As early as elementary school, Jacqueline Hayre-Pérez started asking questions about teachings in her church, and she was a frequent visitor to the dean’s office throughout middle and high school.

From the start, Roxanne Harris wanted to attend a college that could accommodate and develop her varied interests and passions. She wanted to study computer science, but was passionate about the alto saxophone.

Spencer Hagaman applied to twenty-three colleges, but says that he is glad he ended up at Yale. Born and raised in Huntington Beach, California, he graduated from a public high school of about sixteen hundred students, where he was an International Baccalaureate student, varsity tennis captain, and student council vice president.

“It was a little overwhelming to try to capture the entirety of my four years in one essay,” Meghanlata Gupta says.

Hailing from Yaoundé, Cameroon, Fred Ebongue is still unsure about what he wants to study. But he has nevertheless enjoyed several focused passions at Yale.

Catherine de Lacoste-Azizi says that her high school career was disorganized but, more importantly, outspoken. A lot of her extracurricular activities involved her voice: She started a competitive speech and debate club, took part in an a cappella group, and starred in seven musicals.

In high school, Cosette Davis was, she says, “that kid who did everything.” At a small high school in Queens, New York, she was involved in almost all of the school’s extracurricular offerings—from dance groups to marine biology research.

Allison Chen believes that who she is today is a consequence of two main factors: Her Chinese upbringing and her love for Spanish culture, which she developed in middle school.

Ko Lyn Cheang hails from Singapore, but she knew early on that there was more to her future than settling down in her home country.

Pascale Bradley had Yale on her radar long before she was old enough to apply. Her mom graduated from Yale in 1988, and Pascale knew that she was interested in attending a school with a high academic profile.