After spending most of my courage to pass auditions for Notella, my school’s co-ed a cappella group, I envisioned myself blending flawlessly into the seams: an integral but unnoticeable sophomore. I am not a bubbly choir kid with a loud personality, but am intrinsically a musician and love adding perfectly tuned harmonies to my vocalist friends’ melodies. Because of performance anxiety, I shy away from singing in public. Luckily, Notella only goes to one competition: ICHSA, which features high...

Business is the natural integration of leadership and mathematics, two of my strengths. Taking responsibility for group tasks and communicating with teammates is second nature to me. My brain is wired for logic-based thinking — I intuitively understand statistical analysis and how to manipulate numbers to make sense of them and analyze their significance in context. In the Levanthal School of Accounting nested in within Marshall, I will be able to hone my interpersonal abilities after reviewing video taken during a...

I had my reservations about women’s colleges before visiting campus, but after a conversation with a current senior, I discovered that my worries are unfounded. She told me that an all women environment creates a collaborative atmosphere and opens up leadership opportunities for soft-spoken and outspoken women, such as operating the Motley Coffeehouse or editing The Scripps Voice. These work experiences are invaluable in paving the way for more women to fill executive positions in the professional workforce and...

As a singer and instrumentalist, I appreciate that a third of Oles include music in their lives. I love singing in my high school’s choir and a cappella group, and look forward to entering the choral music scene that St. Olaf is known for to develop my own sound and make music with peers. I want to live with fellow musically minded students while engaging in an academically rigorous set of classes. I would love to take advantage of...

My dad is staunchly a Chinese immigrant. At fifteen years old, his family finally fled the persecution of intellectuals under Communist rule. With his mother and brother, my dad was illegally smuggled to the States, joining his father in pursuing the American dream: eating meat more than once a year and facing less state-sanctioned persecution. Even now, my dad gets angry when my sister or I disparage contemporary social justice issues. “Appreciate what you have and stop complaining,” he will...

I was born and have been raised in Portlandia on granola and organic vegetables; schooled in indie music, skinny jeans, and composting. My parents are both staunchly first-generation Chinese immigrants, the type who say, “Do your homework” on the first day of summer. Somehow, they live here. Once during breakfast, my sister was eating toast. To see what would happen, she gathered some crumbs and held them playfully over the floor. “Caitlyn, don’t do that,” said my dad worriedly. �...

The "Why us" supplemental essays are for 1) University of Southern California, 2) Scripps College, 3) Saint Olaf College. Supplement 4 was written for Pomona's "What is freedom to you?" prompt, and 5 was written for Brown's prompt asking, "Tell us where you have lived."

By April, I narrowed down my choices to two schools. Both were equally appealing in terms of campus, size, and academic rigor, but I ended up...

I applied for the national merit scholarship, which was a huge investment. If you are...

LA, although not the most beautiful or safe city, has so much to offer. The entertainment industry is centered...

There are so many on-campus events I never knew about before coming to campus - like Visions and Voices, boba fundraisers, and...

Confident, specialized,...

My GESM (general education seminar) called "Music as Politics" for the arts requirement has been my favorite class so far. My professor was...