conservation work and I realized the only way to further this goal is to be active politically and by drawing commitment from other people. With this in mind, in ninth grade, I founded the Environmental Sciences Club at my school and became its president. In my three years at Palos Verdes Peninsula High School, I have encouraged more than 200 students to commit more than 3000 hours in conservation efforts to make my school one of the most active groups in the area. That year, I was invited by the president of our local chapter of the National Audubon Society to speak at the national conference in Asilomar, California, about the significance of youth in environmental service and I was conferred the Audubon Youth Environmental Service (YES!) Award for my work. I subsequently received an invitation to join the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy Board of Directors as a student representative. In tenth grade, I spearheaded an effort to create the Audubon YES! Council to help coordinate youth environmental activities throughout the South Bay. This council, of which I am currently vice president, now comprises representatives from over twenty high schools acting diligently to increase awareness and promote student involvement. In recognition of my efforts, I was awarded the first Audubon YES! Council award by the Palos Verdes South Bay Audubon Society in 2002, and I was made a student YES! Council representative of their board of directors. In 2000, I created a school-wide recycling program for cans, bottles, and aluminum. After many frustrated attempts, I was finally able to get approval for the program and locate private sources willing to donate all necessary equipment to the school. Since its inception, the Environmental Sciences Club has very successfully headed this program. Concurrently, I conducted in-depth research to reduce water pollution, and served as a consultant to the Friends of Madrona Marsh Board of Directors and the Harbor Park Advisory Council on water quality issues. In recognition of these various efforts, I was conferred the 2002 Palos Verdes South Bay Audubon Society Youth Conservation Award, given annually to the student who best exemplifies conservation efforts in the local and regional communities. I also received the 2002 Palos Verdes Peninsula Coordinating Council and County of Los Angeles Board of Supervisors Teen Service Awards. During secondary school, I have dedicated over 1400 hours to these efforts, and this impacted my life in many positive ways. I have learned the value of community work where results can only be achieved with the collaboration of many people, organizations, and elected representatives working together in conjunction towards a cleaner, healthier, and balanced world. The protection of our environment is an unending task. It is hard, unpredictable work but vital to our survival and to the quality of our lives on this planet. I am very proud to be a part of it, but at the same time humbled by the immensity of the task ahead of us.
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Essay Question:
What challenge have you faced that has taught you about yourself? Major essay (682 words)
Perhaps one of the most momentous milestones of any teenager's life is the proud moment, captured on film with a nondescript wall in the background, during which he receives the privilege, the responsibility, the overall freedom to drive a car. For teenagers in New Jersey, this event typically occurs on their seventeenth birthday, after at least six months of practice driving with a parent in the car and probably much more than six months worth of planning as to what destinations will be reached once the license is in hand. I followed the protocol in the time period before my drivers test. I practiced, prayed, sought advice, counted down, and practiced some more. But when the morning that was my seventeenth birthday finally arrived, the long awaited piece of laminated paper was not mine to behold. Instead, I fell short in the most predictable area: I failed parallel parking. Amidst tears, I explained to my concerned father that by tapping the cone on my entrance into the spot, I had not met the standards of safe driving. Instead of returning to school that day, I mourned the horrible injustice that I had suffered, petitioning for comfort from family and friends, but most of all, struggling with the fact that I had done the unthinkable. I had failed. Not being able to achieve this right of passage into a new stage of life would never have been such a crisis to me if it had not been associated with the concept of failure. A self-labeled perfectionist, the vast majority of my actions was based on settling for nothing but the best from myself. In many areas, this made me stronger, and allowed me to accomplish much more than would have been possible without such an attitude. However, in failing my drivers test, the wound went a little deeper because of the sky-high expectations I had always set for myself. Nevertheless, I listened attentively to the advice of others who had failed and waited nervously for the passing of the two weeks that were required before I could take the test again. Full of determination, I spent hours of practice parking, trying to learn from my father, who lectured on the radius of the wheels, my moms best friend, who had taught drivers ed years ago, even my older sister, who could count the number of times shed parallel parked since her drivers test on one hand. Everyone was confident in my abilities, and everyone was just as shocked as I was when the unfortunate occurred again, and I failed parallel parking for the second time. Regardless of the fact that I had again been accused of committing my greatest fear, I returned to school that day, and somehow managed to function while entertaining questions of my newfound habit of failure. Reliving the nightmare had awakened me to the realities of my capability to sometimes be a humbled human who makes mistakes. I changed my approach to passing the test, and when I woke up early on the morning of my third try, I refused to define who I am by whether or not I passed what I had come to see as one trivial test in the grand scheme of things. It was with this attitude (and a different testing location) that I finally parked successfully and received my drivers license. Looking at the picture plastered on my license, I will forever remember the reasons behind my smile. I had achieved two landmark goals. The first, the ability to drive by myself, has certainly added an element of independence to my life. Yet the other accomplishment, accepting a mistake and then actually progressing from it, had benefits not limited by gallons of gas or miles of paved streets. Instead, it has provided me with the priceless knowledge that on this road of life, there are bound to be challenges of all sorts, but it is the driver, not the roadblock, that determines if the destination is ever reached.
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Essay Question:
Minor - Describe your intellectual interests, their evolution, and what makes them exciting to you.
Computers. The magical machines that grace our desks with a plethora of information. I've been interested in them since I was about eight years old. That first computer my parents got me (the one that was about forty times slower than the one I'm using right now) was what really set off my intense interest in computers. I was amazed by everything that could be done on it. I even took programming courses at summer camp for a few years. It wasn't until high school, however, that I discovered my genuine interest in computer science. The introductory computer science course at my school helped me realize that I loved working with computers. The constant developments in the field and release of new technologies ensures that computer science will never be boring. There's always going to be something new to do with computers. The Latin language has been fascinating to me since the seventh grade. During my first year in junior high school, I had the opportunity to take an introductory Latin class. Although most of what we did involved English derivatives, I still found the class fun and interesting. The amount of English words we get from Latin is absolutely amazing. When I found out that my high school offered Latin as a full language sequence, I jumped at the opportunity to delve deep into the language. My vocabulary has been expanded so much just from learning a few simple Latin words. It's nice to be able to read the language, but I'm more interested in how the words we have today in English are derived from Latin.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Personal Statement: Topic of your choice.
The heat was overwhelming. Sweat trickled down my forehead in steady, eye-stinging beads. I bent over to grab another bundle of rice seedlings, and suddenly the world went out in a white hot flash. Strong arms caught me before I hit the mud. I dimly recognized my aunt's sunburned face, caught between a worried frown and a sympathetic smile. 'Sun stroke,' she whispered, 'to the shade with you.' Surging with undisguised relief, I half-crawled, half-stumbled into the refuge beneath a tree, and plucked off the conical straw hat that had failed to shield me from the assault of the July sun. I must have been quite a sight to behold to the knowing eye: a city girl sitting on the edge of a paddy field in northern Vietnam, up to the knees in drying mud, suffering from sunstroke on the first day of the planting season. Leaning against the cool surface of the tree bark, I tried in vain to avoid thinking about the reasons that had brought me there in the first place. My experiment with manual labor was supposed to keep at bay the reality that I was, in a sense, running away. It didn't work. I found my mind being inexorably drawn back to my cool, mud-free house in Hanoi. In Hanoi, reminded my frustratingly one-track brain, there were also SATs, the advent of the final year of high school, and, looming darkly on the horizon, the US college application process. At this thought, the ringing in my head was replaced by sharp stabs of guilt as I searched myself for the source of my weakness. For years, I had painstakingly sketched out my post-school education plan with unceasing enthusiasm, but now when it came to the actual plunge, why did college intimidate me so? I had always considered myself flexible, open to changes, and reasonably sure of myself whenever there were challenges to overcome. I had not been, for instance, paralyzed by the language and culture barriers that faced me when, at twelve years old, I had suddenly been whisked away to New York City. When English finally became a part of me, it was exhilarating but not surprising. Then before I knew it, I was back in my native Vietnam, and floundering for breath in the stifling, exam-frenzied classroom of the country's best-known 'and most competitive- public high school. Somehow, I had found a way to cope with that as well. Big changes -cultural and otherwise - were not, therefore, a wholly new territory. Why then? Possibly, it was because college would be like nothing I had faced. Even in New York, I had had my family by my side. Plus, high school was an environment whose challenges I knew well. In college, I would no longer be slogging through the same rote exams in pursuit of trivial grades. I would, for the first time in my life, be studying for myself, in preparation for what would come next - real life. I would not be able to blame the challenges I would undoubtedly confront in the future on circumstances beyond my control, for studying abroad had been entirely my choice. There was the crux of my problem: fear of taking risks. Applying to college had given me the first whiff of life as an adult, and I could not be certain I was entirely ready for that leap. I was rudely shaken out of contemplation by the shrill trilling of cicadas in my ears, and the dull thuds of heavy hooves. Caught off-guard, I gazed in horror at the grinning face of my cousin, who perched atop a huge water buffalo, his family's cud-chewing tractor. The animal bellowed loudly at the same time my cousin spoke: 'Want a ride?' The first time I had been offered a buffalo ride, I had been four, and visiting this place, my father's ancestral home, for the first time. Unlike my country-born father, I had been out of my depth and had refused with tears. Maybe this time - Maybe not. I declined the offer quickly while the animal shook its fearsome horns in my direction, and seethed at my cousin's patronizing chuckle as his mammoth steed lumbered away. Picking at the flakes of mud on my calf, I pondered the different life circumstances that had bound me to books and modern appliances, and ordained my cousin the King of the Water Buffalo. Yet come September this country-savvy boy was going to attend the National Economics University in Hanoi. His parents were breaking their backs in the fields some ten paces to my left, and he was going to college in a city he hardly knew. My father had done the same, leaving the land his forbearers had tilled for a dozen generations, and gone to university. He had taken a risk, and had changed his life for the better. As I looked around at the fields of red earth slowly growing green, I realized that my father and cousin were not the only ones changing. On the horizon, factories were springing up in former paddy fields. Tractors would soon be replacing the frightening water buffalo as the farmer's best friend. Vietnam was awakening after years of sleep under the conservative rule of its communist government, and was now realizing that the world had nearly left her behind. My country now sped to catch up, and was making good progress. A new wave was rising, a change that began within every Vietnamese, and it hinted of a bright future. I wanted to be part of that wave. If my cousin could leave his family and the life he had always known to pursue an education, then so could I. Somewhere beyond the borders of my country, there was a college waiting for me, promising a new start, knowledge, and most of all, change. My anxiety lingered, but was not so pungent and debilitating as before; I was finally beginning to see a way through. College, much like riding a buffalo, was an unknown, and the only way to dispel the doubt was to meet it headfirst. I would embark upon this new journey equipped with all the understanding and experience that had helped me in earlier adventures, as well as a wish for more. Tomorrow, I thought, I am going back to Hanoi. My Hanoi, ancient and elegant, bred a race of deep and quietly graceful people with a conservative streak. But even we Hanoians are willing to change in order to bring our country up-to-speed with the world. Sitting on the dyke beside my aunt's paddy field, I felt eager to confront the challenges that lay before me. There was, however, one thing I had to do first. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see my cousin untying his buffalo, finishing for the day. He barely noticed me approaching, and jumped at my next words: 'So, how about that ride?'
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Briefly describe any scholastic distinctions or honors you have won beginning with ninth grade:
Some seek art in the clickkk of a camera, the swishhhh of a paintbrush, or the naaa-naaa-naaa of a violin. Though these expressions enrich humanity, none has had the impact that writing has - not in my life, and not in my heart. For as long as I can remember, the art I love most has been the kind that flows from the tip of a pen. The prettiest pictures that I have ever seen did not come from the Louvre, but rather from the fantasies words on paper conjured in my mind. Reality (and unreality) brought to life, forever bound in leather, immortalized on paper - they were the greatest gifts I had the privilege of finding in adolescence. Though I have received honors in mathematics and science, the awards I prize most are the ones I have received for the art of writing. In tenth grade, I was a finalist in the National PTA Reflections Program. In eleventh grade, I was the winner of the Hamilton College Prize for Oral and Written Communication and was nominated to participate in the NCTE Achievement Awards in Writing. It was not until this September, however, that I received the greatest compliment as a writer and reader: I was notified that I had won the NCTE Award. This was a moment in my life that I would never forget. A teacher once asked me to choose which I liked more: reading or writing. I told her that I didn't distinguish between the two. I couldn't. They were the chicken and the egg; one gave rise to the other. I loved them both and to say which I preferred would be as impossible as choosing between the sun and the stars.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Briefly describe which of these activities (extracurricular and personal activities or work experience) has had the most meaning for you, and why.
When I was very young, I always had an irrational fear of the elderly. Aged bodies, wrinkled skin, failing eyes, halting breaththey were constant reminders of the cruel joke times plays on humanity. All of this changed, however, the summer I spent volunteering at Wedgewood Nursing Home. At Wedgewood, I learned that to grow old was not a curse, but rather a gift of immeasurable value. Elvira with the long red talons kept manicured to glittering perfection, grumpy old Al whose daughter was too busy to visit, Miss Mary who danced to songs that only she could hear they taught me more about life than any book or movie ever would. From them, I learned that aged bodies represented years long and rich with life - not death. I learned that the wrinkled skin I so detested sheathed hands that once had braided a daughter's hair, played concerts on a baby grand piano, and shook hands with presidents of old. I learned that failing eyes saw things that even I couldn't see - things beyond the realm of youth. I learned that halting breath in no way indicated a halting heart, but rather one that had survived and thrived in the face of time's opposition. I saw that these people were not at the end of their lives; their lives would never end. They were immortalized in my memory and in that of the countless other people they had touched. My vision of them now is not one of fear, but one of admiration: I remember them wrapped in terrycloth robes grander than a kings finest furs, mobilized in wheel chairs trustier than the most valiant white horse, and I smile, thinking of how soft those wrinkled hands could be, and how sweetly those failing eyes crinkled when they laughed.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Personal Statement: Topic of my choice
'I need nine ccs of oxygen' NOW! Someone steady her head, she's not taking the mouthpiece. Hey, you! New girl! Whatever your name is, where's the oxygen? Snap out of it! RIGHT NOW!' I stare with absolute horror at the bloody woman lying in front of me on the long stretcher. Her leg juts at a gruesome angle and her elbows are terribly bruised. This, a motor vehicle accident, is my first emergency call. I should have known that's what MVA stood for on the little pager Roslyn Rescue gives all its members. How did I get myself into this, anyway? I think back to the day my best friend Morgan convinced me to join the Company with her. She made the emergencies sound like little girls with cats stuck up trees and grandmas who'd been locked out of their houses. Yeah, right. The ambulance races at seventy miles per hour, lights blinking and machines whirring. Backed into one of the corners, I clutch fiercely at the railing by my side. My knuckles are white and beads of sweat form at my temples. Oh God, what am I going to do? I wrack my mind, trying to remember everything I've learned from the EMT training courses I've been taking twice a week. Nothing they have taught me, however, has prepared me for the reality of what is in front of me. Suddenly, I look down and see that the girl on the stretcher is looking right at me. I notice for the first time that she has curly blonde hair and large almond-shaped eyes as blue as lapis lazuli. In those eyes, I see fear, fear stronger than any I have ever known, mortal fear that makes my apprehension embarrassing and so very insignificant. And all at once, in that moment, my training rushes back to me: Pearse telling me what to do and what not to do - 'Listen to the paramedics!' Joe telling me about the first call he ever went on - Always wear your gloves!' Nights and nights of classes - Don't distract the driver - The paramedics know what they are doing - This is the oxygen, this is the suction unit, this is the defibrillator, this is the heat pack ace bandage neck brace head bed ice pack face mask syringegauzepadthermometerlatexgloves - I remember now that I didn't join the Company because of anything Morgan said. I joined to make a difference, to help people, or at least to help alleviate the kind of fear I was seeing in front of me right now. I had known then that it wasn't my duty alone to save lives; I don't know why I had forgotten that now. I was only here to help. Shaking my head clear of thoughts, I suddenly spring into action. I flip the switch for the oxygen and crank it up to nine ccs. Looking down at the girl, I smile as though to tell her everything will be all right, that she has nothing to worry about. Seeing this, she gives me an imperceptible nod and slowly closes her eyes. A minute passes, and then two and I stand there, watching the steady rise and fall of her chest.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Additional Information
I was born in Israel, in a small Tel Aviv hospital room that my moms says was
crowded with her seven sister, and my dad's four. There are forty-six first
cousins on my family tree, three of whom I have yet to meet. My parents
sometimes tell me stories about the little apartment they shared in Hertzelia
and
about the man next door with the Doberman that would bark all night. When I ask
them about terrorism, they say they don't remember any fear of getting on a bus
or going into a crowded shopping mall. But my eleven aunts and forty-six
cousins
still living in Israel do; they know it well.
I live in a pretty house in New York now, with white walls and gray carpeting.
My room is too small, and I complain that there is not enough all space for all
the snapshots and posters I would like to hang up. At one corner, a little
shelf
is lined with my favorite books, fat novels of science fiction and philosophy.
I've read Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead and Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game so
many
times that their covers are falling off, and I have dreams at night sometimes
that Howard Roark and Ender are actually fighting interstellar wards against
each
other.
Hard, pulsing rock music, the kind that makes my dads car shake when I
drive home at night - writing short stories with an inky purple pen I bought at
a
flea market in Hackensack - a Nirvana CD I've played so many times that the
silver side of the disk is gray with scratches - these are my favorite things.
I have a dorky little sister who is exactly four years younger (we were born on
the same day) - a 'birthday present,' my parents like to say, even though I joke
that the real present is when she's not present. She apparently looks just like
me, although neither of us can see it ('she should be so blessed!). But all
jokes aside, she is my favorite person in the world.
My little bookshelf looks sad and neglected nowadays, what with babysitting,
tutoring, and training classes to become an EMT. I am one of the only six girls
in a company of seventy-five in the Roslyn Rescue Hook and Ladder Company, which
is weird, I guess. I also have a really odd sot of affection for old people.
My
friends coo at babies; I giggle with the elderly.
Throughout four years of high school, I have made great friends - best friends -
who have shared birthdays, proms, and Halloween parties with me, and who took me
out to celebrate the day I passed my road test. Though we all buzz now with the
anticipation and excitement of college, there is an unspoken sadness between us
that by this time next year, there may be states and even oceans separating us,
instead of the old houses ands streets we've crossed a million times.
Despite this sadness, however, we still look forward to the future, filled with
all the wild and unexpected things that make life life. I've been doing a lot
of
thinking these past few weeks, lying on my bed at night, with Kurt singing in my
ears, Ender and Howard fighting in my Head - just relaxing, thinking of tomorrow
and what lies ahead.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Describe your intellectual interests, their evolution, and what makes them exciting to you.
For reasons not yet unearthed, I have found myself drawn to the languages of the East. I find that, unlike the bland French and Spanish offered in high school, Russian and Japanese are exceptional in that they are written not in English letters but in their own character systems. In my sophomore year, I had the opportunity to listen to a Russian CD and became immediately attracted to the '-ya's and '-ov's - the surprising warmth in a language native to a country so cold. I began my rough education in the unusually captivating language by studying lyrics. Slowly picking up common words and phrases, I chose to test my abilities by memorizing the Cyrillic alphabet. I had quite a time remembering that 'H' was 'N' and 'P' was 'R'. A grammar stickler, I naturally targeted it as my next attempt. Unexpectedly, the grammar was a challenging obstacle I had to struggle through. Realizing that self-teaching could only get me so far, I checked the foreign language courses offered at a community college and was disappointed to find that Russian was not on the list; however, Japanese was. What sparked my particular interest for Japanese, out of the many Asian languages I am exposed to, were my family's Miyazaki animated films. As a child, I was very much attracted to the smooth-sounding language and therefore was able to pick up several phrases such as 'nani' and 'haiyaku.' Over the years, more modern anime lured me further into Japanese, enabling me to focus on the inflections in the language and therefore recognize it audibly. When it comes to writing Japanese, I have a slight advantage in that kanji is Chinese characters, familiar elements in my life. As for hiragana, still foreign to me, I plan to learn all that I can absorb from the community college course. In treading the shallow waters of Russian and Japanese, I have discovered the existence of beauty, fluidity, and intense complexity in both. I will further immerse myself in them both outside of high school and in college, and soon the time will come when I can fully grasp and appreciate the entirety of the two Eastern languages.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Consider the academic programs in the school/college you indicated above. How will you utilize them to further explore your intended major or field of interest, or general academic interests if you're undecided? (Minor essay)
From the courses in the Government and English departments, I plan to absorb textual knowledge and connect it with what I learn from Eastern language courses and the Mario Enaudi International Studies Program. I can combine practical and theoretical information and apply the combination to such a career field as the United States Foreign Service. Practical knowledge, like knowing several languages, will enable me to interact very well with those in East Europe and Asia; the communication is necessary for me to be able to share ideas and provide aid when necessary. Theoretical knowledge, such as understanding culture backgrounds and government structures, will give me awareness of great breadth, which is vital when adjusting to new countries. I believe Cornell's unique International Studies Program offers greater depth than regular courses in the aforementioned departments, and will most adequately prepare me for traveling abroad - a journey that is not only about seeing new sights but also about reaching out to give help where it is needed. In addition, foreign country experiences will be benefits in that they will provide as good groundwork for me to enter and succeed in either the government or business world. Developing and establishing communication networks in the United States and abroad is crucial in maintaining strong relationships not only between people but also between cultures. Such a task is one that I will be glad to undertake with the strong foundation of Cornell's specific and diverse courses.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.
Two Men, Two Women, One Right Equality is a virtue that America has long proclaimed to be a part of its democratic society. However, a national concern - the legalization of same-sex marriages - is now beginning to redefine 'equality' as most Americans see it. The issue interests me in that equality is the one feature of the United States that I deem most important. Many struggles in its name had been fought up to this day, including voting rights for women and legalized interracial marriages, and the present fight for legalized same-sex marriage is no less difficult. Though same-sex couples are among the minority, they will triumph like their equality-achieving predecessors and, in time, obtain the legal right to marriage. Alarmed by the fact that most Americans and President George W. Bush protest and deny what same-sex couples rightfully deserve, I have joined the fight for equality. With time comes change, and America must adapt to change by redefining and reapplying the democratic core values. Marriage is a legal right reserved to all citizens of America. According to research, those who oppose same-sex marriage, including national organizations like the American Family Association, do so because of religious beliefs. Though freedom of religion in America permits Christians and other similar believers to see marriage as being between one man and one woman, that freedom should not override the need for equality, the basis of the U.S. Constitution and the foundation of America's present society. The laws created in the United States are meant to protect the people, especially minorities, and ensure equality. Because I, myself, am not of any religion, I consider it important to keep religion from becoming too influential over politics and religious people from putting personal beliefs above democratic core values. Children, truly, are the future and should be protected. However, by the lack of the benefits and securities that come with legal marriage, the children of same-sex couples are greatly injured despite the fact they are the very people conservatives claim to protect by opposing same-sex marriage. Without the right to all the family benefits and securities that heterosexual married couples have, same-sex couples are risking both emotional damage and financial deprivation to any children they decide to raise. If a child is being raised by his or her biological parent and same-sex spouse, the non-biological parent cannot assume parenting rights such as giving consent to medical treatment if the child is in an emergency. Also, if the biological parent should happen to die, the child would not be legally entitled to receive financial support or visitations, nor be allowed under the custody of the non-biological parent. Not only would these injustices sever an important family connection from the childs life, but would also injure the child emotionally if he or she comes to be dependent on and closely attached to the non-biological parent. To separate a child from his or her parents, whether they are straight or gay, would do more harm than good. Because I am a child myself, I care very much for the well being of all children. The national debate over whether same-sex marriage should be legalized or not is one in which I heavily take part. I am not gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender, but rather a concerned citizen who is determined to see, in politics, that the democratic core values are rightfully placed above all other standards and that all children receive equal protection and benefits.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Personal statement.
A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Woman No matter how her words are conveyed, the one with a pen in hand wields it with a purpose. As time unwaveringly passes, I realize that I am that one, for only recently has my ability to embody and express a sophisticated idea been nascent. Because there is purpose behind my words, there is substance within them; and substance is key in attaining my objective. Writing is a blessing in that it comes in infinite forms, allowing me to communicate on multiple levels to a variety of audiences. Communication is vital in that I search to connect strongly with others through the written language. To obtain the connection, I want my reader to interact with my work emotionally, intellectually, and evocatively. In such a manner, writing is not an end but rather a means to an end. While the means is wholly up to me, the end is what I seek to evoke from my readers. In my writing, the combination and usage of words is shaped carefully, poured slowly into the void of white pages, so that my readers learn not to focus microscopically but macroscopically. The objects of their focus would be those that are so vast that they are life-encompassing. The grandeur in diversity and human experience is so beautifully abstract yet real that it is a whole other dimension in itself, a boundless world within our physical world. To open others' eyes to what their immediate surroundings do not, and most likely cannot, reveal is the end I aim to achieve.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Choose and discuss a quotation or personal motto that reflects your values and beliefs and tells us something about the kind of person you are.
Choosing a direction for this essay was an extremely difficult task. I pondered if I should describe the 8 years it took me to attain my Black Belt, and my decision to turn down the shorter, easier, but less rewarding option of receiving a children's Black Belt three years earlier. I debated explaining my involvement in running a sophomore retreat during my junior year, in which I successfully bridged the gap between practical real world application of religious beliefs, and the perceived rigid mandates of Catholic religious doctrine. I even thought about describing when I received a call in the middle of the night from a desperate and suicidal friend. I would have described how I talked her out of that naively permanent decision, and how it inspired me to strive to improve my ability to help others during moments of personal crisis through understanding more about human behavior. However, I think it is impossible to describe effectively my personality traits through one specific instance. Then it hit me. I understood the reason why no specific achievement stood out in my mind. I realized that I deem all my actions as the expected and natural actions any caring individual is obligated to do. Only through the accumulation of my various deeds and accomplishments can one see the real quality of my character. It is difficult to distinguish a specific character trait that shines through my actions. It is only when looking back at the sum of my achievements that I can discern an actual outline to my persona. Underlying all the situations where I succeeded were a few character traits and values that defined who I am: my integrity, my constant effort to perform all tasks to the greatest of my ability, my capacity to stay true to myself, and my love for others. In almost every situation I can recall, I retained a strong sense of personal integrity. Holding on to my moral system and the few noble concepts left within today's society has enabled me to avoid compromising my name and character. I have resisted subjecting myself to drugs, alcohol, violence and other personal excesses through my determination to be true to a strong value system. I am truly a perfectionist at heart. To complete many mediocre jobs for me pales in comparison to the value of a single, well thought out, successfully implemented deed. The satisfaction of attaining an ambitious goal more than compensates for the time and effort needed to achieve that objective. Applying my ability fully gives me more confidence and self-respect. In addition, it has earned me great respect from my peers. Throughout my life, I have resisted "selling out". I refuse to be dishonest and be hypocritical towards my beliefs, opinions and actions. I have retained the reputation as an individualist. Staying true to my beliefs has been the principle I most frequently exhibit. Love and caring for others push me to assist others, and gives direction in my life. Everyone deserves equal treatment. It is wise to act loving towards anyone and everyone. Each trait exemplifies a small part of my personality. No single one dominates the rest; each is equally an important contributor. They are all pieces of the puzzle that makes up my persona. Mark Twain once said, "Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest." I hope what I do, what I say, and what I am, somehow gratify and astound those I meet.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Describe your intellectual interests, their evolution, and what makes them exciting to you.
My predominant intellectual interest lies in achieving a greater understanding
of human behavior. Throughout my years at a small parochial high school, I have
encountered a variety of interesting and individual personalities. Friends have
come to me for advice, for consolation, in need of someone who listens.
They knew I was the type of person to whom they could talk to about their
feelings and
emotional conflicts. I have helped deal with diverse emotional challenges:
issues
of family disputes, confused sexual identity, suicidal thoughts. Through these
conversations and interactions, I have discussed many intellectual,
philosophical, and moral questions.
In many cases, my ability to help was in direct correlation to my friend's
ability to help him or her self. I encouraged my friends to get a clearer
understanding of their situations by being objective and nonjudgmental. These
experiences expanded my knowledge about human behavior and psyche.
In my last four years, I have gained a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction by
helping others. By analyzing and interpreting others, I gained a greater
awareness of my own self. The more my friends talked, the more I listened, and
the more I developed an understanding of others.
Unfortunately, I have based my advice solely on my own conscience and common
sense. My ability can only develop further with the thoughts and input of
professors and research in an academic scene. Through this greater knowledge
will
I truly be better able to help others.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
What are some of your most notable awards, honors, or achievements in academic or extracurricular areas? If any is especially important to you, tell us why.
There exist many notable awards and achievements in my life. Receiving the St.
Bonaventure Award 4 years in a row, being awarded the National Merit Scholarship
Program Letter of Commendation, receiving 8 Varsity Letters, and being League
Champions in Cross Country and Track all rank among my finest moments.
All my awards and accomplishments pale in comparison to my pursuit of a Black
Belt in Jiu Jitsu. Although it required much of my time and energy, it taught me
great lessons in discipline, confidence and respect. It changed my attitude
toward the world, challenging me both mentally and physically. I declined the
option of receiving a Junior Black Belt to achieve a larger understanding and
appreciation for Jiu Jitsu. This ultimately resulted in my attainment of an
Adult
Level Black Belt. This required three additional years of training, but I wanted
to earn something with more meaning, and to have every ounce of sweat, blood,
and
pain I endured count towards the achievement of my Black Belt. The most exciting
aspect of realizing this goal is that it does not represent the end of my
training. It has increased my interests in the world of martial arts, an area I
am still just beginning to explore.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Take a look at your list of activities and work experiences above. Please tell us about the one you value most and why.
Of all my activities, I value Cross Country the most. This is not because of my
physical accomplishments, but more importantly due to its valuable lessons in
determination to achieve ambitious goals. Going into this season, I knew my
ability and skill as a runner was marginal. Compared to my teammates, I did not
stand a chance on Varsity. Therefore, my preparation in the summer required me
to
train harder, and want to succeed more than anyone else. Only then, would I
secure a spot on Varsity.
Sacrificing hour upon hour in the summer to train instead of going out and
enjoying myself took commitment. By doing this, I believe that I acquired a
greater sense of self-discipline and self-sacrifice. The example I set with this
extra effort enabled me to become one of our team leaders. The example and
encouragement I gave to my teammates also deepened my relationships with them.
These experiences and achievements far outweighed the awards and medals I
received. Hard work and sacrifice allowed me to not only become a valuable
member
of Varsity Cross Country, but also develop strong personal relationships.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
"Tell us anything about yourself you feel was left out in the previous essays."
Selling Your Soul 101 The Miller's daughter sulked in her locked bedroom, trying to drown out the noises of her bustling household. Staring for the thousandth time at the college essay topic "If you could turn straw into any substance, what would it be and why? Please make your essay at least 250 words", she burst into tears. 'Why must they ask such benign questions? I'll never get this done on time for the deadline! I'd sell my soul to be anywhere but here! Then maybe I could concentrate.' Just then, a figure opened her bedroom door and walked in. He was a short man, about the height of a child, eccentrically dressed in green lederhosen. Smiling at her shock of his appearance, he jovially greeted her, 'Hello, what seems to be troubling you? She whined, 'My parents locked me in my room and won't let me out until I write this impossible college essay about straw. They think I will be able to turn it into pure gold overnight!' 'Well, I think I could arrange a solution to your problem. The only thing I would ask in return is something of little importance to you, nothing you'd probably want, I just happen to enjoy collecting them.' 'Fine. Anything. Just do it!' With that, she found herself in a locked room atop a high tower. Sighing with relief, she took up her pen and started her essay. Immediately, she realized she now had no creative input. The interruptions of a handsome young man asking her to let down her hair every once and a while did not help her concentration either. It was nearly impossible to avoid writer's block. Frustrated, she broke down crying once more. Just then, the lederhosen clad figure reappeared. 'You wretched little man! You deceived me!' She screamed. He coyly replied, 'I did no such thing. I got you a nice quiet place to finish your writing, didn't I? 'But this isn't what I wanted! There is nothing to inspire me here! What type of a deal is this? I want something better! I need a crack team of experts to help make sure I'm going in the right direction with my essay! After much arguing, the devilish man yielded to her demands, 'Alright, you win; I'll give you one more chance.' Suddenly, the Miller's daughter found herself in a very small cottage in the deep woods. There lived a group of seven dwarfish miners skilled in the art of literacy. Taking 4 hours shifts, each assisted her for 3 days nonstop in trying to complete her essay, but to no avail. She just could not get the essay done. Exasperated, she proclaimed, 'All these countless hours of work, I don't even care about the essay anymore. I just want to get some sleep for a change, then I'll have a clear mind to write this essay.' Always nearby, the devilish little man went into action. An old woman who was selling apples visited the Millers daughter. Since they looked so delicious, the Miller's daughter gladly took one. The instant she bit into it, she fell into a deep slumber. A prince named Cornelius, who had been searching for her for some time, discovered she was lying in a coma, rushed to her. Finding he could not wake her, he lamented, 'Oh, I would give anything for her to wake! Hearing these words, a small man eccentrically dressed in green lederhosen approached him...
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
My Academic Interests (minor)
I was first turned on to the exploration of the human behavior through philosophy. This was my first intellectual passion. My parents both have doctorates in philosophy, and made sure to incorporate their knowledge into my education. Since I was young I had been listening to countless lectures, and I began my own exploration by reading Camus The Stranger. Though I had to struggle with both a language barrier and my young age, with the help of my parents I read and enjoyed it. Reading about numerous great philosophers inspired me to read many other works, and to take a summer course in existentialism at Johns Hopkins University. Reading Kierkegaard and Sartre was very enlightening, but in the second week of my course I came to a realize something. What fascinated me most in Sartre for example, were the factors that determined human behavior. I began reading Philip Roth and Dostoevsky and began analyzing my friends and myself, and asking what hidden motives could exist in someone to push them to act a certain way. I realized that I was not as interested in philosophical problems, as I was in analyzing human motivations. At first I though my interests related only to psychology, yet after taking a summer course in it through the JHU Talent Search Program, and exploring both its biological and humanitarian aspects, I realized I was interested in something beyond just an education in psychology. What I was truly interested in is a combination of social science, psychology and education, the fields covered in Human Development.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Why Human Development? (minor)
My second term junior year, I volunteered at an elementary school as a teacher aid. I loved the time I spent there and I felt a deep understanding and connection with the children. After my experience I wanted to continue my interaction with children into college, and I was excited to find that Cornell has an Early Childhood Program. By taking part in various activities within the program I will have a chance to further explore this field. My first language is Bulgarian, and I did not begin learning English until I came to America at the age of eight. I believe the course in Language Development or Psychology of Language would be perfect in my case, because I have recently experienced learning a foreign language. This is also an area of growing interest to me because I have many friends and relatives whose kids are growing up in multilingual environment, and I am familiar with their problems. I am not quite sure which concentration I would choose yet, and I feel it is important for me to explore with various courses in different concentrations. A course in Problematic Behavior in Adolescence, for example, would give me a good concept of whether or not I would be interested in dealing with and helping such children, or looking further into this field. The department of Human Development offers an incredibly vast range of courses and programs, and I would certainly be looking forward to fully exploring many of these.
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Essay Question:
Please describe which of your activities has been most meaningful and why (150 words):
Starting piano lessons in first grade began a powerful musical journey. I would rise at 6:00 to learn new pieces and meticulously practice Russian scales and other technical drills. In fact, competition was my motivation to play piano. I developed discipline to practice, but I only felt rewarded if I won a prize. My attitude changed when I began playing ensemble music in middle school. For once, the pure joy of music inspired me to practice. I started the Chamber Music Group and contacted the Powhatan Nursing Home to play for the community. When we perform, the beautiful notes scatter magnificently as the audience rises and sings along. During Governor's School, I was awed again by the power of music. For our showcase, the orchestra and I performed Carmina Burano. The silent audience burst into applause; some were even moved to tears. I feel proud being able to elicit such profound emotion, and cherish uplifting people's lives through my passion for music.
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Essay Question:
Describe your intellectual interests, their evolution, and what makes them exciting to you (minor essay):
My interest in math developed in 6th grade when an inspirational teacher engaged our class with intriguing brain teasers. I spent hours puzzling out who lives in which house in what state with how many pets. This year I have another exceptional teacher for Calculus. In 8th grade, I decided to build a balsa wood airplane when my grandfather bet that I wouldn't have the patience. I took on his challenge, and though I struggled for months, finally seeing my airplane glide in the air was rewarding. When the TV show Alias aired, I became captivated by the fascinating gadgets and spy equipment. I admired and wanted to emulate Marshall, the engineering technician who designed secret devices and always developed immediate solutions to problems. My technology interest motivated me to take computer science classes. I am currently building a Parallax robot in my independent-study class and leading a team to construct an autonomous Botball robot for competition. I'm also doing experimentation on the Interplanetary Internet for Mars communication using delay-tolerant networking. In high school, I learned to value teamwork and working with others. As founder of the Asian Club, I collaborated with three other clubs to organize a successful International Night. As a black-belt Taekwondo instructor, I help students master spin-roundhouse kicks and learn new forms. In ensemble music, I play with others to create moving music. Through small self-discoveries, I have embraced my excitement for the endless challenges in technology. I would love to combine my interests in mathematics, hands on activities, technology, computer science, and team work to pursue a meaningful engineering career.
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Essay Question:
Consider the academic programs in the school/college. How will you utilize them to further explore your intended field of interest, or general academic interests if undecided?
I am interested in engineering because I am attracted to practical applications of math and science. From the Engineering Fall Preview, I was pleased to learn that I can explore a breadth of engineering courses (intro-classes, ENGRG 150 seminar) before deciding on a major as a sophomore in a cutting-edge field of which I am passionate. I am thrilled that 28% of Cornell engineering students are female. I will be in a supportive environment with women peers and faculty. I was very impressed by the SWE panel discussion, and intend to become an active member to further women engineers. I am excited about the ample opportunities for research as an undergraduate. I will be able to apply what I learn in classes to solve new real-world problems. After talking to the AUV and RoboCup teams, I was encouraged to join the project teams, especially since they are extensions of my current work with robotics. I'm also interested in engineering co-op programs and internships, where I can experience working for an actual company before graduating. I would love to join the Piano Society, or explore music technology in the Learning Music through Digital Technology class to further my piano interest. I would choose to live in the "Just About Music" dorm where I can play on the baby-grand piano with other students. Finally, the diversity of Cornell's student body will enhance my personal and academic growth, in a community of contrasting outlooks and perspectives. With an increasingly global society, I will be prepared to collaborate with others and make a difference in the world as an engineer.
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Essay Question:
General personal/candidate statement. Also, an essay describing a triumph. I used it for both questions.
Every young person has had some struggle, some grand accomplishment suitable for the college application essay--some intense effort wrought with pain and the eventual thrill of triumph. With this in mind, it seems apropos to recount a trying time in my life that is one of most defining first experiences. 'I'm not going to do it," I protested though I knew it would do no good. And so began my tale of woe: My first pull-up! Not a matter of life or death, I know, but a struggle nonetheless, and these things always seem worse during the anticipation. I already looked foolish enough, wearing the most athletic-looking thing in my closet that somehow never looked quite right on me. So why not complete the humiliation by failing miserably in front of the entire team? "I'm just a coxswain," I sighed as I grabbed hold of a metal bar that had proven to be the bane of my existence. Staring up at this, I thought about how utterly unnecessary the process was. I could be doing anything else! But I knew from the expression on my coach's face that I was doing nothing else until I got my chin over that bar. Tired and frustrated, I decided to give it a try. And so I tried, not just tried, but tried hard. Apparently, something inside me wanted to do this. I was not going to let an inanimate metal rod beat me. I was better than that. It wasn't just competitiveness that got me up there, though, and as much as drive to succeed motivates, it wasn't that either. I think it was looking down at my bow seat's hands, blistered and battered from weeks upon weeks of driving an oar through the water. She was cheering for me. The whole team was, and so I did it. And when I came down, I was barely aware of the minor physical accomplishment. Instead, I focused on the realization of what it meant to really be part of a team. The support, the camaraderie, and the understanding were all manifested in this one small act. This was what I truly saw as an accomplishment at that moment. In retrospect, I have realized that this event has served as a metaphor for how I deal with challenge in general. I believe that when faced with adversity, it is of paramount importance to stand firm and grab hold of the bar. That is why this event stands out in my mind, turning the simple narrative of a coxswain's first pull-up into a struggle worth mentioning.
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Essay Question:
We ask you to write a personal essay that will help us to know you better. You should feel confident that in writing about what matters to you, you are bound to convey a strong sense of who you are. (major essay, personal statement, 500+ words)
On a cold dark March day, TeamAlaska, the indoor soccer team that was to represent Alaska in the 2000 International Winter Games in Canada, began a 700-mile bus ride to Whitehorse in the Canadian Yukon. Only months removed from a lifetime of playing soccer and hanging out at the beach under the Southern California sun, I was off to represent Alaska as a member of this team. At tryouts two months earlier, the coach had asked me where I was from. My response was 'Southern California.' With a puzzled look on his face, he asked me how I knew about the tryouts, since players must be Alaskans. I then realized the correct answer to his question was 'Anchorage.' I was from Anchorage. However, I still didn't know how I would ever accept something so different, and make Alaska my true home. Through becoming involved in activities such as the Games, and learning about the uniqueness of Alaska and its people, I figured it out. After many hours of riding the bus through the Interior, we stopped at a roadhouse at the Canadian border for dinner. Russian athletes from the Siberian city of Magadan, also heading toward Whitehorse, were there. When I approached one of the Russian boys, he asked, 'What's your name?' I said 'Erin' and poured out a stream of questions. He again asked, 'What's your name?' at which point I realized he spoke little English. The warm laughter of Alaskan and Magadan players started to make me feel like I belonged. Though the Winter Games have a few sports such as indoor soccer, Native games are the focus. For the next week, between my own games, I rode the buses from venue to venue watching events such as two-foot high-kick, Russian sledge jump, and knuckle hop, and cheering on my new friends. On the trip home, I watched the northern lights illuminate the night sky. I gained a strong sense of the bonds between people of the far north during that week in March. As I began to see the things that attracted the rest of my family to Alaska, I realized that this different life had always been right for me - I just had to get involved. Learning and getting involved had always worked for me, in school and in soccer, and now I could make it work in Alaska too. Eager to pursue my newfound interest in Alaska and its people, I developed activities to continue to connect to the real Alaska. After much research I convinced Alaska Fish & Game to create a volunteer position, which soon became an internship, for me in resource planning which allows me to seek the opinions of people in the remote villages to include in the State management plan. I also became involved in fish biology research, conducting a study on Alaska's salmon. An enthusiasm for immersing myself in new things became my path to finding happiness in Alaska. Though I lost my tan and my blonde hair turned dirt brown, moving to Alaska turned out to be an exciting change and taught me that I could successfully embrace new things through learning and involvement. Though I look forward to going Outside to college, when someone asks me where I'm from, I'll now reply 'Alaska' without hesitation.
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Essay Question:
Personal statement: Describe a character in fiction, an historical figure, or a creative work that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence.
Grinning with satisfaction, I stood in awe, for in front of my eyes hung Lorenzo Lotto's 'Allegory of Vice and Virtue,' exuding brilliant hues of artistic glory. This past summer, when I entered the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., during our family vacation, I had not realized that the visit would become the culmination of my personal journey to consummate an academic quest. That quest originated in October of my junior year, when my enthusiasm for the Humanities class was waning just like the falling leaves outside my window. The haziness of Humanities has always bothered me. I shuddered at the mention of studying about the heretics of the Middle Ages, or writing poetry on a metamorphosing caterpillar. Much too much of Humanities employed the interpretive right side of the brain. I preferred the logical, factual, no-gray-area fields of math or science. I quickly grasped the concept of a radian, just as I effortlessly memorized the chemical formula for sulfuric acid. I felt so much more comfortable treading in subjects that solely employed the unambiguous left side of the brain. But this one autumn day, one project changed everything. We were to explore the life of an Italian Renaissance artist and write a eulogy and an analysis of a painting, piecing together the political, historical and mythological elements of the work. Over many waking hours, either cramped into a back study-pod of the library or sprawled across my bed, I took my desire to succeed in Humanities to another level - something that had never happened before. The copy of the Lotto painting that I printed out followed me wherever I went. What I loved so much about this project was the realization that my interpretation could be completely different from the 'accepted' analysis of an artwork and yet be acceptable. I had fully expected, however, that upon completion of this assignment, all that I had learned while poring over Lotto's work would vanish into my minds abyss. Quite to the contrary, after the Lotto experience, I found myself laboring many hours not only dissecting required Humanities readings, trying to discover subtle nuances and uncover hidden meanings, but also voraciously absorbing many articles from The New York Times, Foreign Affairs and The Economist, particularly opinion and editorial pieces. By the end of the year, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I had transformed - instead of thinking in rigid predictable patterns, my mind freely drifted from idea to idea. When I was suddenly confronted with the very painting that had occupied my mind for weeks (I even hung up the color-print of the painting in my dorm-room), I couldnt suppress my excitement. I now knew that I had to pay homage to the wellspring of my inspiration. I asked my mom to take a picture of me side-by-side with the painting, to capture the moment for posterity. Then, I took a seat and, like nine months before, reverently gazed at the masterpiece as one last salute to the master before exiting the Gallery with a deep sense of gratitude. Now I was whole.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
"Tell us about an experience that tells us about you"
I boarded the train at 9:17 and sat down. I opened Camus. The Stranger.
'Light reading for the summer?' said the man seated on my right. I looked at
him. 'Yeah'. - Digging into my bag, I pulled out a garishly green, laminated
copy of World's Best Coin Tricks. Grinning, we talked. He works for the State
Department. I was interning at the NIH and get off at the end of the red line.
He works setting up education exchange programs and I did neuroimaging on sleep
and language patient. His major was national defense at the War College, and I
asked what he read. 'Modern writers and the classics, like Thucydides, and a
Prussian' he trailed off. 'Clausewitz? On War?' I offered. 'Yeah!' he said.
'I bet nobody else in this whole train has read On War.' What else have you
read? 'I've read Sun-Tzu and Herodotus, but haven't read Thucydides.' 'You'll
like it,' and he asked me what I wanted to do for college.
'I'm really not sure now. There are a few things.' 'Go on?' 'I either
want to
go into neurology, business or join the CIA. I'm undecided, but until then I
want to major in economics or biochemistry. I also want to join the Peace
Corps.' 'That's great!' he said, 'I was in the Peace Corps 20 years back.'
'Really? That's awesome! Where did you serve?' 'Afghanistan, in Kabul believe
it or not.' 'Do you speak Farsi?' I asked, remembering reading a snide letter
to the editor of the Washington Post deriding yet another professor's plan for
peace in Afghanistan of teaching US soldiers Arabic by pointing out that people
in Afghanistan don't speak Arabic. 'I did, but I'm out of practice now.'
Thinking of languages, I added, 'Would you believe that I don't speak my mother
tongue?' He looked at me appraisingly. 'Yeah, sure. Maybe your parents wanted
you to assimilate?' 'Close,' I replied, 'My dad speaks his regional dialect,
while my mom's from elsewhere and speaks her own dialect. They didn't share a
common, natural language and met in the US speaking English.' 'That's really
interesting,' he replied. I asked, 'So what did you do in Afghanistan?' 'Oh, I
taught English to schoolchildren in Kabul, and since there wasn't much to do, I
kept a dream log.' 'Really? That's unbelievable!' I burrowed into my bag,
scooping from below my laptop a small, cloud gray book called A Little Course in
Dreams. 'I promise you, that's the last book I have in my bag, so no more
surprises.'
'Wow,' he replied, 'I haven't seen this book in a long time.' Pulling out a
fountain pen and writing the title and author on a corner of newspaper, it was
his stop coming up. So he asked for my phone number to continue the
conversation
later: I gave him mine, took his, shook hands. Tucking the slip into page 73,
the Horizontal Vanish, of World's Best Coin Tricks, I leaned right and went to
sleep, bound for Medical Center.
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Essay Question:
Discuss an issue of local, national, or international concern. Why is this issue important to you? How would you resolve it? What impact would its resolution have on others?
Speaking the Language of Pride and Prejudice Today, languages fascinate me. However, in middle school, it took my mother four hours of debate before I finally agreed to take Spanish. 'But, mom, I already know another language! Our family is Chinese!' I whined. 'Take the class. One day, you'll understand,' she said sagely. And so I grudgingly went to my first Spanish class. However, once I had mastered the basics of the language, I spent hours amusing myself with rrrrolling my r's. I've been told that some things just can't be translated without losing meaning.The subtle nuances of Spanish grammar intrigued me. For example, to express whether or not one thinks it will rain, two verb forms can be used. With a single syllabic change, the speaker can convey her certainty or doubt. From having to cluck like a chicken the first day (while desperately racking my brain for a word, any Spanish word), to gradually conversing spontaneously, I found myself making friends with many non-English-speaking Hispanics. I realized that had it not been for Spanish, the door to communicating with millions of people in theworld would be bolted shut. As a Chinese-American, I feel the frustration of those who struggle with a new language and culture when in a new country. When my family first came to America, people in our neighborhood would periodically puncture our car tires simply because its owners were Chinese. Too confused to turn to the police, there was nothing we could really do. Fortunately, we moved away from that neighborhood, and I grew up speaking English without any accent. I was rarely teased in school. I thought things had changed. America appears to have integrated and accepted different ethnicities. But the day after 9-11, a Muslim student in my school was the target of a fight. I couldn't help thinking that he had done nothing wrong to deserve such treatment, just as my family had done nothing wrong to have our car vandalized. How could the aggressor think for a moment that attacking a human who merely shared the same religion with the terrorists would resolve anything? It would only escalate local tensions. Most Muslims were just as grief-stricken and terrified and shocked at the tragedy as all Americans were. I was revolted that such an attack had occurred. Fear, anger, and resentment weren't adequate justification for victimizing an innocent human being. I found myself frustrated by those who shunned others based on superficial differences instead of working to foster a relationship. Patriotism and pride in identifying one's background is good, but when manifested hatefully, it degenerates into disrespect for humanity. Those who have seen the consequences of war seem to agree. Robin Wright, the chief diplomatic correspondent for The Los Angeles Times, came to my high school to give a speech. She had seen her friends blown to pieces in Iraq and advocated something with which I completely agree - everyone in the world should learn at least two foreign languages. In this era of globalization, communication is of paramount importance so that misunderstandings can be quelled before escalating into needless violence. Last week, my mother came home from work smiling. She works for a German company. That day there was a party. Trying to be social, she had joined a light conversation about the German language and everyone had fun mispronouncing 'Ich spreche kein Deutsch (I don't speak German)'. All of a sudden, a whisper brushed past her ear. 'Why don't you learn better English before starting German?' She whipped around. The secretary smirked at her. I felt shocked, immensely hurt for my mother, and astonished that she was smiling. When I asked how she could possibly look happy, she replied, 'I speak English and can talk to her when I want to. She doesn't speak Chinese and never wants to learn. Shouldn't I be glad to have a greater power of communication and an open mind towards the world?' Prejudice is a bruise that cannot be easily comforted away. A lot has changed since our family arrived in America a decade ago, but a lot has remained the same. The pain of racial discrimination pierces my life, but I am grateful. In a way, it enlightens me. It helps me empathize with others who have been hurt by discrimination. In a larger sense, it helps me understand our diverse world. For this last reason, I have continued my studies in Spanish at a local universityafter having taken AP my junior year, even if it is just for an inner chuckle such as, 'Hah hah, Graciela and I are planning your secret wedding shower rightin front of you, but you don't realize it' at the University of Michigan Physiology Lab where I worked this summer. Languages are tools that overcome cultural misconceptions to peacefully unite different peoples. My mother was right after all about taking Spanish.
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Essay Question:
This essay was a response to the open-ended question, "Do anything you want to a sheet of paper to persuade us to admit you."
Dear Princeton Admissions Committee, When I had to find a number for reading in my ranked list of activities, I had trouble placing it. I've always read, and I think that reading is something too important to me for one line. So, here is a list of the books I've read over the last year that I can remember. I hope that this can give you a sense of where I've been intellectually wandering outside of school. Sincerely, Now reading: Ecrits, Jacques Lacan One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez American Constitutional Law, Laurence Tribe The Washington Post, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal editorial pages daily. Fiction The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams The Orestia, Fschylus The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell The Plague, Albert Camus The Stranger, Albert Camus Artemis Fowl (Trilogy), Eion Colfer The Chocolate War, Robert Cormier Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky The Great Cases of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas The Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison The Golden Bough (condensed volumes), Sir George Frazer The Tin Drum, Gunter Grass The Saskiad, Brian Hall Folk and Fairy Tales, Martin Hallett Mythology, Edith Hamilton Magister Ludi, Herman Hesse Ulysses, James Joyce Collected Stories, Franz Kafka Captain Courageous, Rudyard Kipling The Man Who Would be King and Other Short Stories, Rudyard Kipling Eden, Stanislaw Lem Chronicles of the Vikings, R.I. Page The Morphology of the Folk Tale, Vladimir Propp The Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling Holes, Loius Sachar A Series of Unfortunate Events Series (11 volumes), Lemony Snicket The Bronze Bow, Elizabeth Speare Huck Finn, Mark Twain A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers Non-fiction How to Build your Home in the Woods, Bradford Angier Arabic in Three Months, Mohammed Asfour The Complete Book of Abs, Kurt Brungardt The Complete Book of Shoulders and Arms, Kurt Brungardt Libertarianism, A Primer, David Boaz De Bello Gallico (The Gallic War), Julius Caesar Alchemy : an illustrated A to Z, Fernando, Diana. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Frederick Douglass Caesar and Christ, Will Durant The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Thomas L. Friedman The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud The Book of Survival, Anthony Greenback Godel, Escher, Bach, Douglas Hofstadter Modern Times, Paul Johnson Dreams, Carl Jung Man and His Symbols, Carl Jung Psyche and Symbol, Carl Jung Worlds Best Coin Tricks, Bob Longe The Discourses, Niccolo Machiavelli History of Florence and of the Affairs of Italy, Niccolo Machiavelli Talk of the Devil: Encounters with Seven Dictators, Riccardo Orizio Winning Table Tennis, Dan Seemiller The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam, Barbara Tuchman Ethics: Theory and Practice, Manuel Velasquez The Middle East: Opposing Viewpoints, Mary Williams Coaching Olympic Style Boxing, USA Boxing The Evelyn Wood Seven-Day Speed Reading and Learning Program, Evelyn Wood Poetry The Waste Land and Other Poems, T.S Eliot Never, Jorie Graham Complete Works, Edgar Allan Poe Collected Poems, George Seferis Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, J. R. R Tolkein The Aeneid, Vergil
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Describe your intellectual interests, their evolution, and what makes them exciting to you. (minor essay)
My interest in the physical sciences, computer science, and language has grown steadily throughout my life. As a child, the desire to learn programming and understand the inner workings of electronic devices came from my fascination with video games. As I grew older, the knowledge of software and hardware that I gained enabled me to learn even more details about those topics and increased my interest further. The simple experiments in grade school involving baking soda and vinegar caught my imagination, and in my high school's AP Chemistry course I was finally able to study in depth the properties of matter that I had yearned to understand for so long. My interest in physics, which developed more recently, was encouraged by history--physics has long inspired the development of mathematics--and the charisma of my high school physics teacher. My voracious reading habit, beginning when I was young, made me interested in words and vocabulary. In middle school Latin class, I became more intrigued in grammar and etymology. The overlap between my scientific interests excites me; in my computational chemistry project, I have been able to grasp the importance of computer simulations to advancing knowledge of chemicals (made possible by the physics of quantum mechanics). The study of foreign language, like French, is exciting when I am able to apply my knowledge of unfamiliar grammatical rules and vocabulary to communicate ideas through a different language.
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Essay Question:
Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.
Today's world is characterized by movement. My research for MUN has reinforced this point: migration may prove to be the foremost geopolitical issue of the 21st century. Nonetheless, the story of a single life can reveal more than a hundred pages of facts and figures, because statistics mean little without the context to appreciate what they mean to actual people. When I was ten, my family migrated to Istanbul from Urfa, a city in Turkey's southeast and that is known as 'the city of prophets.' We moved so I could continue primary school in Istanbul and, hopefully, attend Robert College. It's a classic story: my parents wanted the best for me, so that I'd enjoy every possible path to success. A part of this tale that is often forgotten, however, is the child's awareness that his parents left their beloved home for his sake. Whenever I feel like I'm about to drown under my coursework and responsibilities, I remember their sacrifice and my motivation returns. In Turkish, we don't say that someone is 'from a place.' If someone is from Urfa, we call him 'Urfa'li,' meaning 'He has Urfa inside him.' My father is truly 'Urfa'li.' I see it in everything from how he greets friends to how he drinks his tea. Our family, too, has brought much from Urfa to Istanbul; from our food to our music, sometimes I think Istanbul extends only to, but not through, our front door. Turks born in Istanbul sometimes think of Urfa as 'exotic,' home to ancient mysteries and people with 'strange' lives. Having spent much time with people from other countries, I've learned that people from one part of a country viewing people from other parts of their country as backwards is a universal phenomenon. Nonetheless, this way of thinking troubles me, both rationally and emotionally. My intellect knows that such opinions are based on unexamined prejudices, not experience, and my heart feels that anyone who took the time to understand the people and culture of Urfa would only cherish it. Yet when I turned twenty, I began to feel my own attachment to Urfa disintegrate. I realized that half my life had been lived in Istanbul. I am profoundly grateful for this: only here could I have enjoyed the opportunities and resources that have shaped so much of me. At the same time, however, I became fearful that, in letting so much of Istanbul 'inside me,' I was losing the 'Urfa inside me.' After all, since age ten, my hectic schedule has allowed me to return only twice. Although my future lies in engineering and applied science, pursuits unlikely to lead me back to Urfa, I often dream of returning, of getting involved with its people. I dream of contributing, perhaps helping students prepare for university exams, or tutoring them in math, science and English. At the same time, I'd love to get back into the unique rhythm of another way of life, taking pleasure in walking its streets, long evenings chatting in Urfa's teahouses, sleeping on the roof on summer nights, a local tradition, and just feeling again what it means to be 'Urfa'li.' Perhaps I'd learn to play the saz, the instrument of the city's folk music, which I would play as friends sing along, or take up raising pigeons, another of Urfa's favorite pastimes. But as I head off to America today to chase other dreams, I must accept that I may never return to Urfa for an extended stay. Still, I take some comfort in knowing that wherever I go, I will, in a very special way, bring part of it with me.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Optional Essay
Additional Explanation Concerning the Turkish Math Club 'Along with a hundred other mathematically talented students from around the world, you are invited to join us this summer for five intense weeks of learning, discovery... and fun!' After printing an application to the Canada/USA Mathcamp; spending an entire week thinking about almost nothing besides the problems on the applications 'qualifying quiz' at breakfast, lunch and dinner, in-between classes and, yes, even during classes; and spending several more wrenching weeks in anticipation of a polite letter of rejection, I had been accepted the Mathematics Foundation of America's Mathcamp. Not long thereafter, I was on my way to America and one of the most eye-opening intellectual experiences of my life. Being in the presence of such incredible minds was humbling, but also inspirational. Attending lectures by John Conway of Princeton, for instance, one of the worlds most creative thinkers, I peeked into a realm I had never known to even exist before. Exposure to concepts like knot theory, the geometry of high dimensions, group theory and transfinite mathematics lent credence to a notion that I had always suspected was true, but could never really back up concretely: there are few ideas, experiences or eventualities perhaps none at all in our world that cannot in some way be illuminated through math. By extension, I came to believe that even those problems to which math now seems utterly inapplicable are simply waiting for innovators sufficiently talented and determined to demystify them mathematically. Not surprisingly, when I returned to Turkey, I experienced a let-down. No longer spending twenty-four hours a day in an environment that guided me toward methods to unravel the most obscure problems, I felt a gaping hole emerge in my intellectual life. Moreover, I felt another, equally important, hole I needed to fill: my sense of community. Reflecting, I thought of a single solution to both problems. Because I believe strongly that Turks possess great, often untapped, talents in many areas, not least of which the sciences and mathematics, I lamented the fact that no programs like Mathcamp had been established in Turkey. I decided to do something about it. Having conceived of creating some sort of supportive infrastructure for the interaction of Turkish students and professors who love math, I still had to acknowledge that I couldnt tackle the project alone. Thus, I started taking the idea to professors at various universities and 'dershanes,' schools that prepare students for Turkeys various university entrance exams. Finally, I met a like-minded math lover who saw the value of my idea Simsek Daskafa. We decided that, while creating a Turkish Mathcamp was our ultimate goal, we first had to establish and build a community, which we accomplished through our website: www.matematikklubu.org, launched in November 2002, where one may find a variety of theorems, articles and unusually challenging math problems (including the 'Question of the Week,' which I edit) as well as participate in an annual math contest. To date, the site has attracted almost 9,000 registered users and drawn almost one million 'clicks.' We also created an organization, directed by seven-member board, of which I am the only high school student member. Given that the original idea for the Math Club was my own, it was hard to cede almost all control of it to others, even if they were far more qualified than I. Nonetheless, recognizing the importance of math education for Turkeys future, I saw that the concept of the Math Clubs mission was far more important than my personal stake in its leadership. Last year, we expanded our operations, organizing a math contest, hosted by Istanbul Technical University, for high schools students. Plans for this years contest, which will be bigger and better than last years to be sure, are already well under way. And as for our ultimate goal of a Turkish Mathcamp, it looks as though it may just happen in the summer of 2005, provided we can get the final authorization from Bahcesehir University for hosting the event and a commitment from several of Turkeys top math minds to run the classes and lectures. The Executive Board of the Math Club is continuing to work toward this dream at present, and even if we do not succeed this summer, my colleagues and I are committed to making it happen sometime in the near future. And who knows? Maybe after next year Ill even be able to convince Professor Conway to attend&
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Personal statement
One of the main activities of the Junior Classical League (JCL) is certamen, a buzzer game that's Quizbowl with a Classical twist: all of the questions are about ancient civilization. In ninth grade, when I started taking Latin, my teacher would use the last few minutes of class for a bit of certamen practice. Although we only had time for two or three questions, each reference to an unfamiliar nymph or a quirky Roman bathing habit spurred me to learn more about the ancient world. The Classics were a foreign realm to me, and the tidbits of knowledge that I picked up in the certamen questions were entrancing hints that an ancient civilization had once thrived in Rome and Greece. I chose to focus on mythology and Roman customs, and studied fiercely. My teacher took the school's JCLers to competitions, and through attending local, state, and regional certamens I met people who passionate about ancient Greece and Rome. We challenged one another to see who was the quickest at answering questions and argued about obscure mythology. I continued to play certamen for the next three years, and although winning competitions and correctly answering questions were thrilling, the true allure of certamen was that it pushed me to learn more about Latin than basic grammar and translation. Since certamen questions covered a wide range of topics, from Roman history to grammar to Latin derivatives, in order to succeed I had to study subjects beyond what I learned in class. As my interest in certamen grew, I started to write certamen questions as well as compete in tournaments. As opposed to simply reading Meridian Handbook of Classical Mythology and attempting to master its contents via rote memorization, writing questions demanded that I absorb the stories of the capricious Olympians and think how to best test the information in the format of a certamen question. Writing them certainly increased my skills at the game, since I was retaining more information, but it was primarily a way to learn more about the fascinating cultures that had once flourished on the Mediterranean. These were militaristic civilizations that had conquered the greater part of Europe, but they were also the poetic realms that had produced Homer and Vergil. At first, Dr. Duncan, an ex-JCLer who dropped by Harker to help the Latin students with certamen practice posted my questions online on the Certamen Questions Database. Although I knew that very few people were using my questions, I was still excited at the idea that my work was available to other people. In my own way, I was promoting the study of the Classics, spreading knowledge of this bygone but fascinating world. I spent my weekends perusing the official, JCL-sanctioned sourcebooks for certamen and wrote questions for whole sections of Mythology, by Edith Hamilton. Although my early questions were basic, a hundred and fifty questions later, my question-writing skills have improved dramatically and my certamen questions possessed the same flair and tested for the same depth of knowledge that questions from the National Junior Classical Leagues certamens did. Last summer Dr. Duncan published Myth Mayhem, a book of more than a thousand certamen questions on the material in Mythology, and we sold many copies at the National JCL convention. I wrote over three hundred of the questions in Mayhem. The thrill of seeing my work in print was certainly exciting, but the true joy came when teachers and students from across the country bought Myth Mayhem - people would be using my questions to further their own knowledge of mythology! Three years after starting certamen, I remain excited about all the details of the Classical world that I don't know - yet. Continuing with writing questions, I'm now writing a book similar to Myth Mayhem, but this time around I'm expanding my horizons to write on Latin literature rather than mythology, and I'm doing it independently. My questions are based on Moses Hadas' A History of Latin Literature, and my goal is to present the information contained in the book in an engaging format that is more accessible to the average JCLer than Hadas' dull, if informative, prose. Thus far, I've written 227 questions on subjects ranging from Plautus to Cicero, and with determination and a bit of luck, next summer I'll be selling a book filled with thousands of questions on Latin literature at the National JCL convention.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Explain the importance of one of your extracurricular activities or interests (Common application)
My Growth in Public Speaking The ability to speak publicly is a skill highly valued in a society in which, according to surveys, the greatest phobia is that of speaking in front of an audience. I had little else in mind when I signed up for the elective the summer before my freshman year. Knowing that I was quiet and shy, I hopefully anticipated that the rigor of public speaking would teach me to be more outspoken and forceful. Yet through the last three formative years, I developed so much more than just a bigger voice. I came into the class expecting to be taught simply how to speak in public, but was soon immersed in the science of arguing, something I had always done with my little brother, but not quite with the same precision and organization that was now expected. Suddenly, I had to formulate arguments for not one, but both sides of a debate, presenting my points clearly and attacking weak points in others. Analyzing data in great depth and detail, returning a cleverly thought-out response to cross-examination, and driving home a killer closing argument: these are the aspects of public speaking that I find especially exciting, and even exhilarating. Others on my team feel the same way, and our commitment and intensity as a group defines public speaking as a team sport on a level with any other. Whether individually or all together, we feel the same triumphs and disappointments. The bond that we share is intellectual, social, and one of mutual inspiration.My friends say that those of us in public speaking belong to a cult: we have our own secret language with the mystifying names of the events, we spend half of our Saturdays together at tournaments, and sometimes we seem to talk about little else. Yet the influence of public speaking has permeated many other aspects of my life. In lacrosse, it sharpened my competitive nature and leadership skills; I became a captain, then moved up to varsity. My experience as a volunteer at the environmental law firm Earthjustice led me to write an Advocacy speech on the devastating effects of mountaintop removal. Another event, Extemporaneous, requires extensive knowledge of current events, and that has boosted my interest in history and politics. Realizing for the first time that knowledge of current events is truly empowering, and desiring strongly to affect these events in a practical way, I committed myself to work for the John Kerry campaign. Now in my fourth year of participation, as president of the public speaking team, I have a much clearer vision of my own future. History and politics will certainly play a role. I look forward to substantial involvement in the public life of the university I attend, as well as the greater society into which I will graduate. Although the past three years have rarely been easy, they have transformed me from a quiet, self-absorbed freshman to an involved, inquisitive senior who is confident in her opinions and is ready to engage life after high school in a meaningful way.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Explain the importance of one your extracurricular activities or interests
Music Music has played a profound role in shaping my imagination and perception of the world. Each musical experience, whether exalted or commonplace, left its initial mark, but would then somehow extend its effects to disparate and unforeseen areas of my life. I was brought up from an early age to enjoy classical music. My mother describes me as a unique three-year-old who could sit still and listen to a full program by the San Francisco Symphony (though I retain memories of trying to smuggle candy into the hall in my socks). I began piano lessons in first grade, and for the next ten years, a daily regimen of rigorous practice familiarized me with a range of works from Baroque to Contemporary, from Bach to Satie. Although piano practice brings up images of protesting children pounding their scales,or endless renditions of The Happy Farmer, as my skill level grew, my focus shifted from fundamentals to artistic expression. After a decade of lessons, recitals, and competitions, I felt free to choose music based on its artistic value or emotional impact on me, rather than external criteria for performances. But music for me is by no means an individual activity. Some of my most vivid memories in music involve family and a wide network of friends in far-flung locations. Meeting the Prazak String Quartet in a Napa cave concert one year was directly connected to attending a performance of Beethoven String Quartets in Prague several years later. Following a discussion and performance of the Diabelli Variations by Professor William Kinderman, I found myself in the unlikely position of playing a modest sonatina for the Chopin expert Garrick Ohlsson. Love of music led me to jazz clubs in Toronto and Montreal, Carlo Bergonzis farewell performance at the Vienna Opera House, and even an all-night playing of recordings by the conductor Celibidache in a house in the south of France. Although the actual musical experiences bring out an array of emotions in me as I listen, sharing such experiences magnifies the intensity of those emotions. I love the excitement, or at times, serenity that spreads over concert halls in response to great classical performances; I love the energy and euphoria of a crowd singing along with my favorite band, Guster. Though the spectrum of music which I enjoy is very wide, there is a universal way in which music conveys its message through both intellect and emotion. On perhaps the most personal level, my cousins and I have recently formed a basement band, in which I play the keyboard and compose lyrics. We are definitely a work in progress, but so far our music sounds fairly good. The most gratifying aspect of this endeavor is that it creates yet another dimension to our family, adding another level to our relationship. No other example could better illustrate the importance of music to me. From the discipline of study to the fascination of travel, from friendship to family ties, music has certainly made a powerful impact on my life experience.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Tell us something about yourself.
The impact that dance has had on my life is nearly unexplainable. Dance has played a major role in my life since I was three years old. Every aspect of dance and every type of dance fascinates me. Although I have on two occasions participated in dance competitions, performance is what I love most. Therefore, most of my dance experience has been dedicated to stage performance. When I dance in a competition, the main goal is for me to be judged and evaluated. When I dance in performance, the goal is to produce art and move the audience; this is the part of dance I live for. For five years I was a member of the Tennessee Children's Dance Ensemble, a professional dance company composed entirely of children between the ages of ten and sixteen. The Ensemble's goal, and thus the goal of each dancer, has always been the pursuit of excellence in every aspect of dance and life. Participating in company classes, rehearsals, and performances with dancers of exceptional talent and dedication was inspiring and challenging and helped me to grow as a dancer. The numerous opportunities I had to perform gave me the opportunity, at a young age, to learn the art of performing on stage, the importance of projection and stage presence, and the ability to perform confidently in front of an audience. My dance training was enriched by my opportunity to study with guest choreographers, each with his or her own unique style. As a member of the Ensemble, I participated in the choreography of company performance pieces and in other technical components of the performance process. I continue to take weekly classes and participate in master classes and dance workshops offered by guest teachers from other parts of the country. I have been exposed to many types of dance, from ballroom to hip-hop. Throughout my years of study at Dancers Studio, I spent several hours each week as a 'demonstrator' in the classes for younger dancers; as a member of the Ensemble I helped teach master classes for school children from South Carolina and Indonesia. Performing for diverse types of audiences is exciting and challenging because each program is designed for the specific audience to which it is presented; dancing for an auditorium filled with elementary school children is different from dancing for the Vice President of the United States. I have had numerous opportunities to reach out and inspire people of all ages from all walks of life through the creative art of dance.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Tell us something about yourself.
I was sitting in courtroom A at Knox County Juvenile Court when the door behind the referee judge opened. A teenage guy wearing a solid orange uniform and shackles around his ankles walked into the room and took his seat. I have to say that I have never felt the kind of fear I experienced at that moment. I was not frightened by his appearance, nor was I frightened when he looked up and stared directly into my eyes for several seconds. I was frightened for him. His life had obviously led him places he never planned to go, and I feared that the blame did not totally reside with him. I was present that day as I have been one day each week during my junior and senior years as a part of the Knox County Juvenile Court mentor program. I have the opportunity to observe the juvenile court processes, speak with various court officials, and observe what is happening to teenagers who have made bad choices and are often younger than I. What I have seen and what I have learned during this program inspired me to return to juvenile court during school holidays and throughout the summer to observe and to learn more about juvenile justice. I have observed both divisions of juvenile court. The first division handles crimes in which the minor himself is in some sort of trouble, and the other, referred to as Dependency and Neglect, handles crimes in which adults are at fault. While I find the Dependency and Neglect cases to be intriguing and heart-wrenching, my interest is mainly in dealing directly with the juvenile delinquents because I realize that the number of juvenile criminals who become repeat offenders is a major concern for our nation. Today's juvenile delinquents will become tomorrow's criminals unless changes are made to our juvenile rehabilitation system. Many juveniles are products of their environments and need either to be removed from the environment or for the environment to be changed. In many instances, communication or lack thereof is a major contributing factor in the delinquency of minors. In order to prevent this, these young offenders need to be taught to effectively communicate their ideas and emotions. This will only happen if someone they trust truly listens to them. Understanding how the offenders view themselves is part of the solution. For many, their negative behavior may be a crying out for attention. For others, drugs and alcohol may be the only things in their lives that make them feel good. A positive role model could help them learn to make better choices and let them know that there are people who care about them. There are so many issues, and there is no simple formula for resolving them. The costs to society for resolving these issues can be high; however, rehabilitation will likely prove to be more cost effective than repeated incarcerations. I do not have all of the answers, but I do have an idea. I believe that incorporating a peer advocacy program into the rehabilitation system could have a positive impact. In this program, when a delinquent is assigned to a probation officer, he will also be assigned to a small peer group composed of one or more non-delinquent teenagers, preferably from neighborhoods and socio economic backgrounds similar to those of the offender. The purpose of this group would be to open channels of communication between the offenders and one or more of their peer advocates in a non-threatening environment where the offenders can learn that positive behavior nets positive results and negative behavior nets negative results. Being a teenager myself, I understand that while we often have difficulty relating to adults, we are able to relate to others our age. Juvenile offenders need to be taught how to learn and be placed in an environment where they can succeed. They need to understand that for the most part they have control over their own futures; their family, race, neighborhood, or social status do not have to dictate what happens to them. Giving a troubled youth his dreams back and ensuring that he receives an education are integral parts in making him a productive member of society. While the final decision to make positive changes within one=s life lies within each one of us, I believe that juvenile offenders can be taught and shown the advantages of living a moral life. If the young offenders can understand how to make positive choices and how these choices will benefit them, they may begin to understand what has led them astray and how they can cross over to a path which will lead to success. I want young people to be encouraged to make right decisions at crucial moments so that their dreams become reality. The issue of juvenile reform is complex, but it is also of paramount importance. Today's young people are the future of our country and the world, but they are also potentially the future of crime. Juvenile justice reform should be a high priority for the local, state, and national governments. Rehabilitation, rather than incarceration, should be the goal. The juvenile justice system can play an important role in determining whether young offenders will lead productive lives or spend the remainder of their lives behind bars.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Common Application Personal Statement
My birth coincided with the sale of one of the 20th century's most famed paintings, van Gogh's Irises. Three months after I came into this world, my art dealer parents carried me off to England with an Israeli bodyguard in tow in order to publicize the sale of the painting. By the time I had cut my first tooth, my parents had sold the work in a Sotheby's auction. My face appeared on the cover of the magazine, Art Newsa single issue copy'a gift from the publisher to herald my arrival. The entire chain of events served merely as a preamble for the 'abnormal' lifestyle that was to follow. On the positive side, I've had a chance to meet Russia's former President Gorbachev, artists such as Jacob Lawrence, Paul Cadmus and Alex Katz, and David Driskell, foremost scholar on the history of African-American art, artist, art collector and art advisor to many well-known African-American celebrities. On the down side, my parents decided to overcompensate by pushing me to my intellectual limits and by being careful not to give me any unearned advantages. At the age of two, my mother started me on a course of museum visits. I have been dragged through the Metropolitan Museum, MoMA, the Art Institute of Chicago and various art fairs countless times, and while many would consider this a cultural advantage, I have to admit that I have grumbled through many exhibits. Though in time I grew up enough to appreciate the art, I resisted being told what to appreciate and what each piece of art represented. Rather than distantly admiring the work of others, I wanted to make my own pieces and explore the world of art through my own perspective and potential. Ever since I have been drawing ardently, and I still prefer to create than to observe. In the 9th grade, I found myself at a private school in Boca Raton, Florida, surrounded by peers whose parents had showered them with a BMW or a Mercedes a year prior to obtaining even a learner's permit. I received no such car, and instead received the promise of a four-wheel family artifact. I also relied on standard sun exposure, which apparently made me an anomaly. One of my classmates struggled to earn a certain GPA so that his mother would reward him with a visit to a tanning salon. The level of intellectual curiosity was not promising - most kids were more concerned with what variety of drugs and alcohol would be at upcoming parties than with which English assignment was due the next day. My friends were attending raging concerts and passing out on stage while I was home passing out over chemistry books and developing preliminary sketches for poetry projects with nearing deadlines. Unlike one of my friends, whose father had invented the electronic device on retail clothing that spits ink or rips clothing vengefully when provoked, I was promised no future stipend. I was to rely on my own resources. With this in mind, I decided to remove myself from the school in which life revolved around owning a pair of sunglasses larger than one's face for the sake of style. I spent months examining my options in terms of relocation. I sought recommendations of boarding schools through friends and family, attempting to gauge what type of school would suit me best. I had developed a list of the qualities I sought in a school. I then prepared my risumi and essays for five schools. Miraculously, a family friend suggested St. Andrew's School in Delaware. I was skeptical, and upon reading the viewbook I could focus only on the term 'Appoquinimink River,' developing new pronunciations of the name for the purpose of self-amusement. In visiting, however, I felt comfortable enough to participate in poetry analysis during an English class, and my attachments formed to the students left me hooked. I settled into my new environment nestled in the cornfields of Delaware, far from concerts, museums, tanning salons, or any other civilized institutions. Student driving was prohibited, which suited me well, considering I had not earned my permit because I was still too young. At this school, faculty and students recognized work as essential, but still maintained close-knit relationships within the community. Many may think the school isolated, but the moment I stepped onto campus, I felt bound to the atmosphere of egalitarianism and inclusiveness. I felt immediately drawn to the engaging and caring faculty, the receptive and hard-working students, and the idyllic setting complete with a genuine pond. In Florida, the only ponds I had witnessed were man-made, and usually contained imported fish or displaced alligators. I suddenly had the opportunity to experience work, friendships, and even art as I chose. I delved into mathematics, conducted water balloon fights on the lawn, and devoted myself to drawing in my free time. I had finally emerged from the scripted pace of my previous lifestyle to discover my own intellectual interests and talents that did not depend on the fad of the day. At St. Andrews I was on my own, and I relished the chance to fail or to succeed on my own terms. I spent six consecutive summers immersing myself in math, literature, and political philosophy. During the year I pushed myself beyond my former limits. I have been able to write poetry in my free time, execute charcoal drawings and oil paintings, and experience the role of an Egyptian dancer in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, as well as that of an opining lady in the ensemble of H.M.S. Pinafore. I work with young, at-risk children, run a religious debate group, tutor peers in math, captain the varsity tennis team, edit the School's formerly defunct newspaper and serve on a committee that reviews prospective candidates for the faculty. I finally have departed from the trail of being a spectator of events within my own life, and I have instead charted and pursued my own course of decisions and actions.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Please write a personal essay of your choice.
A Necessary Role I retreated to my room that night, shut the door, and sat on my bed with a journal I'd never opened. But I felt I had to record the night my parents broke up; so I grabbed a dull, number two pencil and tried to describe the shouting downstairs. 'Loud,' 'angry,' and 'normal' were probably the naove, adolescent adjectives I scribbled down, but I certainly understood what caused my dogs to frantically whimper outside my door. I let the pathetic creatures into the safety of my room and lifted them onto my twin bed, leaving a corner for myself. I stroked and stroked those two, curled balls of ruffled fur, and by the time they began to snore, the house was quiet again and peacefully dark. I felt mature and independent that night, protecting my dogs from the muffled racket of breaking glass and slamming doors. And while I, nervous, small, confused, and ignorant, held my heart in my throat all night, I had to appear stoic, stable, and sane. I was the one who did not cry that night. Years later, the painful moaning of my mother called me away from my midnight toiling on a Contemporary American Literature essay on The Natural. I entered her room, masking my annoyance for the interruption and my reluctance to do anything but finish the paper and sleep. But I knew that the solitary figure, hidden in blankets with her hands clasping her head, was my mother with a headache. So I cracked her window to let the spring night in and switched on her electric fan for cross ventilation. Next, as usual, I placed a wet washcloth on her forehead until heavy breathing replaced agonized whimpers. But as I began to massage her temples, she started to whine again, and tears crawled down her cheek. I knew these tears were unrelated to pain or her embarrassment for needing me. So in the fan's dusty humming, I hugged her and reassured her. 'You still have me,' I said, and she smiled. My duty done, I closed the window, switched off her gloomy overhead light, and went back to work. I also remember jumping in my father's car after school one windy, autumn afternoon. To my surprise and discomfort a blond woman sat shotgun beside my father. 'Hello Sam,' she gushed sweetly. I returned a 'hi,' trying hard to respect the woman who I blamed for ripping my family into chaotic shreds. I politely answered her torrent of questions concerning me, including cross-country, my sister, and my favorite restaurants. Had I started to describe the nights I spent consoling my broken mother, my father's depression and guilt would have consumed him. So for his sake, I smiled and laughed from the backseat, describing my favorite ice cream flavor: mint chocolate chip. Ever since that night with my dogs I have had to be my parents' stability, a consistent, focused, positive force in the house, absorbed in academic work and encouraging my parents. So when my sister left at fifteen for boarding school and my father soon after, I continued to work and work and support my mother and her illness and reassure my guilt-ridden father that his affair was 'fine' with me. But I felt mature and sophisticated being the deadline-making, steady, optimistic worker at my fragmented family's core. And when my mother, after her brain surgery, said my head rubbing might have saved her life, I disregarded it as part of my family role.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Describe an activity of particular importance to you.
The History of Chess When I sit down to a chessboard, I don't consider what chess means to me, the thirteen years I've played it, thirteen years of history, stories, and people. I just want to lose myself in the game I love. Hit the clock. My opening pawn is a crack in a damn. My opponent must respond defensively but ultimately threaten as well. The game continues in a pattern of response and elaboration until I form a comfortable defense, a parabolic confusion of various chessmen, shielding a weak king. The middle game, the battle, commences, but it's a standstill. Wait, wait for his mistake, weakness, opening. It may take hours or seconds, but one side's defense will crack and crumble. Then one greedy, 'unimportant' pawn charges into enemy territory and realizes the defensive hole it's left behind. The finale is a quick and sudden flood, thrilling for both players and satisfying for one. My heart jumps every time I see a chessboard. The squares, the pieces, the strategy, the possibility, and the tension ready to surge onto a clean battlefield... I feel it all. For me, there's nothing like seeing new moves, plans, and combinations and having to improvise, gamble, sacrifice, and defend. Sure, my friends call me 'dorky,' but my intense and enthusiastic view of chess really stems from a deep, personal history I have with the game. I still remember when my mother withdrew an elegant, wooden chess set to teach me, at five, how to play. First, I watched her battle my sister, my eyes dancing to follow the pieces' gentle clinking. A few weeks later, I won my first tournament and was listed in the Washington Post. I lugged my trophy to school, showed it to my apathetic classmates, and grinned all week about my first real achievement. In fact, my friends who tease me about chess only know that I trained for years at the United States Chess Center. They don't know how I felt when the Chess Center's influential, obsessive, and condescending head instructor, Mr. Mehler, pushed me and other impressionable pre-schoolers to win, compete, and strive to be one of his 'elite' students. I used to cry after every tournament I lost and often wanted to quit chess altogether. When I found myself adopting Mr. Mehler's mentality, forgetting the game I once loved and played with my mother, I quit the Chess Center and joined the Potomac Youth Chess League. And I still chuckle remembering the overcast Saturday my mother and I got lost driving to a Potomac Youth Chess League meet. My mother stopped the car on a remote, forest road and laughed when she saw the directions: Turn left at the house with five mailboxes. Well, such lunacy was part of my memorable chess life! For me, chess is more than a great board game; it's my youth. It's the incredible, blind high school player that beat me in sixth grade. It's Teresa, the creepy girl who always played in white gloves. It's our school bus's hit-and-run accident en route to a chess club meet at Lincoln High. It's spending all day in a crowded tournament waiting room with a zip-locked sandwich and leaving with nothing but more stories. And since my friends will never see the night I stood up to Mr. Mehler in an 8x8 board, they'll never really know why my heart jumps when I see a chessboard.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Open-ended personal statement
Some people call him a neo-environmentalist tree hugger; the kind you see sporting an array of 'green' bumper stickers on the back of their hybrids, eager and ready to disparage any politician who's environmental record isn't up to par. And it's partly true - he is one of those people who won't enter a restaurant without his handy set of reusable flatware; the kind who shun McDonald's and its 'fellow conspirators' in the fast- food market because of their environmentally adverse actions in some far-off, barely pronounceable region of the Southern Hemisphere. But I'd hate to leave it at that, for it only begins to tell the story. Tom is a friend of mine. He.s fifty-six years of age and suffers from cerebral palsy. I know little about his past, apart from the bits and pieces he divulges now and again - modest vignettes of a haunting existence that stands in stark contrast to the more privileged life I have known. Tom has been through hell, if such an experience is possible here on earth, and he's that much stronger as a result. The Tom I know today is unusually spirited, caring, unconventional, embarrassing, and admirable - all in one. He's the kind of person who doesn't take sh*t from anyone. If you try to sell him something for more than it's worth, you can kiss your transaction goodbye. If you try to convince him you really do care about the environment, be ready for an arduous cross- examination. He'll look a stranger in the eye and speak with blunt honesty - a kind of honesty that I have found rare in this day and age. Which is partly why I like him. As much as I hate to admit it, a side of me is, without a doubt, a 'politician.' I can say the 'right' thing at the 'right' time if I try, being as politically correct as my high school principal. I can negotiate in a flowing vocabulary that says a lot, but means next to nothing. Given my work in political activism, the circles in which I find myself are so often brimming with political correctness that personal convictions are set aside for fear they might conflict with a prescribed plan or agenda. It's all about 'politics'. To this, Tom always had the same simple response: 'You won.t get anywhere in life unless you be yourself.' I've tried, and I've tried hard, but I've got a long way to go. Why is it that being someone else is such a simple undertaking, while being oneself calls for unusual effort, if not courage? I'd like to think that I really do, or really can occupy an array of different personalities, but such fronts, in the end, prove futile. 'Dan the politician', 'Dan the jock', 'Dan the musician/artist/clown', 'Dan the nerd/ bookworm/computer junkie.' No, I'm really much simpler than that. Sensitive of my own weaknesses, proud of my accomplishments, yet genuinely interested in the world around me, I'm a pretty normal kind of guy of somewhat abnormal background. I've been blessed beyond imagination - not by money or possessions, but by parents who cultivated my head, heart, and hands in equal degree and with equal devotion; by an education that fostered imagination, planting in me a profound and unshakeable love of learning; and by a brother who set an exemplary course for me to follow, challenging me to carve out my own identity in the process. Sometimes, I wish I could just go out onto the street and strike up a conversation with a random passerby. I'd ask for whom he voted in the last election, what he thought of Mid-East peace, what made him tick? I'd tell him that I'm fed up with politics as usual and with citizens ignoring their fundamental responsibilities. I'd tell him I love learning languages, am sick of Americans assuming superiority over everything, and how I wish I could visit the world one ghetto at a time. I'd tell him I wrestle with pride, have hardly ever failed in the outer world, and need to start examining my own self. Then I'd wish him a good day, and encourage him to read Gandhi's autobiography, or at least watch the movie, which stars Ben Kingsley. But I'm not sure I could do that - not yet. It would mean bursting my bubble, 'stepping outside of the box,' and that would be more than I could handle. But Tom can. Blundering fool though he may seem at times, Tom can strike down convention any day of the week if it conflicts with his own integrity. He's a man with a calling, and his ears are finely tuned. Which is why I have a fifty-six year old, vociferous, half-crazy environmentalist with cerebral palsy as my role model.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Topic of your choice
You Gave the Strangest Stare On both sides, tangling twines draped over the vertical cliffs, on which magnificent poems were engraved over the years. The lush vegetation, blanketing the gorges that were scarred by the beating of wind, rain, and dust over the centuries, blended with the light green water of the Yang Ze River, on which millions of Chinese people depended. On the very same water, my barge struggled upstream, just as the inhabitants of the river struggled to survive the drought season. From time to time, I feel the power of nature: the dull, punctuated vibrations when my barge bumped into rocks ahead, the spasmodic, screeching sounds when the pointed gravel scratched the bottom of my barge, and the ominous, squeaking noise between the wooden planks as though my barge would be ripped apart by the unrelenting current. Then of course, I remember seeing you. On the same pointed gravel, on the same sharp rocks, against the same unrelenting current, you ran barefooted. You would chase after my barge nimbly, skipping along the water surface like a dragonfly. You would stop, whenever the river bended and my barge slowed down. Then still panting and gasping for air, you would extend a ten foot long pole, with a net at its end, towards my barge, hoping that I, who had the same black eyes and spoke the same language, would have a dollar or two to spare. Unfortunately, you missed me the first time. Again, my barge went onto a straight course and sped up. You ran and followed, heading towards the next river turn. In the distance, streams of white smoke from the stoves rose steadily from mountains into the blue sky. I know that you saw the smoke, reminding you that dinner was ready and that you had not eaten for hours. But you did not stop; you kept chasing. Your parents warned you over and over to keep your eyes on the rocks, gravels, and currents in front of you as you ran. But I know that you disobeyed your parents occasionally. From time to time, you took a glimpse at your five younger brothers, with the youngest one only four years old, who were all chasing after you each with a pole in their hands. You knew that you had to make it to the next river turn, or else the white smoke from your mother's stove would no longer rise on the next night, and so you ran. I still remember the glow emanating from you, as the perspiration and river water droplets reflected the orange sunshine from your tanned, skinny body, protected only by a ragged piece of cotton. I remember the moment that you reached the turn: the way your youthful smile spread over your wrinkled face, which had been exposed day and night to the challenge of Mother Nature over the past sixteen years of your life. Then of course, I won't forget the moment when you extended the net to me. Your eyesight was uncertain and yet determined, and you had the strangest stare I have ever met. It was a stare of hope, hoping that I would give you my spare changes of the day. It was a stare of envy, envious of me being able to be carried away by the water and leaving the river valley for good. It was also a stare of accusation, accusing God of being unfair, of letting me be born in Hong Kong but not you, and of letting you see me here, where our common ancestors lived thousands of years ago. I understand your stare, and I promise you that I will do something, so that when our sons meet, my son will no longer find your son's stare a strange one, but one full of joy and future.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Write about an interest or activity that has been relevant to you or your life.
I live at a frenetic pace. High-speed, wound up, talking at a million miles an hour and drumming my fingers on the table, I'm always moving. My few moments of leisure come during the only activity that I really can't hurry: when I hang a towel around my neck, break out the Mach 3, and take five minutes to shave my face. Shaving gives me a few minutes to relax, no matter how crazy my days; if I hurried, I'd probably nick my carotid artery and pass out with my head in the sink. The shaving, a long-ago choreographed ritual, plays out on its own, leaving my attention free to wander. I'm soothed by the steam rising from the sink as it meets the coolness of a newly bared cheek, and I'm lulled by the small rasping sounds of the razor clearing a path through foam and beard. That time, brief as it may be, is as important to keeping me sane as it is to keeping me clean-shaven. My dad taught me to shave when I decided, in eighth grade, that it was time to do away with my nascent adolescent moustache. A few years have passed since then, but shaving remains for me an affirmation of fast-approaching adulthood. I'll be leaving home soon, leaving most of what I know, and shaving reminds me of that easily-forgotten fact. It's a calendar that I can't help noticing, marking off every day that passes with the sweeping of the razor - the only calendar I have, since my Far Side tear-off model is forever stuck at January 7, 2001. While it reminds me of my inexorable forward motion, shaving can also take me back in time. As I navigate a tough spot just under my chin, I'll think about, say, my friend Sophie making fun of me in eighth grade for cutting that spot 'trying to shave.' The comment still stings, but comes accompanied by a host of related memories; soon I'm remembering a close friend from the same period, a guy named Griffin who once taught me how to skateboard and who has, sadly, become one of those people whom I perennially mean to call yet somehow never do. Shaving can also mark the solemnity of an occasion. As I shave before a jazz band performance, it's hard to forget that I'll soon be closely inspected, and that my playing will require just as much attention and as few mistakes. Shaving before a visit to my grandmother imbues that ritual with added gravity in the same subtle way as does shining my shoes or wearing a tie. It's a mark of respect for the occasion, one more way of distinguishing it from ordinary days - all the more so since I rarely shave out of anything but absolute necessity. Shaving is a strikingly unlikely ritual of adulthood; the act itself is so innocuous that its impact always surprises me. At the same time, those few minutes carry another burden, as great as the first: they are a guaranteed, albeit thin, buffer against days that threaten at times to overwhelm me. In fifty years, long after the action itself has lost its remaining novelty, I'll still appreciate those few minutes of sanctuary from a life probably no less frenetic than it is today.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Minor essay: Some students may want to tell us more about themselves than they are able to convey in the Common Application's Short Answer and Personal Essay. We invite you to write, if you wish, an additional essay of not more than 500 words that you feel will help us to learn more about you as a human being. That is the goal of a 'personal' essay.
For years, contact lenses were my Holy Grail. I yearned, I lusted, I lived for them. Let me explain. I got my first pair of glasses in third grade, and by the next year I was wearing them full-time. I objected to this for a number of reasons: glasses leave you zero peripheral vision, you can't lie on your side to read or watch television, you're perennially dodging anything that even vaguely resembles a glasses-threatening projectile, such as Frisbees or pigeons, and you can't wear regular sunglasses. Yeah, without glasses I would have walked into things and felt silly, but I still had to wonder whether they were worth the trouble. The final indignity were those sports glasses - you know, the ones with the thick, rubberized frames and shatterproof lenses? I started wearing those shortly after stopping a soccer ball with my face during a heated game and having my glasses cut into both my eyebrows, but before realizing that I have (I suspect) a narrower head than most, and as a result look like a fly even in 'normal people' glasses. My sports frames were even larger than regular ones, but I wore them anyway, oblivious to my shame. Eventually, of course, I looked in a mirror and afterwards never wore them again. Glasses also seem to give rise to fidgeting and odd habits. I used to have a friend who, dissatisfied with his prescription, would simply tilt his glasses until the angle changed their power enough to suit him. As a result, he frequently walked around with his frames tipped downward at a forty-five degree angle. My father, faced with the same problem, had a different solution: for a long time, he would tilt his head back and to the side, then peer around his glasses at whatever he was trying to see, which was by that point only inches from his face anyway. You can see why I was pretty excited to get contacts when the optometrist decided I was old enough. No more broken frames. No more wandering around the ocean or swimming pool pretending I knew which blobs were my family and which were beach umbrellas. No more glasses, period. Of course, all that was forgotten in the agony of wearing contacts for the first time, but that's no more, and it was worth it. Oh, boy, was it worth it. Just being able to see things from the corner of my eye still exhilarates me when I think about it. Every so often, I have to disregard my fanatical devotion to my contacts, though, and wear my glasses - I recently had pinkeye, for example, and didn't wear them for weeks. And I realized something: I don't really mind them so much any more. I guess it's just human nature to object to almost anything imposed upon us - relatives, work, or hair loss, for example - but what you see in the end is that relatives give you presents, work lets you pay the rent, hair loss prevents overheating in summer, and, well, no one ever accidentally washed his glasses down the sink.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Describe your intellectual interests, their evolution, and what makes them exciting to you.
Fossils, bones and archaeological digs, anything and everything dealing with dinosaurs; that was my first passion. I grew up consuming dinosaur pop-up books, puzzles and wooden models, all since handed down to my little cousins. I was the first and youngest in my family to ever aspire becoming an archaeologist. With my first microscope I examined anything I could find, from my own dead skin, bugs and my favorite, blood from my father. Though my objects of interest shrunk incredibly, my curiosity grew infinitely ever since. I still subscribe to various science magazines to stay updated on contemporary scientific discoveries. Seventh grade was the year my focus in science moved permanently to the environment. For my science project I started a recycling program in my middle school that continues today. After a great deal of research, I realized the incredible amounts of paper products that were wasted everyday in my school. As my program developed, I knew that many schools around the nation did not have recycling programs. I finally understood why landfills were filling up and why the planets resources were shrinking. People just do not care enough. There is absolutely no excuse for throwing a piece of trash on the ground. People must understand that all life is centered on the environment. Any cure for cancer or AIDS is completely useless without a cure for pollution as well. Sure, for a time people will live longer and stay healthier. But, eventually, instead of dying of diseases, more people will die from contaminated food and water. And, as the population continues to grow and global warming gets worse, living space will shrink. Knowing that I will work on a way to positively affect the earth makes me feel content. I cannot wait to get started.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Please discuss your interest in Agricultural and Biological Engineering.
Agricultural and Biological Engineering runs a very close second to my first choice of Natural Resources as a major. This program provides a different aspect of what I would like to study, the environment. Not only does it offer a way to study the environment and pollution, but it also offers ways to control and change it through technology. Natural Resources is my first major because of its diversified educational curriculum, based partially on the humanities, social sciences and written and oral expression, along with science and math, as opposed to the more strictly science and mathematical nature of Agricultural and Biological Engineering. Another significant aspect of this major is that it includes the joint efforts of the Agriculture and Life Sciences School and the Engineering School. I am proficient in and enjoy math and the sciences enough that I would be able to handle the heavy load of those subjects. If I take this major, I would have a concentration in Environmental Systems Engineering. I would like the focus on biology and ecology along with natural resources. There are also many career opportunities in this area. I would love to do research for a conservation agency, or work with the government or private industry to develop ways to further reduce pollution and encourage alternative energy sources. I would be happy in either of these related majors at Cornell with all of the opportunities that are associated with them.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
The activity that I value most.
For many years I have walked in walk-a-thons, baked for bake sales and gone door to door for charitable organizations. These activities were designed to raise money for worthy causes I believe in. Being a part of The Student Advocacy Program has given me a chance to take a pro-active role in fighting for students' rights as opposed to simply raising money for other people to do the work. I have taken part in creating a generic list of Students' Rights and Responsibilities that has been sent to all the local schools and have spoken at our Anti-Bullying Speakout against the harmful effects bullying has on students. I am part of the student voice responsible for making sure that all children have an equal opportunity to complete their education. However, nothing gives me more satisfaction than our annual Overcoming the Odds Awards Dinner. It is a night devoted to select students who have triumphed over what seemed like insurmountable odds, such as debilitating handicaps, learning disabilities, or simply troubled childhoods. Last year's dinner had a powerful impact on me because a girl from my school was an honoree. She was someone I actually knew, a girl of incredible ambition who overcame a difficult background and with intense determination finished high school and is now attending college. As an active member of this organization, I know that I have helped provide many students with the edge that is necessary for them to succeed.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Define success.
TIME MAGAZINE Cover Story: Man of the Year What is it that he cannot do? Aside from playing Major League Soccer for the New York MetroStars and playing tenor saxophone for Westchester's Jazz Ensemble, this young man has somehow found time to virtually solve the planet's energy crisis. Brian Warshay has accomplished his once ridiculed 'pipe dream' and more. Happily married with two children, he leads a modest suburban lifestyle in spite of his success. When asked why he does not move to a more luxurious area, he simply states, 'I'm happy, I've done what I've set out to do, and now I want to raise my family and continue my work. That's all that really matters.' These are humble words from a man who has truly achieved his goals. Having grown up in Eastchester, New York, Brian excelled in high school and was admitted to Cornell University, where he earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees. Throughout these years, his ideas of a super-efficient energy cell, once viewed as impractical and impossible, began to take shape. Within three years after leaving Cornell, his research culminated in the development of this cell that proved so effective and inexpensive that it swept its way into nearly every home and industry throughout the world. Best of all, much of the profits from this astounding invention went to charity. When asked if he felt successful in his accomplishments, he responded, 'Success is accomplishing what one sets out to do, and enjoying it. I have always gotten a great deal of satisfaction from helping others, and in doing so, I have helped to bring an end to further pollution. But, my job is far from over.'
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Personal Statement
Portrait of Eva, Over Falling Snow and Soggy Bags She reminded me of one of those Spanish cleaning ladies from my Brooklyn childhood, those women all named Marta or Anita with faded leggings tucked into sagging white socks. I didn't even know what socks she was wearing, but here she was, Eva, arms wobbling as she moved about behind the counter in her thin white undershirt, ridiculously underdressed for this weather. She moved methodically, never blinking, sending slices of cold pizza skidding into the oven with a single strike. All it took was one customer to say the word, and there she'd go, flinging the pizza so hard I could hear sauce splatter and drip down the wall, and in three minutes it would be ready. Her customers were all sitting around, washing their defrosted slices of pizza down with cans of flat Coke, when I came inside. I had missed the bus again. Wanting to warm my hands before trekking home in the snow, I was met with Eva's scornful greeting as I walked in. 'Yes!' she barked, grimacing, anticipating my pleading glance. Please, let me stay inside for a bit, I have no money, I begged, it's freezing. In answer, Eva gave an emphatic sweep of her broom and glared me out the door. She never seemed to stop sweeping, moving the dust around that little place, corner to corner, as though she could change something by cleaning it, as though all the past needed was a good dusting. I went outside and stood there for a while. The hazy snow covered the ground like a raggedy blanket, and I could almost make out my reflection in the puddle of slush. Thinking about it like that, I forgot my rejection for a minute. I wanted to whirl around with my face to the sky as the words whirled in my head like voodoo incantations; I wanted to laugh wildly, ecstatic at my treasure. What I needed was a box big enough to fit the whole scene inside it, to store it in my attic, so brimming with inspiration that it would drip through the ceiling cracks and flood my house with magic. What I needed was a warm room, my bean bag chair, a pen. As I stood there wondering what to do with my night, Eva stared at me from the window. I've seen this episode before, I thought, I know what happens: now she invites me back in, gruffly apologizes, gives me a free slice of pizza, ducks back into her kitchen. The music crescendos: Eva slowly peeks out from behind her oven, comes closer, starts talking to me. We embrace, forget the past, move on... But this doesn't happen at all. Eva turns back to her next customer, who is handing her money, making small talk, buying a slice of pizza as though it were the easiest transaction in the world. Instead of waltzing back in and strangling her, I remember the advice Raul, my writing mentor, gave me: 'All around you the world is bursting with poems. You just have to stop and take it in.' And suddenly, as scents of cheese and pepperoni mingle with the snowflakes falling on my nose, I drop my bags into a puddle, shrug my scarf off my shoulders, and take out a pencil and notebook. In the soggy night, I sit outside Evas window with my thoughts. And under the light of her doorway, I move my wrist to silence us both.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Describe your intellectual interests, their evolution, and what makes them exciting to you.
Ever since I was a small child, I have always enjoyed reading. Over the past summer, however, I have grown a special interest in Greek tragedy; I have read nearly all of Sophocles, most of Euripides, and plan to tackle Aeschylus soon. My fascination has been inspired mainly by in-class readings of Oedipus the King by Sophocles and Hamlet by Shakespeare, and so has my ongoing plan to write my own play. Greek tragedy appeals to me because they are humanistic stories. Though there is much in the way of divine intervention, the play focuses mostly on the lives of the tragic heroes, in which seemingly minor character flaws can unfurl into enormous disasters. I find that in between the bindings of a book, it is in tragedy that we see the greatest outpouring and purging of raw emotion; it is this capturing of emotion that lies at the heart of the arts, whether it is visual, performing, or literary, and it is this process that truly excites me. The space provided only allows me to write about one dimension of my interests. Please look at my resume to see a more complete picture of interests in Biology, fine arts, performing arts, Web design, and Internet programming.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
Tell us what appeals to you about the school/college to which you are applying at Cornell. How will you utilize its academic programs to further explore your intended major/field of interest (or general academic interests if you're undecided)?
Because of my wide range of academic interests (mainly English, biology, and fine arts), the College of Arts & Sciences appeals to me most. I am most interested in the English courses that can develop my creative writing skills. I currently intern at the Columbia Genome Center, and would like to continue participation in genomics research at Cornell. Also, I hope to take advantage of the visual studies concentration, especially for the studio courses in drawing and painting, and the art history courses. Anything I learn in these classes could help me with my current ongoing project of the webcuration of the Webster Museum of Combined Arts.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
What are some of your most notable awards, honors, or achievements in high school? If any is especially important to you, tell us why.
At the national level, I have qualified as a National Merit Scholarship semi-finalist, and qualified to take the American Invitational Math Examination after passing the American Mathematics Competition. At the state level, I have been awarded The Festival Award at the Teen Arts Festival, the Scholastic Art Gold Key Award, and second place for the Federal Junior Duck Stamp Conservation and Design Contest. Within my high school, I have been selected to compete in the Harvard-MIT Mathematics competition and the American Regional Mathematics League, and I have consistently been on the Dean's List. There is an essay attached, which concerns an accomplishment of mine. Please see: Additional Essay.
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Essay Question:
Take a look at your list of activities and work experiences above. Please tell us about the one you value most and why.
With state-of-the-art technology virtually pouring out of the classrooms of my school, there have been so many opportunities for me to be involved with cutting edge creation. With all the facilities and mentors at my school, I have been able to learn a great deal about art, literature, and Internet programming. One of my greatest joys was creating an online museum (viewable now, please visit: http://www.webstermuseum.org); not only was it an opportunity to merge my artistic and technical interests, it was an opportunity to bring something from mere idea to an actual tangible product.
Essay Category:
Essay Question:
General personal statement, no topic
Reach As I cross the green, I pause to take one last glance over my shoulder at the castle, trying to capture an image that will last me a lifetime. Months ago, as I daydreamed at home in Taiwan, the desire found its way into my head: I wanted to kiss the Blarney Stone. As an Asian American, I do not have any drop of Irish blood in me. The strange urge, though, grew stronger, and by August, I have managed to fly, walk, ride, run, and tumble my way to Blarney Castle in Ireland. That was the summer after grade ten; and actually, I aspired then to do more than just kiss the Blarney Stone. I wanted to set foot in the Vatican, behold the Leaning Tower of Pisa, visit the little Irish town called Tralee, reunite with Irish friends I had met a year earlier, marvel at the magnificent Book of Kells, and venture up the snowy mountains of Switzerland. In order to do so many different things, I needed great control over my itinerary, so I decided to make the trip alone: total freedom. As I was only fifteen years old, making my own trip would be a challenge. I would have to plan my route, book youth hostels, compare airfares, pack for the long trek, and fly alone to Europe. When I finally touched down at my destination, I would have to find my own way to the hostel on foot and public transport: a reasonable budget would permit no taxi rides. Then, for about five weeks, I would be on my own. My family and friends would be back home, thousands of miles away. My parents had complete confidence in me, but I wondered, as I hugged them goodbye, if their confidence was misplaced. Before I knew it, though, I was checking in at the hostelI had made it to Rome. I soon met other travelers who shared my interests and discovered that I could easily make friends if I felt lonely. I learned to be independent, to be a street-smart backpacker, and to get along with strangers. First in Italy and then in Ireland and Switzerland, I surprised myself by being able to roam and discover on my own with only a trusty cell phone as a lifeline. I found museums to visit, streets to shop, ancient ruins to explore, and national parks to hike. Afterwards, I always managed to arrive back at Pisa Centrale Station for my next train, Bus Iireann Killarney Station for my next bus, or Zurich Flughafen for my flight home. I realized each of the dreams I had had in Taiwan and new ones that came to me in Europe, like biking through Killarney National Park. The park boasts many breathtaking sights ranging from waterfalls to castles and from gardens to lakes. Exploring the park, I biked over 24 miles in one day. After hours upon hours of cycling, I was exhausted; the stunning beauty of the terrain ahead, however, kept me moving. I remember parking my rented bicycle on the shore of a vast, serene lake and sitting at the waters edge. There was not another human in sightin any given direction, I could see only the emerald of grass and leaves, the amber of branches and earth, and the sapphire of water and sky. The idyllic beauty of my surroundings was overwhelming. However, what I enjoyed that summer, more than the scenery and the landmarks, was the independence and the adventure. For the first time in my life, I was completely on my own, free to go where I wanted, when I wanted, free to follow my itinerary or change it on a whimfree to decide. I discovered that when we chase our dreams, we are on our own, but if we want something intensely enough, we will find a way to reach out for it. I accomplished much that summerI have fifteen rolls of film and a new, confident outlook to prove it. Those five weeks were the most amazing ones of my life.
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Essay Question:
Describe an activity or extracurricular involvement and its importance to you.
InterAct Memories 'Do you know why I come here every day?' asked the woman, ecstatically, poised over the donation receipt she was about to complete. 'Its because of people like you! You've made my day. You could be watching a baseball game, but here you are, raising money for UNICEF!' I thought guiltily of the Mets ticket in my back pocket. The game was to begin in less than two hours. I wasn't really the boy this UNICEF volunteer thought I was. But I was trying. I did enjoy working in the community. There is something about leading a blind toddler down a long corridor or trying to explain Mother's Day to an orphan'a feeling at once cold and warm - that makes me remember, This is why I stay in InterAct, why I have chosen InterAct. In the ninth grade, my first InterAct Club (international action service club) activity was a senior citizens' health convention co-sponsored by InterAct's parent Rotary Club. I helped a dentist give free checkups and teach dental hygiene. I enjoyed the experience, and I have been in InterAct ever since. While staffing InterAct's do-it-yourself greeting card booth at a charity fair, I faced the matter of explaining Mother's Day to an orphan. I was amazed and impressed by the boy's grinning acceptance of the facts of his lifehis candor and smile showed no trace of grief or resentment. I vowed to remember his resilience and keep my mouth shut the next time I felt like complaining about how difficult my own life was. Later, while volunteering at the Lux Mundi Center for the Mentally Impaired, I had the chance to take a Center toddler, who was blind but enjoyed walking, on walks around the complex. This experience served to reinforce my earlier vow. Some of my time at Lux Mundi, where I volunteer monthly with other InterAct members, is spent performing duties like cutting old clothes into washrags, but my favorite part of each visit is caring for the residents. I particularly enjoy working with the children because I feel that they need the most support and that I can make the greatest difference in reaching out to them. While helping out at the Lux Mundi Center is the InterAct activity I enjoy most, I have worked on other InterAct projects as well, such as the Student Beat Concert we held last year. We raised US$650, which we divided between UNICEF and our club's International Crisis Fund, a project I initiated. When disasters occur, groups scramble to fundraise, but victims often need immediate relief. Saving money continuously in advance ensures that we will have cash readily available. We drew from the Fund for the first time this September, when we donated our savings (then $400) to the Red Cross to assist in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks. At the end of my junior year in high school, I faced a tough choice. I could choose to run for InterAct President or to run for re-election as Student Council President; I knew better than to attempt to juggle two presidencies along with my senior-year workload. As Council President, I had enjoyed organizing dances and other activities as well as effecting improvements around school like the installation of more storm drains and a student-accessible photocopier for the Bilingual Department. However, I ultimately realized that students at my school do not need dances and photocopies quite so much as children at the Lux Mundi Center need food and care. I found my work in InterAct more meaningful because it allowed me to meet more people and make a greater difference in their lives, so I chose InterActa decision I have never regretted.
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Essay Question:
Have you ever faced a moral or ethical dilemma?
One of the most difficult personal decisions that I have made occurred in my sophomore chemistry class. My teacher was very nice and understood the pressure we faced as students, but he often did this by ignoring blatant cheating. The most extreme case of this was the way he routinely said nothing about the periodic tables that we were allowed to use on tests; students would write notes on the table, or put sheets of paper in between it. I decided not to do this, even though there was virtually no chance of getting in trouble, because went against my values. Although the chemistry class was officially an honors-level course, the class was taught in a relaxed manner, and many students started to stop doing any work completely, relying on their cheat sheets instead. This in turn produced unusually high grades, so that the few students who were not cheating were at a marked disadvantage. Furthermore, the teacher allowed students to use their periodic tables even on tests where such knowledge was not important. Since this was allowed after students, myself included, had remarked that other students were using the tables to cheat, it became clear that the cheating would not be punished. My decision not to cheat was based on a variety of factors. Even though the teacher knew that many students were using their periodic tables for reasons other than its original purpose, I knew that there was always the possibility that he would decide to fail students because of it. From a more personal perspective, I knew that I would feel guilty for cheating long after the class was over. Cheating in that one class might make me more willing to cheat in classes where school policy was more rigorously enforced as well; this possibility was not one that I wanted to entertain. Regardless of the ethics of cheating, there was also the logical fact that I need to know the fundamentals of chemistry. The class was already easier than any other honors class I had taken; I needed to do whatever I could to learn the material that was being presented. Taking all of this into account, I saw that cheating on the tests would only hurt myself. Almost two years after the class, I know that I made the correct decision. Not cheating on the test forced me to work harder to maintain a high grade, but I also learned more than most of my peers. It is now a common joke amongst the students that we learned nothing from the class, but that is not true for me. In addition to this, I now know that I follow the morals that I have always valued; after years of thinking that cheating is wrong, I know that I will obey the rules I have set for myself. When my friends talk about how much fun chemistry class was and how the teacher did not care that everyone cheated, I can tell them that I was not a part of it. The one negative result of my decision is that I sometimes find myself judging my friends based upon their earlier actions. It is difficult to sympathize with a person saying that the curve on a test was ruined because one person cheated, for example, when I know that they have cheated as well. Although it has not severely affected any of my relationships, I occasionally wonder how some of my friends, whom I respect in most instances, can differ from me so fundamentally in ethical issues. I try not to let this bother me, but I know that I would react differently in certain situations when it comes to trusting a person who has cheated to make the ethically correct decision. By deciding not to cheat when the majority of students were doing so, I learned about my character and others. Although it was only a minor situation, the decision will, hopefully, prepare me for more difficult dilemmas in the future. The most important outcome of this is that I know that I can make the right decision when I need to, even when there are no penalties for doing otherwise.
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Essay Question:
Consider the academic programs in the school/college you indicated above. How will you utilize them to further explore your intended major or field of interest?
One aspect of the College of Engineering, and the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering that will help me explore my field of interest is the opportunity to participate in projects that apply the skills I learn while in the classroom. Projects such as the AIDE project and the Odysseus Team will allow me to design spacecraft, giving me valuable real-world experience before I graduate. These programs show that what we learn in the classroom has outside applications and will help me when I enter the work force. Another program in the College of Engineering that will be beneficial to me is the Engineering Communications Program. While being able to perform the tasks expected of an engineer is useful, the ability to communicate ideas effectively is also crucial. The emphasis that this program places on technical writing and oral presentation skills for audience of all knowledge levels will ensure that I can explain my ideas to everyone, regardless of their engineering background. Finally, the Cornell Presidential Research Scholars program will give me the opportunity to practice the research, design, and communication skills that I have learned. The chance to conduct funded research as an undergraduate will give me both research and managerial experience, both of which will be valuable when I apply for research grants in the future. In many ways, this program is a culmination of what I have learned at Cornell, allowing me to show that I can carry out all the responsibilities expected of an engineer.
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Essay Question:
What is your passion and how does it balance your life?
My fascination with the universe has always been a balancing force in my life, giving me a sense of purpose. When I am looking at the universe as an astronomer, it demonstrates a beauty that seems to be impossible to recreate on a computer or with mathematical formulas. Looking outwards, the stars represent infinite possibilities, and the ability to predict the future on a large scale by making calculations based on observations of the past. I have wanted to be an astronaut for as long as I can remember, and this interest has always correlated with my passion for math and science. Everything from reading books about antimatter to thinking about economical ways to enter low-Earth orbit interests me. My parents were instrumental in developing my curiosity about the world, and this curiosity is one of the main reasons I am interested in astronomy; I want to discover as much as I can about the universe. In addition to this, I love figuring out how things work. Whether I was building cars out of Legos as a child or watching my father try, unsuccessfully, to repair electronics, the puzzle that engineering presents is different from other disciplines. Since I have started taking physics this year, I have become more interested in discovering the laws of the universe, and using them to improve space flight. This blending of astronomy and engineering is ideal for me because I can satisfy both of my passions at the same time.
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Essay Question:
Write about three objects that would give the admissions selection committee insight into who you are.
A wheel, a shining beacon, a fine blade. Objects that come to mind are often representations of a person's behavior, interests, and opinions. I believe that a wheel, a shining beacon, and a fine blade, are objects that best characterize the person who I am. A wheel is a simplistic object. It is one of mankind's earliest inventions, but it proved to be an invaluable object throughout the rest of history. The wheel is a necessity, because it acts as a source of reliability. It is reliable because it is consistent. People can rely on a wheel to function and to serve its purpose for as long as it exists. The operation of a wheel illustrates its consistency. Turning and revolving in a cyclical motion demonstrates its ability to repeat and persist in whatever tasks it needs to accomplish. The shape of a wheel also adds to its significance. As a circular object, it represents smooth transition. It is given the only shape that lacks any corners or edges that would restrict or prohibit free and fluid motion. The wheel is truly a unique object. A shining beacon is an object of importance. It is a source of light and inspiration. The purpose of a beacon is to provide guidance for those in need. A beacon is undoubtedly an admirable object. It has the ability to brighten the hopes of those in its surroundings. It can bring a person from state of dire desperation to that of utmost gratitude. When the word 'beacon' is used, one often envisions a lighthouse. For a stranded ship on an unknown sea without any way to navigate, a lighthouse is its only savior. The value of a beacon is immeasurable. A fine blade is an object to be in awe of. It can penetrate the surface of objects that are incomparably larger in size. However, the traits and aspects of a fine blade are not what make it a respectable object. The derivation of a fine blade is what defines its greatness. Unlike other objects, a fine blade does not require tender care and delicate treatment to develop. On the contrary, it is the immense pressure and heat that refine the quality of the blade. Only under grueling conditions can a truly fine blade be forged. In a way, this characteristic resembles the behavior of human beings. Through harsh experience and vigorous training, human beings are able to improve on their abilities. For this reason, a blade is an amazing object.
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Optional Essay
Through experience, I've learned of my true interests, talents, and capabilities. In the last few years I've come to realize a true passion and a probable future occupation. In the eighth grade, I was introduced to the vast world of the Personal Computer and the Internet. For so long, I was one of the few lacking a feasibly usable PC. Finally, the time had come for my exposure into this new realm of technology. I would soon gain invaluable inspiration and skill, unobtainable in any other field. I've always felt that adapting to computer technology was an easy task, but I know others who would fiercely disagree. The eighth grade was my first chance at personal access to an up to date computer and the Internet. I took advantage of the opportunity. The endless stream of information and the new standard in communication fascinated me. I soon became deeply interested in how I might become a part of all this. The answer was simple: the personal web site. No sooner said than done, I commenced work on my newfound project. In order to succeed, I knew I had to base it on something that I enjoyed. I chose my dominant hobby, Japanese Animation, more commonly known as Anime. At first, I was able to construct no more than a meager amateur web site, but over time, it immensely improved. To improve and expand, I broke down the process into three steps. I had to grasp at least partial understanding over web authoring, the HTML (HyperText Markup Language) programming language, and graphic designing. The writing task was easy because I wrote of a topic that I enjoyed. The programming took quite a while to learn from scratch, but within a year's time I taught myself the basics of HTML. The last step, graphic designing, is still an art that I'm far from mastering. Although I can confidently produce some flashy effects with the use of Adobe Photoshop, I'm still nowhere close to the level of a professional visual artist. In any case, when I finally revamped and re-released the site, it brought instant change in my online career. I was tossed into the online community with unfathomable force. Tens of thousands of people were visiting the site on a weekly basis, swamping me with emails from then until now. I realized that I had to use this flourishing popularity to my advantage, and expand to an even further level. I soon found a sponsor, and I was endowed with my very own dedicated web server and domain name (currently sreanime.net). I noticed a trend in the input that I received. Many emails and notices were inquiries regarding the sales of Anime merchandise. Being that it was my dominant hobby, I figured a transaction could be both fun and profitable. I gave a shot at selling an Anime poster to a devoted fan of the site, and found that selling and trading online was a hobby in itself. Based on observing the limitless possibilities of the Internet, Ive chosen to allow computer technology to act as a guiding role in my academic education and career goals. Through this essay, I've only managed to graze the surface of my computer-based career. I have many events yet to be described and I'm sure many more that have yet to be experienced. Through firsthand experience, I've come to acknowledge the benefits of having an online persona. However, in the same instant, I can also acknowledge that living through the Internet is not the same as living a life, so hopefully through my academic transcript and my recommendations, it's apparent that I've managed to touch upon the surfaces of more than just the field of computers. At my current rate of progression, I can definitely see a promising occupational future in the computer field.
