Some general notes that applied to my college apps.

read more 


College acceptance rates

Cal Tech 12.02%
Carnegie mellon 30%
Columbia 6.9%
Cornell 17.95%
Duke 12.59% 
Harvard 6.17%
MIT 9.58%
NYU 25.64%
Princeton 8.39%
Stanford 7.07%
University of Chicago 15.83%
UNC 29.36%
U Pen 12.26%



What needs to be done for deferred colleges

Cal Tech and Columbia need to be sent updates on my current situation. 

All I need to do for this is look at version 1 of the common app and go from there as it should have any major updates listed. They need to know, for instance, that I've signed up for Multivariable Calculus and Discrete Mathematics at UNC. å

They need to know that I got an 'A' in both Calculus and Chemistry at UNC. 

Tell Cal Tech about how I've read Feynman's books and he always spoke very highly about the place. He chose it over Uchicago unconditionally, and he was in something of a bidding war between Cal Tech and Cornell. I thought it was funny that his first year teaching there was actually a paid trip to Brazil for a year. Send them a PDF with details about my SVSM project. Thank the woman for calling to speak with me. 

Make sure that they have all of my supplement materials;  my Greensboro transcript, my UNC transcript, etc. 

Tell Columbia how much I love Brian Green and how I have since I was younger. I've always been fascinated and intimidated by Physics. He's been my idol since I was in 5th grade; he's the Carl Sagan of my generation. He brings physics to the laymen, and it's only because he did so that I decided I wanted to know more.

Perhaps a letter of rec from Jake Fowler, taught me at UNC. 

Perhaps Ms. Ogorman can email them asking for information as to why I was deferred. 


General Statements that may be able to be used
 
One great thing about science is that the conflicts of ideologies aren't resolved with weapons and warfare but reason and rationality. In fact, rather than causing a temporary stagnation of progress, conflicts in science promote advancement as their resolution and the disproving of one thing or another is in the best interest of the entire community for they are all united in one regard: to uncover the truth about reality.


I'm not living life just to get through it, just to have work run over me. I'm living to embrace it. I'm living to understand it.


In regards to mathematics. 
I just want to know it all and experience it my own way but I can't so it's like having a need I'll never satiate. Maybe that's good, too: I want to learn everything I can and at the same time I know I can't and while having an unattainable goal is discouraging, knowing that there will always be something else there waiting for me to take on is enthralling.

I got kind of overwhelmed today in Cal 2 because we went from talking about the types of numbers (complex, rational, irrational, etc) to fucking L'Hospitals rule and although there was a great segue I just felt like we hadn't dedicated nearly enough thought and analysis to the numbers. I wanted to think a lot more about e and pi and what their nature is but I was rushed


Why do what you know you can do? 

I try the things I’m not sure I can do. 


Even the smartest people can be corrupted by extrinsic motivators. 

True leadership and ingenuity can really require isolation. 

I want to go to your college because I think t


I’m going to do what I’m going to do. I’m going to continue to explore for the rest of my life, regardless of where I go to college. However, your college will be most conducive to this exploration. I need students who are interested, and engaged. I need students who question things like I do. Students that are going to test a formula before testing it. I need remarkable a,nd engaged teachers who are going to be willing to take the time to talk to me and have me explain what I come up with. I don’t want to be the only one enlightening others with insights, I want others to enlighten me. So far in my life, it’s always been one sided. I’ve been the one thinking about Math in a new way, testing the boundaries of a concept, thinking of the practical applications. I want to work together with people like me, people that really care about the basis of the topic and not the superficial stuff like formulae. I want to be with people that can  explain a formula with words, like me. That can explain why it works. That’s the most important question which all of science is directed to answering: why does it work? 

One thing about me is that I’m different. I don’t hear a concept and think of the application. I look at something and I see it as the application of a multitude of concepts.  I’ll see the one touch passing drill in soccer as a dynamical system. This makes life so much more beautiful and connected. Some find pleasure in the motifs, language, and metaphors in English, I find the motifs and metaphors in everyday experience. 


I type in Dvorak. It’s the little refined things about people that I find really interesting. I love seeing someone’s development. Why someone does something the way they do. How they came to the point they are now. 

I took 5 years of piano lessons. 

Students perceive busy work as a space to fill rather than a question asked. If they are assigned the work, and it is expected to be completed, they have a tendency to have it lose its meaning. 


One of the things I like about typing in Dvorak 

I originally switched to typing in Dvorak to increase my potential words per minute and efficiency. But, one of the small things I relish in is seeing the look on people’s faces in response to looking down at the keys when they commandeer my computer. 

I’m going to do what I’m going to do. I’m going to continue to explore for the rest of my life, regardless of where I go to college. However, your college will be most conducive to this exploration. I need students who are interested, and engaged. I need students who question things like I do. Students that are going to test a formula before testing it. I need remarkable and engaged teachers who are going to be willing to take the time to talk to me and have me explain what I come up with. I don’t want to be the only one enlightening others with insights, I want others to enlighten me. So far in my life, it’s always been one sided. I’ve been the one thinking about Math in a new way, testing the boundaries of a concept, thinking of the practical applications. I want to work together with people like me, people that really care about the basis of the topic and not the superficial stuff like formulae. I want to be with people that can  explain a formula with words, like me. That can explain why it works. That’s the most important question which all of science is directed to answering: why does it work? 

One thing about me is that I’m different. I don’t hear a concept and think of the application. I look at something and I see it as the application of a multitude of concepts.  I’ll see the one touch passing drill in soccer as a dynamical system. This makes life so much more beautiful and connected. Some find pleasure in the motifs, language, and metaphors in English, I find the motifs and metaphors in everyday experience. 


I type in Dvorak. It’s the little refined things about people that I find really interesting. I love seeing someone’s development. Why someone does something the way they do. How they came to the point they are now. 

I took 5 years of piano lessons. 

Students perceive busy work as a space to fill rather than a question asked. If they are assigned the work, and it is expected to be completed, they have a tendency to have it lose its meaning. 


One of the things I like about typing in Dvorak 

I originally switched to typing in Dvorak to increase my potential words per minute and efficiency. But, one of the small things I relish in is seeing the look on people’s faces in response to looking down at the keys when they commandeer my computer.