<p>Here are some of the essays I submitted. (I know there are structure, grammar, clarity errors, etc but I had to do 8000 words in essays on my own in about 4 days)</p>
<p>An application to MIT is much more than a set of test scores, grades and activities. It's often a reflection of an applicant's dreams and aspirations, dreams shaped by the worlds we inhabit. We'd like to know a bit more about your world. 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? 500</p>
<p>If anything, my family and community have only made it harder to choose a dream. With each new encounter comes knowledge; from knowledge come interest; from interest comes aspiration.<br>
I can honestly say that my dream has changed quite frequently. As a child, I found a litter of abandoned kittens at my old apartment, which my parents let me keep for a while. I found the kittens to be so much fun that I desired to be a veterinarian, but as indecisive as a kid at a candy store my dream changed. Starting with my fifth grade class, my newfound interest became Astronomy. Having just watched a comet, learned about black holes, and viewed a Discovery channel episode on the universe, astronomy was my new thing. Shortly thereafter, I played the game GoldenEye on Nintendo 64, which brought me to a new obsession; I had to be a video game designer, and like a creature of habit my aspirations changed once again. Not to say I lost interest in any of these areas, but the world is so grand and my mind was soaking everything in with a ravenous appetite that I couldnt focus on only one thing. This time, my inspiration came from television show, Rurouni Kenshin. No, I did not want to be a samurai in Japans Edo era; I wanted to animate and create amazing worlds filled with interesting characters. I set out to become an animator, and did so successfully. Using Macromedia Flash (I love this program), I remade a short movie based on Monty Python and the Holy Graila favorite comedy of mine. I entered my short in a school competition, and won first place, but alas the computer I saved the movie on was reformatted before I could extract my masterpiece. Logically for me, my next passion became Architecture. Ever since I started drawing the images on my ABC blocks as a child, I have enjoyed drawing as a pastime, thus I had to have a dream that included it, and Architecture incorporated my passions math and science with art quite nicely like peanut butter and jelly. Frank Lloyd Wrights works intrigued me with their sensibility and beauty. In art class, I attempted to create my own Falling Water, and I learned just how difficult it was to follow Organic Architecture, but it was not a total failure because I learned.<br>
Now we come to the present and I am still no nearer to selecting a goal, and it is partially due to my uncle Chema. He could be described as scholarly man, and as a child, he brought to me new ideas and interests. My first telescope came from him, and so did my initial interest in Astronomy. He often lectured me on the stock market, which proved to be usefulI could finally cross one item off of my list of interests. I lacked interest in money; for me, knowledge is worth far more. The worst part is that my parents have been of little help in choosing my goal because they have supported me in everything I do, and continue to do so. As it stands, my new aspiration is to learn everything I can until I find something that I can happily devote myself to.</p>
<p>Tell us about something that you have created. This can be, for example, a design, a device, an object, an idea or concept, a piece of music or art. 500</p>
<pre><code>M. C. Escher has recently become one of my favorite artists. While in art class in my junior year, I wanted to study optical illusion art. Mr. Arnie, my eccentric and helpful art teacher, recommended that I study M. C. Escher. I had never heard of his name before, but the moment I saw some of his work I remembered seeing it. I continued to look through some of his artwork such as his Circle Limit works, Drawing Hands, Ascending and Descending, Hand with Reflecting Sphere, and Eye, which is one of his only mezzotint worksMezzotint is an extremely difficult and laborious method of creating rich black and gray shades.
After a few days of studying his pieces, I decided that I would create an original drawing a la Escher. After several days of trying to create a tessellation that looked good and worked, I decided to switch to something else. I remember staying up for a few hours each day trying to think of a piece, and finally I settled on an idea. I decided to draw a picture of a hand drawing my frustrated image whose pencil is tapping on the paper from lack of ideas at my desk, which would be similar to Drawing Hands.
The drawings details were as such. A hand with a pencil was to be in the bottom right of the work, with a piece of paper that it was drawing on. In the piece of paper in my work was a self portrait of me with my brows furrowed, eyes closed, with my left hand massaging the left side of my face expressing weariness and frustration, which was further shown by my right hand in the mid-bottom left of the work that had point marks from the tapping of my self portraits pencil. The light source was a single desk light situated on the top left of the work outside of the paper inside the work, but the shading for paper inside my work as well as the drawing hand came from the desk light, which combined the images into one and created a minor optical illusion.
Days passed, but I finally completed the work. I brought it to Mr. Arnie to critique and improve, edited it, and submitted my piece. I was proud of it because it was anatomically correct, was shaded well, and was my original work. Well the idea was mine, but Escher did influenced me.
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<p>"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when one contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries to comprehend only a little of this mystery every day." - Albert Einstein
Write about a personal experience or an aspect of the world that has engaged your curiosity or inspired awe in you. 250</p>
<pre><code>Every time I read an article, glance at a photograph, or learn about it I am awed. Some people may disagree, but I find space to be beautiful; when I glance at the universe through a telescope or a picture I cannot help but feel like I am in an art museum. Galaxies, stars, and all other objects appear similar to a painting, and yet these immense bodies are frigid, dense, incredibly fast moving, toxic, radioactive, and somewhat hazardous to life in general. I find it fascinating that something so dangerous can be so appealing to the eye much like the beautiful and poisonous White Oleander.
I remember the first time I gazed into the magical lens of my uncles telescope as a child. It was blurry, but after some adjustments and cleaning I could see the moon, and some stars much better than ever before. Though it seemed only like minutes, I spent a few hours just staring at the sky and playing with the wonderful instrument. The following day, I recall looking for every book I could find that dealt with stars, planet, and the universe. As I opened one book, I remember the first words I read: Black Holes. I was thinking, How can a hole have color? As I read further, I soaked in new and absurd ideas. The sentences Light cannot escape it and it is infinitely dense and infinitely small, sounded so preposterous that they kept me interested. Ever since then, my mind has been inexplicably drawn to seemingly impossible ideas and confusing topics.
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