Don’t let your parents determine your career path

It’s up to you, not your parents, to decide what you do with both this summer and the rest of your life There’s something about going home for the summer that initially seems so satisfying. It’s been about two months since your last break, and you’ve just finished a grueling round of finals, so you…

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Giving credit where credit is due

Student Studying

As I headed into this semester’s midterms, I tried to figure out how I was going to study for my four exams. The stress of the semester had culminated in the challenge of attempting to ready myself for my tests while keeping up with regular class work, as well. Most of this semester has been…

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Why reunions?

This Memorial Day weekend, I return to New Haven for the Class of 1989’s 30th reunion. This will be my sixth class reunion. And because my wife is a member of the Class of 1988 and I have accompanied her to several reunions, I can safely say that I have been to at least ten…

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Writing Never Gets Easier — That’s the Point

You’re sitting in Bobst Library between classes, being the responsible student that you are and actually using your only break of the day to start that essay due at 8 a.m. tomorrow. But almost immediately, you find that your brain decides to fry itself and forget the entire English lexicon. You end up staring at…

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When the dust settles

one way or another road signs

I guess I can start by telling you I graduated from college a few weeks ago, which is a pretty big accomplishment considering I got rejected from every university I applied to out of high school. Actually, that’s not entirely true. I had originally been accepted to San Jose State as a music major, and…

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Reflections on Navigating the High School Admission Process

It typically begins in seventh grade. Sometime in March or April. Unfamiliar feelings. Wandering eyes. Vague insecurities. Burgeoning cases of FOMO, or the “fear of missing out.” A dim awareness that other people are watching you, wondering what you’re thinking. This isn’t the first sign of puberty. These are not the hormone-induced emotions of fragile…

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Acknowledge the narratives of black students at Penn

Studding

Why I decided to join The Daily Pennsylvanian The art of being black at a predominantly white institution isn’t always pretty. It is noting the experiences you have that others do not, simply because of the color of your skin, whether those experiences bring tears of grief or joy. It is searching the school newspaper’s…

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When Your NYU Community Doesn’t Respect You

NYU is the first community I have truly chosen to be a part of. I love this community and the people in it. I smile at people in my dorm’s elevator. When I share a table with someone in Kimmel, I strike up conversation. In every NYU student, I see someone whom I share an…

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