I used to turn over every single stone I found when I was in middle school. I’d sit down and painstakingly look up every one of my findings in an encyclopedia of rocks and minerals; then I’d draw them, write about them, get up at night to arrange them again and again. Soon cardboard boxes overflowed with them, and my mother tried to throw them out despite my protest and tears. Obsessed with making the best collection, I...

There exists a very delicate relationship between a work of art and the space it occupies. The place in which these masterpieces are exhibited largely determines their effect because it is not a storage room, but a sacred shrine made to display the messages encrypted in painting and sculpture. One particularly well-arranged gallery is the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. An inhuman stillness surrounds the outside, contributing greatly to the effectiveness of its layout. Once inside, it...

I took it upon myself to be as honest as possible. After writing many of my own admissions essays, reading past successful essays, and peer editing friends' essays, I came to believe that college essays, especially personal statements, should aim to present the most honest version of yourself. To do that, think about what's most important to you-- for me, it's intellectual engagement in relation to the human experience. I'm very drawn to different aspects of the humanities, and both...

I would only have applied to schools I really wanted to go to-- that is, schools that were right for my personality and my learning style. I applied to...

Dartmouth is a well-known private university, but it also has the elements of a liberal arts education. The class sizes are much smaller, on average, than the other...

People often make the mistake of simply asking teachers they like for recommendations, forgetting that the teacher you like is not always the teacher that likes you (i.e. you might have a favorite teacher, but that teacher...

I went to a learning center for college consulting. I think that most of the time, having a counselor is usually better than not having one at all (though the effectiveness varies across different institutions and for different...

Dartmouth-- I interviewed with an undergraduate senior via video chat. It was the most casual conversation out of all my interviews, no doubt because he was much closer to my age than any of my other interviewers. Yale-- I interviewed in person with an alumnus in my area. It was my very first interview, but she made it easier than I thought it would be (I was a nervous wreck and she probably sensed that)....

Mostly everything was online research. since I didn't have time or the financial liberty to visit every school I was interested in. I read all the emails I got from possible schools I'd...

I was lucky enough to be accepted to a variety of schools (mostly because I applied to a lot of schools)-- public, private, and liberal arts colleges in different locations in the U.S. I knew that I wanted to go somewhere the students had support, and where I could interact with professors and ask questions. Towards the end of April, I was deciding between three colleges (Amherst, Swarthmore, and Dartmouth) that...

Do something that will show colleges that you're actively pursuing your goals. My summer activities are by no means the best, but I included them to demonstrate to colleges what...