Carnegie Mellon — March 1st (Final)

Please provide a statement that addresses your reasons for transferring and the objectives you hope to achieve. (250–650 words)

I’ll be the first to say that Caltech is an amazing institution: the students here have an immense passion for learning that I had only dreamed of in high school. Yet, I can say with no hesitation, and no regrets, that it’s simply not the place for me.

At heart, I’m an explorer — whether it’s curiosity about the new city that surrounds me or a side project in machine learning, my passions extend far beyond the lecture hall. I’m more than just the hallmark Caltech scientist or mathematician. I’m the blogger who is dying to get his voice heard. I’m the food aficionado who wants to absorb the culture around him. I’m the silent philosopher who wants to sip tea over a socratic seminar.

Coming into college, my aim was to cultivate my interests with diverse and talented peers. I wanted to tap into the density of sheer intellect — something I knew I couldn’t count on for the rest of my life. These past two years have been an incredibly wild adventure; I’ve learned the true meaning of independence and gained an appreciation for what it means to work hard.

Through all this, Caltech has been unable to ignite my curiosity as vividly as I had hoped.

In pursuit of academic rigor and its focus on academia, Caltech throws students into a curriculum that places an imbalanced emphasis on the abstract over the tangible.

As a Computer Science major, I want to build — to empower. This means having the opportunity to step out of the dorm room. This means spending late nights building robots and collaborating with students all over the globe on real innovations — I want to make #5 on the physics set come alive, not simply solve a problem on paper.

You see, this obsession with bringing lessons from the classroom into reality isn’t new to me — I’ve always liked to tinker with things. I started by jailbreaking iPhones at a young age, and since then I can’t teach my fingers to stop typing. Whether it was exploring satellite data from Mars at the Jet Propulsion Lab or empowering non-profits through a startup in high school, I’ve continued to stretch my imagination at every step. I’ve realized that this next step will be on another campus, and I can’t wait to get to work.

I want to be part of a school that produces not only the best lab researchers, but also a community of visionaries, entrepreneurs, and leaders.

Please submit a one page, single-spaced essay that explains why you have chosen Carnegie Mellon and your particular major(s), department(s) or program(s).

It’s a strange world. In high school, we had to ask the teacher if we could excuse ourselves for the restroom. Just two years later, we are asked to make the biggest decision of our lives: the field we want to invest the rest of our lives in.

Personally, this transition was intuitive. I remember marveling at the computer graphics in old school street-fighter video games, interested more in how the pieces fit together than the final result. This sense of marvel has driven me again and again to look beyond the surface, propelling me into the field of Computer Science. I fundamentally believe that Computer Science has the lowest barriers of entry to innovation, especially in this day and age. It’s amazing to me that everyone and their grandma has access to world-class computing at their fingertips. Software is indeed eating the world.

I want to capitalize on the power and accessibility of innovation in industry, and I want to take risks immediately out of college. In simpler terms, I want to start my own company, combining my interests in machine learning and data analytics. Having co-founded a startup before, I’ve spent countless months learning lessons through my own eyes. I’ve made the mistakes when raising money or hiring candidates. One thing hasn’t changed: I’m undaunted and ready to work harder for this dream than ever before.

Working at Sequoia Capital, one of the biggest Venture Capital firms on Sand Hill Road, I am constantly introduced to the ugly side of Silicon Valley — the overwhelming majority of startups that fail. Some don’t have a team that’s passionate and willing to move quickly. Some don’t enter the field at the right time, or don’t think about the timeline in advance. Some don’t understand their target audience, or don’t have a clear product vision.

An institution like CMU provides the concentration of talent and vision in its students that’s perfect for entrepreneurship. Interwoven into CMU’s very mission is its relentless effort to makes students leaders in a global environment. Digging deeper, the diversity that CMU strives for both in the College of Engineering and on campus is crucial: college is a time where I hope to understand those I truly want to influence — the ‘target market’ so to speak. Whether it’s young children, medical students, or lab researchers, being in school gives me the time and resources to truly empathize with the issues of those around me.

Academics at CMU, much like Caltech, will undoubtedly challenge me. Yet, being a bigger institution, CMU will expose me to coursework that broadens my horizons and gives me valuable skills for my postgraduate goals. CMU’s catalog presents nearly limitless possibilities to take the most rigorous classes in robotics, machine learning, and most importantly: entrepreneurship.

Outside the realm of Computer Science, CMU’s strong humanities program and encouragement of interdisciplinary work will help me develop my latent interests in psychology and creative writing. Understanding consumer behavioral patterns, whether in reaction to user experience on website or in the physical word with a product, is extremely important to entrepreneurship. Similarly, creative thought will arm me with the communication skills to make a statement with my ideas and eloquently persuade venture capitalists and users.

Succinctly put, the academic caliber that CMU presents is a requirement in any Computer Science program; CMU’s true value comes in its encouragement to explore and break the traditional barriers of my major.

List the books (if any) you’ve read this year for pleasure. Choose one and in a sentence describe its impact on you.

The Fountainhead

Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince)- The Little Prince serves to remind me to break out of my limited perspectives and prioritize the things that we possess as young children: inquisitiveness and a desire to think outside the box.

Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap

Catch 22