For the Common App required essay, I wrote about one time I challenged conventional beliefs. The experience I wrote about was when one of my female classmates faced dress code violations due to her skinny jeans. As an intern at the local paper, I was in a position to bring this issue to light. I interviewed my classmate and others at my school about the incident and did additional research on similar situations nationwide. I wrote the article to challenge...

I was asked to describe an extracurricular in further detail. Since very few people know about Future Problem Solvers and I find it to be an extremely helpful organization that teaches teamwork, critical thinking, problem solving (of course), improvisation, and fast- but good- essay writing skills, I decided to describe a recent experience at the International conference. I started by showing a scene: me and my team hurrying to prepare a short skit explaining our action plan for the conference's...

The school I wrote this essay for put a lot of emphasis on their study abroad opportunities and international awareness. So, I decided to explain my own international experiences and that I would love to attend to further those and also to bring in my own perspective for the school. I wrote about my Girl Scout troop's experience traveling and volunteering in India and Nepal to show this. In fact, I had just returned from the trip not long before...

The first essay about Future Problem Solvers was for Mount Holyoke, the school I now attend. The second was for Macalester College, which I was not accepted to. I think something important to note was that Macalester had a much higher maximum word count, and if I remember correctly it actually had a minimum, too. I got close to the maximum for both essays, but I feel that doing so for Macalester may have factored in to why I wasn't...

For college, I have to say my favorite course has been Exploration of Mars. At Mount Holyoke, every first year has to register for a first year seminar, and I was lucky enough to be randomly selected for the beta program for a new setup for the seminars, which is much more involved than just a normal class....

Liberal, aware, intelligent, sisterly, action-oriented. My college put the "liberal" in "Liberal Arts." While far from perfect, Mount Holyoke students aim to improve themselves...

Honestly, I think being from Alaska helped a lot. There's only so many Alaskan college applicants, and many of us are happy to attend one of the Universities of Alaska. You know how college websites often have statistics on how many states their...

There is a lot more contention between the students and the administration than I expected. I figured there...

I would get more done sooner. I am a horrible procrastinator, and one essay I could not...

Deciding between the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Mount Holyoke College came down to two things: money versus happiness in my education. As an Alaska resident and a high achiever that qualified for a nice scholarship if I stayed in-state, UAF would have been very cheap. My parents had also attended UAF, so they knew the school. However, it is more of a STEM school than a social science school,...

Basically for all of my schools except UAF and Whitman, I was granted a pass from the application fee. Heck, I had Johns Hopkins on my Common App list and didn't apply partially because the application alone cost $60. Let's back that up for a moment. I put schools on my list because they...

Don't be a cissexual (not transgender or non binary) guy. That helps a lot. If you're a trans woman and don't get Mount Holyoke on the Common App because you have to...

Location-wise, it's close to family, but not too close. (Honestly though the East Coast is all tiny and squished together and casual interstate travel is so weird.) My campus is kind of out-of-the-way, and it's got a lake...

Okay, so I signed up for lots of mailing lists at first. I am a regular at what I call the "Nerd Trifecta," the three sister clubs of Renegades (tabletop RPGs, think Dungeons and Dragons), Bellatrix (Sci-Fi movies and anime, and Autosave (video games). That's just because I like...