I’m so unprepared, I thought; I haven’t unpacked my suitcases, much less removed yesterday’s books from my backpack. We arrived at our new home slightly after midnight, three months into the school year. School would start at seven tomorrow, and I felt terrified of taking a quantum leap from one universe to another—from Livingston, New Jersey to King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. Four weeks prior, my mom told me, “I have a new job. We have to...

UPenn: Why Penn?

Take water. Science defines water — it is made of two hydrogens clinging to an oxygen atom, greedily stealing their electrons. However, this knowledge serves no purpose unless applied to good use. “Great, but who cares?” the average person says. But use that water to power a hydroelectric dam, and watch a bulb light up in that person’s head. Take Gauss’s Law. This formula, at the foundation of electrostatics and magnetism and used to calculate electric flux, ignited my...

I'm an Asian who played violin and piano, was good at math and science, and ran track, and wants to be a doctor. Probably as stereotypically Asian as you can get. I was really worried that I would be that stereotypical Asian that never gets in anywhere unless they were through the roof good at their things, which I was not. I was mediocre at violin. I was okay at piano. I ran cross country for a year then quit. I liked math and science, joining the math and science competition teams, but I wasn't the best. I didn't even...

Having interviewed for ten schools (including all seven Ivies I applied to!), I'd say that I’ve had pretty extensive experience these kinds of interviews. I live near King of Prussia in Pennsylvania, so all my interviews were alumni interviews. My first one, for Yale, went terribly. Honestly, I didn’t know what I wanted to do at that point, I didn’t really want to go to Yale (please don’t apply somewhere if you don’t want to go there), and when asked “what do...

My advice for choosing a recommender is simple: Get teachers you really know on a personal level. Make sure you always maintain a cordial relationship with all your teachers (unlike me), because they tend to gossip and share with other teachers, so having a bad relationship with one teacher could...

My two main contenders were Brown University and Johns Hopkins' BME program. Brown is a school I was and am really in love with. I love its Open Curriculum, the exploratory nature of its campus (take everything Pass/Fail!). (also, its food seems a lot better). However, as a bioengineering major, I felt that Brown's weak engineering program couldn't compete with Penn's...

The most important thing about summer is not to waste it. If you think about it, many colleges admit students based on how successful they think they will be. To show...