Rube Goldberg machine (n.): a deliberately complex series of chain reactions that results in the ultimate realization of a simple task. A domino is nudged, and—click!—it topples into its eager twin; the second domino, acquiescing to gravity, tumbles toward a third rigid rectangle—click!—which hits a fourth—click!— which knocks a fifth. My parents meet in 1991, and wed in ‘95. A long, meandering line of fallen dominoes culminates in the disturbance of a sheet of sandpaper, whose scabrous...

I’ve visited thirteen schools on my noble quest for education. How many hours in the car was that? How many minutes spent information-session-ing? It’s difficult to explain with precisely the right words how I know that Duke is The One. Yes, its chemistry program is strong. Yes, I like the idea of the Research Triangle—what opportunities await me there? Yes, of course the campuses are beautiful! How many possible “answers” are there, really? True attraction is something...

Description of extracurricular activity: I blink for a long moment, refocus my eyes, and resume examining a page displayed on the luminous computer screen before me. A fastidious voice in my head babbles, “The high school school boys soccer team can apparently do no wrong, currently 7–0 in it’s season and gearing up to—” Wait. The team is 7–0 in "it is" season? No, it is not. One double-click and a few keystrokes later, “it’s” has been rectified to “its.”...

Describe a quirk of yours and why it is a part of who you are: It began in kindergarten, when my parents and the parents of my friends enrolled us all in a singing class. The highlight of each class, as far as I can recall, was never the music itself, but the fun of climbing up a low-branched, twisted tree in front of the choir building. Every week I endeavored to climb higher than I had ever before. Today,...

What work of art, music, science, math, or literature has surprised or challenged you? Multivariable calculus: the first class of the first day of my last year of high school. Within minutes of entering the room, I’m utterly perplexed. The instructor of the course is one of the sharpest at my school. Although he currently teaches AP Calculus BC (a class I took junior year) and Multivariable Calculus/Linear Algebra, he has in the past 18 years bestowed upon my...

My least favorite essays are the ones that someone else advised me on. I think that only I can determine when a phrase is perfect, or where it sounds awkward and needs improvement. If someone else is helping you with the minutiae of your essay, it ceases to become yours—so try to do as much on your own as possible, and perhaps ask for comments on only the fundamentals of your writing. I've also made an effort to be...

Everyone tells you to choose a place that you can "see yourself" attending. This is kind of BS. There were a ton of places where...

In your essays, you can't be afraid of showing your true thought processes, showing the way you think. An essay should be kind...