Undergraduate / 'contact with airplanes' - Stanford intellectually engaging topic essay [4]

The topic of the following essay is to talk about an idea or experience that has been important to our intellectual development. It's one of the stanfords supplement questions.

I don't care about grammar or structure, I just want to hear your opinion on the content of the essay. If it's reflective and shows intellectual development.

My first contact with airplanes was when one flew over my house and "took" my pacifier. A later one, when I designed one for the NASA high school aeronautics competition, a supersonic airplane to be exact.

Prior to that moment I had no formal research experience, I was a 10th grader and the amount of work needed looked at least terrifying. I loved airplanes, but I didn't know how they work, or the physics law that govern the flight. So, I immersed myself into the physics world and in three months I have studied the physics curriculum of the whole high school and I started watching lectures online from universities. It's amazing that "blank air" can produce enough force to lift hundreds of people and tones of cargos. The next step was to study the basic mechanics of aircrafts. Being able to understand the importance of the bypass ratio for jet engines and other technical terms instigates an inner feeling of satisfaction; knowing that the hours you spend studying actually have a tangible result. Finding the appropriate bibliography, designing different prototypes in CAD software and trying to find the most drag-efficient position for the wings using the trial and error method are things that...lit me up-and still are- , so much that after an enervating school day I had no problem staying up till late in the night working.

Finally, I got rewarded for all this work with the 3rd place in the world, although my real reward was this: In a period of 10 months I learnt how to learn, how to create knowledge using the existing one, how to function in a professional environment, things that it would normally take me years to learn.

Thank you very much!

Undergraduate / Focus- What matters to you and why? stanford sup [2]

Hey, this is my essay for the stanford supplement. Please take a look at it and tell me what you think. I don't want you to edit it for grammatical mistakes, just tell me if you like the content, the way I presented the idea, if it's convincing and if I should add/change anything.

Thanks, in advance.

Here is the essay:

There was a point in my life that I thought I was Superman; that I could solve all of humanity's problems. I would come up with the Theory Of Everything, design a supersonic aircraft and many other similar tasks. A usual day, back then, would include at least one hour of physics study, another of programming, another of chemistry and so on. At the end of the day I was enervated but confident that I am on my way to break new scientific grounds. However, my Superman suit was shattered a few months later in a school class. We were talking about a topic in astrophysics and I, as a self-proclaimed expert, started talking. In the beginning everything was going smoothly and my classmates were impressed by my knowledge, but suddenly a student asked me a question, which I had no answer for. I started stammering and sweating; the teacher understood my uncomfortable position and with a humorous joke continued the discussion. When I returned home I was devastated and started thinking what I have done so far. I realized that my effort to be great in a broad range of fields resulted in being moderate in all of them; I had only superficial knowledge. After this epiphany I changed my lifestyle. I decided to pure my life into a few specific fields and try to be the best at them, have deep and extensive knowledge. That's the only path to true knowledge, which liberates people. It's better to be great at one single thing than to be average in many. This concept has been a lighthouse throughout my life and has influenced most of my decisions.

Undergraduate / 'After I got the rejection letter' - Stanford re-applicants Essay [2]

Hi guys,

I am reapplying to Stanford and this the essay I wrote for this topic: "Have you previously applied to Stanford?(Y/N)- If yes, please tell us of any significant experiences and developments since your last application."

A year has passed since my last Stanford application, a year that many things changed for me. After I got the rejection letter from Stanford I was devastated and unsure of what the future holds for me. Very soon, though, I got over the 'sadness' stage and started to research the reasons of this failure. After a few days of reading and thinking I understood that the reason of this rejection was the fact that I was not genuine in my application. I didn't lie in the essays, but I failed to present myself in a way that showcased the real traits of my personality. I was superficial and I wasn't unique. I even got to the point that I questioned myself, if I were an admission officer, why would I admit me! My life, after this realization went really well. I graduated from high school and in the national Greek Apolytirion exams I scored in the top 5% of the whole country and 6th in my school. After I finished high school, which till then occupied all of my free time, I started doing things that I really liked. I learn to program in two new languages and to develop applications for android devices. Then I had an idea moment; I came up with an idea for a mobile application which will change the way people commute every day. More details about this application are available in the additional information section of the common application. During the summer I travelled around Greece, talked to interesting people,read books that helped me see the world from a different perspective, organized the first "F1 in Schools" event in Greece and grasped every other opportunity I found in my way.

This last year has been so important to me not because I had a life changing experience, but because I learnt to bring to the surface the characteristics of my personality which can eventually change my life. If someone juxtaposes my last years and this year's application will probably think that they are written by two completely different persons and that will be true. Am I a different person? No, I am still the same human being, but now more experienced, wiser and, definitely, a year older.

Could you please tell me what you think about it? I don't really care for the grammar as much I care for the content.

Thanks

Undergraduate / 'I shoot things' - Activity Essay for M.I.T. [7]

Hi.

The topic of the essay is to talk about an activity that we simply do for the pleasure of it. I wrote about photography. I would appreciate any comment, especially criticism. Thanks. :-)

I shoot things. No, I don't shoot at things; I like to photograph them. I first got my hands on a camera at the age of five and after then it has been an extension of my hand. You will find me wandering for hours in a forest photographing every single tree or in a city trying to "catch" with my camera the city vibe. I love photography because it's the only form of art that can freeze time. A photo contains not only visual content; it also has emotional content, which enable us to relive moments of the past in the future.