"Between the Pages" -- Period 4

W8, #6: With Time Comes Wisdom

Your dream college happens to believe the making 'mistakes' is an important part of evolving as a person and student.  In fact, the only application essay question they want you to answer is as follows:

Part 1: Tell a brief story of a time when you allowed a rumor or an assumption of a rumor to negatively affect your thinking/decision process.  Note: it does not have to be 'about' you.  It could have just been something you heard and initially believed. 

Part 2: Follow it up by explaining how after enough time passed (days or months), you had a change of heart and saw everything in a new and more positive light.  Explain how/why your thinking changed and how you had grown as a person because of this.

Challenge:  7+ sentences

W7, #6: Flippin' the Admissions Table

Now that we've been thinking about the college admissions essay process a bit, I thought I'd ask you to pretend for a moment that you were on the other side of the table.

Let's say you had to read 1,000 (if not 5,000 or more) essays each year from high school students all across the U.S. and the world.

Let's say you also wanted to give the students something really creative to answer.

And let's say you wanted to remain 'interested' and 'focused' the entire time.

What questions would YOU ask the applicants to answer?

Challenge:

• Write 3 questions YOU would ask the applicants.
• Answer one of them -- 5+ questions.

W6, #2: A Rowboat Orchestra & Such

If you've never heard of Connecticut College, it is one of the most respected small liberal arts colleges in the country with almost 100 years under its belt.  Think Austin College, but locate it in New England, surrounded by ridiculously gorgeous "fall colors" when the leaves change.

What is interesting about the Connecticut College admissions office is that they actually offer you a range of student application essays "that worked!" (as they say) that you can read.  And they do a nice job of explaining how the essay influences their decisions when they look at thousands of applicants each year. 

Here's how they put it themselves:

The admission staff at Connecticut College compiled the following collection of outstanding essays to help you approach your own personal statement with confidence and excitement.

Through the range of responses these students took, you will see that the essay - as a sample of writing and a reflection of your interests and values - can take many forms. While there is not any "right" or "wrong" topic, some approaches offer a bit more creativity and fluency than others. The samples we have selected reflect this idea.

Did you notice that? 

They actually share with you a "collection of outstanding essays to help you approach your own personal statement with confidence", all of them easily found on their web site so you can see how various students from around the country wrote their essay.

Oh, yeah.  And they all were accepted by Connecticut College, too.

Your Challenge: 

1. Read some or all of the following essays that the Connecticut College admissions office has on their web site.
2. Pick one of them to write react to.
3. Write a 7+ sentence response explaining WHY you believe that the college saw this as a successful college application essay and why the student 'stood out'.
4. Tell us ONE reason why YOU were impressed with the essay (and the writer's choices/style) that you wrote about.

Here is a short list, but you can go to the site and read all of them if you'd like to see more. 

Disclaimer:  All essay titles were made up entirely by Mr. Long so you'd have something to go on (apologies to the original writers -- he smiles):

1. The Rowboat Orchestra (Cheshire Schanker, class of '08, originally from the Park-Tudor School, Indianapolis, IN)
2. The Problem with Words to Say Things (Andrew Patton, class of '10, originally from Montclair Kimberly Academy, Montclair, NJ)
3. Escape Through the Community of Art (Aubrey Ford, class of '08, originally from Mercersburg Academy, Richmond, VA)
4. Petting a Cow on the Side of the Road (Carina Schnieders, class of '11, originally from Shawnee Mission East HS, Prairie Village, KS)

Remember:  There are other essay examples to read beyond these 4.  Feel free to explore the whole set.

W4, #3: "...Yet to Go to College"

Read the following college admissions essay.

Background:  It was written by Hugh Gallagher, an 18 year old high school senior (at the time) who grew up in Newton Square, PA before heading to NYU for college. It appeared in the May issue of Literary_Calvalcade, a magazine of contemporary fiction and student writing published by Scholastic in NYC. The essay won first prize in the humor category of the 1990 Scholastic Writing Award.

Your challenge:

• Would you accept this student into your university based on reading this essay?  Why or why not?
• Write 7+ sentences explaining your answer.

The question: 

3A. ESSAY: IN ORDER FOR THE ADMISSIONS STAFF OF OUR COLLEGE TO GET TO KNOW YOU, THE APPLICANT, BETTER, WE ASK THAT YOU ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTION: ARE THERE ANY SIGNIFICANT EXPERIENCES YOU HAVE HAD, OR ACCOMPLISHMENTS YOU HAVE REALIZED, THAT HAVE HELPED TO DEFINE YOU AS A PERSON?

I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, I write award-winning operas, I manage time efficiently. Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row.

I woo women with my sensuous and godlike trombone playing, I can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed, and I cook Thirty Minute Brownies in twenty minutes. I am an expert in stucco, a veteran in love, and an outlaw in Peru.

Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I once single-handedly defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. I play bluegrass cello, I was scouted by the Mets. I am the subject of numerous documentaries. When I'm bored, I build large suspension bridges in my yard. I enjoy urban hang gliding. On Wednesdays, after school, I repair electrical appliances free of charge.

I am an abstract artist, a concrete analyst, and a ruthless bookie. Critics worldwide swoon over my original line of corduroy evening wear. I don't perspire. I am a private citizen, yet I receive fan mail. I have been caller number nine and won the weekend passes. Last summer I toured New Jersey with a traveling centrifugal-force demonstration. I bat .400. My deft floral arrangements have earned me fame in international botany circles. Children trust me.

I can hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. I once read Paradise Lost, Moby Dick, and David Copperfield in one day and still had time to refurbish an entire dining room that evening. I know the exact location of every food item in the supermarket. I have performed covert operations for the CIA. I sleep once a week; when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair. While on vacation in Canada, I successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized a small bakery. The laws of physics do not apply to me.

I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic, and my bills are all paid. On weekends, to let off steam, I participate in full-contact origami. Years ago I discovered the meaning of life but forgot to write it down. I have made extraordinary four-course meals using only a Mouli and a toaster oven. I breed prizewinning clams. I have won bullfights in San Juan, cliff-diving competitions in Sri Lanka, and spelling bees at the Kremlin. I have played Hamlet, I have performed open-heart surgery, and I have spoken with Elvis.

But I have not yet gone to College.

W3, #6: Page 300 of Your Autobiography

NOTE:  You may ONLY do this entry if you have ALREADY completed 4 of the previous 5 responses from Week 3.

***

Next year -- as an 11th grader -- you will begin to think about the process of applying to colleges and universities around the United States (or beyond).

Part of the application process requires writing essays to help the university learn something intriguing about you.  Not only do they want to learn facts (grades, SATs, etc.), they also want your creativity and attitude.

One of the typical essay questions you may have to answer asks you to write "page 300" of your autobiography.  Strange, huh?

This means you have to decide what would be taking place on page 300...and that you only have one page to write everything...and that you need to figure out how to make your reader interested in the process.

With that in mind, here is your challenge:

1. Creatively begin "page 300" of your life story -- your autobiography -- in such a way that it will catch the attention of a college admissions team.
2. Write a minimum of 10+ sentences. 
3. Be creative.