Thursday, January 13, 2005
One Flew over the Artists nest
As most of you know, tis the season of college application essays. Although the topics are often corny and shallow, and I am sure 85% of the essays those boards recieve from nervously hopeful freshman will sound the same, encompassing overused lines like "I want to change the world" or "I have a passion for __________" or "I possess all the qualities to be an excelent student at ____", within the 8 I have written, I have made some discoveries.
1.) If I were a college admissions concelor, I would say screw the esssay. I would trust the grades you recieved in English, and for the majority who are not planning to major in literature, I would nix the writting process all together. They say in your essay, they want to get to know you, get a sense of your personality, and discover you uniqueness. I know honestly (from experience) that you can BS your way through an essay and make yourself sound a whole lot more unique and wonderful than you are. Why don't they just require an interview process? I don't expect everyone to be able to travel to their college of choice for an interview, but maybe even a phone call. I t would save us the students time, the councelors a butt load of time, and probably give them a better chance to "get to know the prospects".
2.)Every college should utilize the common application
3.) As much as I dislike them and believe in their impracticality, the essay questions have caused me to think about my future. One art college requested a statement of purpose. Seemingly easy, this was by far the most perilous task of the entire application process. To define what this statment should contain, all I got was a short description "please describe your future academic and artistic plans referring to past experiences". In short, tell me the purpose of your life, education, and what you have lived so far.
I was overwhlemed! What do I include, what do I leave out, what do I want to do in the future, what is an intelligent way to say 'i have no clue where i am headed', ect. Basically, this one topic made me look ahead me like I never have before. What is the purpose of college, or learning, or what I want to do....?? What is your purpose that you are persuing? I know what I want to do is paint, dance, decorate, make the world prettier...but is that a worthy purpose worth persuing? What am I offering to the world? While attempting to answer this, I had an epiphany: I want to become a doctor and save all the dying babies of the world. At this point, i threw down my art school application, ran to the computer and printed off an application to the best med school I could find. Five minutes later, i settles down, set that app on fire, and grabbed a paint brush and my chopin CD and began to paint again. I hope I don't end up locked up in a cockoos nest like all those other artists of our history. God help me....
¶ 9:26 PM
1.) If I were a college admissions concelor, I would say screw the esssay. I would trust the grades you recieved in English, and for the majority who are not planning to major in literature, I would nix the writting process all together. They say in your essay, they want to get to know you, get a sense of your personality, and discover you uniqueness. I know honestly (from experience) that you can BS your way through an essay and make yourself sound a whole lot more unique and wonderful than you are. Why don't they just require an interview process? I don't expect everyone to be able to travel to their college of choice for an interview, but maybe even a phone call. I t would save us the students time, the councelors a butt load of time, and probably give them a better chance to "get to know the prospects".
2.)Every college should utilize the common application
3.) As much as I dislike them and believe in their impracticality, the essay questions have caused me to think about my future. One art college requested a statement of purpose. Seemingly easy, this was by far the most perilous task of the entire application process. To define what this statment should contain, all I got was a short description "please describe your future academic and artistic plans referring to past experiences". In short, tell me the purpose of your life, education, and what you have lived so far.
I was overwhlemed! What do I include, what do I leave out, what do I want to do in the future, what is an intelligent way to say 'i have no clue where i am headed', ect. Basically, this one topic made me look ahead me like I never have before. What is the purpose of college, or learning, or what I want to do....?? What is your purpose that you are persuing? I know what I want to do is paint, dance, decorate, make the world prettier...but is that a worthy purpose worth persuing? What am I offering to the world? While attempting to answer this, I had an epiphany: I want to become a doctor and save all the dying babies of the world. At this point, i threw down my art school application, ran to the computer and printed off an application to the best med school I could find. Five minutes later, i settles down, set that app on fire, and grabbed a paint brush and my chopin CD and began to paint again. I hope I don't end up locked up in a cockoos nest like all those other artists of our history. God help me....
¶ 9:26 PM
