kellyelly

from what i gather, uva does regard the essays heavily: i just got a personalized response to mine in the mail along with my echol's letter.

your personality will come across in your writing, believe it or not.
and i don't think there's really a need to suck up to them, just write an impressive essay. be clever, and sound interested in learning or other intelligent things.

and wow, you are so ahead of the game with essay writing and all, i'm impressed! best of luck!

nkay

I did the trading bodies essay and wrote about my thumbs.

And I got in! So it couldn't have reeked.

brinnaballerina

My essay... this was my least favorite of the three but regardless what do we think.. I still haven't heard and am scared to death.



What’s in a word? Beyond formal definitions or underlying connotations lies potential. A word can convey a multitude of things: feelings, actions, objects. Over time, words have given meaning to thoughts beyond the material: what else can convey that which is neither seen nor experienced? This is the great possibility words have allowed: the flight of the human mind.

“Anything is possible.” It is not easy to accredit a quote that has for so long been a part of social conversation. This is the glory of the human language, how as a word, my favorite word, ‘possibility’ can suggest anything. It is everything once thought impossible, everything today that is, and everything that someday will be. The limitations of possibility are only bounded by the human mind; imagination is its cradle.

The strength of the word is individualized. Possibility is all in the realm of the mind: what appears possible to one can completely contradict another; this is the great diversity of the word. Fifty years ago, John F. Kennedy made the idea of a man on the moon a possible concept. Two hundred years before that, the idea of the United States as a new nation too became a possibility. Neither development was automatic; each seemed unfeasible to a vast majority upon initiation, but through thought, effort, and imagination they became reality.

Possibilities are never automatic. This is the word’s truest sentiment: it is chance. Life is full of these chances, possibilities, and options. It is expanding beyond other’s expectations of chance that allows us to grow as a society, and embrace boundless possibilities. With this attitude, anything is possible.

Littleol'me

kellyelly- Please check your PMs...

wouldbemd

Quote:
I chose the same subject. I described the view as I saw it with a little embellishment - but not much. When it came to what I'd want to change, I said that I did not want to change a thing!

I wondered if not wanting to change anything would go down well but that is how I felt. Anyway, I got in as an Echols Program Scholar so it could not have hurt me! Maybe it came across that I was a pretty contented person - which I am!!

Flavian

brinnaballerina, that's good except I would've added a little more directly pertaining to you personally. Interestingly, your essay has a similar style to mine (although I wrote about that Quote). Did anyone else write about the quote?

Littleol'me

...I don't even remember the quote....

kellyelly

it was kinda long and from some nobel prize winner dude. i think..

chocoholicgirl

you mean the "while looking for order I have found mystery" quote? I wrote that essay.

Littleol'me

Maybe I just didn't read it? But I'm not sure how I could have missed it...I had the hard copy as well as the internet.

whiteguyfromva05

i wrote on the "trading bodies" essay.

Caligirl87

Hmm...well everybody else is doing it...this was one of my short responses...What do you think?

College of Arts and Sciences: What work of art, music, science, mathematics or literature has surprised, unsettled, or challenged you and in what way?

Upon first inspection, Samuel Barber’s third movement of his set of “Excursions” appears to be a pastoral walk in the park. Listening to a recording of the third Excursion at my piano teacher’s house one day, I decided I would love to play the piece. Instantly falling in love with its beautiful melody and subsequent variations, I hurried to the nearest music store where I purchased a brand-new copy of Barber’s Excursions and other works.
Upon returning home, I sat down at my brown, walnut Steinway and carefully opened up the crisp pages of my newly purchased book. Placing my right hand on the keyboard, I sight-read the first few measures of the piece: an idyllic melody that changed little as the line progressed. The bass line of the piece proved to be very similar to the treble and, with misguided confidence, I attempted to put both hands together.
However, I hadn’t accounted for the difficulty that the rhythm of combining the two parts of the piece would create. Trying to manipulate the contrasting meter of each hand proved much more difficult than I had predicted. Hours spent with the metronome and listening to recordings seemed futile in the face of such a rhythmic adversary. Despite its difficulties, I found that my Barber experience expanded my practice repertoire and forced me to find new and creative ways to challenge my thought process. Though I have finally conquered Barber’s dual rhythms, I welcome the chance for similar challenges in the future, both academically and musically.

kellyelly

in case we've all forgotten:

a) What is your favorite word, and why?
b) What kind of diversity will you bring to UVa?
c) "We might say that we were looking for global schemas, symmetries, universal and unchanging laws--and what we have discovered is the mutable, the ephemeral, the complex." Support or challenge Nobel Prize winner Ilya Prigogine's assertion.
d) Look out any window in your home. What would you change about what you see?
e) On Mars, the latest TV fad among the native life forms is Trading Bodies. You're picked to play. Whose body would you inhabit and why?

and then the topic of your choice
i went back to my online app to remember what i wrote about... some flaming liberal thing about the patriot act, lol. i'm not even a flaming liberal, but it was a fun essay to write.

Ballboy232

I guess this was a little risky, demonstrating I have weaknesses and so on. At least it's different

The following is an interior monologue that demonstrates the power of my favorite word, “stress.”
The deadlines for my college applications are creeping up on me. It is time to seal up my personality in a bloodless envelope, stick a $70 check inside, and ship it off to a panel of professional strangers.
I’ve got a few papers to fill out: The Common App, supplements, checklist evaluations, eight unique essays, school reports, standardized test reports, and even a peer assessment. I need oxygen.
I’m tired of reiterating the same words and the same words and the same words. Name and town? Mother’s collegiate degree? Estimated annual income? Can you just get off my back?
The tunnel is narrowing, but I can see a light at the end. No, that’s my window. The sun is coming up and I’m awake. Look at that, another pen has run dry. I don’t have time to chide Bic, so I fetch a pencil. I cannot stop thinking in SAT words. Name and town? Is this healthy?
My math grade is slipping, my evenings are ruined, and I just popped my stress ball all over UVA. I try to rectify the problem with a tissue, but now there’s 2-ply embedded in my cover page. This cannot be happening.
Is it the holiday season already? What about November? No time for revisions, I hit submit. I bid farewell to the sealed and stamped me, finding typos when it’s too late. There is a bruise on my finger and a throb in my head.
Stress may be painful, but it gets the job done.

kellyelly

that's quite poetic =)

"No, that’s my window. The sun is coming up and I’m awake."
know exactly what you're talking about