I tie on my black apron bunny-ears style over my polyester black shirt, crinkling my nose; even the washing machine couldn’t remove the grease smell. My hand automatically reaches to the corner of my apron to insure my nametag doesn’t read “ynaffiT” by accident. I slip on my black visor, slide on my black sneakers, and tuck my black pant leg over my pink striped socks that belie the uniformity I’m trying to maintain. Every morning I...

The term "Chinese American" is misleading; it implies that I am both Chinese and American. What if I am neither? Going to a boarding school where over 90% of Asians are international students, I find myself struggling to choose a side. I've come to realize that I can't, but rather than feeling superfluous, I try to learn from all backgrounds available at Taft. Although I can't change my appearance or my hometown to fit a specific category, I can use the...

"You're so lucky; you can drop math next year!" Finishing the math courses at Taft did make me very lucky, although for a very different reason. I now have free time to learn any math I want. Rather than following a more traditional route (sorry differential equations), I'm seizing the opportunity by taking several online courses such as game theory, street-fighting mathematics, and theory of numbers to expand on my problem-solving skills and focus on abstract math. I can develop...

Behavioral economics blends a few of my favorite things: math and people. Economics to me is about the ever-evolving modern society, structured on both human logic and our relationships with money and each other. After having the privilege of working in the Global Macro Research Department at Deutsche Bank in London, I see the necessity of being able not only to accurately guess how consumers will react in certain economic situations, but also to explain their motivations and justifications -...

I chewed on my bottom lip, unsure of what to say. While I understood my editor's concern that two months was not enough time to create a 48-paged magazine and raise $3500 to fund it, I thought it was a great idea and worth a try. We were both editors on Global Journal, a small school newspaper, but I wanted to expand. The new magazine, "Perspectives," would help Taft's community build a deeper understanding of the importance and benefits of diversity...

Coming from a small town in New Jersey, I did not have a very exciting pre- boarding school childhood, but I never questioned it. I was constantly surrounded by others who more or less went through what I did, making it all too easy to forget the millions who didn't live in East Brunswick. Three years ago I moved from the east side of EB to the west side, about a fifteen-minute drive - it was a big deal. But...

The first lunch at Deutsche Bank was the scariest. I felt like a new student on the first day of school, anxious about where to sit at lunch, except I also had other worries on my mind. Where should I buy lunch? What if I can't tell the difference between a ten and a twenty pence coin? What if we have nothing to talk about? "Tiffany, are you ready to go?" my mentor, Gilles, halted my concerns. "Yup, thanks for...

If you were to come into my house unannounced one night, you'd find my family and I huddled around the kitchen table, a mess of cards in between us, and post-it notes on our faces. My dad laughs gleefully, "When there is game, there's no family!" throwing down a 5-bomb move, effectively lining him up to win the game, while my sister and I beg him to spare us from his card weaponry ("But I'm your daughter!"). He wins; I...

Every interview I've had included the interviewer telling me how great they think it was that I...

Not necessary what I'd change, but just some general advice. I would recommend...

Give MIT a chance. It's more for just engineers and...