Throughout elementary and middle school, my life revolved around being invisible, because if I remained invisible, no one could make fun of me for having a terrible haircut, a ruddy face, and, worst of all, for being intelligent. Words such as nerd, freak, and dweeb were thrown at me on a daily basis by kids who simply didn’t understand the power of such phrases. In the beginning of high school, my goal remained the same, stay invisible and stay...

As my eyes wandered from President Obama to the examples of grandeur in the White House, including the presidential portraits in golden frames and rooms decorated with one color apiece, I realized how lucky I was to have been selected for such an incredible program. Girls Nation, sponsored by the American Legion Auxiliary, is a week-long summer program for rising high school seniors. Before a student is selected for Girls Nation, they must first attend Girls State, held in their...

Interviews for the Ivy League schools typically differ greatly from school to school, even interviewer to interviewer. For example, my interview for Georgetown was two hours long and very professional. It was so nerve-wrecking, I ended up sweating through my...

Scholarships are perhaps one of the most under-used ways to pay for college. During my senior year, my part-time job was applying for scholarships. I scoured the resources offered by...

Ivies like Yale receive tens of thousands of applications each year, typically from students who are all very well-qualified. Eighty percent of the students who try to get into those types of universities have...

I obtained recommendation letters from just about every person that was important in my high school career. My teachers were more than happy to write great things...

What set me apart from other applicants was the fact that I had overcome my small-town background to participate in opportunities typically only granted to students...

Yale had been my dream since kindergarten, and the only thing that stood in the way of me attending the institution after being...