Undergraduate / My birthmark (which I thought was malignant) fueled my scientific curiosity - Common App Essay [8]

Common App Prompt #1: Some students have a background, identity, interest or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

My birthmark - the mysteries of the mole

I always made my grandmother lose her balance during her outdoor tai-chi sessions. Focusing on her feng-shui, grandma - my wŕipó in Mandarin - always shrugged off my high-pitched questions whenever I pestered her. These daunting inquiries of "Does the sky ever end?" and "Can we fly?" remained unsettled as wŕipó shook her head and continued to maintain her single whip movement. Unfortunately, she didn't comprehend multifaceted astronomy or physiology.

One day, I biked to my childhood oasis, Jellybean Park, to find my answers. At the apex of Earth's gravitational potential energy, I launched myself off the swing-set at maximum velocity. Channeling my inner flying squirrel, I defied every law of physics, outwitted the human anatomy, and ended up falling to the ground, wincing in pain and enveloped in woodchips. I finally discovered that humans couldn't fly - one of my more painful childhood revelations.

The most baffling question I had was about my birthmark, the most prominent feature of my face. This black dot is smack-dab in the middle of my forehead: a true enigma. One time, I read on Yahoo Answers that moles proportional to one's face indicated malignance. When I anxiously asked wŕipó if it was my kiss of death, she gave her usual, heartening response of "It's what makes you special!" I didn't buy her words of reassurance. She made the same remark about my cousin's crooked baby teeth.

My task as an 8-year-old: to decode the mysteries of the mole.

Once my fascination - or perhaps fear - of my blemish was kindled, I sought the truth about my odd phenotype. Determined to figure out if it was symmetrical and cancerous, the young scientist in me resorted to experimentation. Thus, at the age of 8, I began my first scientific study sitting cross-legged on a cold, 5' x 8' bathroom floor. Bendable ruler and permanent Sharpie marker in hand, I drew distinct dashed lines, methodically joining a large birthmark at the center of my forehead to my temples. I proportionalized both sides of my forehead where my mark was, finding the measurements to be equal: 17.5 centimeters. Conclusion: my hypothesis of evenness and cancer was supported by my data (this was later embarrassingly disproven by my pediatrician).

My childhood inquisitiveness ultimately grew into something larger, and thankfully it wasn't finding out that I had skin cancer! As odd as it is, my discovery was the root of my infatuation with research, a culmination of my innate curiosity. From forming a hypothesis to deducing my answers, that one summer morning gave my childhood fascination clarity. It was a scientific catharsis that ensued next to a toilet.

Through research, I learned that I can fly. I soar beyond the boundaries of a classroom into a realm of independent thinking and instinctive questioning. Newton's laws of motion can't fetter my aspirations. Whether it be assaying the olfactory learning of Drosophila, determining the relationship between gene expression and behavior, or measuring the congruity of my face, my wings of inquisitiveness and tenacity haven't been clipped. My desire to connect these perplexing puzzle pieces defines who I am, at my core - it's perpetual and limitless like the sky.

Science is fascination in its purest form: evoking curiosity, thought, and vibrant inspiration. To this day, it's my outlet to pursue similarly cathartic "Aha!" moments, even though they might now be more intricate than measuring the congruity of my face, and a little less daunting than performing an amateur cancer diagnosis. So, I guess wŕipó was right. Though I didn't realize it as an obnoxious and slightly overweight 8-year-old, my distinctive birthmark is what makes me special. Without it, my many questions and ideas would remain undiagnosed. This oddity ultimately birthed my scientific intellect, breathing life into my ambition to connect more dots and to seek greater epiphanies. Hopefully the next ones don't involve any more painful forehead scrubbing sessions!

Undergraduate / Intersection of the Language and Mind - "Why NYU?" Supplement [5]

Prompt: We would like to know more about your interest in NYU. We are particularly interested in knowing what motivated you to apply to NYU and more specifically, why you have applied or expressed interest in a particular campus, school, college, program, and/or area of study? If you have applied to more than one, please tell us why you are interested in each of the campuses, schools, colleges, or programs to which you have applied. You may be focused or undecided, or simply open to the options within NYU's global network; regardless, we want to understand - Why NYU? (400 word maximum)

Some background: I applied to NYU's College of Arts and Sciences and chose "Language and Mind" as my major. The only campus I expressed interest in was the New York City campus.

neuroscience - my first passion

My first academic love is neuroscience. Learning about how the nervous system works, from its first sensory signal to its last elucidation of the sensory message, fascinates me. As a proud quadrilingual, learning about languages is another of love of mine. Besides immersing myself in the different tones, accents, and connotations that each language entails, I am intrigued by the the role and development of language in itself. Spoken word, though intrinsic and second nature to human beings, is a fairly complex method of communication. How did humans develop such an intricate way of interacting from one another--from the caveman's grunt to his very first word of fire? Why does this communication vary between different regions and cultures of the world, and why are these variations so drastic? Linguistics has always been something that made me think.

In my college search, I look for a program that would allow me to pursue both my passions for neuroscience and linguistics. None has a program that fit my interests as perfectly as NYU. The College of Arts and Sciences offers the Language and Mind major, an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the human brain by looking at language. Not only can I to continue studying the disciplines that intrigue me, but I can also learn about other subjects that I've never been exposed to. Psychology and Philosophy, for instance, are two disciplines sewn into the fabric of the LAMD major, and two opportunities for me to grow as an intellectual. I see myself taking courses like Sound and Language, Language and Society, and Language and Mind. Through these integrative classes, I can begin to understand the interplay between culture, speech sounds and variations, and the brain's differentiation of these sounds to ultimately communicate.

I hope to continue conducting research in college, and at NYU, I have no doubt that I will be exposed to a multitude of opportunities to do so. The Neurolinguistics Lab and Neuroscience of Language Lab, for example, both center around studying the neural bases of language-research that's immensely applicable to my interests. I can see myself learning how to use Magnetoencephalography to electrically map brain activity with the help of Dr. Pylkkanen, or collecting data from the MEG system with Dr. Poeppel. With a plethora of opportunities in the world's most exciting city, I'm confident that I will blossom both as a scientist and thrive as thinker at NYU.

Undergraduate / Learning Spanish through another lens - a cultural immersion (Dartmouth Supplement) [4]

Prompt: Celebrate an example of excellent teaching and how it illuminated the subject you were studying. Why did it resonate with you and excite your intellectual curiosity? (300 word maximum)

Side note: I swapped my teacher's real name with "X" just to keep her privacy.

the world-explorer soul

For the first two years of high school, learning the Spanish language was a chore. No passion lied behind memorizing irregular conjugations and distinguishing between las palabras agudas and esdrújulas. Tediously learning every intricacy of grammar was dry, and the cultural experience that I longed for remained unfulfilled.

I didn't appreciate the beauty of Spanish until junior year, when my new teacher, Ms. X, stepped into the picture. She transformed a class revolved around verb tenses into a full-fledged immersion of Spanish culture. Like the curriculum, the dull walls of room 153 were replaced with vibrancy: decorations like skulls in celebration of Día de los Muertos and colorful posters depicting the Plaza de Toros animated the mundane atmosphere.

X's lessons made me feel like a student in a Central American country-a feeling antithetical from that of previous years. Counting syllables became a fragment of the past, swapped with her many compelling stories of life in Argentina, Cuban movies that evoked every emotion, and lively music lessons. One week, she taught the history of the Flamenco then performed it while wearing a polka-dot skirt-a week later, I showed off the fabulous footwork I learned to the class for my project. It felt good to experience something different.

The cultural expedition Seńora X guided me through sparked excitement within my world-explorer soul. I was the tourist: infatuated with every savory empanada I sampled, obsessed over the sultry voice of Enrique Iglesias, and admired the ornate gothic church architecture. Through this immersion, I perceived the language of Romance through a different lens, one that was unclouded by monotonous grammar. My teacher ultimately instilled within me a newfound sense of enthusiasm of learning foreign tongues by experiencing rich cultures behind them all. Whether it be Spanish, Mandarin or French, my love for this endeavor is unwavering.

Undergraduate / Neurolinguistics allows me to understand myself - Brown Supplement [4]

Prompt: Why are you drawn to the area(s) of study you indicated earlier in this application? (150 word limit)

**For the record, I chose Cognitive Neuroscience as my first choice of study and Linguistics as my second**

From a young age, I was surrounded by a family who spoke two languages--Mandarin and its dialect of Fujianese were both intermingled in my brain. As an adolescent, I was able to learn and speak both tongues fluently. But how did I distinguish between both languages, structurally similar but worlds apart phonologically? Cognitive science and linguistics are two disciplines that allow me to figure out how these two languages are processed by my brain.

Language is man's most intricate form of communication--it's what inherently makes us human. To me, studying language from a neurological lens is fascinating. It's not an accident I was drawn to this field: as a translator for my parents, I always wondered how I was able to seamlessly go from English to Chinese. Why doesn't the brain get confused? What pathways are neurons fired to elucidate this shift in gears? Neurolinguistics illuminates how such a complex organ systematize and organizes languages--it allows me to understand more about myself.

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I'm worried about this essay because I feel like I'm really bad at describing why I love the subject of neurolinguistics so much. I think the last sentence states why I do the best but is that too little? How can I expand on that thought? Also, I'm 12 words over the limit! Help is welcomed :)

Undergraduate / Dual identity of Asian-American (Princeton Supplement) [10]

Prompt: Using one of the themes below as a starting point, write about a person, event, or experience that helped you define one of your values or in some way changed how you approach the world.

An Asian-American Identity and Experiences

My family emigrated to the United States right before I was born. They chased the conventional American dream--to escape the rural destitution of Fujian and to find job opportunities beyond farming and nannying overseas. Flushing, New York was their calling: outside the hustle and bustle of Manhattan lied a tight-knit Chinese community, defined by open restaurant doors and laundromat dreams.

The very first breath I took set a precedent. I was the first baby in the Chen bloodline to be born in a country other than China, though my stay in my birthplace didn't last for very long. In the midst of settling into America, working double-digit hours at takeout restaurants, and caring for my teenage siblings, my parents couldn't care for me. Thus, they sent me away overseas--back to their roots of eastern China's countryside.

From infantry to preschool years, I lived with my grandmother in a small, deteriorating house. Here, I made my home and childhood memories--learning how to fill a bucket from a well, and getting lost in the supermarket where everyone looked identical. My whole life was rooted in China--the only place I had ever known. And at 5, I was ripped from it by my mother, who I was now unfamiliar with.

I am a satellite baby. From America to China--and back to America again--I'm straddled between two worlds. However, for the first year in my new American life, I was content. My Chinese culture surrounded me everywhere I went: from the overcrowded Queens streets that resembled Fujianese supermarkets to the city-wide Moon Festival celebrations that reminded me of my village. I found solace in my new Flushing community, as I met other children who faced the same experiences as me. We bonded over our favorite Chinese cartoons, our favorite dim sum restaurants, and the stories we told each other about the "good old days" in China. America surprisingly felt like home.

This comfort and serenity that I had re-established in my life was ripped away a second time. When my parents saved up enough money from their chef and waitress jobs, my siblings and I moved to Long Island suburbia--a place eminently different from China and Flushing. Growing up in a predominately white town, I was surrounded by people who looked nothing like me. I wasn't able to relate to any aspect of American culture--my classmates didn't eat the same food or speak the same language. Forks replaced chopsticks in the cafeteria, and" Finding Nemo" replaced "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" on television screens. My Chinese friends from Flushing were nowhere to be found, as I felt isolated from everyone I encountered. This exposure to American culture and ideals clashed with my Chinese roots, and I began to feel like a Martian in my own homeland.

The dominance of American culture on Long Island fogged up my identity. Being immersed in such a different lifestyle, I consumed it. In the process, I shut out my family's Chinese dogma. In school, I tried to dodge my Spanish teacher's questions about my family, fearing that my relatives' eccentric names and restaurant jobs were "too Asian." Near my friends, I whispered in Chinese whenever my mother called me, trying not to embarrass myself by speaking a weird, ethnic tongue. I did everything that I could to suppress my ethnicity and culture in hopes of integrating myself in a new society--I didn't want to be different, I wanted to be "Americanized."

Throughout my life, I have both embraced and shut out my Chinese culture. Instead of choosing one identity over another, today I choose to embrace both. Integrating my Chinese ethnicity with my newfound American ideals, I am no longer afraid to speak in my native tongue around others, and no longer cower in fear of revealing my parents' beautiful names. Life at home and life at school still feel like two completely different countries, but I find balance in my every day. I find security in my Chinese culture, as it reminds me of the small village I come from and the memories that are starting to fade. I find excitement in American culture-it gives me an opportunity to look at life and traditions at another angle, from a different lens. Ultimately, I am a proud Asian-American, one who appreciates both experiences--with a pair of chopsticks on one hand and McDonald's fries in the other.

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I'm worried that this doesn't exactly fit the prompt. It's not so much an event or experience as it is me growing up and maturing, realizing that I should appreciate both my identities. I'm also concerned about the organization of the essay, does it make sense and flow nicely? The last paragraph describes what culture means to me, but I think I didn't go in depth enough (which is what the prompt is asking for). Though, I'm not too sure how to explain my identity further than I already have.

The maximum word length is 650 words but I'm 80 words over, so what should I cut out?! Much help is appreciated!

Undergraduate / Linguistics, cognitive science, and diversity - "right college environment" Cornell Supplement [2]

Prompt: Describe two or three of your current intellectual interests and why they are exciting to you. Why will Cornell's College of Arts and Sciences be the right environment in which to pursue your interests? (Please limit your response to 650 words.)

Cornell's "right environment"

Starting at a young age, two languages were intermingled in my mind-Mandarin and its dialect of Fujianese. I began picking up on their distinct characteristics and differences as I got older: Mandarin revolved around tones to deliver a word's meaning, whereas Fujianese contained less syllables and was spoken in a single, monotone pitch. Fast forward to my kindergarten years-English began to infiltrate my mind. However, it was incalculably different from my native tongue: the 26-lettered alphabet replaced the myriad of distinctive Chinese characters, as the use of pitch shifted from grammatical connotation to expression. Not soon after followed my fourth language--Spanish. This came naturally to me, as my new foreign tongue had striking similarities to English phonemics and its Roman-inspired alphabet.

My quadrilingual aptitude sparks enthusiasm within my world-explorer soul, giving me an aspiration to learn more about the languages that surround me every second of the day. My fascination lies in the rich origins behind them, their manifestation in certain areas of the world, and why they have their respective phonemes. This intellectual desire to learn about man's most intricate form of communication-one so second nature to me-can be cultivated within Cornell's College of Arts and Sciences.

As a language aficionado, Cornell's Linguistics Department will grant me unparalleled opportunities to do investigate the development of language. While taking Introduction to Historical Linguistics, I understand how accents and dialects-like Fujianese-are formed through historical, and sociological lenses. Like biological speciation, perhaps my familiar vernacular is the result of physical separation, between the mainland Chinese and the coastal peoples. Moreover, I see myself challenging Phonology II, a more advanced linguistics course. Here, I will analyze English and Spanish sound patterns, examine their transcriptions to the International Phonetic Alphabet, and investigate their similar syntax. No other institution provides a curriculum with as much multidisciplinary depth than Cornell. This unparalleled learning experience allows me to understand more about the languages that I speak.

Cornell's myriad of opportunities doesn't stop when class does. Its focus on undergraduate research, for instance, is one of the college's most esteeming and attractive qualities. Paired with the cognitive science minor curriculum, my passion for this brainy discipline will be further explored at the Cognitive Neuroscience Lab. This past summer, I pursued neurobiological research at (insert name of) Laboratory-with my first experiment investigating the development of M. musculus prefrontal cortexes as the mice organisms were conditioned to learn olfactorily, avoiding certain chemical odors. My findings illuminated the steps their human-like brains took to learn, remember, and systematized tactile stimuli. Now, at the CNL lab, I want to continue this endeavor and extrapolate my findings from (insert name of lab) towards understanding how the brain processes language. I see myself assaying brain activity using electroencephalography with Dr. Christiansen, and using eye-tracking methods to analyze learning in child volunteers with graduate researchers. With a renowned curriculum, access to research facilities and welcoming mentors, Cornell will offer me an ideal, intellectually stimulating atmosphere to blossom as a scientist. Here, I'm confident that I'll be able to answer my inquiries about my brain's capabilities in balancing four languages and how it communicates at a cognitive level.

Being a polyglot and an acclaimed child-translator for my parents has provided me with an introspection I employ in my research, as well as a love for appreciating varied experiences and perspectives within me. With Cornell's diverse student body, it's hard for me to resist this enthusiasm-I'll join the OUTreach organization, using my unique perspective of being gay in a traditional Chinese household to encourage queer acceptance and to vocalize LGBTQ+ issues. Cornell is also where I'll form a diverse friend group, be inspired by their backgrounds and life stories, dance carelessly with them to Drake at Slope Day, and even convince some of them to participate in my linguistic studies. Cornell's "right environment" is where I'll ultimately make my unforgettable memories, my lifelong friends, and my second home.