Rebuilding your entire life’s work in one afternoon is a pretty daunting task. That’s what I attempted a few Sundays ago, my life’s work being the glorious, 151-track opera playlist I spent years cultivating, accidentally deleted with a few careless taps on a phone. Eventually, through sheer force of will and hours of tedium, I recreated a playlist of 118 songs. Maybe I’ll remember some of those missing 33 eventually, but the rest is lost to me forever....

Marching band is all about conformity. For eight minutes, 120 of us have to look and sound identical, not a step or note out of place. But if conforming to the standards of marching and music is hard enough, conforming socially is another story. Anytime I saw one of my quiet saxophone freshmen feeling overwhelmed by the sheer vivaciousness of the biggest, loudest section in the band, I thought back to three years ago, when I thought I would never become...

Rebuilding your entire life’s work in one afternoon is a daunting task. That’s what I attempted a few Sundays ago, my life’s work being the glorious, 151-track opera playlist I spent years cultivating, accidentally deleted with a few careless taps on a phone. Eventually, through sheer force of will and hours of tedium, I recreated a playlist of 118 songs. Maybe I’ll remember some of those missing 33 eventually, but the rest is lost to me forever. That�...

Last spring, I had to read easily the most personal thing I’d ever written out loud to 54 people. My poem was about my mother’s upbringing in poverty in China, worked her way to the best university in Beijing, full of hope for her future, only to see from the front lines the hope of her country’s future and her classmates’ lives shattered at Tiananmen. Public speaking had always been something I’d struggled with. How could I...

On our last night at YYGS, the six of us sat overlooking the dining hall and played one last game of cards with the deck I’d had them all sign. Logan was terrible and Hazuki won with her quiet, unassuming cleverness, as usual. Then we sat quietly until midnight, soaking in each other’s company, turning our memories of the two deliriously fantastic over in our heads so they would stay there and new forever. Early the next morning,...

MIT ESSAYS Please tell us more about your cultural background and identity in the space below (100 word limit). My last name, Trindade, means “Trinity” in Portuguese. While I’m not religious, it’s fitting for my cultural background because I grew up trilingual, with a family stretched across three countries on three continents. Nowadays, my Mandarin is a little worse for the wear, but still passable because I speak it at home. However, after years of underuse my Portuguese has...

When the day came to read our poems to the class, I told myself that I would just go up there, shut my brain off for a few minutes, emotionally detach myself from the piece that I had poured so much of my heart into, and sit back down. That is not what happened. My poem was about how mother’s arrival at Beijing University, full of hope for her future, only to see from the front lines the hope...

I am excited to experience Viterbi’s interdisciplinary approach to engineering and its emphasis on real-world impact and problem solving. I appreciate the fact that USC makes research available to all students, including programs such as the Merit Research Program, which allows undergrads to be engaged with faculty and lab work from year one. I’m drawn to Viterbi’s interdisciplinary research opportunities such as Bio-Inspired Engineering research (with applications including both medical and aerodynamic transport systems), which would allow...

I will freely admit that I cried when Opportunity died. Despite his silicon brain, Opportunity wasn’t just a robot. He was thoroughly human--a pioneer, the first to explore the vast red planet he called home, no one around to disturb him. He was alone on Mars, but not lonely. There was a whole planet full of people behind him, cheering him onward, so he had a family mourning him when he died after 14 extraordinary years. Opportunity was human because...

As a Mathnasium tutor, I’ve learned firsthand that a one-size-fits-all approach to education is extremely limiting. When teaching students, I find myself constantly adapting my teaching style to suit each student’s individual needs based on how they respond to various teaching methods. I work with around three students at a time, but magnify that by a factor of ten or a hundred and it becomes clear how traditional teaching models can fall short, and why advancing personalized learning...

My last name, Trindade, means “trinity” in Portuguese, which is fitting for my cultural identity which, like my face, is ambiguous. I am split three ways-Chinese, Portuguese, and American, a part of all three and yet not fully belonging in any. Like other Chinese-American kids, I grew up speaking Mandarin around the house and English at school, making dumplings with my mom and bringing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to school, all of the experiences that are embedded into the...

I will freely admit that I cried when Opportunity died last year. Despite his silicon brain, Opportunity was not just a robot or a project. He was thoroughly human. He was a pioneer, the first to see the vast red planet he called home, no one around to disturb him as he did what he loved most: exploring. He was alone on Mars, but not lonely. There was a whole planet full of people behind him, cheering him onward, so...

The “Flashlight Game” is only played at night, a tradition that’s been passed down through the saxophone section’s end-of-season bonfire for years. One person stands in the middle of the circle, looks straight up at at the sky, and spins as fast as they can. Suddenly, someone shines a flashlight into the person’s face and they try not to fall (but they always do). The journey to reach the point where we’re comfortable letting each other...

Each summer, I sacrificed two weeks to spend ten hours each day on the football field, teaching freshmen to suppress human instinct to move with perfectly straight legs, trying to corral seventeen rowdy saxophone players, calling commands until my voice is hoarse, marching sixteen steps from point A to point B so many times I could do it in my sleep (then repeating for 75 more points). It was worth it. Before every competition, the saxophone section always found time for...

When the day came to read our poems to the class, I told myself that I would just go up there, shut my brain off for a few minutes, emotionally detach myself from the piece that I had poured so much of my heart into, and sit back down. That is not what happened. My poem was about how mother’s arrival at Beijing University, full of hope for her future, only to see from the front lines the hope...

My ideal career would be one that is interdiscplinary and focused on problem solving for the advancement of humanity in some way. Senior year has given me my first-ever taste of computer science, and the combination of analytical and creative thinking required in that field are right up my alley. There’s a thrill in working for hours to fix one bug in a program, then finally having it run properly. I hope I’ll be able to combine the...

As a school with a strong liberal arts foundation, where students are encouraged to take courses spanning a variety of subjects, Yale would teach me to think critically, communicate effectively, and let me further my interests outside of STEM, including lessons at the School of Music open to all undergrads. As a research school, Yale would assist me in my goal of advancing educational AI technology. In particular, the STARS would provide me from day one with the experience and...

1. What inspires you? From Hypatia to Ada Lovelace, female mathematicians who defied their society’s expectations by spreading their wisdom, learning and passion for furthering humanity. 2. Yale’s residential colleges regularly host conversations with guests representing a wide range of experiences and accomplishments. What person, past or present, would you invite to speak? What question would you ask? Julie d’Aubigny, the vagrant, swashbuckling, adventurous, unapologetically bisexual fugitive with a heart and voice of gold who scandalized the French opera...

People call education the “great equalizer,” and it’s easy to see why. Education is the foundation from which all other innovation is born. Today’s first graders will be the next generation’s inventors and entrepreneurs, and the years of education it takes to reach that point need to be as efficient as possible. As a Mathnasium tutor, I’ve learned firsthand how limiting a one-size-fits-all approach to education is. When teaching, I find myself constantly adapting my teaching...

The Flashlight Game is a tradition that’s been passed through the end-of-marching-season saxophone section bonfire for years. One person stands in the middle of the circle, looks straight up at the stars, spins as fast as they can, and try not to fall (they always do) as someone shines a flashlight into their eyes. As section leader, it was my job to help people feel welcome in the group. I watched out for freshmen overwhelmed by the vivaciousness of...

Describe yourself in three words. First Word: serial Second Word: pen Third Word: collector What is your favorite snack? Anything I can bake myself, from gooey butter cake to red velvet cookies to mint chocolate fudge. Best movie of all time: The Princess Bride--a paragon of something I find absolutely brilliant but have a lot of difficulty explaining why that is. Dream job: If I had the vocal cords, opera singer. Otherwise, astronaut or bubble expert If your life had...