Personal Essay

Nothing in my life has been more rewarding and frustrating than inventing. It taught me about challenges I faced myself, but more importantly about the challenges faced by others. This journey began i

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Why do these areas appeal to you? (up to approximately 100 words).

The truth is that almost every subject appeals to me. My favorite class this year is AP Music Theory which unites mathematical thinking with humanities. I love exploring that blurred space between sci

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What is it about Yale that has led you to apply? (125 words or less)

Yale’s information session stood out among giants. The presenter, Emily Wu, spoke from the most genuine perspective with a string of Twain-esque sarcasm. That Yale asked her to represent the Universit

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Reflect on your engagement with a community to which you belong. How do you feel you have contributed to this community? (250)

Topic #2 For a group that has committed atrocities, declared war, and betrayed each other more often than not, my community has been surprisingly close. For years, I have enjoyed online grand strategy

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List a few words or phrases that describe your ideal college community.(150 words or less)

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List the titles of the required readings from courses during the school year or summer that you enjoyed most in the past year. (150 words or less)

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List the titles of the books you read for pleasure that you enjoyed most in the past year. (150 words or less)

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List the titles of the print, electronic publications and websites you read regularly. (150 words or less)

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List the titles of the films, concerts, shows, exhibits, lectures and other entertainments you enjoyed most in the past year. (150 words or less)

Milton Friedman miscellaneous lectures, Leonard Bernstein’s music lectures (The Unanswered Question), Twin Peaks, Black Mirror, The West Wing, House of Cards, Inglourious Basterds, Der Untergang (Down

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Please tell us what you value most about Columbia and why. (300 words or less)

I was born in New York City and it will always be my home. What I value most about Columbia is not only the location, but the unique way Columbia interacts with it as a living, breathing component of

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For applicants to Columbia College, please tell us what from your current and past experiences (either academic or personal) attracts you specifically to the field or fields of study that you noted in the Member Questions section. If you are currently undecided, please write about any field or fields in which you may have an interest at this time. (300 words or less)

I find that most things are worth learning, and even more valuable when learned together. For example, my favorite class this year is AP Music Theory which unites mathematical thinking with humanities

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How will you explore your intellectual and academic interests at the University of Pennsylvania? Please answer this question given the specific undergraduate school to which you are applying. (400-650 words)

The University of Pennsylvania provides a unique major and the ideal environment to support my education. Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) blends both my passions and experience. Penn’s appro

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How does the University of Chicago, as you know it now, satisfy your desire for a particular kind of learning, community, and future? Please address with some specificity your own wishes and how they relate to UChicago.

UChicago was the first college I toured and set the tone for what I believe a university should be. The most visible asset was the beautiful gothic campus, but as I toured I found much deeper value. S

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Due to a series of clerical errors, there is exactly one typo (an extra letter, a removed letter, or an altered letter) in the name of every department at the University of Chicago. Oops! Describe your new intended major. Why are you interested in it and what courses or areas of focus within it might you want to explore? Potential options include Commuter Science, Bromance Languages and Literatures, Pundamentals: Issues and Texts, Ant History... a full list of unmodified majors ready for your editor’s eye is available here: collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/majors - Inspired by Josh Kaufman, Class of 2018

I had never been so out of breath in my life. My legs burned and I could not believe I was going to be late to the most important class of the semester. As I sprinted up the steps of Saieh Hall, I tho

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What about being a student at Boston University most excites you?

There is nothing more exciting to me than exploring ethics from a global perspective. At BU, I would not be able to avoid the international community through the enormous study abroad program, a stude

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Give us a glimpse of a passion, dream, or mental pursuit that absorbs and delights you.

Border gore. It is quite rare for someone to have heard of it and I absolutely despise it. The phrase refers to awkward or ugly borders between nation states and I learned about the term’s use deep in

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The German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote: “One cannot escape the world more certainly than through art, and one cannot bind oneself to it more certainly than through art.” With extended reference to one novel, poem, play, piece of music, or work of art, please discuss what you believe this sentence to mean.

When we create, we manifest ourselves in our work. More importantly, we imbue our creations with not only our perceptions of the world, but the idealized version within our minds. Of course, some work

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Kilachand Honors College offers a challenging liberal arts education grounded in critical and creative thinking and interdisciplinary problem-solving. What do you think this approach means? Reflect on what has been missing in your education to date, giving at least one concrete example to support your response. How would Kilachand’s interdisciplinary curriculum fulfill your academic, creative, intellectual, and/or professional goals?

Innovation begins with play. It begins with exploration. There is something uniquely human about trying something only to ‘see what happens.’ Play is how I have always begun my science projects. For e

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Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences. (150 word limit)

While I, like every other Brown applicant, have a passion for learning outside the classroom, not every student's intellectual path takes them through the bathroom. This occurred as I went through hum

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Why are you drawn to the area(s) of study you indicated earlier in this application? If you are "undecided" or not sure which Brown concentrations match your interests, consider describing more generally the academic topics or modes of thought that engage you currently. (150 word limit)

The truth is that almost every subject appeals to me. My favorite class this year is AP Music Theory which unites mathematical thinking with humanities. I love exploring that blurred space between sci

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Why Brown, and why the Brown Curriculum? (200)

I have felt at home at Brown since I first set foot on campus the summer after my freshman year of high school in the Summer@Brown program. After classes, I enjoyed walking down Thayer Street with fri

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Tell us where you have lived - and for how long - since you were born; whether you've always lived in the same place, or perhaps in a variety of places. (100 word limit)

I was born in New York City like my father before me. He lived there his entire life, the son of two Hispanic immigrants. He met my mother while she was studying at college before she dropped out and

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We all exist within communities or groups of various sizes, origins, and purposes; pick one and tell us why it is important to you, and how it has shaped you. (100 word limit)

For a group that has committed atrocities, declared war, and betrayed each other more often than not, my community has been surprisingly close. For years, I have enjoyed online grand strategy games an

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