Brown University

For as long as I can remember, I’ve answered the question “Where do you want to go to college?” with the same one-syllable, five-letter answer: “Brown.” My mother is a proud alum; my admiration of her intellect, plus magical visits to the campus...

Brown University

I couldn't breathe. My lungs rebelled, desperately attempting to inhale, as if I were drowning. My hands trembled. I could no longer comprehend that my impending audition speech for the Varsity debate team, which had only two spots left, was...

Texas Christian University

At 8:35 AM, on a Tuesday during the school year, November 29, 2011 to be exact, I not-so-vividly recall shuffling around under the covers as a young teenager often does after waking up in the morning and looking over at the clock. After seeing...

Boston University

A pair of track spikes hangs on my door. Colorway: teal/black/orange. Women’s, size five. They were the only ones available at A Runner’s Mind in my size. Those spikes sped my mile up by almost twenty seconds, and I loved them. Finding them was a...

University of Southern California

I hate playing baroque music. The urgency, the false sense of drama imbued in unnecessary ornamentation, the singular melodic idea, the abrupt changes from loud to soft...none of the characteristics of baroque music appeal to me. I find myself...

Tulane University

"Great things happen here," was my thought when I first walked into Google’s Chicago headquarters. A field trip sponsored by Loyola’s Leadership Mentor Program took us to experience the organic and creative atmosphere of Google and learn about...

Texas A&M

Of all the things I had expected might happen, waking up to a chicken trying to peck me to death wasn’t one of them. Last night had started out like any other, comforting in its ordinariness and definitely chicken free. After wrapping up some...

Rice University

My younger siblings and I founded Back-to-Eden Ranch Pasture Eggs, & Co., in January 2012. Although our business started small, we expanded rapidly and have since raised several hundred chickens and African guinea fowl, along with starting...

Massachusetts Inst. of Technology

My father is a mechanic. Therefore I am, by proxy, an unaccredited mechanic, specializing in relatives’ cars, vintage Vespa scooters, and my friends’ bicycles. I've loved our dirty garage from a young age — the sting of growing callouses and the...

Clarkson University

There’s a beach at the end of my street, squished between two houses with boulders for seats and dirty sand that gets stuck in between your toes. I find myself drawn here often; there is something different about the space and how the days unspool...

Ohio State University

It’s 6am. My alarm clock squawks at me to wake up. With legs aching from practice, arms tired from shooting drills, and head throbbing with pain from only sleeping four hours, I squint at the illuminated red numbers, contemplating whether or not...

Emory University

“Gue… Gue…Gueb…be,” my new teacher stumbled over the pronunciation of my last name. I smirked under my breath but decided to put her out of her misery by raising my hand and declaring my presence. “It’s Guebediang but I go by Maeva.” With a name...

Barnard College

Reshma Saujani, the founder of Girls Who Code, awed me when I first met her at Fashion Institute of Technology. Originally a politician who became the first Indian American woman to run for Congress, Mrs. Saujani had no technological skills to...

Duke University

A devoted technologist, a drama lover, a HAM freak and a Research scholar – for me, the Pratt School of Engineering would fulfill it all…

Duke’s Multi-disciplinary Engineering Program encompassing options from Materials to Fluid Mechanics is my...

Georgetown University

I was up to my ears in water, fighting to stay afloat. I was more concerned about not drowning than wondering if I would ever be good enough to lead my team to a championship. Four years later, I can elevate out of the water above my waist and...

Johns Hopkins University

A few times a week, I make the hour-long trek from my home in the suburbs to my fencing school in West Philadelphia. As I drive to practice, suburban towns slowly fade into red and brown brick row homes, until all around me are boarded up windows,...

Cornell University

At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.

These words have always held a spiritual quality to me. Something sacred, like a marble statue. And in the gym, when we repeat them, I feel that even with all the sweaty air...

North Carolina State University

In front of the board stood two kindergarteners, a classmate and I, ready to engage in fierce competition. The task? Simply solving a two-digit addition problem. I felt my heartbeat racing, my hands shaking while holding the marker. I had no...

North Carolina State University

“C810,” the judge announced. I check my code again — it’s mine. Rising from my seat, I step towards the front of the room. The other competitors clap, as is customary for speech events, breaking the sacred silence that previously occupied the...

University of Virginia

Revelation. This one word describes my learning style, my writing habits and my insights. I can be in a library studying for a subject I don’t quite understand and out of nowhere I receive a revelation. Revelation, to me, is the missing puzzle...