UpennIntl
UpennIntl,
UPenn
B.A., Physics
International student-athlete and physics major at University of Pennsylvania
Features Included
18
Essays
9
Schools
1
Scores
4
Advice
5
ECs
1
Sports

Background

Hometown Porto Alegre, Brazil
GenderFemale
EthnicityWhite Non-Hispanic
Class of2025
First Gen College StudentNo

Results, Essays, and Advice

Accepted
Waitlisted or Withdrew
Denied
  • University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)
  • University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC)
  • Lafayette College (Easton, PA)
  • Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD)
  • Columbia University (New York, NY)
  • Haverford College (Haverford, PA)
  • Harvard University (Cambridge, MA)
  • Barnard College (New York, NY)
  • Yale University (New Haven, CT)
Tap/click a school logo above to view essays and advice specific to that school.

University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)

Applied for a B.A. in Physics

Accepted and Enrolled Legacy: No

School Specific Essays

Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
“Hm... dad? Why are you breaking the AC remote?” He looked up from his arduous task of pressing the remote with pliers - a battle he seemed to be losing miserably - and noticed I was there. “It doesn’t work anymore, I want to see what’s inside”. The curiosity brought a childish glow to his eyes that captivated me. I ran to get stronger tools and, after many failed attempts, the plastic shell broke off, revealing a green...
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Supplemental Essay: “Why us” school essay
456 Words
How did you discover your intellectual and academic interests, and how will you explore them at the University of Pennsylvania? Please respond considering the specific undergraduate school you have selected. (300-450 words)
The whole Earth is attracted to me—oh, how flattering are the laws of gravity. Copying Newton's law of universal gravitation in my notebook during class, I was instantly gravitated (no pun intended) to the subject. The idea that I'm just as powerful as any super-massive celestial body seems ridiculous, but it's true. Learning that marked a new beginning in my journey with physics, where I could explore and understand the universe on a larger and more complex scale. Planets,...
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Supplemental Essay: “Why us” school essay
203 Words
At Penn, learning and growth happen outside of the classrooms, too. How will you explore the community at Penn? Consider how this community will help shape your perspective and identity, and how your identity and perspective will help shape this community. (150-200 words)
For the last ten years, I've been part of a peculiar community of wannabe Jedis, knights, princes, and princesses—also known as my fencing friends. From my own club teammates I've known my whole life to opponents I befriended in competitions throughout the world, the people in fencing have supported and inspired me in my journey as an athlete and person. They've shown themselves to be my true knights in FIE homologated white armor. At Penn, I'll be able to...
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Supplemental Essay: Issue of personal significance
514 Words
If you could change one thing about where you live, what would it be and why?
“Is there something to write on the board with?”, I asked hesitantly. The 5 teenagers in front of me exchanged looks, knowing very well I did not understand the reality of their school. A boy got me a maker with no ink, it was all they had. Ok, new plan. We gathered the tables in a circle and started solving problems on messy notebook pages. For a few hours every week, we sat and talked about math. I tutored my students,...
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Supplemental Essay: Other
516 Words
Describe someone who you see as a community builder. What actions has that person taken? How has their work made a difference in your life?
In our bunk-bed whiteboard, my sister taught me what she’d learned in school that day. A 6-year-old me sat on the floor of our room and listened to her explanations: orthography, multiplication, geography. Writing on the board, she stood as confidently as an 8-year-old teacher could be, and I was her avid student. To this day I know “character” is a feminine word in Portuguese, or how many syllables are in otorrinolaringologista (she quizzed me a lot). Although I...
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Supplemental Essay: Intellectual interest
532 Words
Honors Carolina is more than honorific. It is a rigorous, interdisciplinary academic program designed for students who are eager to explore beyond their immediate academic concentrations and anticipated career trajectories. We want and expect our students to be committed to living a life of the mind.
Please submit a short essay (250 words or fewer) that describes your academic interests and the ways you believe Honors Carolina can help you pursue them.
“How can you not enjoy this?!”, I asked my student - another skeptical high-schooler. I made it my mission to convince her physics was more than memorized equations and oversimplified problem-sets. I presented her time dilation and beta-decay, hoping she would find it as cool as I did. I shared the excitement I’d felt when deciphering nuclear medicine books, articles filled with differential equations, or just Youtube videos about relativity. I wanted to show her Physics was everywhere, essential,...
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Supplemental Essay: “Why us” school essay
407 Words
Founded in the spirit of exploration and discovery, Johns Hopkins University encourages students to share their perspectives, develop their interests, and pursue new experiences. Use this space to share something you’d like the admissions committee to know about you (your interests, your background, your identity, or your community), and how it has shaped what you want to get out of your college experience at Johns Hopkins. (300-400 words)
97% complete. I return from the kitchen and my way-too-slow computer still hasn't processed the brain images for my research. I just had coffee with my lab partners where we discussed the latest Netflix shows and trends in PET imaging research—you know, the usual. I sit at my computer trying to decipher the nuclear reactions I'll need for my paper later while I wait. C'mon, I have to run. 98% complete. I check the time every 2 minutes. I don't want to...
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Supplemental Essay: Intellectual interest
257 Words
Tell us about a topic or issue that sparks your curiosity and gets you intellectually excited. How do you think the environment at Haverford, including the framework of the Honor Code, would foster your continued intellectual growth? (250 words)
My eyes were fixated on Sartre’s “Existentialism is a Humanism”. Reading this book, I had my sense of traditional morality ripped from my mind and destroyed—metaphysically, at least. I was deep into the triad of existentialism: abandonment, anguish, and despair. Philosophy classes and readings had sparked my interest in one fundamental question of human existence: what is right? I read Socrates, Descartes, and Sartre, who pointed out the hypocrisy of human actions and pre-established beliefs. Then, they theorized...
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Supplemental Essay: “Why us” school essay
153 Words
Please tell us what motivated you to apply to Haverford and what excites you most as you imagine your Haverford experience. (150 words)
Curiosity and engagement: that's what comes to mind when I think of Haverford. That's what I hope comes to mind when someone thinks of me. At Haverford, I see the opportunity to expand on my intellectual interests while getting involved in a like-minded community and impacting the world around me. I'll major in Physics, joining Haverford's community of explorers of our universe in classes such as Computational Physics. I'll also participate in groundbreaking research, such as working with Professor Masters...
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Supplemental Essay: Unique question posed by school
109 Words
List the titles of the required readings from academic courses that you enjoyed most during secondary/high school
Brazilian Literature: "The Shape of Bones", Daniel Galera; "The Continent", Érico Verissimo; "Diary of the Fall", Michael Laub; "Ursula", Maria Firmina dos Reis; "Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas", Machado de Assis; "The Alienist", Machado de Assis; "Happy Old Year: An Autobiography", Marcelo Rubens Paiva; "S. Bernardo", Graciliano Ramos; "As Meninas", Lygia Fagundes da Silva. International Literature: "Oedipus Rex", Sophocles; "Fahrenheit 451", Ray Bradbury; "1984", George Orwell; "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close", Jonathan Safran Foer; "The Sorrows of Young Werther", Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; ...
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Supplemental Essay: Unique question posed by school
158 Words
List the titles of the required readings from academic courses that you enjoyed most during secondary/high school
Feminism: "Women who Run with the Wolves", Clarissa Estés; "In the Name of Honor", Mukhtar Mai; "Do not Go Gentle", Futhi Ntshingila; "Putafeminista", Monique; "Half a Yellow Sun", "Purple Hibiscus", "Americanah", Chimamanda Adichie; "Everything Good Will Come", Sefi Atta. Brazilian: "História da Riqueza do Brasil", Jorge Caldeira; "Lockdown" (Estação Carandiru), Drauzio Varella; "Barren Lives", Graciliano Ramos; "Segundo Tempo", Michel Laub; "Covil do Diabo", Júlio Rosa. Classics: "Lysistrata", Aristophanes; "Animal Farm", George Orwell; "The Metamorphosis", Kafka; "Brave...
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Supplemental Essay: Unique question posed by school
61 Words
List the titles of the print or digital publications, websites, journals, podcasts, or other content with which you regularly engage
Podcasts: Café da Manhã (Folha de São Paulo); President of the Week (Folha de São Paulo); Today, Explained (Vox). Newspapers & Magazines: Vox; The Economist; El País; Boca de Rua; Folha de São Paulo; Nexo Jornal; Gaúcha ZH; Metro; Estadão. Fencing: International Fencing Federation magazine, Cyrus of Chaos (Instagram/channel); Sydney Saber (Instagram/channel).
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Supplemental Essay: Unique question posed by school
158 Words
List the movies, albums, shows, museums, lectures, events at your school, or other entertainments that you enjoyed most during secondary/high school (in person or online)
Museums, Exhibits, and Cultural Centers: Claudia Andujar: the Yanomami Fight, Letizia Battaglia: Palermo (photography exhibitions at Instituto Moreira Salles in São Paulo, Brazil); Permanent Archive, Afro-Atlantic Stories (São Paulo Museum of Art); Degas, Danse, Dessin: A Tribute to Degas (Musée d'Orsay in Paris); Musée de l'Orangerie impressionist and post-impressionist archives; Being Modern: MoMA in Paris (Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris); Marie Curie: the first woman at the Panthéon (Pantheón, Paris); Museum of Broken Relationships (Zagreb,...
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Supplemental Essay: Issue of personal significance
198 Words
Columbia students take an active role in improving their community, whether in their residence hall, classes, or throughout New York City. Their actions, small or large, work to positively impact the lives of others. Share one contribution that you have made to your family, school, friend group, or another community that surrounds you.
2 AM. I get a text: “Prove x.0=0”. I’d created a math monster. I remember when Lucas and I first met. I nervously entered his classroom, ready to improvise my first ever math class. I’d had the idea of starting an olympiad study group in a public school a long time before, but from talking to the school on Wednesday to starting classes on Friday, I’d only had days to prepare. I felt out of place, not knowing...
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Supplemental Essay: “Why us” school essay
206 Words
Why are you interested in attending Columbia University? (200 words or fewer)
All my life, I've hopped from one community to another. From the physics lab to busy schooldays, from fencing tournaments to olympiad tutoring, each one represents a part of me. To Columbia's bustling campus, I can take them all with me. I'll major in Physics, continuing to explore the endless possibilities from classical mechanics to particle physics. I also hope to participate in groundbreaking research with Columbia’s Experimental Gravity Group on detection of gravitational waves. With Columbia's interdisciplinarity through...
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Supplemental Essay: Intellectual interest
208 Words
For applicants to Columbia College, please tell us what from your current and past experiences (either academic or personal) attracts you specifically to the areas of study that you previously noted in the application. (200 words or fewer)
The whole Earth is attracted to me—oh, how flattering are the laws of gravity. Copying Newton's law of gravitation in my notebook during class, I was instantly attracted (no pun intended) to the subject. The idea that I'm just as powerful as any super-massive celestial body seems ridiculous, but it's true. I could understand so much because of it: bodies falling, planets' orbit, formation of stars. It was everywhere, essential, neverending—as was Physics for me. As I advanced...
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Supplemental Essay: “Why us” school essay
205 Words
Students identify Lafayette as an excellent fit for countless reasons. In your response, be deliberate and specific about your motivation for applying to Lafayette. Why Lafayette? (20-200 words)
All my life I've hopped from one community to another. From the physics lab to busy school days, from fencing tournaments to olympiad tutoring, each of them represents a part of me. At Lafayette, I can keep on developing all of them. I'll major in Physics, continuing to explore the endless possibilities in classes from Mechanics to Applications of Quantum Theory. I'll also participate in groundbreaking research, such as working with Professor Nice on neutron star and pulsars research, or...
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Supplemental Essay: Extracurricular activity
155 Words
There’s a difference between being busy and being engaged. Lafayette comes alive each day with the energy of students who are deeply engaged in their academic, co-curricular, and extracurricular explorations. In response to the prompt below, keep it simple – choose one activity, and add depth to our understanding of your involvement.
What do you do? Why do you do it? (20-200 words).
Discipline, muscle mass, a fully stamped passport: fencing has given me it all. But its greater gift to me was something else: the people. I met my chosen family of socially dysfunctional nerds because all of us, at some point, wished to be a knight or a Jedi. We spent 20 hours a week poking each other with (usually) non-harmful weapons. We traveled the world, sharing unbelievable adventures and weird foods. I cried on their shoulders, and they cried on mine....
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School Specific Advice

More Essays

These essays haven't been tagged by school. Click school logos above to see tagged essays.

General Admissions Advice

What I’d change about my application process
309 Words
Be bold and put yourself out there from the beggining. Search for countless opportunities because they exist. That super competitive summer program? Apply for it. That research paper you've always wanted to write but think you won't be able to? Start it now. As I started my senior year of high school I realized how much I had NOT failed. Instead of being proud of myself or thinking I had done everything right, I realized I had not failed because I had not tried things i wasn't sure I would...
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How to deal with the stress of applying to college
135 Words
I went to the hospital with a heart condition because of college application stress. Don't be that person. Doesn't matter how close the deadlines are or how many essays you need to write. Your best self will only show if...
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How I narrowed down my essay topics
72 Words
Don't censor yourself by what you think colleges want to read about. Quirkiness and uniqueness are essential to stand out...
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My advice about getting recommenders
178 Words
The first part of getting recommenders comes way before applying to college. Since the beginning of your high school career, you should form meaningful relationships with your teachers, not only for your recommendations but for all the amazing opportunities and support you'll get from it. For international students: sit down with your teachers...
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High School Performance

Unweighted GPA
3.80
 
Rank
Top 5%
 
Academic Performance in High School Steady

Test Scores

Highest SAT
1520
 
SAT Score Details
 
Other SAT Scores
SAT Prep

AP / IB Classes and Scores

Sports

SportsFencing (Recruited)

Extracurriculars

ActivitiesTutoring/Mentoring, Model Congress / Model UN, Research, Science/Math, Athletics Organization
Elaborate on Extracurriculars or Work

Experience & Awards

Volunteer Experiences
Awards Received

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