Undergraduate / 'Fixed, brown eyes' - UC prompt 1. Edit, critiques and feedback [2]

Tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you. What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud, and how does it relate to the person you are?

I looked up and stared into a pair of fixed, brown eyes intently watching the black and white vinyl battlefield covered with pawns, queens, and kings. As my opponent began to make his move, I quickly formulated strategies to counter his attack. After an hour of silent contemplating, the board was filled with fallen soldiers used as sacrifice in order to ensure victory. Starring back at me was my beloved mentor and father, who had dedicated his whole life to a war whose finest battle was unfolding before my very eyes. The adrenaline rush when your opponent makes a move is indescribable. I took a glimpse of the board, searching for a hole in his fortress, refusing to surrender on the behalf of my courageous warriors.

I first fell in love with the game of chess when I was ten by observing my grandfather and father play. I was bewildered, but yet fascinated by the unique game. I considered my grandpa and father as five star generals, one was Genghis Khan and the other was Napoleon. I developed an enthusiasm for the game when my father asked me to play against him for the first time. I was inexperienced; I had no idea how to set up the pieces on the board. With the help of my Grandfather coordinating the pieces, I felt I was actually patrolling my troops, encouraging them to prepare for a difficult battle that lay ahead. It was a horror watching my warriors captured by my opponents and crushed helplessly.

I did not give up. I repeatedly asked for a rematch and my Father generously accepted. Within a short amount of time, I had played numerous games, but despite my efforts I could not bring a single victory to my comrades. Ever since, I promised to sharpen my skills as a general and vow to defeat my father one day. In the past years, I spent hours outside of chess club pouring over chess books, watching lessons and playing online against servers. Acquiring new knowledge about opening, middle tactics and endgame strategies, improved my game rapidly. My imagination ran wild every time I played against opponents, and pondered about the endless possibilities.

Over the years I did not just learn the game of chess, but I learned that my ambition is to become a computer engineer. Chess has brought me closer to reaching my goal by gaining the abilities of analyzing, planning and thinking ahead towards the distant future. Through finding myself in hopeless positions, down by several pieces against my opponent, I learned to continue battling and to understand when it is reasonable to admit defeat and move on. I learned to be consistent and leave no error for my opponent to capitalize. I became cautious of every move I made and learned to consider all the consequences on and off the board.

I looked back up at my opponent and scanned the board once more. Before I proceed with my final move, my father smiled as he knew exactly what my next move was. "Checkmate!" Finally after hundreds of matches, I had finally beaten him. Half of his face smiled while the other half frowned.

Undergraduate / 'Google, Microsoft and Apple' - UC - Describe the world you come from [4]

Describe the world you come from - for example, your family, community or school - and tell us how your world has shaped your dreams and aspirations.

The brutal, frigid winter in early January made me queasy. The year was 2005, and I was nine years old. Few days had passed since I first stepped on American soil. The feeling of jet lag had yet to fade and I still had trouble adapting to my new environment. I was in my new home, but my body was still in Indonesia. The evening was dull. Armed with Eskimo-like clothing, I sat on my lazy maroon leather couch, watching pointless cartoons to learn how to speak English.

As I slowly drifted off to sleep, I heard a familiar voice murmur. My uncle gave me a customary headlock to wake me. My uncle Rudy mumbled to me, "Come downstairs, I want to show you something." I followed him to our gloomy basement. As he powered on a bizarre looking machine, he whispered to me again, "I have a surprise for you," while pointing at it. I looked at the object with a confused expression. I asked "What kind of machine is it?" He told me the machine was a "computer." I had never seen anything like it. He emphasized that computers are expensive and rare in Indonesia, so I should feel gifted.

When I was growing up in Indonesia, I had a fixed mind that computers were complex and difficult to utilize. My uncle explained and demonstrated how computer programs and video games are produced. This was the first time I fell in love with computers, which in turn sparked my desire to become a computer engineer. Ever since, my interest had skyrocketed, and I was curious about how to build a computer, how they worked and how to fix them. One time when my uncle came home with a broken computer, I decided to take it apart. For the first time I saw the motherboard, hard drive, CPU and RAM. After several months of experimenting, I was able to fix the computer and make an upgrade in it by adding more RAM.

My fascination with innovations by major corporations such as Google, Microsoft and Apple helped me easily decide what I want to do in the future. Computers have made my lives easier and more convenient. Social networks have changed traditional way of communication. Previously, it was difficult and expensive to keep in touch with my family in Indonesia, but now I can keep in touch with them regularly and cheaper. They made it easier for me to access information though search engines, in Indonesia I had to go to the library and search precisely for the appropriate books. My ultimate goal is to engineer innovative devices that will benefit and make life easier for people like you and me.