Statistiky z Cambridge

Dobrý den,

Pokud byste měli zájem o prostudování statistik Cambridgské univerzity, jsou již k dispozici data za letošní ročník přijímacího řízení. Já jsem vytáhl dvě obecné statistiky:

Zdroj: http://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/apply/statistics

NYU Abu Dhabí - info

Dobrý den,

jelikož dlouhodobě vykazujeme velmi slušné výsledky, a to i v rámci mezinárodních zkoušek, zajímá se o nás čím dál tím více zahraničních univerzit. Nedávno naší školu navštívil "headhunter" z NYU Abu Dhabí. Tato škola je zajímavá především z několika důvodů:
1) Studijní program Liberal Arts
2) Obrovská rozmanitost národností studentů
3) Exotická lokalita, cestování po ostatních kampusech a pobočkách po celém světě
4) Velmi štědrá finanční podpora (takřka all-inclusive)
5) Z České republiky se hlásí málo studentů, čili hledají dobré studenty na vhodné doplnění studentského tělesa

Pro další informace vkládám část informací od headhuntera:

New York University Abu Dhabi is the first highly selective liberal arts and science college-with engineering-in the Middle East that is integrated into a major American research university. Below are the highlights of the program:

·        An innovative liberal arts, sciences, and engineering curriculum offering New York University BA and BSc degrees in 22 majors (specializations)

·        One of the world’s most internationally diverse student bodies, with approximately 750 students representing about 110 countries and speaking over 95 languages

·        Generous financial support for qualified students regardless of citizenship 

·        Unique access to exceptional prize-winning faculty through small class sizes, with a 4:1 student-to-faculty ratio and individual faculty mentors

·        Extensive study away opportunities in 13 cities on six continents, as well as at NYU’s campus in New York City

·        A brand new, state-of-the-art residential campus that combines traditional and modern architectural elements to reflect the University's three identities: Abu Dhabi, New York, and the world

Life Beyond Saadiyat is recent publication offering statistics on the very first class that graduated from NYU Abu Dhabi:http://nyuad.nyu.edu/content/dam/nyuad/departments/career-development/documents/2014-FD-report-DIGITAL.pdf

NYU Abu Dhabi Class of 2014 Graduation Tribute: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHRBW9ky47M

Here are the admissions requirements: 

http://nyuad.nyu.edu/en/admissions/applying-to-nyuad/application-requirements.html

And some information about nominating students to NYU Abu Dhabi:

http://nyuad.nyu.edu/en/admissions/information-for-counselors/nomination-overview.html

Pěkný den

Nová dobrovolnická aktivita na PORGu - Khanova Akademie

Dobrý den,

Dnes byli naši studenti seznámeni o možnosti, zapojit se do programu překládání Khanovy Akademie v rámci projektu https://khanovaskola.cz. Zájemci o překlady, korektury a nebo managing celého překladatelského týmu se mají hlásit panu Štěpkovi (pro Nový PORG), nebo panu Haláčkovi (Libeňský PORG).

Pěkný den

Stipendium na Boston CATS Academy

Přehled o německých vysokých školách

Dobrý den,

většina žebříčků porovnává světové univerzity nebo regiony, ale není příliš zaměřen na jednotlivé země. Pokud by někoho zajímalo studium v Německu, pak sledujte tento odkaz, kde můžete na přehledné mapce vybrat univerzitu a dozvědět se více o její kvalitě a hodnocení.

Seznamte se s americkými studenty

Máte čas 26. května? A chtěli byste se dozvědět víc o životě mladých lidí v USA, studiu na amerických školách či specificky o "community colleges"? Nabízíme vám skvělou příležitost - do Prahy přijede skupina amerických studentů z dvouleté "College of Lake County" a rádi by jeden den strávili s českými středoškoláky a můžete to být právě vy! Pokud máte zájem, pošlete e-mail se základními informace o sobě (včetně toho, co studujete a kde) na adresu tesar@fulbright.cz.

Překladatelský maraton - Khanova Škola - pomáháme ostatním ke vzdělání

Vědohraní

Den otevřených dveří nového oboru Bioinformatika

Matematicko-fyzikální a Přírodovědecká fakulta Univerzity Karlovy v Praze si Vás dovolují pozvat na Den otevřených dveří oboru Bioinformatika, který se koná 23. 4. 2015 na PřF UK ve Viničné 7 v posluchárně Fotochemie.

Čas	23.04.2015  od 10:00 do 13:30
Přidat událost do kalendáře	Google  vKalendář (Windows, Linux) iCal (Mac OS X)

I z té nejrutinnější práce organismálních biologů si v posledních letech stále větší díl ukrajuje práce nejen v laboratoři, ale také za klávesnicí počítače. O cestě biologů k programování a především o významu tohoto oboru pro současnou biologii, jsme si povídali s biology Pavlem Stopkou a Marianem Novotným, kteří jsou za naši fakultu hlavními hybateli nově akreditovaného oboru Bioinformatika.
Program Dne otevřených dvěří naleznete ZDE. 
 

Kolegové, oba jste biology a zároveň velkými propagátory matematických a informatických přístupů ve vědě o živém. Můžete nám popsat, jak se stalo, že počítače začaly hrát ve vašem profesním životě významnou roli? 

PS: Každý z nás má nějakou osobní historii. Já jsem strávil roky 1995 - 2000 jako post-doc v Anglii na University of Oxford, Department of Zoology. Tam mě hned na začátku mého pobytu překvapilo, že všichni studenti mají lepší znalost informatiky než mám já. Mnohokrát se mi stalo, že jsem za někým přišel a ptal se ho, jestli nemá software, který by vyhodnotil to a to. Odpověď pravidelně zněla: stáhni si fakultní licenci na C či C++ a příslušnou rutinu si napiš. A tak jsem jejich radami začal postupně řídit. nejprve jsem se naučil  C, poté C++, něco málo jsem dělal v Javě a nakonec se v open-komunitě objevilo R. Tím pádem jsem dřívější jazyky téměř úplně zahodil a začal psát jenom v R.

MN: Já jsem  se na PřF dostal jako vášnivý ornitolog, nicméně s bioinformatikou  jsem koketovat již během přípravy diplomové práce.  Jelikož jsem nebyl manuálně příliš zručný, rozhodl jsem se, po konzultaci se svým školitelem doc. Folkem, zkusit práci s počítačem. Naštěstí jsem dostal skvělou příležitost naučit se základy bioinformatiky na Erasmus pobytu v Uppsale.

Uchovejme si laickou perspektivu: proč je třeba naučit se programovat ve zmíněných jazycích? 

PS: Toto všechno, co jsme popsali,  je pouze reakce. Hlavní důvod k učení se programovat  je ten, že se změnila biologie. Dnes nám například při paralelním sekvenování vznikají statisíce dat. Takové objemy zkrátka není možné zpracovávat s kalkulačkou nebo v Excelu. Podobné trendy, tedy hledání nějakých vzorců (patterns) ve velkých datových souborech (Big Data), lze pozorovat například v ekonomii, která se z velké části vyvíjela posledních 100 let paralelně vůči biologii, aniž by si to zástupci obou disciplín vůbec uvědomovali. Přístroje, které produkují velké objemy dat, už u nás máme. S Biocevem, v němž jsem osobně také zaangažován,  se věc stala ještě aktuálnější.

MN: Pavel to pojmenoval velmi přesně, biologie se změnila  k nepoznání. Ještě relativně nedávno, řekněme před rokem 1990, bylo známo velmi málo sekvencí, žádný genom nebyl kompletně osekvenován a struktur  makromolekul bylo tolik, že si je každý, kdo se pohyboval v oblasti strukturní biologie, mohl pamatovat zpaměti. Dnes se velikost nukleotidové databáze ENA, jedné z nejkompletnějších nukleotidových databází na světě, zdvojnásobí za 20 měsíců. Každý rok je také popsáno okolo 10 000 nových 3D struktur makromolekul a to už není snadno k zapamatování. Sekvence a struktury však samozřejmě nejsou jediné typy biologických dat. Všechna biologická data však mají jedno společné - jejich množství překotně roste a není možné je smysluplně využít bez zapojení bioinformatických přístupů.

Standardní statistika, která je součástí biologického vzdělání, tedy již nestačí? 

PS: Já sám jsem jako student před lety absolvoval biostatistku, statistické metody v biologii a několik dalších podobných předmětů. V oboru Big data si však s chi-kvadráty a T-testy prostě nevystačíme. Je třeba využívat mnohorozměrné metody, smíšené modely a podobné přístupy, což u nás (myšleno na PřF UK, pozn. MA) zatím prakticky chybí. Prostě potřebujeme něco, co biologa uschopní k tomu, aby si vzal svoje vlastní data a a sám si je vyhodnotil. Na tento problém jsem opakovaně narážel, když jsem hledal do týmu bionformatika. Takový člověk se velmi špatně hledá a když už se najde, tak je těžké jej zasvětit do problému dostatečně rychle. V neposlední řadě je nakonec problém takového člověka i zaplatit.

MN: Řešení biologických problémů vyžaduje mnohem více dovedností a metodických přístupů než dříve. Řada těchto přístupů překračuje standardní curriculum biologického vzdělávání a  zasahuje i do chemie, fyziky, matematiky či informatiky. Biologie využívá celou paletu nástrojů přírodních věd a díky tomu vzniká i poptávka po nových studijních oborech, které změnu metodických přístupů odrážejí.

Nový obor vznikl ve spolupráci mezi námi a Matfyzem. Které osoby byly klíčové za naší stranu?  

PS: Celý projekt vznikl navíc zcela nezávisle na různých katedrách. Marian Novotný z katedry buněčné biologie řešil analogické problémy na úrovni biochemických procesů v buňce, Martin Pospíšek se s podobnými problémy potýkal na katedře genetiky. Víme o sobě již delší dobu, ale věc zůstávala dlouho ve stádiu myšlenky. Klíčovou osobou, která odvedla na přípravě celého programu za naši stranu nejvíc práce, je Marian Novotný.

MN: Velké zásluhu na vzniku a finální podobě oboru mají naši kolegové z Matematicko-fyzikálni fakulty. Na přípravě se podíleli především Ondřej Pangrác a David Hoksza.  Velkou podporu pro vznik společného oboru poskytli také doc. Petr Kolman, proděkan pro koncepci studia na MFF a doc. Petr Folk, proděkan pro biologickou sekci na PřF.

A jak  vypadaly “námluvy” s Matfyzem? 

MN: Spolupráce s Matfyzem byla velmi konstruktivní - velmi rychle jsme se shodli na potřebě vzniku nového studijního oboru i na tom, že správnou cestou je spojit naše síly. Shodli jsme se i na tom, že v bakalářském studiu chceme studentům poskytnout především solidní základy v oblastech, na kterých bioinformatika stojí - na biologii, programování, statistice. Na základě těchto znalostí pak budeme stavět specifické bioinformatické znalosti v magisterském studiu. Při výběru vhodných předmětů jsme vycházeli mimo jiné i z doporučení International Society for Computational Biology, která se bioinformatickým vzděláváním dlouhodobě zabývá.

PS: Na straně Matfyzu šlo vše velmi snadno - například program studia byl sestaven prakticky na místě. Ihned bylo jasné, jakým jazykem je třeba začít a jak pokračovat. Na naší straně jsou se sestavením programu problémy větší - nepanuje zatím široká shoda na tom, ve kterém ročníku je dobré absolvovat klíčové předměty. Půjde nicméně o stávající vyučované předměty, některé jsme nicméně pro účely našeho programu po obsahové stránce malinko poupravili.

A od kdy se bude program spouštět?

PS: Program poběží od příštího semestru, tedy o října tohoto kalendářního roku.

A pro jaký typ studentů je program principielně určen? Pro informatiky, kteří si doplňují biologické vzdělání, neb spíše pro biology, kteří se nebojí programování? 

MN: My máme zájem o všechny motivované studenty se zájmem o bioinformatiku bez ohledu, zda se sami cítí být spíše biology či informatiky. Náš obor je konstruován tak, aby poskytl potřebné znalosti  a dovednosti jak biologům, tak informatikům. Bližší informace k přijímacímu řízení, studiu i možnostem uplatnění rádi sdělíme zájemcům na Dni otevřených dveří oboru bioinformatika 23. 4. 2015.

PS: Z mého pohledu je lepší biolog, který se matematickou stránku doučí. Ale očekáváme, že se objeví oba typy studentů - ti, kteří budou excelovat v “matfyzácké” stránce, ale z biologie budou mít trojky. A pochopitelně opačně.

Kolik se předpokládá, že bude přijato studentů? 

PS: Horní hranici jsme zatím nestanovili. Přijímací podmínky jsou nicméně nastaveny tak, že student musí zvládnout standardní přijímačky - rozhodně se nehodláme honit za vysokými počty studentů tím, že bychom snižovali nároky na přijetí.

Zájemci o bioinformatiku však mohli být v minulosti uspokojeni i nabídkou jiných škol. 

PS:  Bioinformatiku je možné studovat i na VŠCHT a také na Jihočeské univerzitě v Českých Budějovicích, kde jde o společný projekt této univerzity s univerzitou v rakouském Linzu, dále v Brně na Masarykově univerzitě i VÚT a také v Olomouci. Náš přístup je nicméně dosti odlišný, než jak to dělají na jiných fakultách. My máme zkrátka jistá specifika, absolvent budou tedy ideálně nastavení potřebám vědeckých týmů, které vzešly z našeho prostředí. A jistě netřeba zdůrazňovat, že se v našem případě spojil dvě nejprestižnější instituce v obou zainteresovaných oborech. 

Ptal se: Michal Andrle

Program:

10.00 - 10:50 

Bioinformatika – přirozené spojení

Prudký rozvoj (molekulární) biologie a informaticky v posledních letech má na svědomí, že se tyto dříve oddělené disciplíny začaly vzájemně nejen přibližovat a inspirovat, ale především  vyžadovat. Most mezi biologií a informatikou staví právě bioinformatika. Co je předmětem bioinformatiky a proč by Vás mohla bioinformatika zajímat?

10.50 - 11.05 

Studium bioinformatiky na UK v Praze

Seznámíme Vás stručně s detaily přijímacího  řízení a organizací studia.

11.05  - 11.30 

Využití strojového učení k identifikaci protein-ligand aktivních mist

Funkce libovolného proteinu je určena jeho interakcí s dalšími molekulami. Tyto interakce probíhají na specifických místech na povrchu proteinu k tomu určených. Pro mnoho proteinů je známa jejich 3D struktura, ale ne již jejich aktivní místa. V této přednášce představíme algoritmus vyvinutý na MFF UK, který je schopen tato místa určit pomocí strojového učení.

11.30 - 12.00 

Velká data a hledání stromu života

Evoluce života je jedním z nejstudovanějších biologických problémů již po více než století. Jak proměnily studium této problematiky moderní sekvenační metody, které sebou přinesly “záplavu dat”? Dozvíte se, jak tuto problematiku řešíme na PřF UK.

12.00 -13.30 

Exkurze po laboratořích s bioinformatickou tématikou a diskuze

Více informací o studijnim oboru naleznete:

http://bioinformatika.mff.cuni.cz

https://www.facebook.com/bioinformatika.uk

Překladatelský maraton na VŠCHT Praha

Sobota, 16. 5. 2015  10:00

VŠCHT Praha, budova B

Technická 3, Praha-Praha 6, Česká republika

Nechcete o zlepšení vzdělání u nás jen mluvit, ale také pro to něco udělat? Přijďte nám pomoci s překladem titulků a staňte se součástí naší rostoucí komunity příznivců.

Můžete překládat vybraná videa z www.khanacademy.org podle anglických titulků anebo můžete opravovat již vytvořené české titulky. Nemusíte se bát, že to nezvládnete. Více informací o tom, jak překládat, naleznete zde. Během maratonu vám navíc budeme plně k dispozici a vše vám vysvětlíme.

O dostatek energie na překlady se postaráme – zajistíme pro Vás oběd a v průběhu akce bude k dispozici občerstvení.

Můžete si s sebou vzít svůj laptop, ale k dispozici budou stolní počítače. Prosíme, vezměte si sluchátka (nějaká zajistíme, ale nebude jich dostatek).

Pokud nemůžete odpoledne nebo si o víkendu rádi pospíte, stavte se aspoň na hodinu – každý kousek překladu se počítá.

Po akci budeme tradičně pokračovat v nedaleké hospůdce, kam jste všichni také srdečně zváni.

Za účast na maratonu udílíme certifikát!

Sledujte naše stránky a sociální sítě pro aktuální informace https://khanovaskola.cz, Facebook, Twitter či Google+!

Sponzorem akce je Nadace Karla Janečka a partnerem je VŠCHT Praha.

Info zde: http://srazy.info/khanova-skola-prekladatelsky-maraton/5351

Průběžné výsledky ze zahraničních VŠ

Letošní absolventi mají již 70 nabídek na studium na zahraničních školách. Celkové procento úspěšnosti podaných přihlášek je 95,2%. Pro srovnání, Ivy League obvykle přijímá asi 8.5% přihlášených a Oxbridge do 20%. 

Procenta a počty nabídek pro studenty PORGu najdete v následujících tabulkách.

Všem naším studentům gratulujeme a jsme na ně právem hrdí.

Skupina škol	Úspěšnost uchazečů
Ivy League	25,00%
Oxbridge	50,00%
Russell Group	93,80%
Všechny univerzity	95,20%

Univerzita	Počet nabídek
Brown University	1
Cornell University	1
Dartmouth University	1
Duke University	1
Edge Hotel School	1
Imperial College London	4
King's College London	3
Lancaster University	1
London School of Economics	1
New York University	1
Oxford University	2
Queen Mary University of London	2
St. Johns University	1
The University of Aberdeen	4
The University of Birmingham	2
The University of Edinburgh	4
The University of Manchester	3
The University of Nottingham	2
The University of Sussex	1
The University of Warwick	3
UCL, University College London	7
University of Bristol	3
University of Cambridge	1
University of Chicago	1
University of Derby	1
University of East Anglia (UEA)	1
University of Glasgow	8
University of St Andrews	3
University of Surrey	1
University of the West of Scotland	1
Yale (Waiting List)	1
Southern Methodist University	1
Boston University	1
University of Virginia	1
Grand Total	70

AV ČR - Zaostřeno na vědu

Bakala foundation na PORGu

Dobrý den,

v minulých dnech naší školu navštívili zástupci Bakala Foundation a odprezentovali studentům septim možnosti studia v zahraničí, vysvětlili jak funguje financování zahraničního studia a nakonec proběhla dlouhá diskuze. Ukázku prezentace z Nového PORGu můžete stáhnout ZDE.

JOURNEY: JOURNALISM BOOTCAMP

The Journey Program is an annually organized intensive summer course, which offers participants unique experience through interactive seminars conducted by professional journalists, editors and media personalities from world’s most renowned news outlets and agencies. Organized by The Bakala Foundation, Journey aims to bring together promising students of journalism and media from around the world and give them the opportunity to learn from top professionals from the field and to create a unique, inspiring experience. Participants undergo series of workshops on current trends and tools used in reporting, data collection and analysis, investigative journalism and many more aspects of modern media work as well as a number of exercises, in real newsroom conditions. The course will be taking place August 8-18, 2015.

Submitted applications will be reviewed by an independent jury and twenty fellows will be selected. They will receive full scholarships, covering all travel expenses related to their return trip to Prague including flight tickets and transport to and from the Václav Havel Airport, full board and accommodation as well as additional expenses directly related to Journey such as study materials and public transportation. The scholarship does not include insurance.

If you are a journalism or media student, please apply through the Online Application section, which also contains the requirements applicants have to meet in order to be eligible for the program. Applications will be accepted from March 2 - April 30, 2015.

Aktuální nabídka České kosmické kanceláře

CSO NABÍZÍ STUDENTŮM MOŽNOST PODÍLET SE NA ZAJIŠTĚNÍ MEZINÁRODNÍHO SYMPOSIA HUMANS IN SPACE 2015
Česká kosmická kancelář a Mezinárodní astronautická akademie pořádají na přelomu června a července 2015 mezinárodní sympozium s názvem Humans in Space. Místní organizační výbor hledá studenty středních a vysokých škol na výpomoc v průběhu konání sympozia. Zájem je nutno vyjádřit do 31. května 2015.

Určeno pro kategorii: střední školy, vysoké školy
Další informace najdete na adrese:
http://www.czechspace.cz/cs/hledame-mlade-dobrovolniky-0

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KOSMOS-NEWS PARTY 2015Patnáctý ročník víkendového setkání laických zájemců o pilotovanou kosmonautiku a moderní trendy v dobývání vesmíru KOSMOS-NEWS PARTY 2015 se koná od 24. do 26.dubna 2015 v Pardubicích. Pro účastníky je připravena více než desítka přednášek a diskusních pořadů předních českých i zahraničních odborníků na kosmonautiku a bohatý doprovodný program po celé tři dny konání akce. Hostem setkání bude pan Oldřich Pelčák, český kosmonaut a vojenský pilot, náhradník Vladimíra Remka při kosmickém letu Sojuzu 28 v roce 1978.

Určeno pro kategorii: veřejnost
Další informace najdete na adrese:
http://knp.kosmo.cz

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NABÍDKA DLOUHODOBÝCH STUDENTSKÝCH STÁŽÍ NA ÚSTAVU TECHNICKÉ A EXPERIMENTÁLNÍ FYZIKY ČVUT
Ústav technické a experimentální fyziky ČVUT nabízí dlouhodobé stáže pro studenty i absolventy středních a vysokých škol. Stáže jsou zaměřeny na zpracování dat z přístroje SATRAM na družici Proba-V a na práci s urychlovačem Van de Graaff. Tato nabídka je jedinečnou příležitostí, jak se stát součástí přední vědecké organizace.
Určeno pro kategorii: střední školy, vysoké školy
Další informace najdete na adrese:
http://www.czechspace.cz/cs/utef-cvut-hleda-spolupracovniky

Essays That Worked (Class of 2018) - Johns Hopkins University

• Class of 2018
• Class of 2017
• Class of 2016
• Class of 2015

Your essays are some of the most important pieces of your application. A well-crafted essay will convey to the admissions committee why Hopkins could be a good fit for you, and how you might contribute to the campus community.

Get essay writing tips from the Hopkins Insider. 

Below, read selected examples of essays that “worked”, as nominated by our admissions committee. These selections represent just a few examples of essays we found impressive and helpful during the past admissions cycle.

These entries are distinct and unique to the individual writer; however, each of them assisted the admissions reader in learning more about the student beyond the transcripts and lists of activities. We hope these essays inspire you as you prepare to compose your own personal statements. The most important thing to remember is to be original and creative as you share your own story with us.

• Outgrowing the Garage—Elijah
• String Theory—Joanna
• Temper—Morley
• Dissonance—Leila
• Hometown—Quan
• Content—Noah
• Spring Instead of Summer—Jacqueline

Outgrowing the Garage—Elijah

The air is tainted with unnatural fumes of grease, wood, and burnt electrical tape. Oil slicks stain the floor. Thick wooden shelves sag unnervingly close to buckling under the weight of old house paint and power tools. A workbench lies buried beneath papers, rulers, cans, and metal shards. An uncomfortable growl pours from the water heater. Most people wouldn’t describe my grimy garage as pleasant, but I love spending my free time here. It’s where I built a 2 ft trebuchet in sixth grade, a 4 ft trebuchet in seventh grade, and plan to build an 8 ft trebuchet this winter break. It’s where I built a battlebot and slapped an Arduino microcontroller on top to give it intelligence. Ever since I sat watching jets shake the sky and explosions rock the screen in the movie Iron Man as a stunned sixth grader, I’ve spent weekends experimenting in my garage, trying to learn everything I can about engineering and robotics.

Sure, outside of my garage I love wildlife and hiking, history, and weird foods. I love classic rock, jazz, and maybe even secretly Katy Perry. Nevertheless, I’ve always had a life plan centered on robotics: go to a great college, learn robotics, build robots, get a Bernese mountain dog, and live happily ever after in a beautiful forest home. It seems strange that I’ve committed myself to robotics so easily despite my many interests, but in reality, robotics combines nearly all of them. Computer science, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering are crucial to the robot, but combine them with biology, astronomy, music, or ecology, and that’s when robotics becomes amazing. I could help the sick with robots that give surgeons more dexterity while operating. I could help the poor with affordable, robot-made products. I could aid the elderly, replace the limbs of wounded warriors, and keep fire fighters from harm’s way, all with robots. Although these robots may not be the crimson and gold Iron Man suit that first got me interested, I love the realistic and heroic possibilities in the field of robotics.

Almost as exciting as imagining the robots I could build, is imagining where I could build them. I could become a professor and research cutting edge A.I. algorithms. I could become an entrepreneur and bring my creations to market. I could even become an employee for a tech company and devote myself to its latest innovations. Maybe next year around this time, I will even be studying on the Freshman Quad. With the LCSR robotics lab, the minor in robotics, a top-notch engineering program, a beautiful campus, incredible seafood, and what the visiting admissions counselor described as a “vibrant a cappella scene,” Johns Hopkins will both make college fun and satisfy my inner nerd. But for now, I will go on working in my garage, competing for space with the family car.

“We like Elijah’s essay because you really get a sense of his personality—the essay is light-hearted, but still does a good job of highlighting his interest in robotics in a descriptive and entertaining way by comparing it to his fascination with Iron Man. He ties his interests back to opportunities at JHU like the freedom to combine multiple academic fields, research in the LCSR lab, and the a cappella scene. As you are reading his essay, you picture someone who will explore academic programs, student groups, and opportunities on and off campus—you picture a dynamic member of our Hopkins community.”

—Johns Hopkins Undergraduate Admissions Committee

String Theory—Joanna

If string theory is really true, then the entire world is made up of strings, and I cannot tie a single one. This past summer, I applied for my very first job at a small, busy bakery and café in my neighborhood. I knew that if I were hired there, I would learn how to use a cash register, prepare sandwiches, and take cake orders. I imagined that my biggest struggle would be catering to demanding New Yorkers, but I never thought that it would be the benign act of tying a box that would become both my biggest obstacle and greatest teacher.

On my first day of work in late August, one of the bakery’s employees hastily explained the procedure. It seemed simple: wrap the string around your hand, then wrap it three times around the box both ways, and knot it. I recited the anthem in my head, “three times, turn it, three times, knot” until it became my mantra. After observing multiple employees, it was clear that anyone tying the box could complete it in a matter of seconds. For weeks, I labored endlessly, only to watch the strong and small pieces of my pride unravel each time I tried.

As I rushed to discreetly shove half-tied cake boxes into plastic bags, I could not help but wonder what was wrong with me. I have learned Mozart arias, memorized the functional groups in organic chemistry, and calculated the anti-derivatives of functions that I will probably never use in real life—all with a modest amount of energy. For some reason though, after a month’s effort, tying string around a cake box still left me in a quandary.

As the weeks progressed, my skills slowly began to improve. Of course there were days when I just wanted to throw all of the string in the trash and use Scotch tape; this sense of defeat was neither welcome nor wanted, but remarks like “Oh, you must be new” from snarky customers catapulted my determination to greater heights.

It should be more difficult to develop an internal pulse and sense of legato in a piece of music than it is to find the necessary rhythm required to tie a box, but this seemingly trivial task has clearly proven not to be trivial at all. The difficulties that I encountered trying to keep a single knot intact are proof of this. The lack of cooperation between my coordination and my understanding left me frazzled, but the satisfaction I felt when I successfully tied my first box was almost as great as any I had felt before.

Scientists developing string theory say that string can exist in a straight line, but it can also bend, oscillate, or break apart. I am thankful that the string I work with is not quite as temperamental, but I still cringe when someone asks for a chocolate mandel bread. Supposedly, the string suggested in string theory is responsible for unifying general relativity with quantum physics. The only thing I am responsible for when I use string is delivering someone’s pie to them without the box falling apart. Tying a cake box may not be quantum physics, but it is just as crucial to holding together what matters.

I am beginning to realize that I should not be ashamed if it takes me longer to learn. I persist, and I continue to tie boxes every weekend at work. Even though I occasionally backslide into feelings of exasperation, I always rewrap the string around my hand and start over because I have learned that the most gratifying victories come from tenacity. If the universe really is comprised of strings, I am confident that I will be able to tie them together, even if I do have to keep my fingers crossed that my knots hold up.

“Joanna does a great job of grabbing your attention from the first sentence by comparing her struggles learning to tie up bakery boxes to string theory. We get a glimpse at her personality throughout the essay—she is not afraid to laugh at herself or admit failure. She uses her story to illustrate that she recognized a weakness, refused to give up, and is able to grow from it; which gives us a sense of how she will tackle challenges here at JHU. Her voice definitely came through in this essay. She also used the space effectively to tell us a lot about who she is—her love of music and science, her dedication to a part-time job, and her ability to put things in perspective. Even though the actual topic itself—learning to tie string around bakery orders—seems narrow in scope, it allowed us to see how well-rounded her interests were and really get to know her through her writing.”

—Johns Hopkins Undergraduate Admissions Committee

Temper—Morley

I feel perfectly content at Woodrow Wilson Skateboard Park, a cement swell in the ground located just west of the easternmost point of the north side of Chicago and trapped perennially in the mental space inhabited by fourteen-year-old angry youths. Outside of home and school, it is the place where I have spent most of my life. Its terrain so familiar, I could navigate it blindfolded, towed on my board by a pack of feral dogs. Much of what I know of life, I learned there.

A sea of nods and handshakes and back pats welcomes my every arrival to this municipal oasis. Here, I am known. Called variously Mor, Bob Morley, Mordog, Mo, Mo Money, or (long story) Tom Pork. It is the only place on earth where (were an election ever to be held) I could almost certainly be mayor. Among the strange, sometimes downcast, and essentially good people here, I have found another family. I need them as much as they need me and as much as we all need skateboarding. This four-wheeled toy brings us inner peace. Skateboarding is a standing meditation, a time to put conscious thought aside and let primal impulse guide the body through various jumps and balancing acts. I turn to skating in times of joy and in times of strife, to celebrate a good day, escape writer’s block, social failures, or other minor tragedies.

It is at Wilson that I encountered once, and then again, a man called Temper. I was thirteen when I crashed into a beefy shadowy figure I had heard talked about only in whispers. This man, known by the word he had chosen to affix to hundreds of walls around Chicago, had earned a spot in the community as a respected graffiti artist and skateboarder. His improbably light feet and on-board grace were known to most of the city. I was barely inaugurated into the park scene when I plowed headlong into him, knocking both of us down, turtle-like and winded. I hadn’t been paying attention and apologized rapid-fire while trying to scrape my body off of his. When we both got to our feet, Temper knocked me down again and walked away without comment. It was the most frightening thing that ever happened to me at Wilson. He left the park that day, and I had seen him once, maybe twice, since.

The five years since the incident have been more or less good to me. In high school, I abandoned the dream of becoming a professional skateboarder and discovered a fuller gamut of life’s offerings. I learned to think about things other than skating and in turn discovered physics, girls, cooking, and writing—a pursuit I love as much as skateboarding. The same cannot be said for the passage of time in Temper’s life. I saw him recently and had lunch with him and my friend. He told us of overcoming a crippling drug addiction, spending time in jail, and contracting AIDS—a disease that every day reminds him that his time on earth is coming to an end. He is trying his best to make the most of it all. It was with the greatest trepidation that I told him about the Wilson incident. Over pizza and lemon soda, I explained how much he had scared me. I added that it was important that it had happened. I think it helped me grow up, I explained. An awkward silence followed. His head turned down and to the side for a moment. Then he just laughed. His eyes apologized, and I laughed too, collectively embracing that very Wilson mentality: life, like skateboarding and men named “Temper,” will knock you down. There is nothing else to do but forgive, forget, and stand back up.

“Morley’s structure for the essay is measured with each paragraph transitioning to a different personal quality. He sets the scene and characters, and then shifts into the meat of the essay, writing about how a specific incident epitomizes the park experience. The essay beautifully ties in Morley’s personality with his experiences at Woodrow Wilson. His focus is always on developing how the park has shaped HIM. After reading the essay, I have a much better understanding of who Morley is and what qualities he will bring to Hopkins. We get the sense that he is reflective and authentic—the type of JHU student you’d want as your lab partner or in your writing group.”

—Johns Hopkins Undergraduate Admissions Committee

Dissonance—Leila

My brain is utterly discordant. Curiosities, ranging from abortion in colonial America to the enlarged paralimbic region of whale brains, battle for priority of investigation in my mind. As I sit hunched over my laptop, my screen is always split in two. What my mom sees as a teenager wasting away behind a glowing screen is actually me trying to watch a documentary on Magritte and his genous style of surrealism while learning about the groundbreaking water geysers found on Jupiter’s moon Europa. Such investigative tendencies are even evident in my running list of ideas for the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, with topics ranging from the cycle of recidivism that fosters the prison industrial complex to the removal of people of color from 17th and 18th century paintings in current academia.

I look to Johns Hopkins not to contain my brain, but to feed the insanity. I need the lack of a core curriculum and intersession courses so I can investigate a breadth of topics thoroughly, to a much fuller extent than I can manage with just the library and the internet. I look to Johns Hopkins as the home for my eclectic interests so I can continue playing soccer just as well as I can continue pursuing photography at the Homewood Arts Workshops.

As I rave about my recent cosmic ventures like going to a Brian Greene lecture and meeting with an astrophysicist at the Goddard Space Flight Center, I look to Johns Hopkins to engage my enthusiasm with research institutions like the Applied Physics Laboratory and the Center for Astrophysical Science. Where my college search left me faced with so many small, lackluster physics programs, Johns Hopkins shines with the delightfully extensive Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy.

As my boyfriend and I have an involved discussion about the incompatibility of an omniscient God with libertarian free will, I look to Johns Hopkins’ Department of Philosophy with classes like The Existential Drama and Freedom of Will and Moral Responsibility. With sketchbooks full of musings on topics like my cognitive dissonance of rejecting free will while revering Sartre, I am insuppressibly excited by the undergraduate philosophy journal Prometheus. Seeing that no new issues of Prometheus have been published in the last couple of years, I am determined to resurrect the thought-provoking gem, just as decidedly as I am to start and Ethics Bowl team at Johns Hopkins.

As I passionately rant about rape culture and cultural appropriation in the shower, I look to Johns Hopkins’ student organizations like the Hopkins Feminists, Sexual Assault Resource Unit, and the Office of Multicultural Affairs so I can contribute my soap-studded ideas and take action.

I look to Johns Hopkins for its diversity of people, the city of Baltimore, and as a home for the next four years. I look to Johns Hopkins to conduct my dissonant brain into a melodious symphony.

“The running theme through Leila’s essay is her interest in a variety of topics and subjects, which makes it easy to picture her thriving in the open curriculum and interdisciplinary learning style at JHU. She also makes connections between her eclectic interest and opportunities on campus like research at the Applied Physics Lab, reviving the university philosophy journal, and clubs like the Hopkins Feminists. It is not hard to picture her being a contributor to campus in and out of the classroom.”

—Johns Hopkins Undergraduate Admissions Committee

Hometown—Quan

Life without language: all the ideas, thoughts, and emotions present, but unable to be expressed. This is how I picture my grandfather when he first immigrated to America with my grandmother and their nine children. Lost, he wanders around, hoping to bump into someone who can understand him. He raises his own children to know Vietnamese and hopes his future grandchildren would also be connected to the language of their ancestors. But when I form my lips into unnatural shapes to speak these words, they come out pathetically.

I cannot speak Vietnamese.

As a child, the conversations between me and my grandfather consisted of feeble attempts at speaking each other’s language. Only a couple of familiar words could momentarily break the wall that divided us. Whenever I visited his house, I exchanged a shaky “Chào ông” for his heavily accented “He-llo,” and ran off before the shame from my inability to understand could affect me.

At the time, I was unaware of the synchronized rhythm that beats in the hearts of me, my father, and my grandfather. My grandfather loves playing the violin. Although he is not classically trained and can hardly keep a beat, he loves it and I can sense it every time he plays. When my family came to America, my father struggled to adjust as any teenage immigrant would. Vietnamese was confined to his family’s home and English was difficult to learn, so instead, he picked up the guitar and taught himself how to play “Yesterday” by the Beatles. Forty years later, he claims he still cannot get it down perfectly. On the piano in our living room, he sings in broken English…

“Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away…”

Like my grandfather, music is a part of my father’s design. By the unchangeable threads of heredity, I was also fated to have a connection to music, just like them. And it was music that could break the language barrier between me and my grandfather.

A single sheet of music sat in front of me. It was a beautiful piece, no doubt, but we, the All-State Senior Band, were playing it without any emotion. After a couple of unsuccessful run-throughs of this piece entitled “Hometown,” our guest conductor Samuel Hazo told us to look at measure thirty-three, reflect on a personal memory that reminded us of that part, and write about it right there on our sheet music. Soon after instructing us to do the same in the other parts of the piece, everyone’s sheet music was filled with our lives in the form of tiny scribbles between the lines of melodies. When we played the piece again, we were finally able to “sing our life stories,” as Mr. Hazo would call it. Every musical phrase became a vessel for retelling our most precious memories: stories of first loves and recollections of childhood memories. No one had to say a single word.

There in the music, I finally spoke to my grandparents. As I played measure thirty-three, I pictured them sitting there on that boat in the middle of the ocean, holding onto a faint glimmer of hope for a new life in America, looking for their own new “hometown.” I said “thank you” for their courage to come to the strange and unknown America and “sorry” for being unable to speak Vietnamese. After the concert that night, I received a bigger hug than usual from them and I knew that they had heard and understood me. Being a part of a family and culture is more than just knowing the language. Emotions are enough to make words unnecessary. In my family, we speak three different languages: Vietnamese, the language of our origin, English, the language of our new home, and music to connect everything together.

“I like that Quan shares a piece of his life and one of his passions that we may not have known otherwise with us in the essay: music. He ties his innate love of music back to his family and makes a really powerful connection between music and language. He captures the reader’s attention from the first few sentences by weaving the story of his family into an expansion on one of his favorite activities. You really get a taste of how passionate he is about music and that it is something he would share with our JHU community. Quan provides us with a window into some of what he values most in life—family, his cultural heritage, and music— and what he would bring to our student body.”

—Johns Hopkins Undergraduate Admissions Committee

Content—Noah

I have a Kafka quote that is very close to my heart. I like it best edited, the way I first saw it, with the middle part (which is not convenient for this essay) cut out: “It is not necessary that you leave the house. Remain at your table and listen… The world will present itself to you for its unmasking.” In a way, I follow Kafka’s advice every morning. After eating breakfast, I stay at the kitchen table and listen to music for 15 minutes or so—most often Bach or Mozart, Beethoven being a bit difficult to digest at that hour. I don’t read, I don’t puzzle over a math problem, I don’t wonder what we’ll do in physics that day. It’s difficult, but often I manage to do nothing but listen. And I am quite content.

This is strange because learning has always been the chief joy of my life. I have my nonintellectual pleasures—running and yogurt come to mind—but given the choice, I always devote my time to thinking. I have consistently refused to pick up a sport because I felt I needed the time for math. I spent last summer struggling to play Schumann and reading a biology textbook, and the summer before that at a small college in Massachusetts, studying mathematics for eight hours a day with 50 other nerds. So why am I so at peace in the one time of day when I am certain not to be learning about anything?

Part of it is simply what I’m listening to. I adore classical music. I love it so much that I sincerely believe that the rest of the world shares my enthusiasm for it, but that most people simply do not realize it yet. At the very least, I am convinced that deep down we all love Chopin. Beauty, order, complexity, mystery—the same things that draw me to mathematics and biology draw me to classical music. The primary different is that cleverness takes a back seat to emotion and intuition. It is hard to be more specific because all of the great composers have something different to offer, often several things at the same time; Brahm’s raw emotion expressed with the greatest refinement and discipline; Beethoven’s stormy sublimity, unimaginable beauty, and that famous “vision of infinity”; Mozart’s entirely different reality, a heaven of pure light; Bach’s majesty, grace, and clarity; it goes on. They were all geniuses of the highest order, towering over history, but they all created things greater and more perfect than themselves. They fulfilled the promise of humanity.

There is also something else going on, though, when I remain at my table. Classical music is the example I use to support a larger point that I feel I need to make to myself every morning. The world is very harsh, but also very big and very beautiful, with so many things to do and so much to explore that you’ll never run out of things to think about even when you can forget about your day-to-day concerns. You can learn all you want. It’s just that it isn’t easy: you’re not really discovering anything if it’s easy. You need to make it hard, to do something out of your reach, something new or frustrating. You have to throw yourself in the water and swim as hard and as fast as you can. And before you can go swimming—before the world can “present itself to you”—you need to take one last deep breath. You know you love to swim when you really relish that breath.

“Noah’s essay is well-crafted. It does a great job of demonstrating his writing skills, his intellectual capacity, his diverse interests, and his personality. His writing is an impressive balance of formal and casual—it connects with the reader while remaining professional. His descriptive writing about the composers shows how deep his passion really goes. This is someone you want to have a conversation with. You can hear his voice in the writing. I appreciate him showing different sides of his personality. For much of his time, he’s busy and productive. But those 15 minutes a day, where he takes time to enjoy something he loves, are extremely important to him as well. I’m particularly impressed with the way he can write about a love of classical music without coming across as supercilious. Rather, he’s funny and likeable. Making the larger point in the end of the essay, he shows that he has a great approach to a work-life balance that is necessary at a rigorous university.”

—Johns Hopkins Undergraduate Admissions Committee

Spring Instead of Summer—Jacqueline

Sometimes I had dreams of being in plane crashes with my twin brother, Matt.

We’re standing on the wing of a plane, balancing in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Matt is screaming, “No! I don’t want to jump! Where’s the water? Where’s the water?” A wave rushes over the wing and takes us under. Matt calls, “Jacqui!” reaches for my hand, and I wake up.

I know a lot about my backstory because it has shaped who I am and who I want to be. Knowledge of this story is necessary—I need to keep the words alive, even if time wants to quiet them. I know my story so that I do not forget, so that I can tell others.

My brother, Matt, is visually impaired and has autism. We were born in May instead of August, sixteen weeks early, during spring instead of summer. Of all the seasons, maybe we should have been born in winter. Matt and I clung together on the icy medical tables. Winter children, at home in the frost, trying to take air into translucent lungs.

The facts of our story are easy to tell. I can tell about the identical scars that run from our shoulder blades to our chests. How our doctors and parents looked at us, in our isolettes, with heavy eyes. About the five percent chance of survival that we beat, or the likelihood that Matt would never be able to see and I would never speak. I can tell others that I would not change our story—that I want to tell it throughout my lifetime, because it has a purpose. I can say that the dream of us clinging together on the plane wing in the middle of the Atlantic is a continuation of how I feel and who I am.

It’s harder, though, to tell of the pride I feel whenever my voice carries across the room. Nine years of voice therapy, nine years of learning how to project and nurture my one working vocal cord—I’m afraid people won’t understand. They might just think of it as a story with a nice ending. But my goal is not to tell a nice story—it is to make others feel something deep in their chests, like I do.

It’s even harder to share the very core of who I am; the fact that Matt and I are forever tied together with the story of how we were born. We are here for different reasons—mine to write and be his guide; his to make others happy, like he makes me. Where we come from and how we got here makes us who we are in this moment. That’s the purpose of our story; that’s what I want others to know.

My half of our story allows me to exist in a world that is parallel to Matt’s. Few others fit in his world—but I must. And my ability to fit into his world drives… everything. It makes me strive to see him smile, even if it’s a hint of one that appears when I tell him his socks are totally cool. It brings my dreams of plane crashes alive, so I can release those feelings into my writing, and truly be part of his world. I must fit into Matt’s world forever, and so I must be a good enough sister to tell his story.

My backstory makes me who I am—a writer, a guide, a sister. I am a girl standing on the wing of a plane, eager for my words to stretch to every continent. Eager for everyone to know my story.

“I often read essays where the student writes about someone who has influenced their life. Admissions officers want to get a better understanding of YOU. These essays can be tricky because there is a tendency to focus on the person who has influenced you, instead of focusing on how you have been changed. Jacqueline did a fantastic job of focusing on how her brother has shaped HER life. Her writing style is personable with vivid parallels and divergences between herself and her twin. The reader feels like they are on a journey through Jacqueline’s life in just a few hundred words. This essay captivated me with details that would not have shown up at any other point in the application. We get a sense of passion and purpose about her that reminds us of the energy Hopkins students bring to campus.”

—Johns Hopkins Undergraduate Admissions Committee