With no dad by our side, bills piling up, and my mom's savings draining, my family was threatened with moving to Ecuador. It was a daunting task for my Spanish-speaking mother to raise three children alone. We actually began the process of moving, until one day we decided we had one last choice: selling food and drinks to the people in our neighborhood. I was not very happy with the idea of selling food on the street. It was too...

One of the main reasons I'm driven to apply to this school is that it is affiliated to the Roman Catholic Church, and that means so much to me. It means I can develop my spirituality and strengthen my moral character as well as I can lend a hand to others who may also be struggling. I know I'll have enough support to thrive through Notre Dame's rigorous academics and become a successful woman with a robust educational, religious, and...

Initiate an in-person conversation with someone whom you've never met but who you think might be interesting. What did you learn about that person or yourself? I met an international college senior from Jamaica majoring in Physics at Mount Holyoke College. I asked her how her math classes were to get a sense of the college experience in a math related field of study, and from there, the conversation evolved rapidly, and soon we found ourselves sharing our personal life...

Blessed Basil Moreau, the founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross, described education as “the art of helping young people to completeness.” How are you incomplete? I am incomplete in the sense that I need to know more, and always will. I need to feel my brain embracing new ideas, deriving and connecting them to other ones. I need to be able to apply the knowledge behind the world's greatest machines in ways that will benefit the world and end...

New York University is school where the world is at my hands. Though I live in New York City, it is through the resources that NYU has available for their students that I can make my own great impact in our increasingly interconnected world. If I go to this university, I will be able to take advantage of what New York has to offer, something I could not do until now because of the restraints my mother's over-protection has placed...

At the University of Rochester, I know I will thrive. It has everything I am looking for in a college: it's medium sized, rigorous, away from home, has a wonderful student body, and beautiful campus. It offers great engineering programs and a variety of other majors if I decide that my dream-major, engineering, is not for me. It's only expected from the university whose motto is meliora: ever-better. I am confident that in a school that is true to their...

I would have started it earlier, had I known how much time...

I did...

My interviewers were all nice. I screwed up in two of my interviews in the worst possible way- showing up a little late! Do not show up late to an interview - even if you think you know you can get to the interview site on time, try going beforehand if you haven't already. I made the mistake of trusting google. I believe that was something that helped put me on the wait list for Columbia instead of being admitted. Don't be shy; engage yourselves really well with your interviewers. I, myself, am a shy person but I feel that...

Money. My school gave me a full ride, and, honestly, if they had not done that, no matter how much I loved the school, I would have chosen Rensselaer Polytechnic School. Be sure to check how affordable a school is for...

I feel that if you focus on how the school shares your values, you're advocating for yourself the right way. If you are into sports, you can even say something about...

Choose recommenders who know your strengths and who know you. I recommend one of them to be...