Undergraduate / "A new perspective on the music" - Rough Draft of Brown Supplement Essay [3]

Prompt: Tell us about an intellectual experience, project, class, or book that has influenced or inspired you.
Max Word Count: 500
My Word Count: 423

Rough draft of the essay. Any corrections, opinions, and/or criticism is greatly appreciated. I have A little room to expand if anyone thinks I should add something. Thank you to anyone who takes the time to comment!

With my shirt glued to my skin and sweat beginning to pool at the tip of my nose, I drove to school in my "new" car. Cruising down the street in my 1998 firebird, complete with busted A/C and two blown out speakers, I wished for the money to at least replace the speakers. That thought was soon replaced as a heatstroke-induced funeral soon became a concern. Sitting in a black car during a Texas summer, I became increasingly aware of the car's ability to only blow hot air from its vents. I had little attachment to my method of transportation, but I had a job and hope as I saved up for car repairs.

However much uncomfortable driving may have been, I still needed to get to school. That day, a lesson on exponential functions and a math teacher with a love for real world applications soon brought my attention to the fact that, on average, a person does not start investing until their mid-30's. Curious, I went home and started plugging numbers into my calculator and found that a few extra years of investing made a huge difference. I began pondering how I should approach my own investments when I realized I was using the years an adult had left to save for my equation. After a few swift key strokes, a starting age of 18 had been entered into my equations. A sense of satisfaction grew. I had just discovered the Holy Grail of investing, time.

I wanted the ability to take the jobs and opportunities I found in life without the concern of money - time and patience could give me that opportunity. I wanted to start investing. To enjoy the simple things in life with secure finances was my ultimate goal as I began scraping together the capital I needed for my venture. After long nights of research after my homework, I invested in a few companies and began checking my account daily. It was exciting to watch the ups and the benefit of having time to recover any losses was comforting during the downs.

At first, I was disappointed that I would be stuck with a ragged stereo and busted A/C after dipping into my repairs fund, but I became happy with the car I had, even if a couple of speakers were blown out. Knowing I would have money and a secure future was inspiring. I cracked the windows and cranked up the volume and to ears from a new perspective the music never sounded so good.

Undergraduate / "why engineering? pride for myself" questions for Brown [3]

Any proofreading/corrections are appreciated. This is the formatting style I was thinking about submitting to Brown; does it look alright to everyone? Should I include the prompt questions along with the answers, or just the answers? I know it is always best to be as unique/creative as possible with short answer responses but I thought being as personal as possible was the most important thing for this prompt. Does it seem to generic? Any comments, criticism, corrections are apprectiated! 500 word max/ currently 493

1. Many applicants to college are unsure about eventual majors. What factors led you to an interest in the field of Engineering?

2. What experiences beyond school work have broadened your interest in Engineering?

3. Brown offers programs in Biomedical, Chemical, Civil, Computer, Electrical, Materials, and Mechanical Engineering. Because there is a common core curriculum within Engineering, students need not select a specific area until their junior year. We are curious to know, however, if any particular program within Engineering presently appeals to you. If so, please discuss that choice.

1. Engineering, to me, is the essence of understanding. To Engineer something requires understanding. An engineer understood the shapes and materials needed to satisfy the load requirements for the chair I am sitting in right now. Another engineer understood the problems that come with mass producing a chair and designed a manufacturing process to build thousands of identical chairs. A third engineer needed to understand the power requirements to transport those chairs and designed a truck to transport all those chairs and yet another built a road for that truck. This web of applying understanding to solve problems is everywhere: it is in a particle super collider, in a microprocessor, even in my chair. It is this human ability to understand and solve problems that interests me and drives me to be a part of the engineering community.

2. Last spring break, I went with my father on his business trip to Detroit. He was going there to visit the company contracted to build his part for the Lockheed Martin assembly process for the F-35. On the plane ride, he showed me his designs and explained what the tools were designed to do, and when I stepped inside the Detroit company's machine shop, I realized how intricate engineering really was. It amazed me to realize that when the government contracts the building of a plane that the plane is not simply just designed and built but that there are tools that are designed and built just for the construction of that plane. The pride and joy my father took in seeing his designs being machined into existence made me envious.

I got to experience this pride for myself as I pushed in the power button of the computer I assembled with my own hands. I remember doing all of my own research. I made sure to get every part that worked best for my ultimate design: an aluminum case, for lighter weight and better heat transfer for cooling purposes, a quality heat sink and fan to take care of my soon to be tested processor and a large enough hard drive to contain my life. When my computer booted up and greeted me with a friendly welcome, I knew I had found a profession in engineering.

3. The current engineering discipline that interests me the most is electrical engineering. Building my own computer gave me the confidence to buy a water-damaged iPhone with the hope of taking it apart and repairing it. As I took the phone apart, trying to identify all its problems, I began wondering about all the thought that went into designing it. I looked up how processors were made and how RAM worked. I thought about the choices in hardware the company had to make for size and portability and realized I had made some of those same choices in building my computer. The water-damaged phone is working again and I even have a small business repairing water-damaged electronics.