At a restaurant in the middle of Manhattan, my phone buzzes with an impending FaceTime call from my sister. Disobeying a typical dinner table courtesy, I slide my finger across the screen at the approval of my parents. "Hi, sissy-ka-doo," I say to the face that is a bit too close to the camera. "Hi sissy-poo," my 20-year-old sister replies. Our untraditional nicknames stem from a very imaginative past, full of games in which we would pretend to be fairies,...

On a beautiful, sunny fall day, I fell in love with Brown. From the bridge in the neurology building designed to mimic a phospholipid bilayer to the department of Egyptology, Brown proved to be a unique school offering so much more than the usual cluster of general education requirements. Brown’s open curriculum allows students to study academia outside of a declared major which is attractive to a student such as myself. I do not wish to limit my education...

Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences. Oddly, twelve years of rigorous ballet training did not help me much in auditioning for Woodside’s dance team. Dance has always been central to my life, from taking class in a studio, rehearsing for shows, performing with a team, to even watching from the audience. My formal training is in classical ballet, so dance team proved a change of pace. Hip hop was challenging for me. I...

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. Millions of electrical and chemical reactions occur every moment within the human body, following complex patterns and interactions allowing us to function daily, reason, deduce and plan. The human body is the greatest known example of...

For the University of California application, my common app essay did not fit both of the prompts, so I essentially wrote an additional personal statement. For many of my friends, they were able to tailor the common app essay to a UC prompt and then edit supplemental essays from Private school apps to fit the other UC prompt. My other personal statement was about my experiences being a lifeguard and swim instructor and the effect of community on me through...

I did not have any sort of a counselor for applications while a number of my friends did. My friends with...

Brown: My Brown interview was probably the best interview I could have given. I made an effort ot not come off as scripted albeit I had practiced quite a bit for the...

ASK IN ADVANCE!!! Make sure you ask your teachers for recommendations way ahead of time-preferably at the end of junior year. Many teachers take quotas for recommendations so...