• At the University of Michigan, we are focused on developing leaders and citizens who will challenge the present and enrich the future. In your essay, share with us how you are prepared to contribute to these goals. This could include the people, places, experiences, or aspirations that have shaped your journey and future plans. (100–300 words)
• Describe the unique qualities that attract you to the specific undergraduate college or school (including preferred admission and dual degree programs) to which you are applying at the University of Michigan. How would that curriculum support your interests? (100–550 words)

I wanted to understand the dynamics of what I was witnessing. AP Macroeconomics helped me explore how inflation, interest rates, and labor market shifts strain households with the least financial cushion. In AP Microeconomics, I examined how market failures and trade-offs restrict access to essentials like food, housing, and healthcare. AP Statistics trained me to question the data behind poverty metrics, who is excluded, which assumptions compress lived experience, and where averages conceal instability.

Outside the classroom, I sought academic opportunities that would help me understand economic inequality more deeply. Through the High School Fed Challenge, I analyzed real-time indicators and developed policy recommendations, tracing how national decisions reverberate through working-class communities. Competing in the National Economics Challenge also sharpened my ability to evaluate trade-offs under time pressure. My independent research on cost-of-living pressures explored how rising expenses compound for families already operating at the margins, reinforcing cycles that are difficult to escape.

These experiences shaped how I approach leadership, with responsibility directed toward those most exposed to systemic risk. In a United States marked by widening wealth gaps, housing insecurity, and fragile social mobility, I aim to challenge systems that normalize scarcity.

I hope to help design and evaluate policies that reduce economic precarity by improving access to work, housing, and healthcare, while remaining attentive to how those decisions affect people living one disruption away from crisis. (292 words)

I was repairing a failing hinge on a homemade bike trailer my family used to haul supplies. The original design flexed under load, twisting just enough to jam the wheel. Each fix revealed something concrete: how material thickness affects stiffness, how forces travel through joints, how small tolerances determine whether a system holds or fails. I didn’t have the vocabulary yet, but I was learning mechanics through trial, error, and bruised knuckles.

That process—building, testing, revising—pulled me toward mechanical engineering. I became fascinated by how physical systems translate ideas into motion, and how thoughtful design can turn constraints into solutions. Over time, frustration gave way to curiosity. I began sketching before cutting, measuring twice, and asking why a design behaved the way it did, rather than forcing it to work.

At the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering, I hope to pursue mechanical engineering as the discipline that can turn that instinct into expertise. ENGR 100 (Introduction to Engineering) appeals to me for its early emphasis on hands-on design, while ME 240 (Dynamics) and ME 250 (Thermodynamics) would formalize my understanding of motion and energy. I’m especially drawn to ME 211 (Solid Mechanics), where material behavior is studied with the rigor I’ve long wanted to apply to my own builds.

Beyond coursework, I’m excited by UMichigan’s project-driven engineering culture. Teams like MRover and Formula SAE mirror how I learn best: designing, manufacturing, and testing complex systems under real constraints. Iterating on suspension geometry, drivetrain efficiency, or structural integrity alongside a team reflects the collaborative problem-solving I value most.

I’m also interested in research through the Walter E. Lay Automotive Laboratory, where Prof. André Boehman studies alternative fuels, combustion, and emissions systems, and Prof. Anna Stefanopoulou leads work on battery diagnostics and powertrain control for next-generation vehicles. Their research aligns with my interest in how efficiency, durability, and energy use shape the affordability and sustainability of transportation. At the Wilson Student Team Project Center, building and testing full-scale prototypes would challenge me to evaluate safety, performance, and long-term reliability in environments where failure is instructive, not theoretical.

What excites me most about Michigan Engineering is its emphasis on collaboration. Mechanical systems don’t exist in isolation, and neither do the engineers who design them. Through team-based projects, I want to strengthen my ability to communicate design intent, weigh competing ideas, and build solutions that hold up because they’ve been tested from every angle.

Looking ahead, I hope to work in mechanical design or systems engineering to expand access to clean energy in communities most affected by pollution and energy insecurity. By designing efficient thermal systems, robust energy-storage components, and scalable renewable-energy hardware, I want to help reduce household energy costs while contributing to a more equitable energy transition. (515 words)

I didn’t save the library, but I did discover something I haven’t been able to let go of since: the gap between what matters to people and what makes it into official policy.

That gap continues to drive my intellectual curiosity today. It’s why I spent three summers archiving old shipwreck records at the Edgeport Maritime Museum, why I built a timeline tracing how child labor protests in 1913 shaped Maine’s labor laws, and why I sit on my district’s Policy Review Committee asking questions like, “Who isn’t this serving?”

At Michigan’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, I see a place where my curiosity won’t be boxed into a single discipline. I like that LSA encourages students to cross boundaries—like combining History and Political Science with data analysis through the Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences program.

I can already imagine myself taking courses like HIST 111: The American Past I and HIST 112: The American Past II, building a richer understanding of how historical patterns continue to shape today’s legislative decisions. I can pair those courses with STATS 250: Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis, to strengthen my ability to interpret data and ask sharper questions about policy impacts. I want to understand what happened in the past and also measure and evaluate how those patterns continue to influence the present.

I’m interested in the Michigan in Washington Program, which can give me the chance to spend a semester applying what I learn in Ann Arbor to real-world policy research in D.C. There, I can learn more about how policies are written, aside from how they affect people’s daily lives. I can already picture myself combing through congressional archives, interviewing community leaders, or contributing to policy briefs on education access or labor rights.

Beyond coursework, I’m inspired by the practical, student-led work coming out of the Program in Practical Policy Engagement. Whether evaluating city-level reforms or working alongside local governments to improve services, UMich students are learning how to move from theory to action. That’s exactly the kind of environment I’ve been looking for—a place where I can sharpen both my academic and civic skills, preparing me to turn research into meaningful change.

Long term, I hope to work in legislative advocacy, helping shape public policies that expand access, whether to education, fair labor protections, or civic participation. I know that understanding history is key to building better laws, and that data alone isn’t enough unless you know how to ask the right questions.

At UMich, I see the chance to develop both the analytical tools and the civic imagination to do that work well. Because after studying how policies are made, I also want to stand in the rooms where they’re written and make sure those decisions are driven by the people they’re meant to serve. (544 words)