My college admissions essay

Being snowed in for the weekend, I had a lot of downtime. I got down the rabbit-hole of college admissions and decided to look into what applying to college even feels like today. For instance, would I even get admitted to my alma mater (my gut tells me yes, but Illinois’ engineering program has gotten far more competitive in the ~20 years since I graduated). But why just dip your toe in the water when you can dive in headfirst? So here’s my application essay for U of I.

The Prompt: Explain your interest in the major you selected and describe how you have recently explored or developed this interest inside and/or outside the classroom. You may also explain how this major relates to your future career goals. If you’re applying to the Division of General Studies, explain your academic interests and strengths or your future career goals. You may include any majors or areas of study you’re currently considering. Limit your response to 300 to 400 words. (https://admissions.illinois.edu/Apply/Freshman/essays)

I didn’t quite ‘stick the landing’ on this one. The end of the essay sounds kind of awkward. Still I wish I had the ability to articulate myself as a 12th grader as I do now. I could’ve saved myself hours of editing. Anyways, here it is…

My response:

When you come from a family of engineers, its tough to explain exactly when the engineering bug hit you. But as far as I can tell, it’s always been there.  My first deepdive into the world of electrical engineering happened at the tender age of two years old.  Armed with a battery, my mom’s car keys and unfettered access to an electrical outlet, I learned three important lessons that day: 1) I had not figured out how to charge batteries; 2) the doctors at Washington Adventist Hospital are wonderful people; 3) I needed formal training in the subject. Clearly, I didn’t have a great start, but my desire to tinker and build never left me. When my parents bought our first computer in middle school, I quickly took to learning to program in QuickBASIC.  As one of my prouder achievements, I built a Connect Four game on a snow day at school.  When my sister bought me a musical keychain from her alma mater, it was only a matter of weeks before I disassembled it and connected it to the home stereo, blasting her school’s fight song for most of my neighborhood. When we (and everyone else), first got internet access at home, I taught myself HTML and Javascript, and eventually used those skills to build a one-of-a-kind interactive calendar for my high school’s website. Outside of the fun side of engineering, I’ve shown myself capable in the classroom. I’ve taken every Math, Science and Computer Science course available to me at school, and I’ve excelled in them, earning AP credit in multiple domains. Between my intellectual curiosity and my academic capabilities, electrical engineering has always been a natural fit for me.

So why Illinois? In short, Illinois is the perfect fit for this amazing journey.

The engineering program speaks for itself. But it’s also a place where I can see myself getting “lost” (in a good way of course). I’m looking forward to what I will learn and do academically, but as a sports fan, I’m also looking forward to Saturdays and Memorial Stadium and Big Ten basketball.  As a musician, I’m looking forward to shows at Krannert. And as a keychain afficionado, I probably owe my parents’ neighbors a few bars of, “Illinois Loyalty,” from a rewired musical keychain.

16

02 2021

The Illini path to the Rose Bowl

Given the recent resurgence of Illini football, I thought I’d add my math about how the Illini can still make the Rose Bowl. It comes down to this:

  1. Illinois wins out against Iowa and Northwestern, finishing at 6-3 in the Big Ten
  2. Minnesota loses out against Iowa, Northwestern (stop laughing), and Wisconsin, also finishing 6-3 in the Big Ten
  3. Wisconsin goes 2-1, which includes going 1-1 against Nebraska and Purdue, and beating Minnesota (as stated in step (2) ), so they also finish 6-3 in the Big Ten
  4. Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota end in a 3-way tie for first in the Big Ten West
  5. Using the first tiebreaker for a 3-way tie, all three schools went 1-1 against each other, so the second tiebreaker would be used
  6. Using the second tiebreaker, Illinois and Wisconsin finished 4-2 against the Big Ten West, whereas Minnesota is 3-3, so Minnesota gets eliminated from contention for the Big Ten Championship game
  7. With a 2-team tie, the tiebreaker reverts to the results of the head-to-head match-up between Illinois and Wisconsin; Illinois wins this tiebreaker by virtue of winning that game
  8. Illinois goes the B1G Championship game and beats the Big Ten East winner (likely the winner of the Ohio State/Penn State game)
  9. ROSE BOWL!

Go Illini!

11

11 2019

Bravo! Bravissimo! Two weeks on the Tour du Mont Blanc

Two months ago, I hiked the Tour du Mont Blanc over two weeks. Since then, I’ve been eager to share pictures and my story about the trek, hitting massive amounts of writer’s block along the way. Finally, I decided to just post my raw notes from every day of my hike so I can share them with you, along with my favorite ~100 of the 2,000 or so pictures I took on that trip. Here they are below. I’ve added a few notes along the way to set some context, or add additional memories to my recollection of each day. Enjoy!

« 1 of 4 »
Read the rest of this entry →

08

11 2019

You really have no idea where the puck is going to be, so stop trying to skate there

hockey-strideSince Round 1 of the NHL playoffs are well underway this seemed like the most appropriate thing to talk about.

“I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”

There’s no doubt that most people reading this have heard this quote in some sort of business context at some point, and I’m guessing the person repeating it really thought he/she was blowing your mind with insight when he/she said it. But honestly, I’m not sure if there’s a quote I hate more when it comes to corporate world. Read the rest of this entry →

17

04 2016

Beware the Bubble

In my line of work, I get to see and deal with a lot of clients trying to do something new, or trying to do something differently. Often times, despite the best of intentions, these companies fail miserably. They know where they are, they know where they want to be, and they even know what they need to do to get there, but they all forget about the dreaded bubble.

What’s the bubble? It’s basically the way you’ll operate while you’re midway between your starting point and your endpoint. When you’re at the starting point, you know how to function in your current state and you’re comfortable, and when you get to your endpoint, you’re enjoying the benefits of getting to the endpoint. But what do you do in the middle, when you have to behave differently but you’re still not seeing the benefits? Read the rest of this entry →

16

02 2016

The Detroit Marathon: Part Deux

Running a marathon has always been on my bucket list, but I always figured it would be one of those things I’d do when I was older. The amount of training involved means that you pretty much have to focus on running and nothing else, and I didn’t want to give up lifting weights, Tae Kwon Do and the many other things I’ve picked up over the years.

For some reason I wasn’t thinking about this on the morning of January 1, 2011 and at 9 am that morning, I took advantage of the early-bird discount and signed up for the Detroit Marathon. Read the rest of this entry →

28

10 2011

The 15 Greatest NFL Teams Ever (the rankings are back)

You might remember that a while back I toyed with building my own rankings system to rank professional and college sports teams. With a little free time recently, I went back to that and revised my rankings and I think I found something better. I used data from NFL seasons dating back to 1940, every college football season and some NHL data. I also created a few custom data sets to see how my system reacted to a few things. The results are here. As a teaser though, I thought I’d share the 15 most dominating teams in NFL history (based on this ranking). Read the rest of this entry →

16

09 2011

Tel Aviv-a La Vida

Note: I wrote this article for Kellogg’s student newspaper, The Merger, to document the trip I took to Israel with 40 of my classmates in March. These articles are generally written with lots of inside jokes that only the participants understand, but I thought I’d share it here for everyone to read.

Shalom! Over spring break, 40 2nd-years headed to the middle-eastern desert to visit a country rich in culture and deep in history from ancient civilizations. We sought to witness one of the fastest growing hi-tech economies in the world. We sought to see the sites where ancient civilizations traveled, traded and sometimes battled. Read the rest of this entry →

07

07 2011

I’m a freelancer!

I thought I’d drop a quick note here about a guest piece I wrote for MBA-social, a business school blog run by Kellogg 2010 alumna, Jenn Yee. It’s about MORS 941, the sports management class I’m taking with Northwestern University’s Athletic Director Dr. Jim Phillips.

Without further adieu: What college and pro sports can teach you about management

25

05 2011

Learning Economics at the Ballgame

Upon hearing about yesterday’s gorgeous weather in Chicago, Darren and I made plans to see the Cubs play last night. I bought the tickets on a ticket reselling website and other than the 30 minute rainstorm, the weather was gorgeous. The game itself turned out to be pretty good too.

Today, just by chance, I got an email from cubs.com thanking me for attending the game, which seemed kind of strange, given that I didn’t buy the tickets from the team. Of course, I’m not that naive … Read the rest of this entry →

12

05 2011