I attended a math and science magnet program at Roberto Clemente Middle School. There were a lot of smart kids there who were dedicated and hard-working and had families who were willing and able to help them. I absolutely loved my time there. However, Clemente is in the middle of a pretty rough neighborhood, and, like many other schools with a low-income population, it rarely meets its standardized testing goals. Since starting high school, I’ve spent a lot of...

The summer before my junior year, I wanted to help out with research in a lab. Unfortunately, I was too young to be legally allowed to work most places. I didn’t want to wait until the next summer to do research, though, so I decided to do my own. First, I decided it would be best to do field work, since I don’t have many connections to people in labs, and since I’m most interested in biology....

Interviews are super important! I think the reason I got into Harvard...