Undergraduate / Palazzio Vecchio - Carnegie Mellon Supplement [12]

List the books (if any) you've read this year for pleasure. Choose one and in a sentence describe its impact on you. (Limit 500 words)

1) Inferno by Dan Brown, 2) Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 3) Intelligent Investor by Ben Graham 4) Artemis Fowl: The Last Guardian by Eoin Colfer

Pacing through Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy, Robert Langdon is immersed in centuries of magnificent artwork, the culmination of the Renaissance in Italy. However he isn't here for leisure, he's on a mission to find the clue hidden in the Dante's mask, in order to save the world. Easy to get lost in the enormous collection of art, a precise plan of action is necessary to reach his goal of avoiding Inferno. (Dan Brown)

Robert Langdon is a Harvard Professor of symbology, who is tasked with piecing together various symbols in Italy in order to find and suppress a contagion. By definition, a symbol stands to represent something else, through some form of deeper meaning. Frantically travelling from art museums and the Palazzo Vecchio in Italy to the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, some of the finest pieces of art are explored, such as Lorenzo Ghiberti's Gates to Heaven. The twist however, is that from all of the art Langdon encounters, he must put himself in the mind of the perpetrator and properly choose with specific works of art have the clues hidden in them.

Similar to Langdon in Inferno, I am drawn to Carnegie Mellon because I will be offered a vast amount of opportunities and numerous potential paths to take, of which I have to take the right one in order to reach my ultimate goal of succeeding on Wall Street. Carnegie Mellon is the Palazzo Vecchio, and I am Robert Langdon. However, my Dante's mask is a diploma from Carnegie Mellon.

Undergraduate / Carnegie Mellon Supplement - particular major(s), department(s) or program(s) [5]

Prompt: Please submit a one page, single-spaced essay that explains why you have chosen Carnegie Mellon and your particular major(s), department(s) or program(s). This essay should include the reasons why you've chosen the major(s), any goals or relevant work plans and any other information you would like us to know. If you are applying to more than one college or program, please mention each college or program to which you are applying.

Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance!

Although the aesthetic beauties of Carnegie Mellon first caught my eye, it was the wealth of research opportunities and esteemed undergraduate programs that fueled my desire to one day become a Tartan. A selling point was the small class sizes, increasing my chances to interact with professors and to take full advantage of opportunities provided to succeed.

Economics and finance are my academic interests. My ultimate goal is to break into the finance industry, and I feel that studying at Carnegie Mellon provides me with the tools and the best chance of doing so. The business world is fast-paced and unpredictable. While this is a burden and a drawback to some, this environment is what I work best in. Whether it may be making a play in crunch time for volleyball, or scrambling to integrate a function for calculus, high pressure situations drive me to new heights. My interest in the stock market was sparked in fifth grade when the entire class was entered into a stock market competition. Although I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, the idea of making money based off of numbers going up and down on a computer screen intrigued my ten year old mind. Seven years, countless books read by famous investors, and numerous stock market simulation games later, I have had success making virtual money, but offered an opportunity to be part of CMU, I visualize myself being mentored by one the many successful alumni, turning virtual profit into real profit. My plan to further explore my interests is centered around taking full advantage of the opportunities afforded to me by being located near major corporations and banks, such as PNC, by means of summer internships.

Dietrich is a perfect match for those interests because it offers me an economics degree jointly offered by the Tepper School of Business and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. This is truly a unique opportunity, as most schools only open up their respective business schools to exclusive students. Thus, I feel that Carnegie Mellon would provide me access to a more extensive database of resources. This will greatly enhance my education there. Moreover, the interdisciplinary nature of the economics program at Carnegie Mellon appeals to me because it will not restrict the development of my other interests, instead allowing me to integrate them to enhance my overall education. With a strong foundation in the liberal arts and the freedom of the creative Dietrich College as well as the excellent research resources and innovation of the Tepper School of Business, I will receive a world-class education.

After finding success at Carnegie Mellon, it would be an honor to become part of that alumni force. Before pounding the pavement on Wall Street, I want to leave my footprints on the campus of Carnegie Mellon.

Undergraduate / As I walk on to the basketball court, my friends yell "Nowitzki"- Michigan Supplement [3]

Prompt: Everyone belongs to many different communities and/or groups defined by (among other things) shared geography, religion, ethnicity, income, cuisine, interest, race, ideology, or intellectual heritage. Choose one of the communities to which you belong, and describe that community and your place within it.

Rusty old weights in the gym; only one basketball court almost always taken up by nine year olds wearing 300 dollar shoes, or what I call the unemployed crew; the group of ten 25 year olds that are somehow on the court the entire day forms the daily scene of my favorite community. Problems aside, I wouldn't have it any other way; the YMCA is like my second home. The employees are so familiar with me that I no longer have to check in at the front desk.

As I walk on to the basketball court, my friends yell "Nowitzki", but they're not hailing the power forward of the Dallas Mavericks, they are speaking to me. We all refer to each other by the names of NBA players whose style of play we resemble. Being 6'4, lanky, and unorthodox in my playing style, I have earned Dirk Nowitzki's name. I shoot mostly jump shots rather than playing close the basket, as most tall players traditionally do. This allows me to take advantage of my most valuable asset as a player-my height. Learning to take advantage of the resources available makes me not only a valuable player on a basketball team, but an asset to any group to which I belong. As a member of the student body at Michigan, I'm part of a huge team. A willingness to think outside the box and an understanding of how to use resources to their best advantage will allow me to add to the richness of the community at the University of Michigan.

Undergraduate / I finished opening my last present; UVa College of Arts and Sciences Essay [3]

Prompt: What work of art, music, science, mathematics, or literature has surprised, unsettled, or challenged you, and in what way?

It was Christmas morning, 2004, and I finished opening my last present. Inside was the coolest gadget of all time, a big blue Sony Walkman CD player. One problem though: at that point I wasn't much of a music fan at the time, so I had no clue what to listen to. Somehow reaching the conclusion that listening to rock music would make me cool at school, I bought the CD "American Idiot' by the band Green Day based on the recommendation of the sales rep at Target. I quickly rushed home, ripped apart the wrapping, and popped the CD into my Walkman.

The first song to play was American Idiot. For a few seconds I liked it, but in the next half minute, the worst thing that could happen to a nine year old actually did happen... Billie Joe Armstrong said the F-word! After months of saying phrases like "H-E- double hockey stick (two L's)" on the playground to parody curse words, I heard my first curse word, and the panic set in. What if my mom found out what I was listening to? Instead of finding out what would happen, I was challenged to make the first big decision of my young life: I snapped the CD and threw it away. In the end, the 'cool' phase of listening to music lasted a whole 28 seconds. Recalling that moment, I laugh at how one word in a song disturbed me so much I destroyed the entire CD.

Being wary about an idea or an action no longer affects my overall judgment of the work in question. The song, just like people or ideas, has to be judged on its overall intrinsic value rather than the one thing that made me uncomfortable.

Undergraduate / My Big Discovery- UVa Supp/ Stilling moment [7]

Prompt: In 2006, graduate student Robert Stilling discovered an unpublished poem by Robert Frost while doing research in U.Va.'s Small Collections Library. Where will your Stilling moment be in college?

My Stilling moment will be late night in my dorm, Dr. Pepper in hand to keep me awake because I can't drink coffee, endlessly scrolling between Yahoo Finance and MSN Money for financial information on a potential company to invest in. Finding a breakout stock is no easy matter, so that final moment of discovery will be the culmination of countless nights of research. Sleep deprived, red, itchy eyes, unwilling to leave the computer is an accurate description of me most nights when looking for the next big stock. My interest in the stock market was sparked in fifth grade when the entire class was entered into a stock market competition. Although I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, the idea of making money based off of numbers going up and down on a computer intrigued my ten year old mind. Most Indian parents tell their kids to be either a doctor or engineer, but from that point on I knew I wanted to work in the finance industry. Seven years, countless books read by famous investors, and numerous stock market simulation games later, I have had success in making money, but never in real life. For that reason, my adaptation of Robert Stilling finding the Frost Poem will be turning a real profit. Although my moment will not be as well-known as Stilling's discovery, it will be one of that comes with huge personal satisfaction because it will be my self-validation that my future is somewhere on Wall Street.