Everyone was gunning for me: I was the red-and-white target everyone wanted to shoot. When I finished 9th grade at the very top of my class, I felt proud but ostracized. My peers wanted nothing to do with me. I tried to approach them, but they built walls around themselves, walls that I couldn't fully comprehend. I was told that some of my friends had spoken to several teachers, complaining that it was unfair that I was getting such good...

The education of the University of Chicago, which embraces interdisciplinary studies, breaks paradigms.It challenges the educational model found in countries such as my own where students are confined to a closed-curriculum within a single area of study. I’m particularly drawn to UChicago’s small, discussion-based classes and its Core Curriculum, which will allow me to find connections across disciplines and in doing so, strengthen my understanding of my major through different perspectives. I’d like to study a...

Among the many TED videos that my brother has recommended, one in particular truly captivated me. Since watching it, I've been applying its message – the principles of positive psychology – to my life. I was delighted to find out that the speaker in this video (and the founder of the field itself) is the director of the Positive Psychology Center at UPenn, a school that I was already drawn to for multiple reasons. The education of the University of Pennsylvania, which...

How did you get caught? (Or not caught, as the case may be.) "Get up! We're going to join the protest!" my mom said as she burst into the living room. It was Sunday afternoon and my family and I were watching the news. This time it was not my daily dose of current international events; rather, CNN was showing national uprisings demanding the resignation of my country's president. On our way to the Guatemalan National Palace, where the biggest...

This was my opportunity to show colleges why I was a "perfect fit" for them. I tried to prove that my personality mirrored the college's personality, that we shared the same core principals, and that I would contribute to the college as much as I would take advantage of it.

I would try to weave all of my...

Rice, UPenn, Yale Try not to talk about everything you already...

I heard you should find recommenders from different areas of study: as in one teacher from Math and one from English....