<p>Any comments/feedback would be appreciated.
Names have been changed for anonymity.</p>
<p>There are limitations to what grades, scores and recommendations can tell us about a candidate. Write a personal essay on a topic of your choice that will help the Admissions Committee to know you better.</p>
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<p>Let me be brutally honest; I am probably not Yale material. In high school I studied hard not because I was passionate about learning, but because I craved the praise from family and friends. I was in myriad orchestral groups not because I was enthusiastic about playing the violin, but because it was one of the conditions of my music scholarship. I engaged in volunteer work not because I wanted to help the community, but because every student was expected to. I floated through high school, getting a few academic and musical awards here and there, generally being known as the smart kid. My friends told me that they envied me because I would have so many options and opportunities upon graduation with my ENTER (A ranking score derived from state-administered examinations that is assigned to each graduating student in Australia to determine entrance into various courses at different universities) that I could get into any course I wanted. I envied, and still envy, those friends who know exactly what they want to do in their lives: Andy one of my oldest friends who, despite getting too low of an ENTER to get into law, is studying hard in his first year to transfer into law from an arts degree; Brian, who is completing an Actuarial Studies degree to combine his two passions mathematics and economics; Tass who, despite the recent loss of his father, is moving far away from home to Canberra to pursue his dreams of becoming a diplomat. Of course, some of my friends have been like me, unsure of what their dreams are, and theyve invariably chosen the safe courses (such as Commerce or Arts) hoping that a vocational road will be unveiled in the coming years.</p>
<p>What about me? A person with a half-filled glass would say that I have many interests. A person with a half-empty glass would say that I have no interests. My lack of depth in any area (or too much width depending on how you look at it) is reflected in my high school subjects, which range from Literature to Japanese to Chemistry. Youd think that my choice in choosing these subjects was due to my academic stimulation in those areas, but sadly this was not the case. The only time I have been academically stimulated was during a brief moment in the middle of my junior year, after watching the documentary of Brian Greenes The Elegant Universe a brief explanation of modern strings theory in laymens terms. There was something infinitely romantic about devoting a lifetime to get a glimpse of, as Einstein put it, how God created this world. I want to say that this encounter started my passion for physics, but alas, I convinced myself then that it was far too late in my high school career to venture into this area, for which I had next-to-none experience (in some sense, this was a valid excuse because I needed to have done physics in my junior year to continue with it in the senior year). </p>
<p>I entered college just as I had graduated high school no idea of my future and with parental pressure to go into business. I was fortunate enough to have an opportunity to engage in a Liberal Arts education in the U.S. (unlike in Australia where you commit to a degree when you decide on a university), and in my first semester I took a course called Einsteins Universe, hoping that it would rekindle my previous interest in theoretical physics. After a semester of relativity and quantum mechanics grappling with the seemingly ridiculous notions, such as the idea that time does not flow, or that the past depends on the future a rekindle would be an understatement. Yet I was not totally satisfied, because this course was mainly conceptual and not mathematical, and thus it felt somehow fake. I talked to the professor and he said that I would need solid background in physics before going into the mathematical aspects of these topics and he was right; I borrowed some books he recommended from the library but could barely understand them without the necessary background. What was more unfortunate for me was that Physics 101 was only available in the fall semester (as it was an year-long course), and thus I could not start in spring. </p>
<p>So where does that leave me? Am I now certain of my future? Can I now confidently say, I am going to become a theoretical physicist? Maybe. When I mention the possibility of majoring in physics to my parents, they reply, We are not paying for your expensive education in America so you can become some scientist who wont make a good money. And knowing how much my parents have sacrificed, and sacrifice daily, to keep me here, I know that their wishes demands for me to major in more lucrative fields arent unreasonable or unfair. I am still unsure of my future, but I know one thing is certain. I will take Physics 101 next fall semester. Maybe I will end up becoming a businessman, who knows. But I am not going to become a person who questions in ten years, What if ?</p>