<p>
[quote]
1. People find many ways to express their inner world. Some write novels; others paint, perform, or debate; still others design elegant solutions to complex mathematical problems. How do you express your inner world, and how does the world around you respond?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Its easy to identify with the herothe literary or historical figure who saves the day. Have you ever identified with a figure who wasnt a heroa villain or a scapegoat, a bench-warmer or a bit player? If so, tell us why this figure appealed to youand if your opinion changed over time, tell us about that, too.</p></li>
<li><p>Carolina students conduct original research and work to solve problems in almost every imaginable field. If you could spend a semester researching a specific topic or problem, what would you choose and why?</p></li>
<li><p>Tell us about a group project in which you had to collaborate with your peers. How did it go?</p></li>
<li><p>Whats the best advice youve ever received or given?</p></li>
<li><p>Tell us about a recent dream. What do you think it meant?</p></li>
<li><p>In our history various people have taken stands against injustice, or what they viewed as injustice, often at great personal risk. Have you ever taken a stand against something you considered unjustor if you havent, do you have an idea of what it would take for you to take such a stand? Please explain.</p></li>
<li><p>If you have written an essay for another schools application that you really like, feel free to use it as your short or long essay for us. Please be sure to tell us (a) what essay you are answering and (b) why you think this essay represents you well (your explanation will not be included in the word count).
<p>I just have to say that the dream one seems really weird to me. No one wants to hear about that dream I had where my coffee exploded in my face.</p>
<p>The blog. You only have to do 2 (One 500-word, another 250-word)</p>
<p>They kept a lot of them from last year. 1, 6,7 are all new though.</p>
<p>The dream one is there to allow you to express your creativity, analytical skills and the like. If you don’t want to do it, don’t. I don’t think I would have, but I think it is an interesting topic.</p>
<p>Number one is a repeat. I picked that one last year.</p>
<p>I’m not shooting down the idea of the dream one. It’d probably be really fun to read the essays. I think it would show daring for a student to answer that question instead of one of the others. I like it better than the “what would be on your tombstone one”, to which a kid I know sent in (and I quote him), “All of that carpe diem quote because they’ll think, ‘Wow. He knows Latin. He must be really smart.’”</p>
<p>Remember, those reading the essays want something new to read as well…40,000 plus essays can get awfully stale if they read the same ones every year. :)</p>
<p>I did the tomb stone one last year and the advice one. The advice one was generic and on the tomb stone one I took a bit of a risk and wrote it in letter format to my future relatives.</p>
<p>The prompt about dreams seems very interesting. I might try it as a 250+ word essay. Would it be a risk to talk about lucid dreaming? I did a research paper about lucid dreams last year.The simplest way to describe it is the awareness that one is dreaming.</p>
<p>DS picked #2 for longer essay. He had already written a fabulous essay (for home school) about an obscure musician. It was absolutely perfect for #2 – even the right length. It remains one of his best essays. We’ve recycled it for several schools. Have even used it as “extra credit” in a couple of cases.</p>
<p>@mollie – doesn’t sound risky at all. They seem to be looking for something a little adventurous, don’t you think? And, if you’ve already done research on lucid dreaming, all the better.</p>
