The professor stood in the only illuminated part of the room. Behind him, there was a projected image of a patch of sky, dotted by thousands of lights.
"This is a photograph taken by the Hubble Space Telescope," he began. "Every single one of these lights you see is a galaxy."
My eyes widened at the thought. I had read enough on cosmology to know that the known universe was vast and populated with a near-infinite number of galaxies, each one made up of billions of stars. Furthermore, the light reaching us from these glowing furnaces is billions of light-years away and thus billions of years old. Hubble was gazing towards the very beginnings of the cosmos itself. Despite knowing this already, seeing actual images of these entities sent chills down my spine. Maybe it was a feeling of humble insignificance, or simply awe. But I knew that it was humanity's destiny and – by inclusion – mine too to explore this wondrous universe.
One could feel discouraged at these revelations. After all, we are just floating on a small ball of rock and metal in the middle of nowhere. Granted, this is the only place which we know of that harbors life. But who knows what else is out there? The fact that the universe is so large and that planets in other stellar systems are being discovered one after another indicates how ordinary we are. Nevertheless, I believe that what I do does matter, maybe not to the universe, but to me. Getting a good education is a crucial step towards studying the former for the sake of the latter.

One day, when I was walking home from school, I was approached by an old friend of mine. We had known each other since middle school, but grew apart after I moved. He was very friendly, however, making small talk and joking around. A bit too friendly, I thought. Soon, his face grew serious, and he said to me, “Kangyuan, I need your help.”
I didn't want to seem like a jerk, so I affirmed and asked him what he needed help with.
“Come here.” He motioned me to get closer and looked around nervously. At this point, I knew something wasn't right.
“You're smart, right?” He asked with a smile. “Here, take a look at this.”
He pulled out a folder. Within, there were several stapled-together pieces of paper with geometry problems on them. John explained that this was a take-home test. He wanted me to do it for him, in return for $50.
That was a lot of money, I thought. But was it worth it? What if we were discovered? Why can't he do it himself? I expressed my concerns. He assured me that it's completely secret, and that he will definitely pay me. He told me that he just wasn't smart enough. I told him that I had to think about it.
I had hoped that he would forget about it and not bother me about it again, but that wasn't the case. Almost every day, he'd ask me the same question, “are you going to do it?”
I gave in.
I still feel guilty about it. At first, I told myself that it was for the best. He needed the credits to graduate; I needed the money for my own purposes; some of the problems were indeed hard, and I doubt that he could have done it without me. But as time went by, I realized that he only cheated himself, and I was an accomplice. By 'helping' him, I harmed his future.
So, to my future roommate: don't expect me to always “do the right thing”, but please be forgiving.

There was a time when I did not think of how many 

Stanford University is prestigious; after all, it is called the “Ivy of the West”. So I visited Stanford University this summer, and took one of those tours for prospective students. The information I gained was very useful, and I got to see the beautiful campus firsthand. What made me decide to make Stanford my first choice, however, was not its prestige or pretty landscaping. Instead, the school's surroundings demonstrated to me Stanford's place in the rapidly progressing world of technology.
Silicon Valley revealed its inhabitants as I rode the freeway towards the university from my hotel. The office buildings of companies such as Sun, Oracle, and Yahoo flew pass me one by one. There must be a reason these giants of the high-tech world gathered here. When I returned to my hotel, which offered internet access, I decided to look into these companies.
Before, I had a vague idea of what Silicon Valley was, and even less knowledge of its origins. I found out that the valley was not, as I had thought, named so because it was rich in mineral deposits. No, it was because some very smart people, many of whom went to Stanford, used their knowledge and intelligence to push the world's technologies further with innovation, in a place that they were familiar with and made friends in. Stanford's presence is not a coincidence; Silicon Valley emerged because of the university's education of and investment in its students.
The twenty-first century will no doubt see even more progress than the one before it. I want to be a part of this, and attending Stanford University will help me in fulfilling this goal.

My eyes ached from staring at the screen for so long. The code was starting to become jumbled and inscrutable. But my fingers continued their work, writing symbol after symbol, line after line, procedure after procedure. I was close; too close to stop before the finish. When the last expression was entered, I promptly saved and opened up the terminal.
“ARGH!” I cried out as the error messages flooded the screen.