I wrote about my summer science research project and how it inspired me to search and join a year long research internship with local university.
Is this OK or Is it going to look like I am boasting about my "intellect" ?
It sounds fine to me. Just be sure to show your "voice" in your essay, showing that you want to expand your intellectual horizons because you are actually interested in doing so, not just so that you have something good to show on your application.
I had the rare chance of speaking to the admissions director who admitted me. Apparently, I showed my "intellectual vitality" most in one of my short essays, NOT in the 16 AP 5's I had. So be warned, the essays are really important. Even the short ones!
Well I wrote about how I enjoy taking an afternoon off now and then to read the latest Discover magazine that comes to my house, and I share some of the curiosities/questions I've developed from reading its articles. What do you think?
could i say that i've taken several college courses outside of my HS education? like the past 2 summers, i took 12 credits.. in psychology, sociology, human bio..etc... do you think that show's intellectual vitality/or no?
"could i say that i've taken several college courses outside of my HS education? like the past 2 summers, i took 12 credits.. in psychology, sociology, human bio..etc... do you think that show's intellectual vitality/or no?"
If you can elaborate and perhaps go into specific details about really intellectually interesting experiences in your classes then I think it could work.
heh heh noobs. All you guys are only into the academic side. That shows nothing as Stanford (and MIT and Harvard) says about 70% of the applicants are academically qualified for admission. This means that if you have high enough GPA/SATs and have taken solid courses, you are mostly part of the 70%.
Now, the essays are VERY important. I suggest you all stop worrying about expressing "how smart you are" or "I took lots of college credits"
Thats bull.
I think Stanford wants people who express their concerns for the future. Ask yourself this: If you get into Stanford, what will you do later on? For the future generation? How will you contribute?
There are other things too. Teamwork, withstanding depression, Personal questions etc. So many. You think about it.
This will be way helpful than blabbing "How smart I am"
Is it okay if I talk about my experiences with fruit choosing? I know it might sound weird, but I actually conducted an experiement to find out what qualities certain fruits needs to have in order to be sweet and ripe. Does this show that I have the intellectual vitality to spark the interest to actually experiment on such seemingly unimportant tast?
Intellectual vitality, I think, is demonstrated in many ways, but a theme would be that you took on an intellectual challenge and pursued it in some way. And 'show, not tell' - don't tell people you were intellectual, show it through a 'slice of life.'
So fruit choosing, if it meets those criteria, would be just fine. I would, however, strongly advise against writing about depression, and I'm not personally seeing an obvious angle to teamwork, but in truth many things can do the job - but keep the criterion of pursuing an intellectual challenge in mind.
Personally, I demonstrated my intellectual vitality through something unique...like comic book reading.
Haha yea, sounds lame...but I used a particular instance in which I thoroughly analyzed the author's inferences, subtle and otherwise, that interpret a superhero's actions as fascist and self-serving in the book Watchmen.
Heh...at least it's kind of different. I let the transcript/teacher recs do the talking when it comes to academia. I figure the essays are supposed to be about you outside of school.
BTW, to the girl who posted about the rubik's cube thing, how long does it usually take to learn how to do those? I'm always amazed when I see these people at my school completing it in a minute or so (this kid who has a 1.5 GPA did it in under a minute...weird...)
I am thinking of writing an essay for intellectual vitality on what I think about certain aspects of life, that doesnt rly sound 'intellectual' to me though, Opinions? Should it be on something academic related?
