By: Undergraduate Applicant 3
Subject: Succesful USA Today Scholarship

USA TODAY
A person is educated if they constantly strive to attain knowledge while simultaneously recognizing that they know very little about the nature of the universe. As a result, I am educated now, yet if I ever were to lose my desire to doggedly pursue knowledge and understanding, I would immediately be uneducated, despite the number of years of research and study that I have done during my life. Thus, to be truly educated, I must die devoted to understanding.

Vital to determining when a person is educated is understanding the nature of education. First of all, education is the pursuit of knowledge, not a goal that can be reached after a set number of years of doctoral study. Consequently, a person, no matter how much they know, can never stop learning because they have already attained "education." Instead, people are educated when they wholeheartedly devote their lives to understanding what they do not comprehend. As a result, I, a person with a strong will to understand, am more educated than a professor who dislikes his subject matter or a scientist who invents new technology, patents it, and then quits his job so that he/she can live off the patent's profits.

For example, in physics, my area of future studies, many men and women died always searching for more understanding. These people, like Einstein, Curie, and Bohr, are truly educated since they dedicated themselves to the pursuit of knowledge till death. Physics also has its share of people who nearly ended their education to experience a windfall of profits from minor discoveries. Ernest Rutherford, for instance, nearly dedicated his early life to making money from advancing radio technology. However, luckily for civilization, another scientist, Nobel Laureate J.J. Thomson, told Rutherford that he cannot serve God and Mammon at the same time. Rutherford immediately left the business of making money and within fifteen years earned a Nobel Prize and discovered the structure of the atom. He died committed to learning and understanding. Studying and advancing understanding till death is the unmistakable mark of an educated man.

Clearly, education is a constant pursuit, and the educated person devotes his entire life to this quest for knowledge. Thus, I know that I am educated as long as I never give up attempting to understand the universe. However, inseparable from this definition of an educated person, is the realization that no people, at least during my lifetime, can claim that they possess all knowledge and that their knowledge is irrefutable. Instead, educated people recognize how little they know when they gaze up at the night's stars, when they stare at the ocean, or even when they look at other people and animals. This complete uncertainty born out of not knowing how atoms could ever form mountains and life and of not understanding how the universe was born must lead the educated person to redouble his/her efforts to understand as much as possible. Moreover, this uncertainty must make the educated person have a mind open to new ideas and explanations.

People like Einstein, for example, had to overcome the once accepted notions that distance, time, and speed are absolutes. Einstein, a model of an educated man, proved to society that its closed-minded explanations of the universe were wrong and that time, length, and speed are relativistic. Similarly, Galileo, a man committed to understanding, was excommunicated for his heretical belief that the earth revolved around the sun. Thus, the educated person is committed to the pursuit of knowledge, has a mind open to new theory, and never subordinates the truth to an authority's dictate.

Personally, I know I am educated as long as I remain tenaciously determined to understanding the world and to maintaining an open mind. Of course, this goal of remaining educated will lead me to Harvard next year and to a doctorate in physics in another university. However, these are just signs of an educated person. To be truly educated, I must be committed to learning my entire life and to making new discoveries in science, whether or not they contradict accepted theory. Education cannot be measured by the number of degrees a person has earned. Instead, education is a mind set that must last one's entire life. If, at the moment of my death, I am still dedicated to grasping misunderstood concepts, I can say that I am truly educated, as Einstein, Rutherford, and Galileo were before me.

By: Undergraduate Applicant 4
Subject: Succesful National Merit Scholar Winner

WINNING NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLAR ESSAY
Nothing in all the world is comparable to reading Ayn Rand beneath New York's skyline or to studying Nietzsche atop a mountain summit.

Since childhood, the studies of philosophy and science have interested me profoundly. Having read many books on relativity, quantum mechanics, existentialism, religion, capitalism, democracy and post-Aristotelian philosophy, my quest for knowledge has only intensified. Certainly, the purpose of my life is to discover a greater understanding of the universe and its people. Specifically, I plan to better grasp the interrelationship among forces, matter, space, and time. In addition, I hope to find a unified field theory and a convincing explanation for the birth of the universe.

During the summer of tenth grade, I took a number theory course at Johns Hopkins University with students from Alaska, California, and Bogota, Colombia. My attendance of the New Jersey Governor's School in the Sciences is another accomplishment that exemplifies my dedication to knowledge. During the summer following eleventh grade, I took courses in molecular orbital theory, special relativity, cognitive psychology, and I participated in an astrophysics research project. For my independent research project, I used a telescope to find the angular velocity of Pluto. With the angular velocity determined, I used Einstein's field equations and Kepler's laws to place an upper bound on the magnitude of the cosmological constant, which describes the curvature of space and the rate of the universe's expansion.

In addition to learning science, I recently lectured physics classes on special relativity at the request of my physics teacher. After lecturing one class for 45 minutes, one student bought many books on both general and special relativity to read during his study hall. Inspiring other students to search for knowledge kindles my own quest to understand the world and the people around me.

Also, as president of the National Honor Society, I tutor students with difficulties in various subject areas. Moreover, I am ranked number one in my class, and I am the leading member of the Math Team, the Academic Team, and the Model Congress Team. In the area of leadership, I have recently received the Rotary Youth Leadership Award from a local rotary club and have been asked to attend the National Youth Leadership Forum on Law and the Constitution in Washington D.C. Currently enrolled in Spanish 6,I am a member of both the Spanish Club and the Spanish Honor Society.

As student council president, I have begun a biweekly publication of student council activities and opinions. Also, the executive board under my direction has opened the school store for the first time in nearly a decade and is finding speakers to speak at a series of colloquia on topics ranging from physics to politics. Directing fund raisers and charity drives also consumes much of my time. For instance, I recently organized a charity drive that netted about $1,500 for the family of a local girl in need of a heart transplant.

Consistent with my love of freedom and my belief in democracy, which is best summarized by Hayek's Road to Serfdom, I have recently initiated an application to become the liaison to the local board of education. Also, in keeping with my belief that individuals develop strong principles and ideology, I teach Sunday school three months a year and have chaperoned for a local Christian school.

Outside pure academics and leadership roles, I lift weights five times a week for an hour each day. In addition, I play singles for my school's varsity tennis team. Because I find extraordinary satisfaction in nature and have dedicated my life to its understanding, I enjoy mountain climbing. Among the notable peaks I have reached are Mt. Washington, Mt Jefferson, Mt. Madison, Mt. Marcy and Mt. Katahdin. Unquestionably, my life's aim is to dramatically raise the height of the mountain of knowledge so that my successors may have a more accurate view of the universe around them.