<p>Also, in being the closet nerd that I am, I watched a number of English literature lectures from Yale’s website, and the professor was talking about Richard Wright and a series of letters he sent to his editor in regards to his book, of which I can’t remember the name, but it was something like The Black Boy or something like that, but it wasn’t The Native Son. And then she was like “For next week, I want all of you to go to Beinecke Library to read the letters from Richard Wright to his editor. They were never published, and Yale has the original manuscripts, so you can actually touch them. One of the perks of going to Yale.”</p>
<p>I LOVE YALE.</p>
<p>I’m a huge fan of George Orwell. However, I mostly read his books in grades 7 and 8, and I read through Animal Farm a second time at the end of June and thought it was significantly suckier than I remember, because I loved it at first. I feel like the metaphors were all kind of obvious, to the point where it was hardly even allegorical anymore. And I remember feeling so clever for understanding the “message” as a 13-year-old, but now I feel like it’s impossible not to, haha. His style of writing isn’t the greatest, but I guess it’s mostly his ideas that made him famous.</p>
<p>That’s exactly how I felt! We read it in my 10th grade English class, so I really hated it. I think that everything was too glaringly obvious. I just wish it was a little bit more subtle.
Personally, I don’t like reading books that try to shove a message down my throat (coughcough, The Pearl by Steinbeck!!)</p>
<p>I haven’t read read SH5 yet, but I love KV (LOVED Cat’s Cradle!) so I have high hopes for it. </p>
<p>Rocker…seriously? ME TOO! Open Yale Courses are what I watch when I’m bored, and I thought the exact same thing when I saw that one. I mean, how cool is it that in Beinecke they have 1 of only 21 complete copies of the Gutenberg Bible in the WHOLE world? But I diverge…</p>
<p>The Open Yale Courses are so much fun. I love them all. Except this one that’s taught by this little old boring man. I think it was classics or something?</p>
<p>But they’re all fascinating.</p>
<p>I just really hope that there are lots of discussion-based classes, not just tons of lectures. I hate when I’m not allowed to participate.</p>
<p>i go on huuge book shopping trips a few times a year, and in the last one i got sh5 but havent gotten around to reading it yet, this is the first time i’ve heard bad reviews about it tho, hope i like it.
and animal farm, i agree that it was too obvious and during class discussions, like every other “analysis” someone gave i was like “uh…ya think?!” lol but i really just tried to enjoy the story and i tend to be too empathetic with the characters so i quite liked it alot despite that. i couldn’t help but cry i was reading about the horse, and the plot on its own still got me preettyyy emotional, just that fact that they were ANIMALS made it worse, probably wouldnt have cried as much if they were just humans
ugh the pearl, read it too long ago but i can only recall not enjoying it</p>
<p>and is there a maximum word count for the common app essay?</p>
<p>Yeah, of course there’s a max word count! The thing that sucks about online word counts though is that if you need to write 501 words it won’t let you, and I highly doubt the adcoms will care if it’s 1 word over. Although I suppose you could just upload your document instead…</p>
<p>Rocker—most of Yale’s courses are seminars (something like 75% of classes are 19 students or fewer), but they videotape the lectures because they’re not allowed to put people’s faces online and in a seminar it’s very difficult to only get a shot of the teacher who might, say, be sitting at the table with their students. You know? But I used the Civil War class to help myself study for a APUSH test I had to take on the war and it was SO unbelievably helpful. I downloaded the wav file and listened to it on my iPod on the bus rides to and from school for a week before my test 
Do I recall you saying that you had to take APUSH too? Or was that someone else…if that WAS in fact you, why are they teaching US history in Canada?</p>
<p>but it doesnt specify on the common application, it just says more than 250, or am i missing something here? =S</p>
<p>You know…you’re right! I just thought it was 500 because it’s 500 for so many of the supplements. Wow…the things you learn :)</p>
<p>I’ve heard that an informal maximum is around 700-750 words for the Common App essay. Which is a pretty decent length, I think.</p>
<p>It wasn’t me, but I think it’s weird anyone from Canada would take any US History classes. Does happen, though. Idk. I guess it’s just a different history to know, and it’s about a pretty influential country.</p>
<p>I’m submitting an article, which is around 70 pages, because my contribution to the project was significant, and it’s definitely at the forefront of the field and could legitimately make an impact on my application. Chances are, however, that if it gets forwarded to a prof who specializes in the area of research, s/he’ll have already seen it by November-December, but oh well. If I didn’t really make a significant contribution to the project, or if my area of research wasn’t truly at the level of something that’s actually “publishable,” I don’t think I’d submit anything, just because I’d risk having a prof glance at something and sort of scoff at it.</p>
<p>I would advise against that. I remember reading that professors generally get annoyed when high school students pester them about anything related to applying to the college. I remember even reading of some professors who contacted the admissions office and explicitly advised against admitting a particularly annoying student. Just my opinion…</p>
<p>You’re doing research at Yale too? Wasn’t aware. One more thing: are you sure you need both of those supplemental recs?</p>
<p>Be really weary of supplemental recs. They really don’t help, honestly. The two standard recs that you’re getting should be sufficient (I mean, why get a rec from someone if it won’t be good, right?) and every book I’ve read about admissions clearly states that additional recommendations only get on adcoms’ nerves and after a while they just stop reading them because they’re a waste of time. So be really careful with that.</p>
<p>Wait… didn’t you say you just met Rashid Khalidi…?</p>
<p>That’s interesting. Good luck :)</p>
<p>Until the Yale supplement is on the Common App, I won’t feel inclined to work on it. So they better hurry it up.</p>
<p>LOL,
@rockermscr: lol, don’t ever come to australia long term if you dont like non-distinct seasons. here, its either ■■■■ hot, or just hot, or warmish, or cold.
seriously.
can you believe i’ve never seen REAL snow (not the fake stuff they spray in skiing slopes) up close? let alone touch real snow? lol.</p>
<p>btw, im pretty sure yale supplement for 09/10 is up?
or am i being completely delusional…</p>
<p>No, it’s not on the commonapp website if that’s what you mean, I just checked. I was really excited for a moment. D:</p>
<p>Wait, so until they release the supplement on CommonApp, we cannot do anything with the supp essays right? Am I correct?</p>
<p>^ No, you can. You can type them up and later upload them to the Common App. You know everything that’s in the supplement because it’s up already (<a href=“http://www.yale.edu/admit/freshmen/application/pdf/yale_supplement_paper.pdf[/url]”>http://www.yale.edu/admit/freshmen/application/pdf/yale_supplement_paper.pdf</a>), you just can’t fill stuff in on the Common App yet.</p>