Turing Scholar Essay Help

College Essays
1

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>After days of brainstorming I still have gotten nowhere with this essay:</p>

<p>“Explain a belief you accepted at some time in your life but recently rejected on the basis of a rational process. You might
choose your former belief in the existence of Santa Claus, for example, but you should remember that the rejection you
discuss must have been made on a rational basis. Perhaps you changed your mind because of something you have heard,
or because of some experience you have had; but for this essay you must go beyond reporting what you heard or
describing what happened to you; you must display the process of reasoning that carried you to your new belief. In your essay, explain the belief itself, your former reasons for holding it, and, most important, the rational process that led you
to reject it.
You may interpret “rejection” in a weak sense, such that you do not need to show that your former belief was false. For example, if you rejected “eating spinach makes me strong,” you need not have come to the conclusion “eating spinach does not make me strong.” All you need for this example is good reason for thinking that your information is not sufficient to support any conclusion as to whether or not spinach makes you strong. Please consider your topic carefully.
We mentioned “Santa Claus” by way of illustration only. A good essay will use a serious belief that you have rejected recently.”</p>

<p>My best ideas so far consist of how my political/economic beliefs have changed due to a more rational thought process, but it seems too difficult to put into 300-500 words, and the process is not entirely rational. I’ve also though of using how I became an atheist, but that seems risky.</p>

<p>So how have people in the past attacked this question? What are some possible everyday beliefs that could be rejected on a rational basis?</p>

<p>I’m not looking for someone to neccesarily give me a topic to write about, just get me on the write path.</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

2

<p>Adcoms want to see who you are as a person. They use these sorts of essays to find out who you really are and exactly what you’re about.</p>

<p>If I were you, I would talk about your becoming an atheist. Religion is a serious topic and there must have been some important reason why you chose to change. I have a very good reason for mine and it is simply because I found putting faith into something which I can neither see nor feel simply did not feel right to me. I’m a practical person and I look at things in a very straightforward way.</p>

<p>Hopefully my reason for changing beliefs helped you out a bit. For the record, I was a Catholic who became an atheist towards the end of my sophomore year so I know how you feel.</p>

<p>Hopefully your reason for becoming an atheist isn’t too offset.</p>

<p>Good luck with your essay!</p>

<p>PS- To be honest, I could go on for days talking about why I became an atheist so you should just look for something that you’d love to talk about or is something you’re proud of for whatever reason.</p>