“Welcome to Wal-Mart!” That’s what my father says when he greets people at his job. Similarly, my mom may ask a Sears customer, “How can I help you today?” It is impossible to get to know me without getting to know my parents. My friends will tell you about how sociable my mom is--she never hesitates to say, “hi,” to any of my friends and loves adding them all on Facebook. My dad, on the other hand, is much...

In a short paragraph, please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences. (250 word limit) Silence floods the room as Mr. Dugan gives us a final pep talk before the first show. The nerves and excitement are palpable. Before I know it, his speech ends, the lights come up, the music swells, and the performance begins. Countless hours of rehearsal have culminated in this. I set foot on stage; there’s a full house. All that hard...

The stage is pitch black and the house is packed. Suddenly, a woman in a brown dress with a voluptuous perm and pearl necklace walks, or rather, struts, onto the stage. She turns to the crowd, curtsies, and begins to sing in a god-awful high pitched voice. This is in fact not a woman, but me, a 16 year old boy. The role is Mary Sunshine in the notorious musical Chicago. Ms. Sunshine is like any other character in the show,...

"Mailboxes Suck but USC Doesn’t" “So why did you apply to USC?” As a student from Upstate New York, I was asked this question a lot throughout my senior year. Well, in short, I was introduced to USC through an organization called QuestBridge, which links low-income students to amazing schools. As a finalist for QB’s National College Match, I was able to apply to USC, a partner school of QB, for free. What first caught my eye was the fact that USC has the most international students of any American university. I was also enticed by the beautiful...