I don't think people figure out what they really want to do with their lives for a long time; I've met some middle-aged men still trying out new things in search of an ultimate life goal. So at the ripe age of 17, I don't quite know what my grand goals for life are going to be. What I do know is that right now I aim to make myself into the best version of me that I possibly can. In...

I used to not think I would survive high school. Not in the sense that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the work or maintain a solid GPA; those weren’t my concerns. I literally did not think I would be alive to see my class graduate. Starting from the latter half of sophomore year through junior year, I went through a phase of serious depression. For some reason, I convinced myself that everything I did just...

Most of my college interviews were basically the same. Be prepared for the usual questions and you should be fine; also, you probably didn't mess up nearly as much as you thought you did. On a side note, if you're thinking about applying to Cambridge,...

Don't apply to schools that you're almost certainly not going to go to....

Try to get close to some of your teachers; chances are, at least some of them are pretty cool people that you'll connect with. When I picked teachers to write my recommendation letters, I had a few criteria: 1. The teacher had to know me. They can write more interesting letters if they know more about what makes you you. 2. The teacher had to like me. I feel like this goes without...