Tuesday, August 18, 2020

English Teachers And College Essays

English Teachers And College Essays Students may initiate applications to other colleges under nonbinding plans but must withdraw those applications if admitted to Rice. Students who apply Early Decision must submit their materials by November 1. Admission decisions will be released by mid-December. These scholarships are based solely on merit and financial need is not taken into consideration. About 20% of admitted students are offered a merit scholarship each year. Students awarded a merit-based scholarship will be notified at the time of admission. We know that one of the biggest factors in determining the right school is affordability. Because we believe talent deserves opportunity, Rice offers need-blind admission to domestic students. Rather show them how to do an online grammar sentence check for themselves. Aim to use less common and academic vocabulary for your school work and IELTS essays. Learn more about academic versus conversational vocabulary. The Virtual Writing Tutor calculates your band score on Task 1 and Task 2 writing tests automatically. Providing corrective feedback on errors may be a huge part of your workload, but ask your self this. If a machine could catch all the surface errors my students make on their writing, what other aspects of my students' writing would I want to spend more time on? Shepherd School of Music ApplicantsApplicants interested in Shepherd School of Music must submit additional materials depending on their area of study. All application materials must be completed by December 1. Music applicants are not eligible to apply through QuestBridge or Early Decision. Admitted students must pursue the music program for at least one year before changing schools. For more information, please visit the Shepherd School of Music Admission page. Teachers should stop thinking that they have to compete with grammar checkers and view them as an assistive technology that can help reduce some of their correction load. If you are feeling afraid of losing your job to a grammar checker, you don't understand your job very well. If you fix their grammar for them like a free proofreader, they will come to expect it and will refuse to write anything unless the teacher reads and corrects it. So don't be their go-to grammar correction machine correcting grammar all day and night. Start thinking about how you can give some of the tedious aspects of your job to a machine so that you can spend more time on a higher order analysis of the ideas and the flow in your students' writing. Instead of thinking of writing as a grammar test, you will be able to see it as communication. It is always a good idea to use a worked example with students, demonstrating how to solve problems instead of just solving problems for them. This means we do not consider finances when we review the application. Additionally, Rice meets 100 percent of demonstrated need â€" without loans â€" through the Rice Investment, one of the most notable financial aid programs in the country. For more information about need-based financial aid and the Rice Investment, please visit our Office of Financial Aid website. The counselor letter of recommendation serves to highlight the accomplishments of a student within the context of their high school. A limited-access program is one where both program admission and registration in program classes are restricted to a certain number of students meeting pre-determined criteria. This means that you are initially accepted into the university as a pre-major AND then you must submit a supplemental application for consideration for acceptance into a limited-access undergraduate major. The Office of Admission offers merit-based scholarships to incoming first year students who distinguish themselves academically and personally within our highly competitive group of admitted students. The letter must come from an applicant’s assigned school counselor, college counselor, principal, or headmaster. Applicants will not be disadvantaged if their high school structure and counselor’s caseload does not allow students the opportunity to build a personal relationship with their counselor. As is consistent with our holistic review, students will be given full consideration with the information they have provided regardless of their decision to submit their test scores. Early Decision is a binding decision plan designed for students who have selected Rice as their first choice.

5 Things Colleges Look For In A College Essay

5 Things Colleges Look For In A College Essay Using this collected data, it was possible to determine if the curcumin and/or the nanoparticles had played any significant role on the cervical cancer cells. Later, I was able to image cells in 4D through con-focal microscopy. From growing HeLa cells to trying to kill them with different compounds, I was able to gain the hands-on experience necessary for me to realize once again why I love science. This past summer, I had the privilege of participating in the University of Notre Dame’s Research Experience for Undergraduates program . Styled in a t-shirt, shorts, and a worn, dark green lanyard, I sprint across the quad from the elective ‘Speaking Arabic through the Rassias Method’ to ‘Knitting Nirvana’. This afternoon is just one of many at Governor’s School East, where I have been transformed from a high school student into a philosopher, a thinker, and an avid learner. While I attend GS at Meredith College for Natural Science, the lessons learned and experiences gained extend far beyond physics concepts, serial dilutions, and toxicity. I learn to trust myself to have difficult yet necessary conversations about the political and economic climate. Using equipment that a high school student could only dream of using, I was able to map apoptosis versus necrosis in HeLa cells, a cervical cancer line, after treating them with curcumin-bound nanoparticles. Using flow cytometry to excite each individually suspended cell with a laser, the scattered light from the cells helped to determine which cells were living, had died from apoptosis or had died from necrosis. This is how I want to live my life, with this optimistic attitude that every day is a second chance. All the time, we have the opportunity to renew our perspective on life, to correct our mistakes, and to simply move on. Like the phoenix I will continue to rise from the ashes, experienced and renewed. I will not waste time for my life is already in flux. Yet I've realized that life is fickler than I had imagined; it can disappear or change at any time. The exploration led me to the African Disease Prevention Project , a non-profit organization associated with several universities. I decided to create the first high school branch of the organization; I liked its unique way of approaching health and social issues. Rather than just raising money and channeling it through third parties, each branch “adopts” one village and travels there to provide for its basic needs. As branch president, I organize events from small stands at public gatherings to 60-person dinner fundraisers in order to raise both money and awareness. I’ve learned how to encourage my peers to meet deadlines, to work around 30 different schedules at once, and to give presentations convincing people why my organization is worth their donation. First, let me share an example of how I helped one student find her essay thread, then I’ll offer you some exercises to help you find your own. I also worked to apply myself constructively in other ways. I worked hard and took my grades from Bs and Cs to consecutive straight A’s. I shattered my school’s 1ooM breaststroke record, and learned how to play the clarinet, saxophone, and the oboe. Our whole team gathered around, and I asked people to share how they have been affected by cancer. The Sonora Eagles were my means for dealing with the death of my loved ones to cancer. I was never fully aware of how closely humans rely upon each other until I read The Fall of Freddy the Leaf by Leo Buscaglia in freshman year. The allegory is about a leaf that changes with the seasons, finally dying in the winter, realizing that his purpose was to help the tree thrive. After reading it, I was enlightened on the cycle of life and realized the tremendous impact my actions had on others. Working towards those changes to solve real life problems is what excites me. So, I will forgive and forget, love and inspire, experience and satire, laugh and cry, accomplish and fail, live and die. Several of my family members left this world in one last beating symphony; heart attacks seem to be a trend in my family. They left like birds; laughing one minute and in a better place the next. But overall, ADPP has taught me that small changes can have immense impacts. My branch has helped raise almost $3,000 to build water sanitation plants, construct medical clinics, and develop health education programs in the small village of Zwedru. The difference between ADPP and most other organizations is its emphasis on the basics and making changes that last. Plus, I not only became the first student in my school to pass the AP Physics 1 exam, I’m currently pioneering my school’s first AP Physics 2 course ever. Over time, however, I grew determined to improve the quality of life for my family and myself. As undocumented immigrants and with little to no family around us, we had to rely on each other.

Monday, August 17, 2020

How To Write A Stand

How To Write A Stand Our family’s ethnic diversity has meant that virtually each person adheres to a different position on the political spectrum. This has naturally triggered many discussions, ranging from the merits of European single-payer healthcare to those of America’s gun laws, that have often animated our meals. These exact conversations drove me to learn more about what my parents, grandparents, and other relatives were debating with a polite and considerate passion. This ongoing discourse on current events not only initiated my interests in politics and history, but also prepared me greatly for my time as a state-champion debater for Regis’s Public Forum team. I'm momentarily taken aback, unable to understand how I went wrong when I followed the recipe perfectly. Most importantly, my family has taught me an integral life lesson. As our Christmas Dinner squabbles suggest, seemingly insurmountable impasses can be resolved through respect and dialogue, even producing delicious results! On a grander scale, it has elucidated that truly inclusive discourse and toleration of diverse perspectives render tribalism, sectarianism, and the divisive aspects of identity politics powerless over our cohesion. This vocation may come in the form of political leadership that truly respects all perspectives and philosophies, or perhaps as diplomacy facilitating unity between the various nations of the world. The Green Mountains of Vermont stretch out indefinitely, and from my elevated vantage point, I feel as though we are peers, motionless in solidarity. But a few months ago, I would have considered this an utter waste of time. While translating has been a huge part of my life, a professional translator is not my dream job. I want to be an ambulatory care clinical pharmacist who manages the medication of patients with chronic diseases. In one form or another, I've always been and will be a translator. A “14” etched on November 15, 2018, marked the first Lakeside Cooking on the Stove Club meeting. What had started as a farcical proposition of mine transformed into a playground where high school classmates and I convene every two weeks to prepare a savory afternoon snack for ourselves. In fact, translating is a huge part of the job of a clinical pharmacist. As my qualities as a “therapist” and a “tutor” shaped me into a great translator, I will continue to develop my future as a clinical pharmacist by enhancing and discovering my qualities. My mom went on a 100% whole food plant-based diet. I fully embraced this new eating philosophy to show my support. Eager to figure out the whole “vegan” thing, the two of us started binge-watching health documentaries such as “What the Health” and “Forks Over Knives”. We read all the books by the featured doctors like “The China Study” and “How Not To Die”. Our society has taught us that delicious food has to make us feel guilty, when that is simply not the case. The best feeling in the world is falling in love with a dish and then learning all the health benefits that it provides the body. My transformation began with my mom’s cancer diagnosis. A few months later, a “16” scribbled on February 27, 2019, marked the completion of a fence my Spanish class and I constructed for the dusty soccer field at a small Colombian village. Hard-fought days of mixing cement and transporting supplies had paid off for the affectionate community we had immediately come to love. The Happiness Spreadsheet doesn’t only reflect my own thoughts and emotions; it is an illustration of the fulfillment I get from gifting happiness to others. Finally, I am a strong proponent of hands-on experience for learning what good food looks and tastes like, so cooking is one of my favorite ways to teach the benefits of a plant-based lifestyle. Prior to attending Mountain School, my paradigm was substantially limited; opinions, prejudices, and ideas shaped by the testosterone-rich environment of Landon School. I was herded by result-oriented, fast-paced, technologically-reliant parameters towards psychology and neuroscience (the NIH, a mere 2.11 mile run from my school, is like a beacon on a hill). See, I have been blessed to be a part of what my mother calls the “melting pot of Europe.” While I was born in England, my brothers were born in Denmark and New York. I have a Swedish sister-in-law, Italian Aunts, an English Uncle, Romanian cousins and an Italo-Danish immigrant father. Every year, that same family gathers together in New York City to celebrate Christmas. While this wonderful kaleidoscope of cultures has caused me to be the ‘peacekeeper’ during meal arbitrations, it has fundamentally impacted my life. However, thinking on my own wasn’t enough; I needed more perspectives. I was taught that one’s paramount accomplishment should be specialization. I sit, cradled by the two largest branches of the Newton Pippin Tree, watching the ether.

Friday, August 14, 2020

Formula For The Perfect College Essay

Formula For The Perfect College Essay In order to write a great college essay, you don't need a committee. Besides, trying to get all the members on the same page is a lot like herding cats. Second, students want validation that they have done a worthy job on their essay, and they naturally gravitate towards the adult mentors in their life. A college counselor or English teacher is great, but when we hear that parents, SAT tutors, or my-mom's-friend-who-is-good-at-writing are also weighing in, we start to worry. The other thing I caution about is the service trip. If you want to write about how you saved the word, you shouldn’t do it. When my best friend John Smith ‘20 told me about U.Chicago’s diverse campus environment , I was excited, but skeptical â€" diversity can mean different things to different people. So I went to see for myself, visiting on September 9th, 2017. The info session was intimate â€" more so than any other I have attended â€" with a relatively select group of students offered full campus access. Bob Davis ’12, my tour leader, was extraordinarily patient, walking me through U.Chicago’s outstanding array of clubs and societies, including the MSAC Committee. U.Chicago is one of the only schools I am considering that even offers a student-led Diversity Committee, much less one that advises faculty and university management on key outreach issues.Outstanding. The college essay is an important vehicle for telling the admissions committee about yourself, but the academic factors are far more important, even if the essay is worthy of a Pulitzer. Don’t worry about being someone else’s idea of a “good writer.” If you’re not funny, it’s not the time to be funny. If you’re not a good writer and don’t have a huge vocabulary, don’t use fancy words. Your ideas can be profound and can show deep insight into your character, even if they are told in simple, unadorned phrases. In brainstorming about what topic to write about for your Common Application essay, look at what you intend to present in the rest of your application and think about overarching traits that can represent you. I attribute a lot of my successes to how my application as a whole, not just the essays, constructs a story about who I am and what I’ve done. We learn that the author knows how to turn a phrase, the author is a warm and caring person, the author has a sense of humor, and the author will bring us cookies if we admit her to our imaginary college. All in all, we see a student who is a skilled writer with a warm heart â€" positive traits, to be sure. Maybe not, but I loved the rules, the structure, and the big questions that surrounded organizing a government. This essay doesn’t share many life-defining revelations; we learn, as a brief aside, that the author often cared for her younger siblings, but little beyond that. Yet despite its relative lack of major information, it reveals a lot about who the author is. I thought about these things constantlyâ€"while brushing my teeth, doing chores, and driving to school. Unable to take this beloved course a second time, I chose my senior classes with more than a touch of melancholy. I was skeptical that even the most appealing humanities class, AP Literature, would be anything but anticlimactic by comparison. I’d become so accustomed to reading the function-focused writings of Locke, Rousseau, Madison, Thoreau, that I found it difficult to see “literature” as anything more than mere stories. As the name implies, writing apersonal statementis apersonalexperience, making it just a little bit different for everyone. Not just the process, but the actual statement itself, too. That said, you should absolutely get someone to edit for typos and grammar. Don’t just farm it out â€" learn from those writing lessons and use the essay to become more confident in your own voice. You can fix the writing and your thoughts will still be there. There are any number of formulas out there for writing personal statements for college applications. Some encourage you to stick to the traditionalopening-body-conclusionformula, while others insist you should take a risk to spice up the admission officer’s reading experience. None of them are wrong, but it doesn’t mean they’re right for you.

Thursday, August 13, 2020

5 College Application Essay Topics That Always Work

5 College Application Essay Topics That Always Work If you’re writing about your response to the book or how it influenced your life, the right writing ratio is a lot less about the book and way more about your lifeâ€"in this case, it really is all about you. In this sense, it’s an essay that’s focused, that’s organized, that has a central theme and culminates into something worth reading, that has a point. A wow essay reveals a strong ability to analyze and find patterns in your life or personal experiences and the world around you. This essay may prove the power of your intellect. But it can also offer insight into human nature or behavior. With over thirty years experience as a university professor and admissions committee member, you’re invited to leverage her extensive knowledge of university curricula and career opportunities. Your essay is an invitation to tell a personal story that allows the reader to infer important personal characteristics about you based on the anecdotes and experiences you shared. A good essay provides readers with a clear understanding of how your experiences have shaped your view of communities and your potential to have an impact on others. The essay is NOT an annotated resume nor an opportunity to restate the materials already noted on the important ‘Activities” section of the Common and Coalition Application. Though you might be focused on the part of the story that you think says what you need it to, be careful about what others might read into other parts of the narrative. If you’re going to bring up potential flaws, they must be addressed head on, or it’s best to find another story. Remember that everything you write we will “read into” Be careful about what anecdotes you choose and details you include. If you choose a time when you realized you hadn’t put in the effort and you weren’t going to win because of it, that shows me that you’re potentially lazy at times. You don’t want a school worrying about whether you can or will handle the workload. We all have plenty of weaknessesâ€" pick one that doesn’t lead us to question your capacity to stay in school and graduate. He got himself into that situation because of his boredom and cavaliernessâ€" unless those are qualities he’s going to be unpacking, the story is a bit problematic. If a school offers multiple prompt options for the essay, don’t choose too quickly â€" think about how you would answer each prompt and choose the strongest option. Why you want to attend this school â€" admissions committees want to know why you are interested in their program and what makes you a good fit. Because I believe that this is valuable preparation for college and, beyond, life. At college, for instance, one is liable to find yourself living in a situation in which people don’t get along, especially in bathrooms. Bathrooms are in that sense a microcosm of the macrocosm. Bathrooms also can be a truly dramatic crucible, as the playright Arthur Miller has demonstrated in his dramaturgical magnum opus by that title. Colleges across the country are struggling to recover from the massive upheaval to the semester wrought by COVID-19. Housing refunds and slashed budgets are bound to have long-term impacts for the institutions that survive. Some experts suggest community colleges may be the best equipped to ride out the storm and may have the greatest impact in helping America recover. The role of community colleges in the world of higher education has expanded over the years and, as the country works to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, they may be more important now than ever. Read on to learn more about the changing role of community colleges. It’s a perspective that makes me nod along and go, wow, yeah, I hear what you’re saying. And it does so in a way that makes me feel like I’ve learned something from you, not talked down to, or left out of the conversation because you spoke of things in a way that I couldn’t understand. In particular, if your weaknesses are related to effort, academic performance, etc. those can be more challenging vulnerabilities to write about successfully. Though you may have realized a need for effort, be careful about where the balance lands. I also love essays in which the context is a very impressive activity, but the story focuses on an intellectual idea or other point of emphasis, not the activity itself. Below are ten factors that I find in wow essays. Not every wow essay will have every factor, but most wow essays have several. We are offeringFREE COURSE EXTENSIONSuntil October 10th, 2020 to qualified students whose exams were cancelled due to COVID-19 and whose paid course subscription expired after March 18th, 2020. We have AUTOMATICALLY extended access for courses originally expiring between July 30, 2020-October 9th 2020. If your course access lapsed before this window, please submit a request here, as we will need to add you to our new course platform. Please also note, book shipping on new subscriptions may be slightly delayed beyond estimates due to COVID-19 related service delays. Push beyond the surface and don’t spend too much time on the most prominent traits of the college. Find things that are more specific to your interest alone. Grandma says she will give up her heart and arthritis medications, and Grandpa says he will go back to work at the uranium mine in Utah despite the facts that he is eighty-two and legally blind. Another element in my desire to devote my life to service to humanity was my parents’ divorce.

Tuesday, August 11, 2020

Three Ways To Write A College Essay That Will Be Remembered!

Three Ways To Write A College Essay That Will Be Remembered! Some academic genres may not even require an introduction or conclusion. An annotated bibliography, for example, typically provides neither. A book review may begin with a summary of the book and conclude with an overall assessment of it. A policy briefing usually includes an introduction but may conclude with a series of recommendations. Check your assignment carefully for any directions about what to include in your introduction or conclusion. So, if you wonder how to start a conclusion, rephrase your thesis statement and write it first. Give the audience something to think about after they finish reading your essay. A concluding sentence of your essay isn’t less but sometimes even more challenging to write than its introduction. Most of the advice in this handout pertains to argumentative or exploratory academic essays. Be aware, however, that different genres have their own special expectations about beginnings and endings. I’m thinking about taking the ACT to just try it and see if I can score better on it than SAT. Let’s say I take the ACT without writing and scored better on it than SAT and I send both scores to a school that requires the writing part. Will they look at my ACT score and my SAT Essay score or I have to take the ACT with writing in order for the score to be considered. Do not repeat the exam because of your Writing score. I then took the ACT again without writing and got a 34. Should I take the entire ACT with writing again, or does the essay from my initial test carry over to my 34 test. Do you think she should retake the ACT just to improve the writing part? Reading your other comments sounded like she may not need to do that but would like to confirm. She does have 4.0 unweighted GPA so far, SAT Math II 790, SAT Bio 770. If your essay deals with a contemporary problem, warn readers of the possible consequences of not attending to the problem. For most essays, one well-developed paragraph is sufficient for a conclusion. In some cases, a two-or-three paragraph conclusion may be appropriate. Of the colleges that superscore ACT scores, I am not aware of any that will not superscore between ACT W/Writing and ACT W/O Writing. If you are applying to the University of California system, I would recommend repeating the essay. Otherwise, you should be able to save yourself the headache. I am not aware of any college that allows the fulfillment of the essay requirement with one test while using the scores from a different exam. You will need to take the ACT with Writing if you are considering colleges that require the essay. A good last sentence leaves your reader with something to think about, a concept in some way illuminated by what you’ve written in the paper. You can only report an essay score by reporting all of your scores . Likewise, if you report your ACT scores, your Writing score will be included. If a school superscores, they will not downgrade you because of the 33. If the essay is optional, I don’t see any reason to submit that test date. As with introductions, the length of the conclusion should reflect the length of the essay. Broaden your focus a bit at the end of the essay. It’s a final sentence of your essay, providing a sense of closure and connecting readers back to the introduction. It’s the sentence restaining a thesis of your essay. The 8 score is not that out of the norm, so I wouldn’t give it much weight in the decision. About 2/3 of colleges superscore the ACT, so I would send both scores in those cases (that way he has a 36 Reading / 36 Science). It’s less important at schools that do not superscore, but I would still be comfortable submitting both scores. I believe the vast, vast majority of the colleges you list as “Optional” similarly don’t even consider a writing score. Art graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, where he was the top-ranked liberal arts student in his class.

Monday, August 10, 2020

Writing Tips And Techniques For Your College Essay

Writing Tips And Techniques For Your College Essay The college application essay is the true test of those skills and of your ability to present an accurate picture of who you are. According to an article published on Time.com, college application essays aren’t as important as they are cracked up to be. Even more if you are applying for scholarships. As college application deadlines near, students across the country are hoping that their essays will earn them a spot at their dream school. Quite simply, the best college essays make a personal statement and give admissions officers a window into your soul. Many students write essays that are too clichéd or shallow, or too impersonal and uninformative. From coming up with ideas to organizing your thoughts to drafting and revising, our writing tutors know how to help you create top college essays to boost your chance of admission at your dream school. Contact us to learn more about our college essay service. If you’re just getting started with your college essay, here is some advice on getting into the college essay mindset. For most students, it takes about 10 hours to write a good college essay. If you’re applying to schools that request supplemental essays or do not accept the Common Application, you may have several different essays to write. One time-tested method is writing a strong admissions essay. from Harvard University (History & Literature) and an M.A. She has been teaching students how to write successful college essays for eight years. Prior to her career in education, she was a book editor at Simon & Schuster and Hyperion Press. She is the mother of four children, and she delights in helping her students improve their writing. Contrary to popular belief, students should not write about a horrible life event that changed their life forever. The fact is that most of us have not had such a life changing situation before the age of 18 (so don’t make one up either!). Even if you have had such an experience, don’t write about it. These types of pieces can come off negatively, and sometimes a teenager’s perception of a life changing event is much different than that of a college admissions reader. I once had a student who wrote about how he observed a water droplet while on vacation. This seemingly insignificant event caused him to think about why he loved art and philosophy over science and math. I’m surprised when students have trouble writing their college essays. Students have keen powers of energetic observation about themselves and the world around them, but ask them to share any of those ideas in a college essay, and the silence speaks volumes. Writing an essay is something students learn to do in school from a fairly young age, but it is a skill that must be perfected over a number of years. For some students, the essay itself will be cause for rejection. But a few simple tips, some introspection and insight into what admissions officers are looking for can help ease the pressure. News has compiled several college essay examples that helped students get into school. Shared by admissions staff, these essays stand out, they say, because the student voices shine, helping the school get to know them. U.S. News has compiled several college essay examples that helped students get into school. Deciding which colleges to apply to is difficult enough, but you add to that the stress of writing a personal essay for each of your applications. Your personal essay is supposed to give college admissions teams a snapshot of who you are as a person and who you hope to become but you don’t have to spill your guts or transcribe your whole life story. To increase your chances of getting accepted, first learn just how important your essay is and then take the time to learn the Dos and Don’ts of college application essays. We’re experts at helping students craft stellar college admission essays. As a former high school teacher, I have worked with hundreds of students on their college essays. Later, as a private college essay consultant, I worked with students and parents at some top private schools before I became an admissions counselor for a small liberal arts college. Pizza, community service, grandmothers, barnacles…you name it, and admissions officers have probably read an essay about it.