I didn’t get into Hay Fever. I didn’t get into The Fantasticks. I didn’t get into The Fiddler on the Roof. I didn’t get into The Cripple of Inishmaan. I didn’t get into The Crucible. You name the production, I didn’t get into it. After a somewhat satisfying childhood career in the theatre (I was ignobly typecast as the Chinese ambassador in The Great Glass Elevator) – the aggressive edge of high school drama came...

Tell us what makes Stanford a good place for you. My world has engendered within me a taste for the unfettered and avant-garde. I want to travel and live fully. I want to reach beyond convention, beyond standards, beyond aesthetics. And once I have gone there, I will come back again – with a story to tell. Stanford will be my key to accessing the wider world in a meaningful way. I want to hibernate in the Stanford Humanities Center, to...

Describe a trait or characteristic that has been passed along to you by your family. Tell us why you like or dislike this aspect of yourself. [NYU] Dad being the gnarly ex-motorcyclist with a monkey tattoo he is, I’d like to be able to say that – over the years – some of him has rubbed off on me. We’re both highly impatient individuals. Dad won’t wait for seating at restaurants with waits longer than 20 minutes, no matter how...

Tell us what makes Georgetown a good place for you. My world has engendered within me a taste for the unfettered and avant-garde. I want to travel and live fully. I want to reach beyond convention, beyond standards, beyond aesthetics. And once I have gone there, I will come back again – with a story to tell. I am applying to Georgetown College for its foundation in the liberal arts. My unabashed intention is to take classes across myriad fields in...

“Difficulty need not foreshadow despair or defeat. Rather achievement can be all the more satisfying because of obstacles surmounted.” - Attributed to William Hastie, Amherst Class of 1925, first African-American to serve as a judge for the United States Court of Appeals [Amherst] I didn’t get into Hay Fever. I didn’t get into The Fantasticks. I didn’t get into The Fiddler on the Roof. I didn’t get into The Cripple of Inishmaan. I didn’t get into...

DESCRIBE THE WORLD YOU COME FROM – FOR EXAMPLE, YOUR FAMILY, COMMUNITY OR SCHOOL – AND TELL US HOW YOUR WORLD HAS SHAPED YOUR DREAMS AND ASPIRATIONS. [UC Berkeley] A starless 5:45 am stirs me to the sounds of indie rock. The next 90 minutes usher me through a snooze; through the washing of sleep down the bathroom sink; through a blind dip into the closet for the school uniform; through groggy interactions with mother, brother, and dog; through a morning of light traffic,...

TELL US ABOUT A PERSONAL QUALITY, TALENT, ACCOMPLISHMENT, CONTRIBUTION OR EXPERIENCE THAT IS IMPORTANT TO YOU. WHAT ABOUT THIS QUALITY OR ACCOMPLISHMENT MAKES YOU PROUD, AND HOW DOES IT RELATE TO THE PERSON YOU ARE? [UC Berkeley] Poetry, the sort crafted by W. B. Yeats and T. S. Eliot and Shel Silverstein, has always eluded me. Could I chase it? Not really. Even Coleridge, with his vatic dream-visions in Kubla Khan, had his visitor from Porlock knocking on the door,...

Tell us what makes Northwestern a good place for you. My world has engendered within me a taste for the unfettered and avant-garde. I want to travel and live fully. I want to reach beyond convention, beyond standards, beyond aesthetics. And once I have gone there, I will come back again – with a story to tell. I am applying to the Judd A. and Marjorie Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences for its foundation in the liberal arts. My unabashed...

In writing the "why this school" essays, I developed a basic template that underscored my style and interests, and then did research on each school's website on their programs and offerings to fill in all the blanks. This helped me save time while creating specifically tailored essays.

Though Stanford isn't known for its theater and drama, there is a small but thriving community of students who make theater happen. These...

For Stanford students, 5...

Honestly, I chose Stanford because it was the fanciest school I got into, according to all those lists that rank colleges. But in retrospect, I'm so glad I chose Stanford over some preppy east...

Stanford is on a beautiful, sprawling, safe campus. You can wander around in nature on adventures with your friends and...