Undergraduate / 'memorabilia items' - Why is the University of Chicago a good match for me? [8]

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.

For my personal preference, I want an education in an encouraging and versatile community as I believe that that is how good learning comes about. It is because the community members of the University of Chicago are willing to listen and accept new ideas that the university has become the outstanding place it is now. Unity is imperative to the improvement of any type of educational facility and work environment. A second aspect of the educational style that I learn best in lies in that visual learning must be present because I myself use pictures as vivid reminders of the information that is absorbed. I find it to be a very helpful aid in classes such as biology, where the processes of DNA replication and digestion need to be memorized and in chemistry with the continuing onset of many types of formulas such as the pressure law of PV=nRT.

Keeping my perspectives in mind, I used my hopes and thoughts as a means to control how I knew how I would feel with a college and how I would actually feel once I saw it for myself. I found the campus situated in the rich surroundings of Chicago and saw that it also retained the peace of studying that was needed by the providence of luscious trees. Walking around, I found a glorious look into one of the local bookstores on campus; while there, I picked up a valuable piece of research in that it offered a complete version of the letters exchanged between Thomas Jefferson and his wife in the years of their marriage. This was one of the greatest memorabilia items I took with me as I treasured the words on the page with a different sense of pride and happiness: this was the first piece of literature that I had purchased off of campus.

After wandering back to the main hall, there was a campus tour conducted and I got to see the real reactions of students who were busy studying for their respective classes. Not only were they concentrated on their work, they were also focused on keeping their composure together. They kept themselves occupied and this showed me how much self-control University of Chicago students maintain. They know when to study and when to be a little crazier; the balance of necessary elements is then very apparent. Balance is a great aspect of the community, an aspect echoed in the maintenance of the core curriculum that is present. Students must take a humanities course, math courses, science courses, history and a foreign language, no matter what major they have. This gives the students a chance to explore a verisimilitude of different subjects, all carrying their own implications. This balance interests me in addition to the campus and the student life available on campus; I believe that this makes the University of Chicago a good school for me.

Undergraduate / Northwestern Common Application Supplement: Why Engineering is a Hobby of Mine [3]

What are the unique qualities of Northwestern - and of the specific undergraduate school to which you are applying - that make you want to attend the University? In what ways do you hope to take advantage of the qualities you have identified?

Engineering has always been a passion of mine. From my childhood experiences with my grandparents, I learned how to construct simple structures such as miniature buildings and scale models of smaller animals. These models were measured in a precise manner and tested against realistic obstacles to observe its subsequent durability. In the years following, I realized that I could apply what I had experienced to problems that occurred in real-life; the emphasis of this application would be on helping the people to survive from natural disasters.

Although this environmental engineering aspect did interest me, I found my real interest several years later, in my high school biology course. Biomedical engineering involves key factors of both engineering and medicine and is my major as a result of the encouragement of my freshman year biology teacher. Mrs. Cohen was very supportive of my projects that I constructed within her class and so, she recommended that I join the robotics club within my school. She believed that it was a great place for me to continue developing the ideas that I had.

After participating on the robotics team for three years, I found that she was right in her recommendations as I discovered that there were many applications of mechanics in robotics in the field of medicine. In order to test out medicines before human consumption, test subjects need to be used as guinea pigs. These test subjects need to be treated with fairness and with dignity. In many cases of testing, this equality is not given. This is why I suggest that artificial life forms such as bots need to be used more often; if used, poor and innocent mice would be saved from a very cruel fate of harmful side effects. The bots could be designed to reflect the types of reactions that would ensue from testing on a living subject. Quite possibly, the minimal weakness of using this testing method would be that the bot is not going to show every possible side effect that can occur from using the product; then again, no test subject can ever show every side effect as most side effects are not revealed until humans begin to consume the product.

Another way in which bots and technology could be used in medicine is to have more advanced technological programs to increase the accuracy of the overall findings. As there is always an error within experimentation as nothing is perfect, the possibility of error is going to be slightly diminished if the technology used is made to reflect the least amount of error that is possible for the object. If it is attempted to better the types of resources used, billions of dollars could be saved from resolving one type of error.

At Northwestern, I believe that my ideas for the field of biomedical engineering can be recognized based on the impressive types of resources given to undergraduates. The laboratory materials are complete, the professors are state-of-the-art and the principles of engineering are one of a kind. The undergraduates, especially, are given the care and guidance they deserve as the faculty complete research projects with the undergraduates alongside to participate. Take, for instance, Professor Daniel C. Batlle; he has been conducting research on the regulation and growths of kidney cells. In carrying out his experimentation, he took time to explain the processes behind why the experimentation was possible and this made the undergraduates understand what type of research he was conducting. This close relationship between faculties supports my view that learning occurs best when adults include their younger counterparts as well. Northwestern is therefore the place for me.

Undergraduate / Florida State University Admission Essay- How Vires Defines My Life [4]

For almost one hundred years, the Latin words, "Vires, Artes, Mores" have been the guiding philosophy behind Florida State University. Vires signifies strength of all kinds - moral, physical, and intellectual; Artes alludes to the beauty of intellectual pursuits as exemplified in skill, craft, or art; and Mores refers to character, custom, or tradition. Describe how one or more of the values embodied in these concepts are reflected in your life.

As a student, I use the intellectual strength that Vires defines to learn new information in a unique manner. I believe that the mind is created to be able to think beyond boundaries and the more that a person uses their own intellectually developed strength, the more easily those boundaries can be overstepped. Incredible discoveries and realizations can make the impossible seem more realistic and overall probable. It is because of my own outlook on learning that I personally feel that my intellectual strengths are best used. When I was one year old, I lived with my grandparents in China. Because my grandfather was a professor, his library of Chinese literature as well as history was extensive. Despite my narrow understanding of the language, I loved being able to browse through all the different types of books present. It was my favorite part of the entire day, when I would actually be allowed to go into his study. Every night, my grandfather would read one story to me and I would then be entranced, captivated for the rest of the night, my mind filled by the vivid images of life that the story would help detail. From those experiences, I developed a love for education and the written language that I have carried on with me through my high school years.

In order to continue the spirit of learning that I grew up with, I participate in my school's academic decathlon, Quiz Bowl. This is a fascinating competition as it involves fun and quirky facts about information associated with the areas of social studies, mathematics, science, the humanities, and english. Not only do I gain information about the chemical properties of elements such as tungsten and chlorine, I also get to learn that Odin was the father of all gods in Norse mythology and controlled the famous land of Valhalla. There are so many things that I can gain from participating in just one match of this competition and if I receive the opportunity, I will absolutely continue this at Florida State University because I consider that the act of learning persists no matter where I am as I can learn about the world around me or about worlds that I might never actually see or know. This is what the value of learning holds for me as I understand that there is so much knowledge that I can gain about the world.