When I moved to Maryland over seven years ago, I stood out like a sore thumb in the private school I attended. All my differences, the most obvious being ethnicity, made it difficult for most students there to accept me. I was Mexican, and all their exposure to my alien culture consisted of Taco Bell ads, nightly news stories about kidnapped Americans, and summer outings to the resort-covered beaches of my home country. As you can imagine, I felt firsthand...

Ever since my sophomore year AP US government class, I knew I wanted to be a part of the political system. AU is an obvious choice in that respect, but I took an internship at Doug Gansler's gubernatorial campaign, and decided to refocus my college plans into something similar, but more attuned to my diverse background.I looked further into myself what I love to learn and do, and thought about my passion for languages, from the ones I learned...

It's the first day of freshman year. I enrolled into University College immediately after I was accepted to AU, so I know people from the Discover D.C. experience a week before classes. I grow close to my University College classmates, all living in Anderson, and am relishing the challenge of our seminar. My other freshman classes include introduction courses in politics, economics, French, and Russian. (I especially enjoy the challenge of learning Cyrillic!) I branch out socially the second...

Occidental College is smaller than my high school, with just over 2,000 students, but what it lacks in size Oxy makes up for in opportunity. The possibilities that I could explore at Occidental, from cross-registering for classes at Caltech, to studying abroad, to Oxy-at-the-UN, are what most appealed to me to apply to the school. Being an aspiring diplomat, and Diplomacy and World Affairs major, the internship program at the United Nations is one of the most exciting things I see...

When I visited with the "Your GW" program, I was already interested in George Washington University. The international relations curriculum at GWU is on the cutting edge of global politics, due to the faculty often being a part of it themselves, as diplomats, formal world leaders, and current policymakers. The quality of the school is matched only by the incredible opportunities surrounding GWU, being right in DC, in the middle of where real-life global action takes place. I love the...

I'm a pretty normal teenager, sassy and sarcastic at times, but at heart (I think) I'm a pretty good kid. I hang out with my friends on the weekends, do (most) of my homework, and spend (a little) more time on the Internet than I should. However, I do something every morning that I don't feel is common among my peers. I read the newspaper. No, not in e-book form, although I do sometimes follow up on an article or...

While it may seem cliche, the Harry Potter series has always been near and dear to my heart. The books were an escape from reality, into someplace magical where "too smart for their own good" 11-year-olds could be heroines in their own right. I identified so much with Hermione, in her social alienation due to where she was born and how she was raised. She kept her head up, and she fought for what was right, despite the magical world...

When I visited with the "Your GW" program, I was already interested in George Washington University. The international relations curriculum at GWU is on the cutting edge of global politics, due to the faculty often being a part of it themselves, as diplomats, formal world leaders, and current policymakers. The quality of the school is matched only by the incredible opportunities surrounding GWU, being right in DC, in the middle of where real-life global action takes place. I love the...

The first "why us" and "unique questions" were for American University, and I believe they were successful because of the amount of information I packed into them that showed how much I knew about the school. The second "why us" was for Occidental College, and again, it showed a lot about what I knew about and liked about the school. The second "unique question" was for Oxy, and asked about a favorite book character. The third unique question by Oxy...

There are a lot of things I regret when thinking about my college applications, but if I had to pick a few core, broadly-applicable ones, they would be: last-minute panic, under-confidence, and forgetting about finances. "Last-minute panic" is my way of saying freaking out because I didn't write my supplement essays for a school I'm applying to and I am going to have to write fast, furiously, and down to the wire. PLEASE, please, plan out your essays ahead of time, and try to complete them at least a...

I used a private admissions counselor to edit my essays, and she was incredibly helpful. I already had most of the ideas for my essays planned out, and I would meet up with her for a few hours, and send her my essays afterwards, and she would help edit. If...

There were a lot of factors that I weighed in when choosing schools to apply to, but the top three that I would recommend for anyone starting to apply to colleges are: academic programs, physical aspects of the school, and ultimate end goals for after college is over. The first criterion is obvious and really helpful for narrowing down the majority of schools to add to one's list. I looked for schools with quality programs in international affairs. The most efficient way to find out about this is through US News & World Report rankings by department, but this information can...

Getting recommendations for college is not that tough a process, but it is an essential one that requires significant effort from freshman year to senior year. The first thing one needs to think about in this whole process is what teachers to ask about recommendations. Teachers who have taught you in subjects related to your field of study are ideal, but try to include a teacher who really enjoyed you...

I only interviewed at three of the eight schools I applied to, American University, Occidental College, and the University of Rochester, but they were three very different experiences. The first school I interviewed with was American University, and since I live so close, it was on campus, at the Katzen Arts Center. I signed in, waited, and then my name was called. An alumna who had graduated a few years back, from the Midwest, was there to interview me. It was his first time ever interviewing anyone, but he had a script full of questions ready, with space for notes...