Zzzzt! The sensor buzzed as I scanned my badge. The door opened, and I stood in the lobby of the Swiss Private Bank, my employer for the next three years. I looked around wide-eyed at marbled ceilings and businessmen in high-end suits greeting their clients. "So this will become my world?" I skeptically asked myself. At fifteen years old, I felt so young to be doing something like this. Initially, it wasn't easy. Sometimes, I'd forget my badge and abashedly...

Why Duke? I can picture myself standing on the Plaza, where I'll just have finished discussing the various theories for improving refugees' lives with one of my equally ambitious classmates. I'll be awaiting my next class: SES 322 Dostoevsky, a class only Duke can offer me. Since I'll have chosen "Russia and Central Asia" as my focus of study, I'll be able to engage in Russian small talk with my professor after class. Thanks to the unparalleled way the International Comparative...

"Excusez-moi, où puis-je trouver la Rue Didérot?" I desperately asked a stranger while standing in an alley in Montpellier, France. How was it possible that I couldn't find my way back to my host family from the language school? He stared at me wide-eyed and walked away. Puzzled, I proceeded to ask a second stranger; this time, I asked in German. Since the stranger understood me, I managed to receive directions back to my host family. This was the...

Use a quote: There's an old saying in France that goes "If you want to drink pure water, go to the well." I've always been intrigued by foreign languages and cultures. At the age of five, I started reading German picture books, and slowly but surely moved on to books with a lonely picture on every tenth page or so. Two years later, I got on my parents' nerves when I constantly sang along to English songs; my love of...

Extracurricular essay: For as long as I can remember, I have been full of energy with an effervescent spirit. Through karate, I learned how to channel my inner fire towards positivity. Karate has given me useful tools to use during my apprenticeship. I realized that I neither have to be tall nor strong to be able to defend myself: with the right technique, anything is possible. Thus, whenever I felt treated unfairly at work, I stood up for myself. I...

Why Claremont McKenna (CMC)? I found myself torn between a pre-professional and a liberal arts education until I found Claremont McKenna. Thanks to the practical teaching and strong support of internships in a liberal arts setting, I don't have to choose between being a thinker and being a doer—Claremont will let me be both. When my interviewer, K. C. , described the typical CMC student as a "go-getter" with a growth mindset, I knew that I would find a community...

What contemporary issue or trend relating to politics, culture, and society, or foreign policy particularly concerns you and why? As I started speaking, sixty eyes glared at me. The reason had nothing to do with the content of my words; it was merely the fact that I was one of the only two females in the room full of thirty senior bankers. As groups for a team project were formed, the other woman and I were the last two selected....

What question do you want to help answer? How can we increase the role of women in the corporate world? As I started speaking, sixty eyes glared at me. The reason had nothing to do with the content of my words; it was merely the fact that I was one of the only two females in the room full of thirty senior bankers. As groups for a team project were formed, the other woman and I were the last two...

All of those essays landed me scholarships worth $40,000/year and admission to all the colleges I applied to except for Yale University.

Outgoing, future-focused,...

Fluency in 5 languages,...

Spend a lot of time on your "Why Penn?" essay...

I'd apply to solely...