Undergraduate / Cornell - "Finding Nemo among the Stars" (Molecular Biology and Genetics, Astronomy) [9]

Here's my Cornell supplement response. Let me know what you guys have to say about it. :)
(max. limit of 500)

Prompt:
College of Arts and Sciences:
Describe your intellectual interests, their evolution, and what makes them exciting to you. Tell us how you will utilize the academic programs in the College of Arts and Sciences to further explore your interests, intended major, or field of study.

Could I find a fish among the stars? My teachers would think I'm delirious if I ask them this question.
My mother bought me my first encyclopedia when I was nine, called The Deep Blue World. It was enchanting. From what they ate to where they lived to how they looked; the encyclopedia taught me so much about fishes and ignited my passion for biology.

As I was growing up, my interest for the marine world started becoming more profound. Watching Animal Planet and Discovery taught me a lot. However, my fascination was not just limited to the marine world anymore. I moved beyond the water; started to find become interested in the land, the mountains and the plains. My mind probed father still. From the synchronized movements of schools of fish in the Pacific and the study of the life cycle of cicadas to the newfound knowledge about the cell structure and cellular biology, my interest in biology evolved. Before I knew it, no other subject filled me with as much ardor as Biology did.

However, this wasn't the only realm that thrilled me. I had also found a place to thrive among the stars. Watching the night sky from the rustic backdrop of my father's village, I was spellbound to see the twinkling and ethereal cluster of pearl-like dots in the deep blue sky. In the stars were the stories of the Milky Way galaxy. The Andromeda Galaxy, the Orion and the Pegasus constellations; of the Big Bang, the Panspermia hypothesis and the Drake Equation; each drove my intellectual curiosity as much as the little molecules of ATP, which power the cellular mechanism.

Eventually, the sky met the ocean and my interests merged; which I probably owe credit to the innumerable sci-fi movies I watched during summers.
Could there be life on other planets? If the answer is yes then, could creatures of other planets have a completely non-carbon based chemistry? Learning about sulfur based bacteria thriving near underwater thermal vents discovered recently by scientists, skyrocketed my mind to a new plane. These are a few questions that pose challenges to my mind but they cannot be solved due to my incomplete education.

Cornell would be the perfect platform to realize my passions and cultivate them while answering the questions of my mind. Cornell's departments of Molecular Biology and Genetics, and Astronomy are two portals through which I can satiate my desire to know more. At Cornell, I wish to combine the two fields to the furthest extent of my capabilities.

There is nothing better than an education that teaches you to think on your feet, inspire creativity and demand deeper understanding. With a Liberal Arts essence to my learning, I am sure that I will be ready for any future endeavor after the College of Arts and Sciences.

At Cornell I will get closer to finding Nemo among the stars; or an insect or a bacterium, whatever it may be, and continue to dream of meeting an E.T.

Thanks! Please do leave a comment. :)

Does it answer the prompt well? Is it interesting?

Undergraduate / If Cranes can Dance, I can fly.... University of Richmond essay [5]

Guys the deadline is today! So I would appreciate any sort of help or comment. :)

Prompt: Tell us about an experience in which you left your comfort zone. How did this experience change you?
After a blistering hot and relaxing summer break, I resumed my last year of high school. I comfortably ingrained myself in my daily routine;, happy to have attained a near perfect equilibrium in balancing my school work and classes. Then, until a friend approached me for help, she was the Cultural Head of her school and her job was to organize the herschools Speech Day. Her task was to choreograph a routine for the school production of 'Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes,' so she needed a choreographer. I was happy to help her, so I took the job.

However, to my surprise, the job was not just about teaching a set sequence you might want to use something else instead of sequenceto a bunch of younger high school kids; instead I was supposed to choreograph a solemn routine depicting hope. I was asked to limit and visualize the movements with respect to a crane. The kids had almost negligible sense of rhythm in them and those who did, were made fun of being too 'girly'. Furthermore, making the kids dance like 'cranes', was more difficult than I had fathomed.

Working part-time at my Dance School gave me enough qualification to teach others. Even so, teaching a bunch of kids three years younger than me was daunting and it made me self-conscious and uneasy. I had a rough time trying to handle and discipline them. They made sure on their part to drive me to the limit of patience. I was thrust completely out of my little comfort zone. Pondering over a theme, and choreographing a routine based on it, managing costumes, sets and props, independently, made me feel a little lost. I felt helpless to a point where everything seemed to be going out of control. I was left with two options - either give up and quit, or keep at it and be resilient. As much as I was inclined to choose the former, I decided to stick to my commitment.

Though it seemed like an insurmountable task, I eventually learned to deal with the kids better. I tried my best to make them more comfortable with the routine and the concept and to work like a team. eventually, The kidssaw me as a friend and our friendship allowed me to gage the students' personalities and better choreograph the routine. We worked persistently for two months, practicing and rehearsing with full efforts. It was challenging to make the kids emote and connect to a solemn routine, but it worked perfectly in the end.

There was nervousness and excitement in the air as the final day approached to stage the play. All the effort and thought put into this routine paid off well when I received a standing ovation from the audience. It was thrilling to hear from all my little cranes their feelings while performing on stage. I believe I succeeded in bringing out the elegant cranes in the ruffians by making them dance and emote, and in doing so I found my own weaknesses and strengths.

The whole experience helped me evolve on so many different levels. I grew as a thinker, I learnedto think more creatively and independently. I got gaineda new insight into the minds of the kids and that helped me become a better teacher. I learned to be more patient, which allowed me to become a better choreographer and dancer. The Thisexperience taught me to work under pressure and deadlines, without losing my thought processes. But more importantly, I learned to stick to my commitment, no matter how out of my comfort level the atask might seem. All of us have some weaknesses but it is only through experiences such as this these thatwe realize them. Only by realizing our weakness can we strive to grow and succeed.

So in making cranes dance, I realized that I have wings, which I can flap to soar higher and push myself beyond my limits.

This is way better, but wasn't this due on the 15 of January? It is now the 16th, unless you live somewhere in the world where it is not midnight yet if you do then keep working and good luck.

Thanks for reading! :-) What do you think about the essay? Does it answer the prompt adequately?

Undergraduate / "A Game of Hide and Seek - X Vs. Me" U of C supplement. [16]

U of Chicago Supplement.
Its very long. I know. But I did not want to cut it any short. I've already submitted it. let me know how it is.

Prompt:
Find X.

Response:
After a tedious quest to find the oh-so-great X, from my room to my kitchen, to the community temple, in my cousin's closet, and by the cemetery; here's a list of things I believe could be X:

1) The things we cannot classify: This one's a little obvious. Let me present to you a situation: I was in my room. My mom has a weird tendency to clean everything compulsively, and as usual my room looked like it was struck by a tornado (or whatever you may want to call it; the result was the same). My mom wishes orders me to clean my room. I begin by stacking everything in their correct order. Each thing could be placed in some category. My socks would obviously go in the socks pile. My shoes would go in the shoe closet; shirts in one pile and trousers and jeans in another. Books became another stack. What if I had something that did not fall into any humanly category; not even a higher category of anything? How would it be to not be able to identify the 'it'? Would I go near it or dare touch it? The small what's-it is enough to generate huge amounts of fears. So the question is what would one do? Here we have two types of people: those who wish to categorize X and those who chose to be different and think that X is cryptic. I believe I belong to the latter. Most people perceive things according to classifications. It makes life simpler. Try it; the day you cannot classify, your mind will be at unrest.

I choose to see a world beyond classifications.

2) The 'ingredient' factor: My mother is an expert at the chemistry of food. She knows all about ingredients that go into food making, the quantities and the spices used. But so does my friend's mother. Does that mean both can cook the same dish having indistinguishable taste with the same ingredients? To find the answer, I slyly arranged for my mother and my friend's mother to have a cook-a-thon (saying its part of my science project). Both of them had to make them same dish with same ingredients in a time limit. Seems, a little Masterchef isn't it? Anyway, the results were two identical dishes. However, each had a different taste and flavor to it. Could it be possible that using the same ingredients and technique we could achieve different goal? Perhaps my little experiment proved it.

One may perceive of it this way too. In dance class, when my friend and I dance to the same tune using the same technique and the routine taught, we do it differently in spite of the perfect timing. People call it the X-factor; I would call it the 'ingredient' factor.

3) The 'someone' on the other side on the phone call: Now I was at the temple, praying to God. But has anyone seen him? I wouldn't deny his existence (and be ostracized by my relatives). Has religion in any way then helped us to see God? Of course it makes us aware of the omnipresent divine being; but does it rationally prove his existence? Religion is like making a phone call to the divine being. We can dial the number, hear the ring; we know someone's there on the other line, but there's no answer. Mankind has attempted a thousand ways to make this phone call to God. Yet, we do not precisely know who's on the other line.

Isn't the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva all about making another call

4) Temptation: It would be blasphemous of me to say this immediately after my speculations about the Divine. I happened to be probing my cousin's closet. During my hunt for a pair of socks, I incidentally found volumes of explicit content books. It is interesting to note that the humans are narcissists after all. The attempt to idolize the human body, especially the feminine half is intriguing. From the time of Adam and Eve, the human temptation has been highlighted. What makes us such enticed fools and perverts? Was it the apple as The Book of Genesis states? Or is 'apple' another alias to classify X? We know we get tempted; but can we express by a physical or rational method? Why we get tempted, we do not know; all we can speculate is that it's our nature and biology.

Thus, temptation is human nature. The moment we do rid ourselves of it, I think any of us would want to find X.

5) Life after the Cemetery: None of us know what happens after Death. Do we just dissolve into the nature like our earthly body? It is fact that energy dissipates the environment after we die. So where does our conscience go? Does it dissolve too? Or is it elevated to another plane or dimension of higher existence as claimed? These are few questions that vex me like anybody else.

So why do we fear death so much? Why all the attempts to halt and reverse aging? Why the Botox? We all have to die someday. Again, it probably is the fear of not knowing what lies after death. X always manages to stay a step ahead of us.

After the whole journey, I believe that Finding X has been nothing but futile. X shall always remain as long as we do. It is like an entity which can be felt; its presence sensed, but not expressed. It is an abstract concept that takes form of many different things. X could be anything from a person's passion, to the unconditional essence of love in mother's food, to the 'X' factor. X shall always take form of what we do not know, even if there's a lot we know.

I accept defeat, X, for now. I cannot find you. You are a master of disguises. The moment I feel I have found you, you seem to have taken another meaning, and another form. However, I am not going to stop trying. Let's hope I find you after another Four years.

You managed to reach the end! :D Bravo! :P ;) Thank you so much for your time.
Please leave a comment.

Undergraduate / "Finding Nemo among the stars" - Cornell supplement. Why College of arts and sciences [3]

Here's my Cornell supplement response. Let me know what you guys have to say about it. :)
Its about 510 words. (max. limit of 500)

Prompt:
College of Arts and Sciences:
Describe your intellectual interests, their evolution, and what makes them exciting to you. Tell us how you will utilize the academic programs in the College of Arts and Sciences to further explore your interests, intended major, or field of study.

Response:

Could I find a fish among the stars? If I ask my teachers this question they would probably wish I return to kindergarten.
My mother bought me my first encyclopedia when I was 9 called "The Deep Blue World". I loved it. It taught me so much about fishes; what they ate, where they lived and how they looked.

Growing up, my interest for the marine world started becoming more profound. Watching Animal Planet and Discovery taught me a lot. However, my fascination was not just limited to the marine world anymore. I moved outside the water; started to find a liking towards the land, the mountains and the plains. My mind probed deeper still. Literally. From the synchronized movements of schools of fish in the Pacific and the study of the life cycle of cicadas to the newfound knowledge about the cell structure and cellular biology, I have observed my interest in biology evolve; both in terms of length and breadth. Before I knew, I was head over heels with Biology.

However, this wasn't the only realm that thrilled me. I had also found a place to thrive among the stars. Watching the night sky from the rustic backdrop of my father's village, I was spellbound to see the twinkling and ethereal girdle of pearl-like dots in the deep blue sky. Yes, it was the Milky Way galaxy. The Andromeda Galaxy, the Orion and the Pegasus constellations; the stories of the Big Bang confirmation and the Panspermia hypothesis and the Drake Equation; all drive my intellectual curiosity as much as the little molecules of ATP, which power the cellular mechanism, do.

Eventually, the sky met the ocean and my interests merged; which I probably owe credit to the innumerable sci-fi movies I watched during summers.
Could there be life on other planets? If yes, can creatures of other planets have a completely non-carbon based chemistry? Learning about scientists finding sulfur based bacteria thriving near underwater thermal vents skyrocket my mind to a new plane. These are a few questions that pose as challenges to my mind albeit; they cannot be solved due to my own insufficient knowledge.

Probably, this is why I wish Cornell would be the perfect platform for me to realize my passions and cultivate them while answering the questions of my unlearned mind. Cornell's departments of Molecular Biology and Genetics, and Astronomy are two portals through which I can satiate my desire to know more. At Cornell, I wish to combine the two fields in the best way possible.

There is nothing better than earning an education that teaches you to think on your feet, inspire creativity and implore deeper understanding. With Liberal Arts essence to my learning, I am sure that I shall be ready for any future endeavor after the College of Arts and Sciences.

At Cornell I will get closer to finding Nemo among the stars; or an insect or a bacterium whatever it may be, and continue to dream of meeting an E.T.

Thanks for reading! :)

Undergraduate / "The Sisterhood of Literary genesis..." - my Amherst supplement essay response [7]

Hey guys this was my essay response for Amherst. I've already submitted it. Its 309 words. (limit 300 words) Let me know what you think of it.

PS - I know poems are risky and dangerous. However, I have a close connection with theater, and I know I wouldn't have been able to expressed myself any better than this.

Prompt:
"Literature is the best way to overcome death. My father, as I said, is an actor. He's the happiest man on earth when he's performing, but when the show is over, he's sad and troubled. I wish he could live in the eternal present, because in the theater everything remains in memories and photographs. Literature, on the other hand, allows you to live in the present and to remain in the pantheon of the future.

Literature is a way to say, I was here, this is what I thought, this is what I perceived. This is my signature, this is my name."

Ilan Stavans, Professor of Spanish, Amherst College
From "The Writer in Exile: an interview with Ilan Stavans" by Saideh Pakravan for the fall 1993 issue of The Literary Review

Response:

Standing there alone in the darkness,
The whispers backstage grew in hushed wildness,
Trembling and shaking each second,
I anticipated the forthcoming, knees weakened.

Through the slit I saw the dazzling light,
Flooding the stage and me like the sun rise.
It was my first act; the curtains were apart evidently,
As the thousand pairs of eyes looked intently!

Tick tock, tick tock, the clock walked;
Out of the apparent freeze, my body thawed.
Just like practice, I knew what to do,
Though after a thousandth time, it still seemed new.

The thrill and the rush were so exciting,
That slowly passed away all the anxiety.
Taking my cue I played the part,
Who knew my first monologue could touch so many hearts.
.
At end when off stage my feet led me
-Without letting the performance being stymied.
I moved into the wings without pause,
For my act from beyond the stage, I heard a round of applause.

The feeling was invigorating,
I felt a new me liberating.
Perhaps I finally found my place -
In this mean world which is compelled to race.

What's the difference between an actor and a writer?
-Just the same difference as between a lion and a tiger.
Who is then the more powerful an artist?
-Oh no, it is almost as difficult a battle as between the sexes!

Writing and theatre are more like sisters of the same brood,
One is elder and other is the younger bloom;
Together in harmony they express themselves on the canvases
Of this amazing world filled with sadness, rapture and promises.

Theatre and Literature both communicate
-One through pictures and actions, the other through language.
You're right Mr. Stavans; it is true that pen is mightier than the sword,
But you should also know that a picture speaks a thousand words.

Thanks for your time! I anticipate your critiques. :)
Do look through my other essays!

Undergraduate / So much more than deep dish pizzas.... U of C supplement. Why U of C? [3]

I'm an international student. So guys tell me whatever you feel about the essay. :) Thank you for reading and spending time on it.
Its around 590 words. Do I need to shorten it? It says one or two paragraphs..
So here goes...

Prompt:
Question 1. How does the University of Chicago, as you know it now, satisfy your desire for a particular kind of learning, community, and future? Please address with some specificity your own wishes and how they relate to Chicago.

Essay:
It's red! It's fierce! It's awesomely eccentric! No, I am not talking about Lady Gaga or her meat dress at the MVA.

I have questions. I've always had the questions. But not many answers. The moment I find the answers I have a new question. So much to the effect that it gets a little frustrating when I'm ravaging my brain fluids over something for hours and not get an answer. Sometimes I feel that people perceive me as a little abnormal. That doesn't stop me though.

Don't we all want answers? There is so much I don't know and a lot I want to know. Perhaps that is why I consider the University of Chicago as the best to find answers (And I think I have exhausted myself of finding X too!).

What appeals to me about UChicago is its charged academic atmosphere. The Goth architecture and the lush green campus enunciate the intellectual fervor. What is interesting is that UChicago students are so quirky and informed. They have so much going on about them. It's amazing to read their posts on the Uncommon Blog. I wish that someday I can be among such people who share such passionate interests and with whom I can share my thoughts and ideas in classroom and beyond.

However, the strongest feature of UChicago, I feel, is its Core Curriculum. Many colleges offer a core curriculum, but are a little lackluster in comparison to the one offered by U of C. Such a diverse selection of courses; I never thought that it could be possible to study the works of Homer and Aristotle, with the Chinese civilization, and learn French while completing a physical education course! The Core is simple ingenious. My desire to improve on my Critical thinking abilities is well served by the U of C's Core. I really look forward to having such an enriching experience.

Having fostered a deep love for Biology I feel the Biological Sciences Collegiate division will permit me to evolve and cultivate my passion towards achieving a future in Biology. I wish to take advantage of the research facilities offer there by the Beckman Scholars Program. The Phoenix Biology Club is something that I look forward to join.

Beside academics, it is imperative as student to enjoy and have fun. UChicago, with its roots anchored in Hyde Park and branches extending and reaching over the Chicago community, is the perfect destination to strike a balance between a rigorous undergraduate experience and a fun college life. Chicago itself is a portal for so many opportunities. With a diverse student body which is hard working and fun loving, I feel that I will definitely find a place at this institution. Perhaps I could start my own student group, or maybe join a few. The U of C community has so much to offer. Otherwise, I shall be happy serving my gluttonous stomach with the multitude of pizzeria's offering the deep dish in vicinity.

So from what I see, U of C represents a nutshell within a nutshell. The U of C campus nested in the Hyde Park nutshell is part of the bigger community of Chicago. UChicago is a place where I wish to grow as a person as well as an intellectual; make new friends, from around the around the world; establish deep bonds with the people I meet and have fun.

I wishfully hope that maybe someday I will be wearing that awesome red colored sweatshirt to a Phoenix game.

Thanks again guys! :)