Welcome To Admissions

Welcome To Admissions As part of the Common Application, you will be asked to write one essay between 250 and 650 words. You will be asked to write a response to your choice of one of the five prompts listed below. This double life that I live now is so different from what it was in the beginning, when I was a normal kindergartner, just like the heroine. It wasn’t like reading Plato, or studying Mark Twain, where I feel cultured and empowered, adventurous and brave. My favorite protagonist and I grew up together until I moved on from the third grade, finally outgrowing that special connection. But reading the Junie B. Jones books taught me to connect in different ways with other texts. I knew what to look for, what it felt like, and I desired to find that connection in other places. I like working with the students and watching them progress. As hard as you’ve worked on your essay, you may get exactly two minutes of a Reader’s time if he or she feels your writing is boring or unoriginal. It's bad enough having to write one for class, when it's worth 100 points or a percentage of your grade. Now you have to write one that can be the deciding factor on where, or if, you go to college. For example, check out these 10 opening lines from Stanford admission essays. When you’re writing, open up and let your voice come through loud and clear. Be your wonderful, amazing self â€" idiosyncrasies, quirks, and all. The more real you are, the more intriguing you will be…and the more the admissions officers will love you. Before the series, I had no real interest in books. I loved stories, and I liked scribbling on pages and pretending to write books, but turning the pages of other people’s words never caught my attention. This essay is designed to demonstrate your ability to write clearly and concisely and help you set your application apart. Each application for admission to OU is read thoroughly, thoughtfully and fairly to evaluate all-around excellence. The questions below provide you with the opportunity to tell us more about your abilities in academics, the arts, athletics, leadership, service, and other qualities you may possess. They are often enigmatic, surprising, or even confusing. Junie opened my eyes to a world of possibilities, and saved my dad a neck cramp from sleeping at a weird angle. It would be all too easy to let my constant busyness and the distractions of daily life keep me from trying to understand the world and my place in it, but I won’t let that happen. I will forever be aware of myself and others, and I hope to never act on an unconscious bias. I know that Descartes was thinking thateverythingtold to him by his senses might be wrong, but I think his revelation applies more usefully to behaviors and biases we learn from a young age as well. However, through my entire high school life, I was not allowed to have a conversation in classes. Being quiet was the unspoken rule of manner and etiquette, where the dominance of the teacher to teach and submission of student to learn by observation was naturally accepted by all members of every class. You must submit your application for admission before submitting your essay responses. The Junie B. Jones series, by Barbara Park, was my real introduction to reading on my own. Before the B, as in Beatrice, I was content to have my dad read to me until he fell asleep. I was in Kindergarten when I got my first Junie B. Jones book. I couldn’t read it by myself yet, and my dad was in the middle of the first Harry Potter book, so the pick checkered cover was put on a shelf. When I was six, we moved, and a box of my books turned up in my new room. I collected the series, and when I finished with the ones I had, I reread them and begged for more. Not only that, for me, saying aloud my ideas helps me to better understand and clarify my thoughts, and thus myself. Kierkegaard and St. John’s are attractive for similar reasons. Either/Or ends with the statement, “Only the truth which edifies is truth for you.” A St. John’s student, Alec Bianco, shared how his music tutor commended him for trying to live musically throughout his life.

Distractions

Distractions Ive spent the past week or so running about in flip-flops, taking advantage of the sunny, 55 degree weather to catch up on all the vitamin D I failed to absorb in wintry days past. In celebration of this meteorological grace, my writing professor agreed to move the location of todays class from the obscure whereabouts of Building 1 to the calm expanse of Killian Court. It was due to this decision that I spent an hour and a half of this afternoon utterly distracted. As my classmates read their stories out loud, I found my attention drifting away from their words and towards the glinting of the Charles to my left, the elegant pillars supporting MITs dome to my right, and the pleasant breeze that blew all around me, harassing my already chaotic collection of curls. I figure that with decisions coming your way in four days and an orgo test coming my way in a week, itd be better if you guys were distracted in my stead. It is with this notion in mind that I present you with the following means to prevent the insanity inherent in counting down the hours, minutes, and seconds to 3/14 at 1:59 pm: 1) xkcd 2) sporcle 3) ImprovEverywheres many accomplishments 4) hulu 5) Potter Puppet Pals! (Yes, I realize this is old, but its funny anyway :D) 6) StumbleUpon 7) iSketch! 8) The Onion :) 9) I Will Derive! 10) And my most favorite lecture in the world: Just four days of waiting left! ‚ô• (P.S. Thank you, Kuljot 13, for helping me come up with this distracting list ^_^) Distractions Its a stressful time. Finals are starting, decisions are coming out in less than twenty four hours Doesnt it just make you wish you could take your mind off of things for a while? Just in time, the blogs shall provide. This list is not intended to be comprehensive by any means if you have suggestions, let me know! Webcomics xkcd The classic. Questionable Content Angst abounds in this comic about an indie boy, his robot, and some friends. You have been warned. Freakangels A beautifully-drawn dystopia set in post-apocalyptic England. Penny Arcade For, by, and about video game nerds. Order of the Stick DD comes to life, basically. PhD Comics Cant believe I originally forgot this gem! Called to my attention by Nick 12. Games Armor Games I recommend GemCraft, among others. Addicting Games Miscellaneous Wikipedia But at least its an informative distraction, right? TVtropes One of the most addicting and hilarious sites I have yet been exposed to. Dont blame me if you fail your classes. Dr. Horribles Sing-Along-Blog Science Neil Gaiman Quotes I couldnt resist throwing this one in here. In Real Life Baking Cleaning Your Room My friend Ternus 10 comments, Insidiously distracting things you can do include doing your laundry, cleaning and reorganizing your room, etc. This makes you feel like youre accomplishing something (because you are!), but it is, of course, not what youre supposed to be accomplishing. Reading Not Stressing About MIT! Best of luck to all of you. As the countdown clock gets closer to zero, our thoughts are all with you.