My World of Engineering: College Admission Essay Sample

Before signing up for Computer Science, I had never seen what a code looked like. But suddenly, I found myself fluent in the language of Python. While the other students stewed n frustration, for me, everything had clicked.

It wasn’t until a few months into my Computer Science class that I understood how my new skills fit into the world I come from: a world of engineering. My father had always been one to push my interest in all things machine-related. Though an unemployed mechanical engineer, he always gave me the best he could in whatever endeavor I decided to chase after. When I struggled with truss calculations in Engineering, he was more than happy to learn simple mechanics all over again. He’d sit Googling for about twenty minutes before calling me over to explain. Every time he elaborated on a new concept, a twinkle of passion would appear in his eyes. The more lessons he explained, the more mesmerized I became with everything about the world of engineering. And it wasn’t long until I felt the same twinkle.

Much like my father, my mother also encouraged my interest in engineering. However, her approach was unlike those of other parents. Instead of falling asleep to bedtime stories about trolls and princesses, I got to fall asleep to the sounds of her conference calls. Most nights, I wouldn’t even fall asleep: I would recline on her bed listening to the jargon of electrical engineers. Some nights she would even be my dictionary through her meetings.“AR. That means action requires.” My mother knew I was fascinated by her job, so she never failed to take me to her annual Kid-to-Work day. There she would show me her lab, a place I saw as a toy shop. She would point out JBERTs, oscilloscopes, and signal generators. As she demonstrated how the generators increased the amplitude of the input signal, she never failed to increase my interest in engineering as well.

Along with my parents, the youngest member of my family also contributed to my interest in engineering. My brother was always a curious child. As a result of his curiosity, multiple appliances in the house would either end up broken or half-functional. In fear of the consequences he would face with our parents, he would approach me—broken appliance in hand, tears carefully placed in eyes, and an irresistible puppy dog face. So then it would be me who would spend hours mending everything from clocks and calculators to cellos and chairs. My infatuation with engineering would grow every time I saw his face as I returned his product back to him. The more items he broke, the more I began to take an interest in the subtleties of everyday devices.

So as I sat listening to a lecture on big data application in Computer Science, I realized all the things that had contributed to my world of engineering. My fluency in Python came as no surprise. It was part of a language that I had spoken, in different forms, all my life.