As I stand at the foot of the staircase in my living room, I cannot help but smile at my grandma as she gracefully glides down the staircase in an electric stair lift, one of the many technologies that my grandparents use on a daily basis. Not a day goes by without the whirring noise of the hand-held blender used to mash my grandparents' food and the mumbling vibrations of the blood-pressure monitor that serves as my grandparents' daily health...

I am especially interested in studying Computer Science at UW because of the many opportunities to pursue my passions, the emphasis on being a global citizen. and the very location of UW in Seattle, a city that values sustainability and harbors innovations in technology. I feel that I can really unleash my inner-nerd at UW and easily find others who not only understand my geekiness but also embrace it while adding their own unique styles to the Husky community. I...

Besides making progress on Computer Engineering Club's first website project (see link), spreading STEM excitement through Women in Science and Engineering Club, and blogging my mind (see link), I've finally started reading the admittedly addicting Harry Potter series, and have discovered that I am incredibly similar to the ingenious, well-meaning, and logical Hermione Granger (according to friends who are Harry Potter aficionados and online character quizzes). I've also developed a rather sleep-depriving obsession with data science, a field so appealing...

I never thought I would be fighting a battle in my own frontyard. In fact, I never expected to spend my summer afternoons in my frontyard. I was too occupied with analyzing data from glass samples at the Seismo Lab and satisfying my hunger for challenging math problems and coding projects to undertake such a task. Even so, my busy hands found themselves toiling away under the scorching summer sun, which made me furrow my eyebrows even more in determination...

The very idea of being an MIT engineer - to have the resources, support, and inspiration to innovate and build - excites me. After spending a summer conducting earth science research under Dr. Jennifer M. Jackson at Caltech, I now know that research is the best way to learn and make an impact. I value the do-learn environment and collaboration that MIT encourages, whether it be through UROP, ORC, or the Media Lab. I am particularly drawn to the Managing...

I am proud of being a geek, an engineer geek that is. Math and science, the foundations of engineering, beckon me to explore them and their applications, something I can't say no to. I find exuberant joy in solving all kinds of math problems ranging from the traditional homework set from my Calculus textbook to challenging ones from Art of Problem Solving website's Alcumus, a math problem database. As a Math Team Captain, I take great delight in composing problem...

I would not be who I am today - a math and science enthusiast with a passion for community engagement and interdisciplinary learning who values self-improvement and collaboration - had I not spent the past 17.76 years under the same roof as my paternal grandparents, started playing the piano at age four, or shared the same birth date as my identical twin sister. Living with grandparents who rely heavily on technologies such as oxygen concentrators, hearing aids, and stair lifts on...

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