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'Some of the More Mundane Moments in Life Make Great Essays' - NYTimes.com - 26 views

thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/...essay
shared by Alex Cheung on 13 Sep 11 - No Cached
  • Here’s an essay that’s sure to make an admissions officer reach for the triple grande latte to stay awake
  • “I spent [choose one: a summer vacation/a weekend/three hours]
  • struck by the number of students rhapsodizing about expensive travel or service projects in exotic locales
    • Shermann Alconcel
      Shermann Alconcel on 20 Sep 11
       
      Elaborate and fancy isn't always better than simple and concise
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • On the other hand, Mr. Springall was working at Cornell when an applicant revealed that while waitressing she got angry at a customer and spit in his food before serving it. “Immediate red flag,” Mr. Springall recalled. “She makes poor choices.
    • Alex Cheung
      Alex Cheung on 20 Sep 11
       
      This really exemplified the "fine line" between things, and I'll have to be sure to check my essays to make sure nothing "bad" is revealed, or at least misunderstood.
  • Cedric Char on 14 Sep 11
     
    I was surprised by this article and by the fact that sometimes, our seemingly boring moments in life has the potential to transform into a great college essay. This article made me change my views of college essays and reexamine what topics I want to write about.
  • ...15 more comments...
  • Rachel Marison on 14 Sep 11
     
    I think this is really interesting because I have never really thought about what an admissions officer would be thinking of as he/she reads a really cliché essay. This really makes me want to work harder to come up with less cliché topics and essays.
  • Ian Sekiguchi on 14 Sep 11
     
    I feel like the "bad" example that they used was really effective, because it highlighted the fact that the essay itself says nothing about the writer's character or personality. Instead, that essay talked about the misfortune of others and the worldly possessions of the writer. This makes me really want to focus on writing something that displays my personality/mind.
  • Alison Kamikawa on 14 Sep 11
     
    I thought that this article was very interesting because it made me realize how critical some of the college admission boards are. They won't accept any "cliche" topics such as service projects, however I feel like community service are indeed one of the most important experiences in life that influence people. This makes me think that the colleges examine not so much the grammar or clarity, but more of who stands out among everyone.
  • Kandace Izumi on 14 Sep 11
     
    This article really makes you think of all the experiences to NOT write about in your college essay. I think it's interesting that humbling experiences (such as helping out the less-fortunate) are not always beneficial to you when it comes to college acceptance.
  • Alison Nichols on 14 Sep 11
     
    I think that this is a really helpful article because it helps give a new perspective on what they like and that they think the best essays are the ones that make them laugh or cry instead of the cliché college essay.
  • Cody Lee on 14 Sep 11
     
    I agree with the statement made in this article that it is harder to think of a specific personal experience to write about than actually writing the essay. But this essay also made me realize that you can shape an ordinary story into something interesting and worth reading to boost your chances for admission.
  • Ryan Souza on 14 Sep 11
     
    I think that this article explains in depth what kinds of stories shouldn't be told, which is why it is helpful. For example, the essay where the person wrote about torturing frogs when the mascot is a frog. It shows bad examples and explains why they're not so good, such as not writing about being apologetic or epiphanic.
  • Kellen Hirai on 14 Sep 11
     
    This article made me realize the importance of choosing a good essay topic. The examples that were used in the story effectively showed the importance of choosing a topic that is appropriate and unique at the same time. It also highlighted the importance of the essay, as the article mentions some top students that were denied because of an inappropriate essay topic.
  • Kai Lapschies on 14 Sep 11
     
    This article tells what kinds of things to write about and what not to write about. You can write about something inappropriate if you want but it should include some kind of realization. It should be unique to you even if the story was mundane. It would be best if you try to leave the reader feeling an emotion.
  • Miles Provencher on 15 Sep 11
     
    I'm glad I read this one.... I'd never thought about how many papers admissions counselors have to read... writing concisely and interestingly is much more important than I originally thought.
  • Joshua Chen on 15 Sep 11
     
    I never thought about how something that you have done that is seemingly daily or routine could be something that astounds other people who live a very different lifestyle then you. You also should be careful of giving off the wrong impression when writing about something bad that you did in the past.
  • Griffin Bolan on 15 Sep 11
     
    I got a huge kick out of reading the user comments on this article, my favorite being one who recommended to screw worrying about essays and worry about sports and ethnicity. This article definitely puts your essay into perspective. One out of thousands. There people have seen it all which is why its even more important to be honest.
  • anonymous on 19 Sep 11
     
    This article made me realize that because college admissions offices have read thousands of essays, there's a high chance that someone has already written about what you want to write. The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about college essays, is talking about something that will make you look good to the admissions. But what I never thought about before was that it doesn't just have to be something extraordinary, it can be the simplest experience; it just has to be something that is unique to you.
  • Shawna Ciano on 19 Sep 11
     
    I feel like this article stresses how important the college essay it is, and how the topic of your essay can either make or break you, but it doesn't give much advice on what to do. It does give helpful insight on what not to do, but doesn't give any good examples of topics. It was helpful to know how the college admissions directors will be reading the essays to find out who we are.
  • Philip Siu on 19 Sep 11
     
    After reading this article I discovered that it's okay to take take risks and writing about a funny experience, but don't take take it too far as to making your essay controversial or an essay that may offend the school mascot.
  • Kristi Ikeda on 19 Sep 11
     
    I liked the ideas this essay shared because I realized that if I were to have written my college essay prior to reading this article, my essay would've been similar to the majority of students who submit college essays. This site stresses the importance of being different and that having humility, humor, and personal stories in college essays are attractive. But the article did imply that there are limits and that some things such as torturing animals and showing inconsideration to other people, are inappropriate.
  • Kylie Kam on 05 Sep 13
     
    It seems more common now for counselors and advisors to recommend writing about everyday things, but with our own personal "flair." So it was helpful to read in this article about how there are some negative everyday experiences that are important to leave out.
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10 Tips for Writing the College Application Essay - Professors' Guide (usnews.com) - 29 views

www.usnews.com/...-the-college-application-essay college_essay
shared by Nick Pang on 13 Sep 11 - No Cached
  • Mark Wo on 14 Sep 11
     
    "Be concise, Be honest, Be an individual, Be coherent, Be accurate, Be vivid, Be likable, Be cautious in your use of humor, Be controversial, and Be smart" HOW?!?!?!?!?!?!? Quite a bit to take in and remember while working away on a concise paper which may or may not decide our future. Just a few small nuggets of gold (interpret as you please): "If you go over 700 words, you are straining their patience, which no one should want to do." "Not everyone has to be the star at everything." "The whole application is a series of snapshots of what you do. It is inevitably incomplete. The colleges expect this. Go along with them." "If you write about Nietzsche, spell his name right." "Subtlety is good." "Be funny only if you think you have to. Then think again." "It is fine to write about politics, religion, something serious, as long as you are balanced and thoughtful. Don't pretend you have the final truth." "Colleges are intellectual places, a fact they almost always keep a secret..." From this, I take: Be human. But be an awesome human.
  • ...3 more comments...
  • Kellen Hirai on 14 Sep 11
     
    This article gives guidelines that I trust in and will take into consideration when writing my essay. However, I don't think that people should limit themselves too much or all follow the same guidelines. Like some of the other articles exemplified, it is difficult to choose an appropriate topic, and restricting yourself with too many rules could have a negative effect.
  • Miles Provencher on 14 Sep 11
     
    I honestly don't agree with the "be controversial" bit. Many of us are applying to classic, old-school colleges and universities. If someone wants to attend a deeply catholic school, there's no chance their pro-choice paper will be thought of as a good one. I totally agree with all the other tips, though.
  • anonymous on 19 Sep 11
     
    I agree with Kellen, the guidelines given are great advice and are also given by a reliable source so as a result I will take what has been written in the article into consideration. But at the same time, as mentioned by Kellen, they do restrict the senior who is putting together their essay a little too much which is something that I do not like nor agree with.
  • Erin Nishijima on 19 Sep 11
     
    4. Be coherent.  I thought that this website was really helpful because I am known to like to write a lot and sometimes want to write so much that I ramble a lot.  I don't want to sound busy but not scattered or superficial either.
  • Tara Ito on 22 Sep 11
     
    I feel like by setting up some of these guidelines, it is kind of changing our experiences or ideas we want to write. We have to find something coherent to the question and on top of that be likeable. what if what you think is likeable isn't the same as what the college people want?
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Tips for Writing Your College Admissions Essay - 11 views

www.back2college.com/admissionessay.htm
shared by Harrison Jeong on 19 Sep 11 - No Cached
    • Lanson Yamamoto
      Lanson Yamamoto on 19 Sep 11
       
      I think this is the best idea.  If you can write like how you speak you can be yourself which in return makes your paper original and people can see who you truly are.  
  • Use short sentences and simple words. According to a recent study at Stanford University, individuals who use complicated language are viewed as less intelligent than individuals who use simpler, more concise language. You want your readers to understand your essay. If you use obscure terms needlessly, they won’t be impressed.
    • Harrison Jeong
      Harrison Jeong on 20 Sep 11
       
      I feel that this particular tip stands out the most because while the other tips are common tips we are given, this tip is not one that we normally take into account. People tend to want to use big vocabulary words in order to make themselves look smarter, but after looking at this we may want to think again. Our teachers always tell us to be concise, so in fact we had this tip with us the whole time.
  • Ethan Liu on 19 Sep 11
     
    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.
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Tip Sheet: An Admissions Dean Offers Advice on Writing a College Essay - NYTimes.com - 30 views

thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/...tip-sheet-essay college_essay
shared by Alec LaClair on 12 Sep 11 - Cached
  • begin contemplating their college essays this summer
    • Jenna Frowein
      Jenna Frowein on 12 Sep 11
       
      I think that beginning your essay early will help.
  • it is one of the few things you can still control.
    • Jenna Frowein
      Jenna Frowein on 12 Sep 11
       
      This is nice to know, but also makes me a littler nervous too.
  • If you try to cover too many topics in your essay, you’ll end up with a resume of activities and attributes that doesn’t tell me as much about you as an in-depth look at one project or passion.
    • Jenna Frowein
      Jenna Frowein on 12 Sep 11
       
      But how do we know which activity, attribute, or passion is the most important or meaningful for the college application essay?
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • simple things in life that make the best essays.
    • Jenna Frowein
      Jenna Frowein on 12 Sep 11
       
      I really like this. I think that when you turn something normal and simple into something unique and interesting, that shows a lot of creativity and is actually really exciting!
  • Tell me something I couldn’t know just from reading the other parts of your application.
    • Jenna Frowein
      Jenna Frowein on 12 Sep 11
       
      When the application covers so much, how do we find something that we already haven't shared on the application? Oh! I know, your personality! :)
  • Show me why
    • Jenna Frowein
      Jenna Frowein on 12 Sep 11
       
      Show, that's always my problem. How do we show what is inside of us?
  • Don’t rely on “how to” books
    • Alec LaClair
      Alec LaClair on 19 Sep 11
       
      i feel like too many people do this, people tend to rely on other people/things, but i believe that it should just come from the heart
  • Stephanie Wong on 14 Sep 11
     
    This advice is really, really helpful. I agree that it's important to focus on something specific that you're passionate about. At the same time, it's hard to expand on this and be detailed/focused throughout the entire essay. I like the advice of being humble and not showing off because the way you write and your topic can tell a lot about who you are as a person.
  • ...2 more comments...
  • Ian Sekiguchi on 14 Sep 11
     
    The two things that I liked the most about this article, was that it told the importance of showing a side of you and not telling it. I think that writing a compelling and vivid story is an extremely effective way to make your essay memorable. Second of all, I liked how the article said not to talk about the things already mentioned in the application. I think that its important to portray a side that the admissions officers would never be able to get out of simply reading statistics (scores, gpa, extracurriculars, etc...).
  • Alison Kamikawa on 14 Sep 11
     
    I think this was really helpful. It was really interesting when it said that this college essay is one of the only things you have control over and it made me change my view of this essay. At first, it just seemed like something that the college board reads to brighten up their own day, but now it made me think that this could actually be beneficial for me. I may not have control over what questions go on the SAT or if I can change my GPA, but I have total control over what I write. I also thought it was interesting to read that students shouldn't write to impress the college board. I would think that students would want to write about personal events that make them look good for the college.
  • anonymous on 14 Sep 11
     
    I think the best bit of information i took from this article, is showing how the struggle of overcoming some great difficulty. On a general sense, if I were to do an essay on some type of failure, I think the best way to continue the essay would be to show how I was able to push past this downfall, and learn from it. It's important to let the reader understand the hardship you went through and show them how you made the best of a seemingly terrible event.
  • Justin Lee on 14 Sep 11
     
    I think this tip sheet really summed up most of the other articles into a concise, helpful article. Overall, I learned that, in terms of the essay, colleges don't really care about any particular achievements. Instead, the colleges are looking at your voice to see what type of person you are. You should stray from writing about others and focus more about your own feelings and thoughts. Finally, college essay readers have seen all of the generic essays before, so there are more pros than cons in taking a risk by saying something controversial.
3More

The College Admissions Essay Part II: Beyond gimmicks and hooks | The Vandy Admissions ... - 7 views

admissions.vanderbilt.edu/...t-ii-beyond-gimmicks-and-hooks college_essay
shared by Taylor Henderson on 20 Sep 11 - No Cached
    • Taylor Henderson
      Taylor Henderson on 20 Sep 11
       
      I thought this article was useful because it really tries to drive the point home of "showing, not telling" and how writing "succinctly" will greatly improve your essay
  • Jaimie Obatake on 05 Sep 13
     
    You should write clearly and concisely when you write your college essay. If you bring something up such as how you reflected on an event or how this event changed your life, you should follow it up with a reason/explanation as to why this affected you as it did, etc. The college admission officers are not going to fill in the blank that you created and assume that is what you meant. Every reason must be stated explicitly.
  • Dylan Combs on 05 Sep 13
     
    This article contradicted some of the other articles by saying that you shouldn't search for the unique hook that will wake up the reader. It did have the similar notion that showing is far more important than telling.
1More

Swifty Teaches Apple's New Programming Language On Your iPhone - 1 views

techcrunch.com/...amming-language-on-your-iphone technology language language_evolution
shared by amywestphalen15 on 20 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • amywestphalen15 on 20 Mar 15
     
    Last summer, Apple surprised almost everyone at WWDC with the announcement of Swift, a new programming language for iOS and Mac development. The language feels like something Apple would invent. Like several of the languages currently popular in web development, it has a concise, readable syntax that's easier to pick up than Apple's older language, Objective-C.
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The languages that let you say more with less - The Washington Post - 2 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...hat-let-you-say-more-with-less logogram Twitter Chinese Japanese Korean concision
shared by lainesakai19 on 29 Aug 18 - No Cached
  • lainesakai19 on 29 Aug 18
     
    The author of this piece simply explains how some languages involve more characters than others. Also, this leaves languages like Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc., with an advantage because they are able to express their thoughts through fewer characters.
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The Bilingual Advantage - 13 views

www.nytimes.com/...31conversation.html
shared by maiyasmith13 on 09 Mar 12 - No Cached
Lisa Stewart liked it
  • Lynn Takeshita on 09 Mar 12
     
    An interview with Ellen Bialystok, a cognitive neuroscientist, about the advantages of being bilingual.
  • Michael Pang on 31 May 12
     
    A cognitive neuroscientist, Ellen Bialystok has spent almost 40 years learning about how bilingualism sharpens the mind. Her good news: Among other benefits, the regular use of two languages appears to delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease symptoms. Dr. Bialystok, 62, a distinguished research professor of psychology at York University in Toronto, was awarded a $100,000 Killam Prize last year for her contributions to social science.
  • maiyasmith13 on 11 Mar 13
     
    "In our next studies , we looked at the medical records of 400 Alzheimer's patients. On average, the bilinguals showed Alzheimer's symptoms five or six years later than those who spoke only one language. This didn't mean that the bilinguals didn't have Alzheimer's. It meant that as the disease took root in their brains, they were able to continue functioning at a higher level. They could cope with the disease for longer." No other website I have found has so comprehensively covered the various benefits of being bilingual. This is a concise interview that displays that bilingual people are not only better at multitasking but can also delay the onset of Alzheimer's by up to 5 years.
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