Mentors have had a powerful influence over me ever since I was young. My granddad acted as my first mentor, exposing me to a world of ham radios, trinkets, Rubik’s Cubes and creativity. Little did I know that when he died, I had lost the best mentor I would ever have. My grandfather's creative projects instilled me with a desire to learn by utilizing learning opportunities and what others taught me to design and create my own learning projects. ...

Ever since I was ten, I have had a passion for creating hybrids between different species of carnivorous plants. At first, I was intrigued by the diversity of carnivorous plants. Nepenthes Attenboroughii refused to produce any leaves unless I watered it with coffee to increase the soil acidity. Drosera Regia only flowered if I fed it rat feces. Each plant had something new to teach me, and creating hybrids with these mysterious plants gave me a profound curiosity for learning...

I looked anxiously at the engineer as he examined my design papers. "This is beyond my level of knowledge. You should build something similar and more common, like a quadcopter. The internet is full of instructions to build those." I was designing a UAV drone with two engines that rotate on x-y axis gimbals to provide for unrestricted 3D aerial motion, for I had never found interest in prepackaged kits with a list of contents and instructions to follow. The...

Dear future roommate, Are you a creative writer? Or maybe you’re a programmer. I am neither, yet I am vitally interested in learning from all sorts of people. I may ask you about your classes and hobbies quite often, for I love learning about innovative things and teaching people what I’ve learned. I try and expand my knowledge every chance I get, and I enjoy bouncing my ideas off of others. You may be intrigued to know that...

As you can tell, the main topic of my essays involves passion, hobbies, and resistance towards failure as well as a disdain towards conventional beliefs (i.e. reading an instruction manual or listening to the engineer who told me I would not succeed). Below are the short answers I provided for the common app (Stanford): SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS: What is the most significant challenge that society faces today (50 word limit)* Most of today’s technology emits harmful bi-products. Everything from...

During my freshman and sophomore years, I didn't do any sort of volunteering. At first, I almost adopted the "frantic" approach of most highschool students to load my application up with as many ECs and clubs as possible. In the end, this proved to be a bad approach. Several people I know who did this applied to many of the...

Make sure that you spend several months in advance writing the supplemental essays. You need to get to a point where you can feel confident submitting the essays and...

Make sure you ask for recommendations the week that school begins. For me, this was in August, long before the Nov. 1st EA deadline. But,...

Don't get caught up with the stereotypical A+ student crowd! In highschool, many of my friends were caught up with loading their application with ECs, joining 5+...

There is a common misconception that one must have a high SAT score to even be considered for schools such as Stanford. This is not necessarily true. Stanford is looking for people who have such a passion for something that they will probably change the world (in a good way) by following that passion. That is...

Don't become obsessed with one or more colleges. In the end, it hurts people's passions and individuality as they try to become 'the one' applicant who has...