Bio of the Author

Hi! I'm Muhammad, and attended Lakewood High School from 2020-2024, starting in the COVID year. I was born in Queens, NY, and moved around a lot growing up, including moving to Jakarta, Indonesia, and living there for two years. I am a Muslim Indonesian-American and call many different communities home. I am also a low-income student and a second-generation immigrant, meaning that the college application process was very difficult for me. 

In middle and high school, I thoroughly enjoyed learning about everything STEM, specifically Math and Physics. I took the most challenging classes that were offered at Lakewood, including IB HL Math, IB Physics SL, and AP Physics Calculus Mechanics. 

A little about my passions: I love to play volleyball and spike ball; I love to make things, so art, sewing, and crocheting are very big things for me; I also love to help people and organize events, leading me to be a Link Leader for two years and working with amazing peers and faculty to help incoming freshmen transition to high school. 

Back to colleges, as a low-income student and a second-generation immigrant, applying to colleges was especially difficult for me, but I was able to take advantage of numerous resources that have allowed me to be accepted to Yale University. I applied using the Questbridge application, and though I was a National College Match Finalist, I sadly was not able to match with any schools. This led me to apply using Questbridge Regular Decision which allowed me to get into multiple remarkable schools (like Yale and Northwestern) and waitlisted at other prestigious institutions (Cornell, Northeastern, Rice, and WashU). I hope I can make the confusing and stressful process of college applications easier for future students!