MERAKI
DIGEST
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“It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it.”
－ Oscar Wilde
Maybe The Real College Was the Friends We Made Along the Way
Before coming to the States, I envisioned my life as an international student to be exciting, thrilling at times, and adventurous. Sure, there are days when I’m making all sorts of friends and trying my best to remember everyone’s names, but there are also days when I feel so discouraged and overwhelmed by all the social interactions that I’ll go through my entire day without saying a single word. Ultimately, though, I was able to get through the rough times when I learned that simply doing what you love is what brings loving people around you.
“I Can Get a Letter of Recommendation from the Dalai Lama”
Letters of Recommendation: Who should I ask?
Less Is More
Extracurricular Activities: Depth vs. Breadth
Top 10 Questions We Get Asked about the SAT
Test Prep: To SAT or Not to SAT?
My interview ended so quickly! Am I getting rejected?
College Interviews: How long should they last?
Heed Hanlon not Holmes: Don't Psyche Yourself Out
Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by incompetence: this is Hanlon’s razor. Add this to your inventory. Level it up. Master it.
You don’t need to shave to understand how a good shave and a good social life ain’t so different. Both are all about “saving face”, each requiring both steady nerves and a clear view or reflection of the situation. College is full of “situations”...
College Essay Writing: Baby Steps for the First Draft
If you were to gather snapshots of yourself at different points in time, no snapshot would be the same. You might be hanging out with different people. You would be preoccupied with a different set of concerns. You might be dreaming different daydreams. Just two cross-sections of yourself at different times are enough to make the backbone of an essay.
College: The 4 Best Years of Your Life on Purpose
The college experience we all hear about is more than the sum of the college experiences we hear all about. The clarity of the picture in mind often determines whether something is a defining brushstroke vs. a nigh-ruinous splatter.
The Point of the Personal Statement: A Self-Portrait and Rite of Passage
When faced with applicants of otherwise equal qualifications, colleges use personal statements—which showcase your values, insight, emotional maturity—as a tiebreaker. Your essays will tell admissions officers what matters to you, why they matter to you, and what kind of friend you would be to a fellow classmate.
Atlas of the Heart
When I decided to major in Cognitive Systems at University of British Columbia, I was baffled by how this intensely multidisciplinary program could encompass seemingly disparate fields from computer science to psychology to linguistics. It was only in my fifth year that I was able to start drawing pathways connecting these nodes which I had thought were wildly different. Like filling in a blank map, I realized that with every experience, good and bad, I was coming to a greater understanding of my mind and my soul—I was charting the atlas of my heart…
The Girl Who Lived Freshman Year Twice
Everyone obsesses over college rankings, and they’re the reason I ended up transferring from UC Irvine to UCLA. After I transferred, however, I realized that I had left something precious behind, something even more important than number rankings...
Winning is Everything
Why Your Race Does Affect College Admissions
How many minorities does it take to achieve school diversity?
With affirmative action likely to be obliterated next summer, emotions are running pretty high, with some celebrating the end of what seemed like an unfairly discriminatory measure that punished certain people (Asians) for their success and others lamenting that the loss of diversity would be a devastating blow to students of all races.
Trick-or-Treat? More Like Fight-or-Flight
In the room I stood paralyzed. My vision struggled to adjust to the endless darkness surrounding me while the voice in my brain yelled, ‘GET ME OUT OF HERE, NOW.’
Founder’s Message
“What should I read?”