<p>I was hoping people could help me out here. Like honestly, nothing out-of-the ordinary has happened to me. I havn’t had a life changing moment etc. so I don’t know what ‘writing a killer essay’ means.</p>
<p>I’m interested in double majoring in IS and Business(Finance). What sort of essays could help show my personality and interests? Ideas would be very helpful.</p>
<p>Things I’ve thought of so far(stupid I know):
I’ve been researching a big facility over the summer. I could write about my experiences and how it shaped me(better work ethic etc.).
Tieing in with my interests(IS/business), I could talk about how I noticed that at my research facility there is not a lot of collaboration between projects and that there is huge organizational problems in the organization. Gettign an IS degree could help me fix those problems as this is a problem with a majority of the research facilities and can be fixed by effective technological solutions.
Maturing through high school. Understanding that motivation can only get you so far and that you need fundamental skills(tools) to help you reach your dreams.
National concern essay on affirmative action(Very risky idea). Although its a temporary solution, America is currently ignoring the real problem and we’re helping these children at the wrong stage of their life.</p>
<p>I just reread my post and it sounds confusing, but I’m too lazy to make it clear. So, helpful comments please!</p>
<p>I advised my son to write about a particular experience or two that would give the reader a good idea who he was and what he was like.</p>
<p>In his case his mother and I remembered some events that showed how stubbornly he was willing to teach himself some material no one thought he was ready to learn. He showed tenacity and persistance and it was relevant to what he wanted to major in. Don’t if it was a wonderful essay, but it worked.</p>
<p>Have you considered asking your parents what they remember most when they think of who you are? Even if it doesn’t give you the central topic in your essay, it might help you find a way to let the readers get to know and remember you better.</p>
<p>What I felt was the best of my essays was a slightly odd thing on a prompt (for Rice) about how my diversity would contribute to their campus. Rather than writing about my own diversity (I’m a white girl from suburbia), I wrote about how I shared American “culture” with a friend of mine’s mom who is generally clueless because she wasn’t raised in the US and her son never tells her things he should, like how to get a driver’s license. Most of it centered on this mum thing I made for her son and took up a collection for (long story, homecoming tradition in Texas).</p>
<p>Just try something that’s slightly unique. I mean, my essays were nothing earth shattering… the one that was supposed to be ended up a complete failure, but they weren’t about “the time my grandpa died” or “when I won a big award,” because most people write about those.</p>
<p>Wow thanks guys. I see what you mean. It should show your character more than anything. Time for a self-assessment(not fun!). </p>
<p>Anyways, how did you write 500 words on that? For me, I can write like pages and pages for science stuff, but when it comes to these kinds of things, where its about writing freely,creatively, etc. I struggle to get anything on paper that flows and reads the way I want the admissions ppl to read it(on these kinds of assignments, sometimes my english teachers reach different conclusions after reading my papers than i hope they would).</p>
<p>I started writting some of my essays in the beginning of July, and I kind of had the same problem as you. So instead of thinking about the question for hours on end, I just started to write. Everytime I would look at my essay I would either end up adding more or changing something. Right now I have a completely different essay then what I started out with. It was through hours of writing and rewriting that I finally uncovered what I wanted to reveal to the admissions people. Anyways, I don’t know how well this will work for you, and it is rather inefficient, but it is just one way to maybe get you started.</p>
<p>lol easier said than done. im a very competitive person but i dont think collegs want to hear that. like i try to win at everything i do. for example, i will be playing a video game with friends and they will be playing for fun and chilling. I, on the other hand, will be trying to figure out the optimum height at which a bball player should be so that he has the best chance of making a 3-pointer. i pay attention to all the little details about things and am always trying to come up with ideas to make things better than they are. i find faults in things too easily. </p>
<p>i try to analyze everyone and everythign way too in-depth.</p>
<p>i really dont think colleges want to hear this.</p>
<p>Not necessarily. It depends on how you say it.</p>
<p>Actually your last post was informative…to someone who doesn’t know you, you’ve shed some light on one aspect of your personality and you did it well without even trying. It sounds to me from your short post that you are a (deep) thinker and if you can expound on that nicely, modestly and positively, and tie it in to a specific incident, you might be on to something.</p>
<p>Upon rereading your post #7 in one paragraph you (1) told us something major about your personality (2) gave an example (3) told us you realize at times it’s an undesirable trait and you understand that…in short that is exactly what an essay is supposed to do, tell us about you. And you weren’t even trying.</p>
<p>correct, my S just did that, IS was primary and CS secondary plus MISM in 5 yrs. (btw he would have graduated in 4 with both IS and MISM, fifth year was for CS).</p>
<p>I just did a count for what it’s worth from this past May’s commencement booklet. IS itself is fairly interdepartmental but here’s the breakdown:</p>
<p>71 IS grads:</p>
<p>25 just majored in IS (they might have gotten masters too, it’s not included here, this is just undergrad degrees)
13 double majored
20 had a minor
3 had double minor
7 double major and a minor
2 double major double minor
1 triple major and a minor (!)</p>
<p>also not included in above are about 8 who got Masters in IS through accelerated masters program (amp) as S did…</p>
<p>Gotchya. I had a question about IS in terms of USNEWs rankings. When they say top MIS(management info sys) undergrad programs CMU is ranked #2. I thought it was talking about IS, but on the Tepper website, it says their IT concentration is ranked #2. </p>
<p>Which program is USNEWS talking about? And btw, I don’t care about the rankings, just a question I was wondering about.</p>
<p>I think I’ll double major because I’ll be coming in with 10-11 AP credits, a couple mroe credits if they give me semester credit for my classes in AI and Supercomputing. </p>
<p>2331clk: What’s your S doing now? I am interested in going into consulting in either NY/D.C. area after graduation. Are there lot of opportunities for IS graduates?</p>
<p>That’s a good question. I think they (Tepper) might be referring to the IS program which really isn’t part of Tepper, but since usnews includes IS (or MIS) under business rankings they may be just stating that CMU IS is ranked #2 for undergrad. I think this because I doubt if an undergrad program like Tepper would be further broken down/ranked into its components like grad MBA Tepper or MISM could. </p>
<p>fyi top 10 undergrad IS programs (I have premium online usnews in case you don’t):</p>
<p>A lot of the grads do consulting or work for financial firms/banks… at graduation nearly all had a job (many NYC) or were going to grad school. </p>
<p>Opportunities for IS grads and what S is doing now: </p>
<p>I think my S’s experience for jobs is typical at least for CMU…by Sept of senior year he had 3 job offers (1 from internship, 1 from an internship manager who was going to another firm in Chicago and wanted to take S, 1 from Ford where he was offered an internship but declined) so there was no pressure, he ended his job search early and he had an enjoyable last year. He took the job where he interned, started last week at Goldman Sachs in New York.</p>
<p>I believe he may get an MBA in a few years, time will tell.</p>
<p>Awesome! Is he ibanking at Goldman Sachs or doing more IT-related stuff? My cousin went to Cornell and did the same thing as your son, except to Lehman Brothers.</p>
<p>Equity systems for now, so it’s not ibanking. But he will be eligible in his group for rather substantial bonuses, I don’t know how common that is for people employed broadly in technology. </p>
<p>His roommate in NYC also graduated from CMU and is working for Lehman; he was a computational finance major and does something with hedging of interest rates.</p>
<p>They both interned summer 2004 at the same respective places, so both knew what to expect and knew they loved NYC. The way to go appears to get the internship at a place you might eventually want to work.</p>