I applied Early Decision at Carnegie Mellon University where I was accepted. The reason that I decided to apply to CMU was not only because it was a great prestigious university (especially for STEM majors like math, computer science, and machine learning, all which I’m interested in), but also because of the strong interdisciplinary focus. It was amazing in STEM, but also was really strong in the humanities and arts, which was something I was looking for as well.

I did a lot of research online before applying for what CMU had to offer me in terms of both education and other opportunities. I also attended an information session at school, where an admissions officer from CMU came as well. These helped me understand the school better before applying, but I also decided to talk to people in my community who had gotten into CMU in previous years. They told me a lot about their classes and opportunities that they had, and that helped me a lot in the application process and deciding to apply for Early Decision.

I applied to the Statistics and Machine Learning major in the College of Humanities, which was a really unique program. It is on a seemingly completely STEM and math based subject, but is an interdisciplinary major that covers math and computer science, two of my favorite subjects, and allows me to take humanities courses. It was honestly something really unique to CMU, and something lacking in a lot of other schools, which was a great fit for me.

It was also a major that really aligned with the extracurriculars that I had done. I have done a lot of math and science competitions over the years, starting with AMCs and Mathcounts in middle school, and later USACO and AIME. I have also attended various related summer programs, projects, and courses at college to further deepen my knowledge.

I started preparing pretty early in the application process, which I would recommend everyone do; it just makes things so much less stressful. In the summer I made a list of schools, and for the most part was pretty confident in applying Early Decision to CMU. I wrote my essays in August, but kept polishing them to make them better and better.

I was going to open it at home with my family, but I couldn’t resist and decided to open it in school, in my Biology class. I was super happy to see the acceptance, and I called my parents as soon as possible, and they were really excited to hear the news as well.

I think something that is important for everyone to do right, and what I think was the most important reason that I got into CMU was my story. I’ve been doing abacus and mental arithmetic for years now, and talking about my journey and the role of math in my life in my personal statement, tying it back to the rest of my application, was definitely one of the most compelling parts of my application and a big reason I got in. My biggest advice to anyone is to focus on their story, because I think that’s often an underrated part of people’s application.

I am looking forward to attending CMU; it’s genuinely the perfect fit for me, and I can’t wait to see what’s ahead.