Application Essay Excerpts

As the summer began, my mind buzzed with excitement and anxiety as I prepared for my internship. I worried over what to bring, printing out pages upon pages of scientific papers and stuffing them into my bag, just in case...

Though it is a moment that has passed in my lifetime, I would have wanted to witness the inauguration of President Barack Obama firsthand. Admittedly, I am not a Democrat. And if I had been able to vote in the past election, my ballot would not have been for out current president...

Given a free afternoon, I would most likely be found at the local YMCA, swimming laps in the pool. In high school, I first developed an interest in swimming as a member of the Swim and Dive Team for two years. Yet by Junior year, schoolwork, service commitments, and my job forced me to quit what my father deemed an “unnecessary” use of time...

“Is this where students live?” I asked my tour guide, stunned. He replied in the affirmative and went on to describe Yale’s famous residential college system. As he described the 12 colleges, each with its own crest, motto, and history, I was reminded of the houses of Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...

As humans, we are born with the inner desire to take the path of least resistance, to seek that which gives us the greatest reward for the least amount of work. In the current generation, this biological drive has grown into a national epidemic. The new strain?..

I don’t remember the first time I learned the word war. From the stern photos of my father in uniform to the glimpses of the South Vietnamese flag, war was an ever-present fixture of my childhood. War tore my country apart...

The intense glow of the dingy chandelier warms our sparsely-heated kitchen. The lights illuminate my despondent parents huddled around the dinner table. Dinner serves bitter courses: “slow business, expensive college tuitions, shrinking jobs.” Dinner is served. Dessert is my future. I await the pleasure with anticipation...

My most significant qualities which cannot be found on my application are my passion for following professional sports and my love of mathematics. In the second grade, I remember hurrying home from school each day to watch the Yankees battle the Angels in the 2002 American League Division Series, and in the third grade, I was already educating my teacher on concepts in the fields of algebra and geometry that she had never even heard of...

Rod Stewart: a man of many musical talents. While some may argue that he may or may not have been the voice of a generation, his musical career has been filled with many inspirational songs and lyrics. In one of these songs, “Ooh La La,” the phrase “I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger” is repeated throughout...

I arrived in Washington DC in the middle of July. I was waiting for my uncle in the Mall. As the first born son of a self-made Puerto Rican, I didn’t have access to the connections that so many of my peers did-- this was a rare exception...