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Applicant Context

GPA 3.9/4.0

SAT 1580/1600

Demographics Female, White, Upstate New York, Middle-Income

Hooks Legacy

Notable admissions MIT, Princeton, Stanford

Essay

Common App (topic of your choice)

Go backpacking with friends. Run a five-minute mile. Create a startup that impacts 100,000 lives. Own 20 pairs of funky socks. Filled with wacky, serious, and often unconventional goals, my bucket list is an extension of my wacky, serious, and often unconventional life.

My bucket list is dear to me because it has followed me throughout my entire life and helped shape my current passions - computer science, adventure travel, and running. I have a reputation as a STEM-focused person, but that isn’t entirely who I am. I strive to explore the world, learn from others, and use technology to make an impact on people’s lives.

When I was young, one of my friends had just come back from visiting his family in Shanghai, bringing back fascinating stories and showing me pictures of people practicing tai chi with the fastest in the world Shangai Maglev train in the background. China felt like such a far-off land with an entirely different culture - I immediately became mesmerized. I dreamed of one day going to China and immersing myself in local life. I scribbled “travel to China” on a blank sheet of paper, hung it up in my room, and thus my bucket list was born.

Thanks to my rational personality, my bucket list provides focus in my life. When I put something on it I absolutely need to achieve it, or else I feel my life is slowing down. I started learning Mandarin in school, and several years later I received a scholarship from the Chinese government to go to China. During the month in China I absorbed every second of the experience, talking with strangers on the street, bargaining with vendors and making friends that I hold dear to this day. Now I speak Mandarin with a strong Jilin accent and can cook a mean batch of soup dumplings. On the other side of the world, in remote Changchun, I felt happy and exhilarated being completely out of my comfort zone - even when making a speech in Mandarin in front of hundreds of native speakers during the program’s opening and closing ceremonies.

Whatever I put on my list, I strive to complete to perfection. Not just learning to solve a Rubik’s cube, but solving it in under a minute. Not just buying a 3D printer, but building my own from scratch. Not just taking pretty pictures of the Grand Canyon, but running to the Colorado River and back in one day.

Throughout middle and high school, my bucket list led me on adventures that I could only dream about before. I expanded my horizons by traveling to 43 different countries, got lost in the middle of medieval Tangier and shared the trek up Mount Fuji with thousands of locals. My STEM adventures have led me to teaching myself how to code everything from a mobile app to an Amazon Alexa, pulling all-nighters at hackathons and creating tools to help everyone from my classmates to Alzheimer’s patients. And my adventures in athletics resulted in my second family, sharing jokes on long runs while holding each other responsible for keeping up our team’s undefeated streak.

But what’s more important than what I have done is what I have learned. Some hard skills - computer science, speaking Mandarin, running a 5:15-minute mile. Some soft skills - not being afraid to connect with a stranger, leading a software development group, pushing my physical limits.

Life is about new experiences and learning. My bucket list is my own way of pursuing a variety of interests, pushing myself out of my comfort zone while embracing life to the fullest. I’m currently saving up for a backpacking trip this summer to circumnavigate the globe. Know anyone who's interested? In the meantime, I’m going to get more funky socks.

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