I've played the alto saxophone since I was ten, but somehow even as a fourteen-year-old soon to enter high school, I was barely decent. Sure, I wasn't terrible - I managed to get into my school's jazz band for two years - but I wasn't usually given a solo, and I certainly didn't compare to the saxophone players who seemed to be born with musical talent. So when my teacher recommended that I give the Central Jersey Regional Band audition...

As freshmen just entering a selective high school, my peers and I, used to getting A's in middle school, were not prepared for the mercilessness of our environmental science teacher often giving grades no higher than a B+. One week, we were given a take-home test to be done without notes. However, many students couldn't resist turning to their ever-knowledgeable ally, the Internet. When the test questions were found online, they merely copied the answers verbatim to get a good...

I am a brony - that is, a male fan of the show "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic". Having seen every episode, I've always been intrigued by a particular aspect: the cutie mark. These are symbols unique to each pony, which give insight into their personality and talents. For instance, Fluttershy, with butterflies for her cutie mark, is a gentle pony with a talent for handling animals. In my free time, I enjoy taking this concept and applying it...

The clock's ticking became louder and louder as the end of competition grew nearer. Our Central Jersey Math team had 4 more questions to finish in 10 minutes - a difficult task. I was working on a problem, two teammates were working on the other two problems, but the others were stumped by the last one. I had no other option but to teach them De Moivre's Theorem and how it related to the problem on the fly. Just as the timer...

We were all in it together. Programmers, physicists, electrical engineers, and mechanical engineers, to name a few, all united for one goal: the Princeton Engineering Olympics. The competition consisted of many smaller projects and activities that spanned across various engineering and STEM fields, ranging from structural, electrical, and environmental engineering to catapult construction and computer science. Of course, all of these could not be done by one person; the scope of knowledge needed would simply be too large. But with...

Make sure to choose someone that really knows you and can write a personalized recommendation that would make you stand...

I didn't realize it as much then, but it's extremely important to...

Your typical sports (minus football)...

Show that you have a very strong background in STEM, and that you like to challenge yourself, because...

Taking advanced courses is never a bad idea and will likely help in...