College Admissions Essay: Sixth Grade School

I used to excel in math, making over a 95 on all my report cards, passing every test, and understanding everything so clearly, while others struggled. In my junior year of high school, I started to burn out, and I couldn’t keep up in any classes, especially math. In fact, my junior year was the year I took Pre-AP Pre-Calculus. If I had only gotten the hang of it then, I wouldn’t be writing to you today. My senior year I tried my hand at AP BC Calculus. Because I did not completely understand Pre-calculus, I failed miserably in AP BC Calculus, and only barely passed for the year.

My passion for mathematics was fixed at the age of ten, on the morning that my mathematics teacher told I would be sitting the Junior Maths Challenge, 'as practice for when you are older'. As I nervously started to answer the questions, a whole world began to open before me. I revelled in the problem solving, answering questions of a nature I had not seen before. My teachers were delighted when I emerged from the exam hungry for more. Since then I have consistently demonstrated my aptitude, achieving gold awards through to senior level, and scoring highly in the European Kangaroo.

After all, math was one of my best subjects. I had never really had an experience where I just couldn't understand the concept of a math problem, of how it was solved and why. Our teachers has warned us back in elementary school, that one day we would hit an invisible wall and not ease through classes. That one day we would struggle with understanding a problem, a concept or even a subject. I had never believed them, thinking this would never happen to me, that I could somehow avoid this wall of confusion and just walk right through. But there I was, utterly confused and frustrated at a simple problem that everyone else could solve. Why was I not seeing it? Why couldn't I understand the solution? I asked myself. For the first time in my life I really struggled to get an A in a class. I had my sister tutor me almost every day, preparing for a quiz and then the next, and the next. I came in to my teacher for lunch and he helped me step by step. I studied for tests, and worked hard. And my work payed off. I got a high A in the course, and a lot of experience from it. It taught me how to work hard for something, to earn a good grade when you deserve it, and it gave me the skills I needed to get As in the high school classes I am taking this

Before the 6th grade, I really enjoyed math and I believed I was even good at it. Then to add to my excitement about math, I made a perfect score on my 6th grade Taks test. However, the next year (my 7th grade year) my teacher was a new teacher and you could tell she was struggling. She was a very nice teacher, and I loved her so much, I just struggled to understand what she was teaching. The next year, I transferred to a new school. Here, the teachers were not certified but they tried to help with everything they possibly could; however, their ability to help us was pretty limited. At my new school, we did all of our work on computers for half of the day and attended college classes at Panola and TSTC the rest of day. While I truly loved this

Back in elementary school, I generally had a great distaste for everything science; I preferred math. Science seemed too simple and I disapproved of the slow-moving pace. One day a year the school hosted Science Matters Day, my favorite people, Scientists, were invited to visit; they brought all kinds of fun activities. One of my favorite memories of all has to be the day they made a hard-boiled egg sink into a bottle. The experiment was still simple, but it was different from anything we had ever done before. This experiment included the use of a flame to produce heat and create pressure. I thought it was interesting, and I was hooked.

There have been many factors that have contributed to me being a freshman at Umass this year. They ranged from my grades to the influences from people around me. Now that I made a list about different contexts I can now see how everything might be connected. The overlaying things that had the a real effect on my outcome as a now freshman at Umass Amherst. The contexts that I layed out for myself gave me a better understanding of what some of the specifics were. Two points that stood out to me was my education and Nationality. Being a college freshman at Umass is due largely to how both of these contexts interacted with each other. Having a solid educational foundation is important to get into any college. I was lucky enough to grow up in a

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Imagine waking up early one day to your alarm clock screeching like a banshee. You climb out of bed and immediately fall onto the ground, exhausted from school the day before. The coaches made you run three whole miles! I know, I can’t believe it either! You pick your lifeless body up off of the ground and stumble to the bathroom. You check your phone for the time and scream in frustration. You can practically hear the Psycho theme music playing in the back of your head. Setting your alarm for six o’clock in the morning was a huge mistake. You got out of bed for absolutely no reason. It’s Saturday.

Throughout my life I have always been called a bright person, a reader, and an Einstein. When I was younger, I read many picture books such as Dr. Seuss and Dragon Tales and tried reading them to my younger siblings but they wouldn't cooperate. I was extremely fascinated about history and loved to play around if I was in that time period. For example, I pretended to be President Washington marching along the kitchen and even though my family didn't know much about him as they were from Colombia, they said I would make an amazing president one day. In elementary school I worked ahead of the other children and was made fun of for that but I didn’t care. Before middle I took a test that put me in an advanced math class so I can work at a much faster pass.Trust me, it was not as bad as I thought it would be so in my three years I worked hard and helped others understand the concepts of what we are learning in

Passion is necessary to excel. Once someone loses desire or motivation for something it becomes quite difficult to continue doing well in that field. I went through a crisis of lost motivation in my first two years of high school.

Born in a country where education is poor, life is hard, and opportunities are very rare, I was fortunate to come with my family to the U.S in search for a better future. I was only eight years of age when my family had to go through much hardship in order to bring my brother and I to this country. My good fortune was accompanied by many challenges such as learning English, getting to know a wide variety of diverse people and adapting to my new environment. It was a hard beginning for me, making it difficult to find the road I was looking for. The people that really support me in every struggle I have experienced ever since I was born are my parents who were and continue to be my biggest influence. I am blessed to have such a supportive and

My past, present, and future. This is the journey of my life. Where I’ve been, where I’m at, and where I’m going. My journey began on July 28, 2000, at St. Margret’s South Hospital in Dyer, Indiana. Lance Collins who is a paramedic, and Christine Collins who is a registered nurse, became the proud parents of the 6lb. 9oz. 21 inch long baby boy, who they named Liam Hunter Collins. On November 30, 2002, I became a big brother when my sister Taylor Collins was born. I have been a lifelong resident of Northwest Indiana and I’ve had some pretty amazing adventures and accomplishments so far. I became a proud pet owner when my bichon frise Max, came to live with us on April 5th, 2006. On June 30, 2006 my dad took me to my very first Taekwondo lesson. I quickly fell in love with martial arts, I worked really hard, dedicated myself, and I received the rank of 1st degree black belt when I was only eight years old. I have been playing

I live in a society where education rules, and as I am entering my nineteenth year of existence, the world I live in has education on its highest pedestal ever. It’s no secret that high school presents every American boy or girl with a four year battle of the brains. The purpose of high school; to prepare you for college. For some, it’s simple enough to do every homework assignment, study for every test, and get A's in every class. For others, they require a spark. This could be a spark of imagination, love, passion, interest, or maybe a simple reality check. As for me, I needed a spark. I needed to “fail” at high school.

In the ninth grade, I took a double-blocked honors geography class, and in my first semester I received a B. If I am to be completely honest, I struggle greatly with mathematics. The abundance of theorems, formulas, and steps really confuse me. In my first semester of ninth grade year we worked on geometrical proofs for a good amount of the time and I never was able to grasp the concept and procedures that were needed to understand them. That semester I fell behind on homework, tests, and studying because of how frustrated I was at the fact that I did not understand the process. Halfway through the semester, I stayed up all night for a test, and did not put my book down until I understood every single thing in the chapter. I gave myself countless

I think almost every year is anything exciting going to happen? I have never loved school until this year! Fourth grade is amazing. We get to learn and have fun!

  Ever since I was a little boy I would draw and create scenes of combat in imaginary cities with my toys.  I would create angles and all sorts of perspectives to add effect.  Creating was a part of me, I even made a plan for a reform of my elementary school’s backyard and it ended up getting approved and a playground that I had mentioned in my letter was built and running in a couple of years. I say all of this to mention just some of my reasons for choosing architecture.   I think it allows me the ability to speak to a larger crowd through ideas and a building.  I wanted to be an architect at a relatively old age, growing up I knew I wanted to do something where I would engage my environment, engage people, and create something.