There is an intrinsic beauty in introspection, a certain exquisite simplicity in sitting awake late at night and doing nothing but think. Lounging on my tattered-but-comforting couch downstairs at night with headphones on, I am separated from the reality of the world around me, and my thoughts can drift in the darkness. I have spent countless hours lost in personal psychoanalysis on that invitingly homey couch downstairs, taking solace in solitude after a day brimmed with vibrant human interaction. For...

“Then there's only one way to participate in history, and that's to have no will at all - to function solely as a shining, beautiful atom, eternal and unchanging." - "Spring Snow" by Yukio Mishima So says Shigekune Honda during an impressively depressing soliloquy in Mishima's most famous work. I sense a lot of the late Mishima in Honda; there is nihilism disguised by intelligence and incredible talent marred by defeatism. I used to sympathize with Honda – just as I...

Lisa Lambert, the Tony Award-winning lyricist of “The Drowsy Chaperone”, told me that I was fantastic. I was ecstatic. She had come to see my high school’s production of the aforementioned play, and had her socks blown off. Her show – which had been on Broadway – had been pulled off with humongous aplomb by a group of thirty-some-odd high schoolers. High school productions aren’t supposed to be any good – they’re normally rather drab affairs – but this had style...

I would like to apologize for the mess. I’ll have you know that Hawkeye Pierce was a slob, and he’s still the best television character of all time. How can you be disdainful of Hawkeye – and by extension, me? Don’tcha love my pseudo-logic? Anywho. I’m off to see Courtney – she’s off school now and I’d like to surprise her for our anniversary. I would rather you didn’t completely trash the place – there is...

When I die, I do not want to be just one of a million faint lights that flickered and vanished amid the milky blackness of the universe on that given day. This desire for meaning may be common to all mankind – who doesn’t want to be important? – but that does not diminish my fixation. Understanding the brevity and tininess of my own life in comparison with the vast glory of all time and space means that I have an...

There is such an exquisite pleasure in tackling a puzzling conundrum; from the Sphynx’s famous query to Edouard Lucas’ “Tower of Hanoi”, every puzzle I complete just increases my love of perplexing problems. Having spent the greater part of my life tackling logic problems for the fun of it, reason is very dear to me. My infatuation with reason was compounded by my fledgling interest in rational philosophy which began after I read “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”; although philosophy and...

I wrote all of my essays as intensely personal windows into my own self. I highly suggest that you write about what you are passionate about and what drives you as a human being, whatever it may be. Always be yourself, and never fall into that cookie-cutter mold of generic and panegyric applicant who solely lauds the school he or she intends to attend and writes little of personality or genuine insight.

You may want to research the CURF (Centre...

I was interviewed by MIT, Harvard, Princeton, and UPenn (in that order). My MIT interview was conducted by an MIT alum who now works as a professor at the University of Toronto, in the subject area which I intend to study. I met her at her office on UofT campus, and thanks to our shared interests, had a delightful conversation. I did not dress to the nines - I wore my school uniform, as I was just coming from school and didn't have the presence of mind to bring a change of clothes. This was a non-issue - so long...