I enter from stage right and feel the audience staring at me. My impulse is to just keep walking -- to leave the stage -- but my partner is there and I know I have to turn and start singing with her. We begin: “Tumble out of bed and I stumble to the kitchen ... Pour myself a cup of ambition!” It was opening night of 9 to 5: The Musical, and we’d been rehearsing for months. Once I got over my...

When I set foot on Northwestern, I was first struck by the sheer size of the campus. Over the course of my two weeks in the dorms, on the campus, and in both Evanston and Chicago, I came to feel at home. I knew that Northwestern attracted passionate, quirky, and motivated students who would be open - open to collaboration, people of all backgrounds, and new ideas. At Northwestern, the large school environment--paired with the emphasis on collaboration, diversity, and...

Claremont is a unique school that offers many educational opportunities that can’t be found anywhere else. The innovative dual degree program in Engineering and Economics is perfect for me, and I crave the opportunity to explore how these seemingly distinct subjects can harmonize with each other. Claremont’s small class sizes and low student-faculty ratio also excite me, because I’ve learned that I function best in smaller environments and relish the intellectual discussions that can only be had...

Prompt: It’s cool to be smart. Tell us about the subjects or ideas that excite your intellectual curiosity. (Tufts) I have a passion for learning what makes things tick: from the forces at play within the day-to-day operations of world economic markets, to the mathematical and scientific analyses behind biological processes, to the interpersonal powers that shape and mold the human experience. I've been spellbound by biology since my eyes were opened to the hidden world of molecules, proteins,...

Prompt: What is something you have taught yourself in the last year? How did you teach yourself this new skill or concept and what was the result? (Emory) For every competition, the Robotics team builds a prototype to evaluate as a team. Based on this initial design, we then go to work to take everyone’s opinions into consideration before we craft a revised robot that we will replicate as a Computer-Aided Design (CAD) model. Once the build season has...

Prompt: Reflecting on your involvement throughout high school or within the community, how have you engaged with one or more of Pitzer's core values? At my predominantly white high school, I’ve always stood out. Not only am I African American, but I’m also scientifically and mathematically intelligent, artistically gifted, and a leader among my peers. When I first enrolled in seventh grade, it wasn’t easy being so different from other students. Over the years, I grew frustrated...

The transfer process is definitely tougher than the freshman application process, if only because, when applying as a freshman, most high schools kinda take into account the fact that you're working on your apps, and therefore go a little easy on you. You should probably start working on brainstorms for your transfer essay as soon as you can. Definitely do your essays over breaks if you can, because it's a pain to have to do them along with schoolwork during the year. You...

Skip the exorbitantly expensive summer programs in high school if you can help it. Schools will see through them faster than you can bat an eye, and oftentimes will write you off as simply having the money to pay for whatever it is you're doing. Don't...

When applying to schools as a freshman, I didn't use a private counselor, although many of my classmates did. Instead, I used my school's resources and did a great deal of research on my own time. Starting early was key. When I applied to transfer schools, I did use a private counselor in order to get...

My favorite course thus far was definitely Introduction to Biological Chemistry (IBC), which I took my first semester of freshman year. The intensive course was extremely demanding (six hours of lecture and eight hours of lab a week), and was by far the most difficult class I have taken...

Don't panic if you feel as though your teachers (or professors, if you're applying to transfer!) won't want to write a recommendation for you just because you don't have an A in the class. Just make sure that you develop a good relationship with your instructors early on through basic things such as office hours, participating in class (remember that quality of output often trumps quantity), and – most importantly – making sure that your teachers know that you're putting in the effort and working...