My ballet teacher Mrs. Jameson likes to hold class in the bathroom. I first experienced such a class when I simply could not master the grande plié. Tired of watching my quivering legs, Mrs. Jameson grabbed my hand. “We’re going to the bathroom,” she proclaimed. I hesitated. Was this a sadistic ritual reserved for the most unwieldy dancers? Inside the stall, she commanded me to straddle the toilet. “Now hold a grande plié so that you’re almost sitting...

In fifth grade, I was assigned to write a two-page fiction story using the week’s vocabulary words. I wrote twenty pages. While my novella garnered quizzical looks from my classmates and a weary smile from my teacher, I gained something invaluable from the experience: I realized how much I loved writing. For as long as I can remember, writing has been one of my favorite pursuits. There is something inexplicably alluring about the ability to string together words in...

For Cornell, I had an interview with a female alumni. She was really nice and put me at ease. She asked me a lot of...

My mom went to Cornell, and after visiting the campus the summer before senior year, I fell in love. Ithaca is absolutely gorgeous. Everybody seemed really diverse and intellectual, but also really...

Literally try EVERYTHING - scholarship databases, books, high school counselor's offices, family...

Cornell Daily Sun newspaper,...

Summer camps and...

I got recommendations from my AP English Language teacher and...

Ithaca is so beautiful (...