College Entry Essay

I am not like the typical college student. I migrated to the United States at the age of 12 with my family. Moving to the US at this age was quite challenging; however, it was nothing compared to the challenges I faced growing up in a third world country- India. I remember it vividly; the company that my father worked for shutting down, thus taking away my family’s only source of income.

Due to such economic instability, it was extremely difficult for my father to find another job. So, he decided to take a huge risk and invest in a family business of stationery materials. The long hours and stress weighed down my father, and greatly affected my entire family. Consequently, I had to work even harder to ensure the security of our family income.

Even though moving to a completely new country was extremely difficult, I cherished every moment of it. I was able to pursue opportunities that were unimaginable in India, such as a proper college education. Even though it was filled with hardship and adversity, my childhood taught me many valuable lessons, and allowed me to develop a tenacious work ethic. It helped become more determined and goal oriented, especially with regards to my education. Working at a young age not only instilled in me the important principles of discipline and hard work; it also taught me to view setbacks and obstacles as an opportunity to excel. This sense of motivation and discipline allowed me to obtain success in my academic career, both in Community College and UC Berkeley. Without it, I would have not been able to work part time while managing a full load of technical engineering courses every semester, earning a 3.85 GPA all the while helping my parents run a

As a part of the program, we were required to work at least 8 hours for the internship, however I enjoyed my work so much that I would work 12 hours everyday, and sometimes even on the weekends. I was also fortunate enough to sit in on a few upper division seminars on semiconductor devices, which was some of the most complex, yet fascinating material that I ever learned. Conducting research at UC Berkeley for 10 weeks was an amazing learning experience, especially with regards to solidifying my career path. I am more confident than ever about pursuing electrical engineering and computer science. Working with a group of graduate students to conduct important research for which I was able to achieve valuable results opened my eyes to the importance of academic research. Now I am certain that I want to obtain a PhD and conduct