I've always been a wanderer-a shapeless haze of experiences and emotions, perhaps, that's never been bent into any one particular form for long. My earliest memories are of a calm home in [Birth town] and the sweet tang of my grandmother's homegrown mangoes in her quaint little backyard, but all after is a blur of varying landscapes, cities, and people. Where another's world may expand little beyond the soothing hum of the town or state they were born in, I've...

Bent forward, tense, and staring intently at the glowing screen as seemingly nonsensical words flashed by. I've never felt more certain of my path, of my future, in this world than at that moment. Contestants captured in the same trance of intense determination surrounded me, clacking at their keyboards, fingers dancing gracefully across each key. But we all only had one word on our mind: Gold. The past week has been building up to this moment, each day the anticipation...

Throughout my school experience, I constantly saw the ways children from disadvantaged backgrounds are often left behind in the race towards the future due to circumstances beyond their control. I lived it every day through the peeling classroom walls, broken chairs, homemade "ghetto" whiteboards, waterlogged and outdated textbooks, and old, beat-up school computers. My peers, our teachers and myself were rightly angered how, in a failing public education system with crooked priorities, the most crucial component is often ignored: the...

In the course of my high school educational career, I have attended three schools in two different states: [State 1] and [State 2]. Though hectic, the continuous change has presented numerous excellent opportunities to adapt to new lifestyles and overcome diverse academic challenges. In my first year, I completed my ninth grade fall semester under an eight-period, block-style schedule at the [Highschool 1] as a student in the [Specific Industry] Academy. In early 2012, I moved from [Town 1] to [Town 2] for my ninth grade...

The first personal statement was a prompt given in the University of California application. The prompt was: "Describe the world you come from – for example, your family, community or school – and tell us how your world has shaped your dreams and aspirations.". The topic discussed in this personal statement was a slight inversion of the initial prompt expectation as a simultaneous depiction of exposure to a large amount of diversity and thus the development of an open-minded and multifaceted character. ...

At UC Santa Cruz, many students take full advantage of the beautiful environment that surrounds them on campus. Popular activities students take part in include exploring the vast Redwoods forest through various...

A typical student at this university is compassionate, open-minded, diverse, dedicated, and liberal. UCSC students are generally very accepting of...

Knowing what I know now, in my application I would have framed my first personal statement as to be less focusing on my community background and how I felt out of place, and more on how it affects me NOW and why these experiences have built my character even further. In other words,...

During high school, a student will want to consider the areas/majors that they will want to explore in college, and then participate in activities around these interests in order to flesh out your experience (and, in the future, your resume). It is not enough...

I did not begin applying for scholarships until my senior year in high school, and this was a very grave mistake. In financing my education, I relied mostly on the grants and merit scholarships offered directly by the university and student loans. You should begin to seek out and apply for scholarships as soon...