Superposition: String and Music Theory: College Admission Essay Sample

My brain is in a superposition between string and music theory.

At any given moment, I am dedicating my full self to the growing popularity of cosmic rays…

When I visited Cornell over the summer, the first thing I noticed was that Cornell does not shove physics in the basement like other colleges. She has developed a community of physicists that is well-integrated into the rest of the university. For one, this is evident in the architecture and centralized placement of Cornell’s primary physics building. Clark Hall offers an incomparable environment for students to study and research in. Its harmonious atrium even includes Goldie’s coffee shop, which I would zealously patronize! Additionally, the university fosters the physics community with the Cornell Society of Physics Students. I’m not ashamed to say that I’d be the pesky guy that drags all his friends to the lecture on the cosmic microwave background.

…and the fight for jazz literacy…

Nothing satiates me more than improvising to Miles’s “Nardis” after a long week of school, but it can be hard to find other musicians to jam with. Cornell elegantly solves this problem with the JAM House. Jazz invigorates me not just through playing it, but through sharing it. Since there is no better way to share than to teach, I have formed and directed various combos. Few experiences match watching the progression from someone not being able to squeak out an improvised note to being able to comfortably solo to “Oleo” with modal lines. Accordingly, if jazz jamming is not a prevalent force in the JAM House community, I would strive to make it one, spreading the satisfaction of improvised soloing and melodic embellishment.

…from the dizzying speeds of positrons…

I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing a few particle accelerators over the past year, Cornell’s Electron Storage Ring (CESR) being one of them. Having a collider on campus would make me the envy of all my friends. Although the accelerator no longer runs electron-positron collisions, it still needs to be maintained for CHESS experiments. I want to aid in maintaining the accelerator in order to grow in skills in computational physics, accelerator operations, and circular synchrotron dynamics, effectively preparing me for a career in accelerator science. Moreover, the CESR facility has pushed the frontier of energy recovery linear acceleration, offering eager students (hint: me) unmatched studies in photon science. Through CLASSE, I have the opportunity to work in collaboration with scientists on the CMS at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland. Needless to say, Cornell is a particle physics Candyland.

…to also, in that same moment, the cultivation of Coltrane fans….

Cornell offers other outlets to spread the irresistible jazz bug. I am, of course, keen to join various jazz ensembles and combos, but these performances would only reach the audience that chooses to attend. Why stop there? Why not broadcast Jazz to the whole school? How? Jazzify the bells! As soon as I heard that students could be the “chimesmasters” of the tower, I had to update my bucket list. I have heard of Beatles and Joplin tunes being played from the top McGraw tower, but there seems to be a missed opportunity here. Jazz standards often have seasonal titles like “Autumn Leaves”, “Joy Spring”, “I’ll Remember April”, and “Summertime”. If I was a chimesmaster, I think, with some cajoling, these songs could be played in accordance with seasonal changes. I know its trivial, but something about this idea is romantic!

…but right now, I’m dedicated to sipping a dirty chai with foam and half and half, listening to Bill Evans, somewhere in the atrium of Clark Hall.