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This was a really interesting interview with an admission committee, more specifically an extremely picky admission committee at Amherst College. It was really eye-opening to see some of the students that were getting turned down, or set aside. There were these students that seemed to have done everything "right", like getting good grades and taking hard class and doing community service, but still didn't get accepted. It's decisions like this that make applying for college and submitting these college essays such a daunting task, as you really don't quite know exactly what will read well for the admission committee. Therefore, applicants are stuck with the options, to be extremely honest and personal but risk saying something that reveals a bad quality, or to be rather general and play it safe, but risk the lack of individuality.

A few tips for writing a good college essay.

This is a really good tip sheet but how did they come up with these tips?

this article highlighted the fact that you don't need to write about accomplishments in your essay, there are other places in the application for that. It is more about how you write your essay and the tone it conveys.

It is said that music is used in studying more often in college because it helps calm and relieve stress. College students use music the most because it's more difficult to stay on task and focused in a different surrounding.

This article discusses how a romantic relationship in college is molded by texting, sexting, and the physical attachment towards each other.

I can relate and I completely agree.

This article addresses the controversy behind swearing around kids. There was a linguist who used to be a massive swearer, but he noticed that his linguistic tendencies and language style changed once he had kids. He decided to do a study with college students regarding their responses to swearing in lectures (since swearing around kids would be considered unethical). He addressed two types of profanity in this study; swearing and slurs. He found that slurs generated a negative reaction to the people at whom the slurs were about (Black people, gay people, etc.), but cussing didn't have an impact.

This article explains the controversy behind swearing around kids. A professor from UC San Diego explored this topic due to his own self interest. As a lover of profanity, he seems to have seen himself change his language while being around his own kids. In a experiment conducted on college students, he came across profanity as slurs and cussing. Slurs created a negative reaction to those that the slurs were about that consisted of gender preferences and skin color, but swearing didn't seem to show.

There comes a uniquely emotional moment for American Hispanics who register for a freshman year of college: Is it a good idea to sign up for the formal study of Spanish?

Members of Congress are often criticized for what they do - or rather, what they don't do. But what about what they say and, more specifically, how they say it? It turns out that the sophistication of congressional speech-making is on the decline, according to the open government group the Sunlight Foundation.

Here's a follow-up on the same study, examining the speech of Hawaii's senators and representatives: http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/157017545.html?id=157017545. U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka speaks at a college sophomore level, according to an analysis of his speeches by the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington group that pushes for government transparency. The analysis ranks Akaka in the top five among members of Congress for his use of longer sentences and more complex words. U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye isn't far behind. His speeches use words and sentences on the level of a college freshman. U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono speaks at the level of a high school senior, while U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa's speeches are at the high school freshman level, according to the study. Of course, longer sentences and more complex vocabulary use don't necessarily make for better communication, nor indicate effectiveness in re: serving one's constituents.

dont procrastinate, doesn't have to be perfect, take breaks, just say the facts, don't sweeten it up from the start

"Web addicts have brain changes similar to those hooked on drugs or alcohol, preliminary research suggests. ... Dr Hao Lei and colleagues write in Plos One: 'Overall, our findings indicate that IAD has abnormal white matter integrity in brain regions involving emotional generation and processing, executive attention, decision making and cognitive control.' ... Prof Gunter Schumann, chair in biological psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College, London, said similar findings have been found in video game addicts. ... further studies with larger numbers of subjects were needed to confirm the findings." Link to the actual study: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0030253

An interesting article about whether or not there is a correlation between learning a second language and the income made after college.

Psychologists Kristin Jay, of Marist College, and Timothy Jay, of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, examine profanity acquisition in children: specifically what vocabulary items/ phrases comprised their "taboo lexicon" at different ages, and the children's assessment of the Inappropriateness of those words, as compared with teen and adult viewpoints.

This site gives examples about the process to go through in writing a college essay.

Ruth Starkman, of Stanford University, examines the five 2013 Common Application Essay prompts, and offers some sage suggestions to jumpstart your writing process.

Mark Montgomery, of Montgomery Educational Consulting, examines the 2013-2014 Common Application Essay Prompts, and succinctly analyzes each prompt in turn, noting some key elements that should be present in a strong response.

"Katy is one of a growing number of high school and college students who are questioning the gender roles society assigns individuals simply because they have been born male or female. ... The semantic variations are part of a nascent effort worldwide to acknowledge some sort of neutral ground between male and female, starting at the youngest ages. ... Some colleges, too, are starting to adopt nongender language."

I thought this article was great because it added onto the other previous articles posted onto Diigo. It gave me even more tips on how to write my College Essay. 1. Write as you speak. 2. Be original. 3. Show genuine enthusiasm. 4. Create some mystery. 5. Focus. 6. Use active verbs. 7. Use short sentences and simple words.