By all accounts, we should not have been anything alike. He lived in a small town; I lived in a large suburb. He was an only child living with his single mother; my parents are married with three other kids. He went to a Catholic school; I am an atheist who has gone to public school my entire life. We did not even speak the same language. If there is one thing I learned from living in Germany as a...

Prompt: Benjamin Franklin once said there are three types of people in the world: “All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.” Which are you? I move. I am sure every admissions counselor reads thousands of essays every year from thousands of students, each one attempting to become one of the fraction who actually gain admission to this esteemed institution. I am equally sure that, as I did at...

Penn has a reputation for being the "social Ivy," and they take that reputation seriously. So if you want to get in here, prove that you're an interesting person. If you dryly list your accomplishments,...

Like I have said before, Penn cares greatly about its reputation as the "social Ivy." ...