Application Essay Excerpts

{Describe an academic challenge.} Everyone has a spark for something. I happened to find mine while mixing a drop of Zinc ions into a beaker of clear, aqueous solution with an unknown strip of metal. Logic ruled the experiment. On our third attempt, my group saw the solution blush deep blue as the more reactive zinc ions displaced the unknown metal...

When I play piano I feel free. The notes tell a story through a language of their own, my own. It’s a story of frustration and triumph. It’s a story where the final product is more than the sum of its parts...

One of the most important people in my life that has influenced me and my aspirations is my grandma. She has demonstrated an undying personal drive to support her family and is the most hard-working person I know. She grew up in Cambodia, raising a large family of 8+ children in impoverished conditions. When the Vietnam War came along, along with the Khmer Rouge, her siblings and parents were killed...

For as long as I can remember I have lived without my birth mother. My parents divorced/separated when I was a child. All I knew about my mother I had learned only through what my family had told me, rather than from what I have seen or experienced...

{Penn: Response to Benjamin Franklin quote}I am a part of the class that is movable. I am someone who stands my ground and defends my position of what I think is right. However, I am open-minded and willing to accept change. Through my matriculation I expect to have many new experiences and explore a world of knowledge I have never been previously exposed to before...

{Engaging at Penn}The way I engaged academically in Science Olympiad is how I hope to engage academically at Penn. Science Olympiad is a competition of scientific ability and knowledge; it was the first time that I advanced my knowledge in science and used it with competitive intentions. Rather than just seeing it as a school subject, science came to life for me and became something much more intriguing...

{Stanford: Letter to a Roommate}What I like to find in other people is motivational drive, morality, respect for others, creativity, and unique characteristics or abilities. When people have purpose I find that they do what they do well and become admirable in that their unique source of motivation may be what sets them apart from other people...

{What matters most?}The things that matter to me most are love, family, and education. As a child I grew up under difficult circumstances. My family is uneducated and at times we struggled to get by financially. I was abused by my mother and my relationship with my father is practically nonexistent...

An experience important to my intellectual development was participating in Science Olympiad, a competition of scientific ability and knowledge. It was the first time that I advanced my knowledge in science and used it with competitive intentions. Rather than just seeing it as a school subject, science came to life for me and became something much more intriguing...

People are often advised to live in the present. Or, in the words of my Czechoslovakian mentor Jara, “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift and that is why we call it the present.” It was easy for me to simply smile at these words, so cleverly strung together, and accept the superficial message on its surface...