I have to do it. I inched closer to the door, each movement made with increasing hesitation. What if it’s just like last time? My mind launched into a frenzy of self-degrading hypothetical situations, all of which ended in defeat. I couldn’t back down. Not again. Adrenaline rushing through my body, I took a deep breath and turned the cold, shiny doorknob. I could have began with a simple “hello” or a friendly “what’s up?” Instead, I...

If you walked into my kindergarten classroom, you’d be pleasantly surprised to see children joyfully sorting numbers in order. You’d also find a girl sitting at a desk, quickly solving triple-digit subtraction problems on a bright green worksheet, loving every minute of it. That girl grew up to win math competitions in middle school, frustrating all of the boys because they had “lost to a girl.” That girl grew up to seek scientific research opportunities, only to be...

Pick one woman in history or fiction to converse with for an hour and explain your choice. What would you talk about? Susan Sontag begins “Against Interpretation,” her most famous—and my most favorite—essay with, “The earliest experience of art must have been that it was incantatory, magical; art was an instrument of ritual … The earliest theory of art, that of the Greek philosophers, proposed that art was mimesis, imitation of reality.” Sontag did not believe that art is...

Alumna and writer Anna Quindlen says that she “majored in unafraid” at Barnard. Tell us about a time when you majored in unafraid. I knew I should have screwed the spikes in tighter. One. Two. Boom. The gunshot rang in my ears. So I ran. I ran as fast as I could, smashing every preconceived notion I held about my own physical abilities. 50 meters. 100 meters. I couldn’t stop. It was the most exhilarating thing I’d ever experienced. 150 meters. ...

What motivates you to learn? The scala naturae, or the great chain of being, establishes that existence lies on a gradient that ranges from the most primal to the most divine, bringing meaning and order to the universe. My desire to learn comes from the scala naturae of knowledge. To solve differential equations, you need an understanding of simple arithmetic. Paradise Lost would be incomprehensible without the ability to grasp English syntax. You can’t examine economic trends without an...

What is your favorite fiction or non-fiction work (film / book / television show / album / poem / play)? Why? “Art gets what it wants and art gets what it deserves,” cries Will Toledo (a.k.a. Car Seat Headrest) on “Nervous Young Inhumans,” the fifth track of Twin Fantasy. Indeed, Toledo’s art gets what it both wants and deserves: to change lives. Under the distorted guitars and lo-fi production of Twin Fantasy lies a character burdened by anxieties about coming to terms...

Beyond rankings, location, and athletics, why are you interested in attending Georgia Tech? Georgia Tech has always been a symbol of learning to me. I grew up visiting the campus for everything. I’ve explored labs during Atlanta Science Festivals, observed MARTA Hackathons, and competed in Muslim Interscholastic Tournaments, testing my love for learning with each experience I encounter at Tech. It has instilled in me a greater sense of inquisition, and it leaves me fascinated by each new discovery...

Students are often told what classes they should take. If you had the opportunity to create a class, what would it be and why? Gestaltism theorizes that the brain perceives objects not as separate entities but as parts of a more meaningful whole. After learning about gestaltism in my AP Psychology class, I began to observe it in everything. I soon realized that everything in the universe is interconnected to some extent—which is why I’d like to create...