Undergraduate / Study Abroad Essay- Barcelona (your first choice program) [5]

*** I would like comments on how to cut down on word count by answering the questions succinctly. Other input would also be greatly appreciated.
*** I will return the favor.

- Briefly explain why you would like to participate in your first choice program.
- How does it fit into the scheme of your education?
- You may wish to comment on what you feel will be the most challenging (or most rewarding) about your selected location, or what skills (i.e., language) you hope to improve.

- Please elaborate on what advantages specific to your interests and enthusiasms come with studying a civilization on site.

Five days, four hundred units, three lectures and a math tutorial are all organized neatly to make my winter quarter schedule. The scheme of my education is currently mapped out without room for error and exploration. It is outlined by the plain black print of text books and the stark walls of the classroom which have always unfailingly left me dissatisfied, but I yearn to break out of this academic routine. Although I have always had a full course load, I have never been a full time student; a class syllabus only plans my education within a lecture hall. Studying abroad is like a 24 hour class without a syllabus and it has always been my plan to, well, learn without a plan. I possess this intellectual curiosity to seek answers to questions beyond what a formal education might supply.

In a city bursting with life like Barcelona, lessons will arrive as smells, sounds, textures, sights and flavors. The sound of grandmothers bargaining for the morning's catch will help me improve on my language skills as I'll try to decipher their rapid chatter. The flavors of paella will expand my picky palette. The smell of incense will draw me into the Catedral de Barcelona where I can delve into a religion that is not my own. The sight of the Barcelona skyline, a medley of acroterions, myriad domes, mosaics, and finials, will be the place where I fall effortlessly deeper in love with Catalan modernism.

My gaze will pay tribute to the unsung hero of modernisme architecture, Domčnech i Montaner. At the turn of the century, he seized the opportunity to usher in a new form of modern design, rampant as it was with neo-Gothic motifs that linked the Barcelona's industrialization to its rich medieval history. His creations captured the blend of civic pride and social rise of the time; the buildings still radiate these sentiments that I wish so much to feel as I learn about the people who lived in it hundreds of years ago. There is no other way or place where I can have such an experience where everything I eat, breathe, and live is connected to my education.

However, I am hesitant to venture down the cobble stone roads that lead to performances of the Flamenco and matches of bullfighting. Barcelona's vivacity will be sure to not only inspire novel ideas but also ignite questions that might be left unexpressed. I am fearful of having questions to be answered but not having the ability to ask them, but this concern will soon fade as I learn Barcelona pronunciation and new jargon.

Although I'll arrive with a heavy English accent, exposure to vulnerability and error is what makes growth possible. With growth, I will experience other ways of thinking and only then will I finally acquire a true education: an education that does not make an empty brain into one that is packed with information, but instead transforms it into an open mind.

-Thuy T.

Undergraduate / Upenn Supplement: Bioengineering + EWB [12]

Hello again, this is one of two essays that I wrote for this prompt. (this one is kind of the disaster one, so I'm probably going to use the other one) Its also a combo of every other essay I have written so far. Please give feed back!

3. Benjamin Franklin established the Union Fire Company, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the American Philosophical Society, Pennsylvania Hospital, and, of course, the charity school that evolved into the University of Pennsylvania. As they served the larger community of Philadelphia, each institution in turn formed its own community.

Which of the academic communities and social communities that now comprise the University of Pennsylvania are most interesting to you and how will you contribute to them and to the larger Penn community?

Thuy-Khue Tran is Common Application ID number _______. I am a number. I am another application in a stack of hundreds. I can only hope and dream that double spaced 12 point font can fully portray the extent of my ambitions and the essence of who I am, but only my family members- all 200 of them- know me well beyond an application number. Thus, I am searching for an extended family within the halls of University of Pennsylvania-a second home can provide me with an academic and supportive community.

University of Pennsylvania's community of students and faculty members will guide me to build a strong foundation in mathematics, science, humanities and language-- nurturing its students to become true renaissance men and women. Distinct programs like the Bioengineering Program will allow me to satiate my curiosity for the natural world by discovering all the possibilities that it contains, whether it be by turning material waste into energy, growing bones for stem cells or finding a cure for the hiccups. The laboratories will be my playground-a glorious oasis where I can explore, hypothesize and experiment. At the School of Engineering and Applied Science, I will not only uphold a high degree of academic excellence, but also a high degree of ethical excellence.

In the future, I hope to join University of Pennsylvania's Engineers Without Borders chapter-a group that maintains a moral standard of an engineer's obligation to the public, profession and to the world. My membership will serve as a medium to my power to change the world and shape the direction of the future as an engineer. The walls of a classroom will not limit my work in engineering for I plan to use my skills to help improve the quality of life for people struggling to get access to water in Zambia or Cameroon. By joining, I will advocate and pass on the philosophy of Engineers Without Borders because UPenn will have taught me to use my education to make a difference, whether it be in a local neighborhood or in a neighborhood that is four thousand miles away. The Upenn community is not restricted by the gates of its campus or any other physical barrier; it is boundless because it lies in the spirit and actions of the students and faculty. As a part of this unique community, I will put my efforts into the service of helping others from all backgrounds: from fourth graders in West Philadelphia with the Netter Center for Community Partnerships to mothers in third-world countries with Engineers Without Borders. There is irreplaceable compassion and diversity in the community of University of Pennsylvania much like in a family.

Therefore I find UPpenn a perfect match, for I seek a home away from home, the college of my dreams, a sanctuary of higher learning, and the key to emancipate the full extent of my knowledge. It is important that I find my niche where other gifted minds see UPenn's limitless opportunities as their beacon to go above and beyond and to exceed all expectations-even their own. I have found my niche at University of Pennsylvania; it is where I belong.

Whether I am in the great lecture auditorium at UPenn or in my cozy living room, I am still not simply Common Application ID number ________. I am a young woman striving for the extraordinary, living my life without inhibitions hoping to encounter a little thing called happiness.

Undergraduate / Upenn- Page 217 Middle-aged teenager [5]

----I wrote this as writing my biography now so its in the past. I haven't reach quite one page yet so if you have any recommendations about what to add then that would be great.

OPTIONAL (Truly) <-----What a big fat lie

4. You have just completed your 300-page autobiography. Please submit page 217.

...eyes snapped open at that moment. My mother's wavering voice continued to recount how my father had collapsed at work. She frantically said, "I, I...I need to be there." An ambulance had rushed my father to Stanford Hospital at 12:40 A.M and in the same manner of the ambulance, my mother had rushed through the empty freeways to get to the emergency room.

At the age of fourteen, I understood what my mother and father needed from me now. The gravity of what had just happened seeped into me like the numbing cold of the brisk air outside. All the discussions inside locked cars about medical insurance policies and wills had prepared me for this kind of moment. I methodically unlocked the worn leather briefcase that held all of my family's important documents: birth certificates, social security cards, citizenship records. Every paper was archived where my mother said it would be all those talks ago. My father's tattered medical binder lay beneath dog-eared folders that were browned with age. It read that his birthday was on April 1st, 1945-that was a lie, a lie that he did not intentionally tell. A fugitive of the Vietnam War, my father lost many things as he immigrated from country to country, including his real birth date. He turned 70 years-old two months ago; his health is debilitated by Ménière's disease, extreme vertigo, hearing loss and a wide variety of other ailments that had come with old age. I took another look to ensure that his files were updated and accurate and put them in the overnight bag.

Logic held my feelings of concern and dread at bay. My role in the family was not to act like a panicked and immature adolescent, but a level-headed and considerate sister, daughter and caretaker. As I zipped up the duffel bag, I realized that I have been middle-aged for quite a while. I enjoy afternoon naps and the smell of Bengay ointment. My life is a fusion of two cultures and eras; my parents raised me to embrace the traditional values of a 1960's Vietnamese home although I am a child of the twenty first century.

So the forty-year-old me waited patiently for my mother to return as the fourteen-year-old me allowed one tear to escape.

Undergraduate / Cornell - The environment blurs into a sight of indistinguishable colors and shapes [10]

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences:
How have your interests and related experiences influenced your selection of major?

The environment blurs into a sight of indistinguishable colors and shapes and I can no longer identify the boundaries of my body where hot and cold sensations run interchangeably throughout; my symptoms are compounded by the unremitting presence of dull throbbing and a wide array of aches. This is not a novel experience, for I am all too familiar with catching the flu. For seventeen years, I have possessed the immune system of an infant. My personal favorite medicine was a handful of Skittles but ibuprofen worked wonders too. As a child, I wondered why one colorful round tablet did not work quite well as the other. My curiosity for seemingly trivial things has been a catalyst for my pursuit of knowledge- not to just regurgitate, but to question, comprehend, and apply.

My years in biology classes have been an epoch of wonder and fascination, but my interest for bioengineering grows from within, for I am an entire microcosm. Only under the lens of a microscope can I examine the white blood cells that rapidly run through the bloodstream during a fever or the pyrogens that rush to induce it. A world lies underneath a thin layer of tissue that I have yet to discover, observe, and study. For me, curiosity drives my quest for knowledge.

Generally knowledge is separated by the limited range of each discipline; however, bioengineering combines engineering principles with the life sciences to create a boundless and innovative field of study. It allows for independent endeavors which will give me the opportunity to capitalize on my natural aptitude for math and science by exploring the full spectrum of living systems. I will be able to delve into the natural world by discovering all the possibilities that it contains, whether it be by developing artificial organs, finding a cure for the hiccups or making great advancements in immune system therapy.

As an intellectual, the laboratory will be my playground-a glorious oasis where I can explore, hypothesize and experiment, not to satiate the curiosity of the bed-ridden, sick seven year-old girl, but to keep that little girl's inquisitiveness alive.

Undergraduate / Short answer-desire for a particular kind of learning, community, and future [2]

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.

NAME is Common Application ID number _________. I am a number. I am another application in a stack of hundreds. I can only hope and dream that double spaced 12 point font can fully portray the extent of my ambitions and essence of who I am, but only my family members- all 200 of them- know me well beyond an application number. They will tell you that I am the girl who bursts out laughing in dead silence, builds Rubens' Tube for fun, or cries when her dad eats her pet lobster. Thus, I am searching for an extended family within the University of Chicago that can provide me with an academic, supportive and quirky community. The University of Chicago's multitude of student centers and laboratories from the Reynolds Club to the Fermilab encourages me to perceive the campus as a playground for intellectuals.

The University of Chicago's Common Core requires students to build a strong foundation in math, science, humanities, and language- nurturing its students to become a true renaissance man or woman. However, the curriculum also allows for independent endeavors which gives me the opportunity to capitalize on my natural aptitude for math and science by exploring engineering. I will be able to satiate my curiosity for the natural world and to discover all the possibilities that it contains, whether it be developing the next transistor or finding a cure for hiccups. Whether I am a student at University of Chicago or at a local community college, I am still not simply Common Application ID number ________. I am a young woman striving for the extraordinary, living my life without inhibitions hoping to encounter a little thing called happiness.

Undergraduate / Common app- Elaborate on Lockheed Internship Experience [3]

In the space provided below, please elaborate on one of your activities (extracurricular, personal activities, or work experience)(150 words or fewer).

Lockheed Martin's "Gateway to Space" provided a sight of slate grey buildings that were characterized by their lack of windows punctured the clear skyline. The external appearances - steel gates, barbed wire, and security guards- suggested an austere work culture. Contrary to my first impression, the environment of my co-workers and managers fostered a cordial and educational culture that left a mark on my internship experiences.

The community of employees across the campus embraced me as an apprentice and peer. As a part of the Green Information Technology team, I took the initiative to shape a future free of pollution and energy waste by launching and promoting the use of devices that reduced carbon emissions and increased energy conservation in hundreds of computer servers. Now, the gateway serves as a reminder that my rigorous projects at Lockheed Martin introduced me to the skills, procedures, and attitudes necessary for success.