<p>Both MIT and the UC system have this same exact prompt (probably to help us recycle essays):</p>
<p>Describe the world you come from for example, your family, community or school and tell us how your world has shaped your dreams and aspirations. </p>
<p>But I have no clue as to what that means... </p>
<p>should I pick one "world" (either family or community or etc.)?
or do all of these combined (family+comm.+etc.) constitute the "world" that I should describe?</p>
<p>I'd pick one aspect of "my world" - it could be anything, from a sister to a sport to a TV show I watch everyday - and tell how it has "shaped" me as a person.</p>
<p>(geeky) ex: watched Star Trek as a kid, really loved it, wanted to learn to make matter transporter, enrolled in computer science/engineering classes, discovered passion for physics.</p>
<p>The prompt is what you make of it. </p>
<p>EDIT: Don't assume your answer has to be directly college related - you don't have to talk about your passion for physics :)</p>
<p>I think it's meant to be cryptic and broad so they don't get a whole bunch of people writing about the same topic. I get the feeling that you're free to define "your world" has however you want--international, nation, community, or household.</p>
<p>I think they are intentionally making the question as broad as possible so they get a variety of responses. I would interpret it as them asking about the place in which you developed. As they say, a knowledge of history is essential to a knowledge of the present, so they want to know where you came from, be it literally or simply emotionally or environmentally to better understand who you are today.</p>