Notes

Greetings from the Garden State!

I would like to thank you for considering my application in the Regular Decision round and placing me on the waitlist. I appreciate this opportunity to reiterate that UChicago remains my top choice.

What makes me want to study halfway across the country at UChicago? Before I could see the big picture, I was enticed by the little things. The mailers I was sent, brimming with witty cat puns and personalized with my name in the Fette Fraktur typeface, allowed me to stop and take a moment to smile amidst an often hectic application season. Fond memories of The College, recounted by my mentor, finally induced me to visit a university so far from home. However, it was the compassion, dedication, and zest for intellectualism that electrified the windy UChicago air that kept me wanting to come back. I never thought that I would be able to leave home to go somewhere so far until I realized that this felt like home. I could devour literature at the Reg with the same fervor as I do at the library down the street. I could explore art and history at the Oriental Institute just like I do at the Met on weekends. I could exercise at Ratner or Crown with a trainer akin to my high-school gym.

But college life is also accompanied by change. It has to be, or there is no room for learning and improvement. With a major in Political Science and a minor in Human Rights, I will be able to challenge myself like never before, taking classes such as “Youth Law and Policy” with Professor Hammond and “Human Rights in Mexico” with Professor Gzesh.

The classes I have taken this year, in conjunction with my extracurricular activities, have sufficiently prepared me for the rigor of these classes. Spending weeks examining New Jersey’s Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying Laws in my “LGBTQ+” class alongside my work as an Adult Youth Advisor for the Youth Drop-In at the Pride Center of New Jersey has thoroughly prepared me for a course such as “Youth Law and Policy” with Professor Hammond. In addition to taking a class entitled “History of Latin America” in the fall, I recently spent a week at the border near El Paso, Texas. There, I spoke to a multitude of experts on the immigration system, including lawyers, border patrol, and judges. I was also able to gain the perspective of other people intricately involved with the immigration system like refugees, former undocumented migrants, authors, migrant workers, local residents, and an environmental scientist. The background that I received in this trip as well as the class I took will allow me to properly engage in a course such as “Human Rights in Mexico” with Professor Gzesh.

UChicago is the perfect place for me to grow over the next four years because the emphasis on intellectual pursuits as well as free and open discourse demonstrates that learning is valued for its sake. Education here is unfettered by excessive competition, pretense, or elitism. At UChicago, more significance is given to questions than to answers, scholarship than to status, and dedication than to a degree. At UChicago, time and again I will have the opportunity to ask the most important of questions: why?

That is why I hope to join the class of 2023 (or ‘24) soon. After all, for senior superlatives, my classmates did vote me most likely to win a Nobel Peace Prize!