Undergraduate / fantastic academic programs - Stanford Essay-Why Stanford? [4]

What makes Stanford a Good Place for You?

I feel that Stanford's fantastic academic programs will help me determine what I would like to do for the rest of my life. Currently, I'm struggling with the decision of majoring in either electrical engineering or physics. This decision would be easily made if I were to attend Stanford: I could pursue studies in engineering physics. Although many other top-tier universities offer curriculum in engineering physics, like Cornell, Stanford's program stands out as the best match for me. Stanford's major encompasses nanotechnology, a discipline of physics and engineering that interests me greatly, one which I am considering as a potential career path. Also, as a person that has never participated in any sort of formal, scientific research, I would take advantage of Stanford's supportive, undergraduate research opportunities, especially those in nanotechnology or nanoscience, if available. Formal research has intrigued me for quite some time, and Stanford's support help me fulfill this desire, whether that means allowing me to join a faculty member's research group, or supporting me in independent research projects.

While Stanford's academic programs are the university's biggest attractions for me, I also really like how Stanford has Division-I athletic teams. Although I'm no athlete myself, I always enjoy watching a good football game. More importantly, however, about Stanford's athletics program, is the close-together community feeling it fosters. Coming from a graduating high school class of two hundred fifty, I like being a part of a tight-knit community. Attending the Big Game and other significant sporting events, that most of Stanford's students attend, will bring this feeling back to me, even though Stanford's average class size is much larger than a quarter thousand.

Undergraduate / Stanford-Tutoring the Tudors-Intellectual Vitality [4]

Stanford-Tutoring the Tudors-Intellectual Vitality

Hello forum members:

"Stanford students are widely known to possess a sense of intellectual vitality. Tell us about an idea or an experience you have had that you find intellectually engaging."

When the phrase "intellectually engaging" enters my brain, my mind doesn't jump towards a challenging calculus test, my favorite book, or Wikipedia.com. Instead, it looks at tutoring. Tutoring means much more to me than giving up three hours out of my week and making a nice forty dollars. It offers an experience and skill few high school students have: the ability to teach others.

I was nervous when I received my first tutoring gig as a junior for pre-calculus. Granted, I was talented at math, but had virtually no knowledge pertaining to vectors, matrices, and the dreadful polar coordinates. As my pupil and I sat down, he stated he needed help understanding Descartes' Law of Signs, a rule I had never heard of before. Wanting to appear as professional as possible, I rapidly flipped the pages of his textbook and swiftly analyzed and absorbed this mystic Descartes' Law of Signs.

This in and of itself was an intellectual feat: learning an entirely new concept under the pressure of a client looking over my shoulder and expecting help. But this was the easy part. The real challenge was then synthesizing the information in such a way that my pupil would understand and fully grasp the concept. Doing so was not only dependent on my clarity, creativeness, and ability in explaining things, but also on my student's attentiveness and willingness to understand the ideas. I ended up being successful in helping my student understand Descartes' Law, and he later improved his grade to an "A" in pre-calculus.

While my experience in tutoring has bred skills like thinking on my toes and creativeness in communicating and explaining ideas, I do not feel that those qualities are the most important products. Rather, tutoring helped me learn patience. I can control how I process and learn information or how I describe a theorem to my student. However, I was never able to affect my student's attitude, or desire to learn. This is what taught me patience, that, no matter how frustrated or disinterested my student became in learning something new, I would remain calm and steadfast in my efforts.

Undergraduate / "I love all things physics" - Stanford-Intellectual Vitality Essay [3]

Hello all. To be honest, I'm not quite sure how I feel about this essay yet, so it would be awesome if someone could review it and provide me feedback on the substance and flow of the essay. I do expect to have to go back, cut stuff out, and reemphasize certain ideas. Thanks in advance!

Stanford students are wideley known to possess a sense of intellectual vitality. Tell us about an idea or an experience you have had that you find intellectually engaging:

To put it simply, I love all things physics. To me, the science is much more than the underlying theory of engineering or a means of calculating the time it takes to obtain groceries given values initial velocity, constant acceleration, and distance between the two points. In cliché terms, physics is a way of life, a worldview.

One can become a physics guru without having taken anything from it. If one possesses a strong background in math and problem-solving, calculating the tension in a string required to hold up a sign is easier than walking one's dog.

It is sort of cheesy to say that physics almost takes on a religious significance in my mind. Knowing that every person on Earth is composed of ninety-two naturally occurring elements and affected by the same laws of gravity and motion has made me realize one important truth: everything on this planet and in the universe is connected with one another, everything is one. I have simply "front[ed] the essential facts of life," as Thoreau did: relationships and passion, physics in my case.

Undergraduate / Stanford Roommate Essay-One of the weirdest things you may read [8]

What would you want your future roommate to know about you? Tell us something about yourself that will make your future roommate-and us-get to know you better.

I want my roommate to understand (and hopefully like!) the paradoxical nature of myself. This topic is very cliché, yet I feel that writing about the contradictory facets of my life will reveal the most significant qualities about myself. Here goes everything:

A former hypochondriac, videogame enthusiast, and amateur partier, I may be one of the most interesting combination of qualities and interests that has graced the face of this Earth. Not really of course, but I sometimes like to think of myself like that. I occasionally feel proud, and sometimes arrogant of this fact, that me, a top gun, high school scholar, defies so many of the "archetypal" nerd qualities. Yes, I enjoy studying quantum mechanics and famous dictators, so I will never be able to escape the often negatively-connotative geek or nerd title.

However, while I'm studying multivariable calculus or writing my college essays like any "scholar" would normally be doing, I'm oftentimes distracted by other things. Instead of asking myself, "What should I do to find the derivative of this three-dimensional function?" I may internally inquire, "Are there any parties going on tonight?" While hopelessly trying to raise my kill to death ratio in Call of Duty, I'm simultaneously concocting a scheme to woo a girl I'm interested in (said girl changes about once every two weeks).

After little reflection, I've come to the conclusion that in defying my geek stereotype, I've developed a unique code or personality. I feel no obligation to conform to anything: I refuse to like the hip-hop music my friends listen to, often disagree with my friends' political or religious ideas, and am never afraid to let my frank opinion be heard. Future roommate-consider me on the whole, not on my "groupings."

Undergraduate / A Quantum Amateur-MIT World Essay [2]

Hello all, this is my first essay revision request. If you read my work, please provide feedback regarding the essay's ideas and form. Thanks in advance!

Describe the world you come from; for example, your family, clubs,school,community,city, or town. How has that world shaped your dreams and aspirations?(*) (200-250 words)

Mr. Lemei has been one of the biggest influences on the way I think and learn. He is my favorite teacher and one of the most kind, interesting people I have ever known.

Even the driest topics of AP Physics sprung to life as Mr. Lemei lectured about them. To be fair, I had maintained a strong interest in physics before enrolling in his course, but the theories and ideas he talked about fascinated me profoundly. Quantum mechanics stood out the most among the topics covered in class, so much as to spur me to study the field independently. As I continued gorging my head with knowledge, I would often visit Mr. Lemei and flood him with questions. What is the minimum observation required for a wave function to collapse? When do you think there will be a breakthrough in quantum computing? Can I get a job in quantum computing? Never falling back on his patience, Mr. Lemei answered all of my questions and was even so kind as to lend me two of his own books on quantum theory.

Reflecting on my experiences with Mr. Lemei, I now realize that he gave me much more than an excited curiosity about physics. I feel that the resources Mr. Lemei provided for me and his profound knowledge encouraged me to further my studies on the whole. He made me understand that, no matter what I study and college and whatever profession I end up in, I can transcend those limitations to knowledge by educating myself on anything.