<p>I tried the essay forum but got little response so i decided to ask here, since the Duke adcom is what i really care about. (applying ED) </p>
<p>Will the readers of my personal statement be up to date with teen pop culture. Basically, if i make a reference to the Soulja Boy, (popular dance to quasi-hip hop song) will the adcom realize what I am talking about. It is part of an anecdote that will really make my essay better if the reader knows what I am talking about. </p>
<p>Would it be a good idea to include the short reference? Pretty much every teen at my high school (and i assume every high school in the US) knows all about it, but not sure about the adcom. Any opinions?</p>
<p>And please dont steal my idea for the anecdote! lol Thanks again for any personal opinions!</p>
<p>i wouldn't do it personally . .. . . .but if you incorporate it well, sure fine. if they don't know what it is, but like your essay, they'll look it up. but it is risky. . ...</p>
<p>its not the main focus of my essay. its more of an example to illustrate a point. wouldnt the fact that adcoms deal with high school students and work at a college campus make it pretty much definite that they at least know about the soulja boy dance. </p>
<p>maybe i could be like; "sentence blah blah blah soulja boy (popular hip hop song and corresponding dance prevalent in teen culture at high schools across america)" or something along those lines.</p>
<p>ahhh, your killin me. i guess maybe i shouldnt include it if students like yourself dont know it. But to answer your question, it was a very popular hip hop song and corresponding dance that was prevalent in teen culture and high school student's life this past year. </p>
<p>u never heard of "crankin the soulja boy"? (what you do in the dance) I guess because of a wide array of interests, even some high school/college students may not be aware of it. Oh well, i guess i was wrong in assuming the adcom would know about it.</p>
<p>The essay is not only about presenting yourself to the adcoms but also an important evaluation of your written communications skills. On one hand, if by including the reference to soulja boy, you can effectively convey to the intended audience (the adcoms) a unique aspect of your character or experience and thus achieve purpose of the essay then by all means include it. If, however, your reference falls flat on its face, then it would show a deficiency in communications skills, detracting from the essay and negatively impacting its overall effect.</p>
<p>That's my take on it. You can also test out your essay on others around you such as your parents, teacher, guidance counselor, etc to see how they react to it.</p>
<p>thanks SBR...could you specify an example of how it would "fall flat on its face"? Could this occur simply because the adcom has know idea of the dance/song and has never heard of soulja boy?</p>
<p>The usage would be a quality addition in my opinion if the adcom knows what I am talking about. It is not condescending in any way and is used in an anecdote expressing a significant experience. Ill take your advice though with teachers, GC, etc. Thanks again!</p>
<p>I would find other examples that work. Like someone said, it is risky and even if the adcoms know who soulja boy is, it might come across as trying too hard... i dunno.</p>
<p>I would try to keep it simple and mainstream. I don't understand the reference at all, and you can't expect someone who could be anywhere from 22 to 60+ to know teen pop culture. They will also be busy and probably do not have the time or interest to research it.</p>
<p>OP: by "falling flat on its face," I mean that the adcoms would read it, scratch their heads, and go "wt f?!?! why was that in the essay?" or "wt f is that all about?" That would be detrimental to your essay. </p>
<p>Like others above have pointed out, the chances of the adcoms have in depth knowledge of soulja boy to completely understand your reference is slim (I just can't imagine Christoph Guttentag "crankin the soulja boy"). IMHO, If you really need to include that reference, the best thing that could be done is to present it in a way that also incorporates some sort of contextual explanation that doesn't disrupt the flow of your essay.</p>
<p>SBR has it dead on, but let me extrapolate: their have been many brilliant authors who made references to things they knew their readership might not be familiar with. doing so is not fundamentally a mistake, if you do it correctly. </p>
<p>the key is to give a sufficient and sufficiently concise explanation. "(popular hip hop song and corresponding dance prevalent in teen culture at high schools across america)" strikes me as redundant, sterile and, figuratively speaking, lumbering, (i dunno if this was just to give us an idea or not, not trying to be an ass). id have to see the reference in context to give an example of a good, but you might just go with, "popular hip hop song and accompanying dance" or something like that, i dunno</p>
<p>dude08: lol oo, ok yeh i thought at least all the students would know it. however i posted a similar thread elsewhere and several seriously did not know. (i think...they didnt tell me they were joking after I explained it anyway) </p>
<p>Thanks everyone, now that I am actually putting the essay together, its not that big of a deal anyway. A very minor area. Nonetheless, thanks!</p>
<p>Honestly-- I'm taking a different stance than a lot of people here, mainly because I remember inserting things like that when I wrote my essays... when used correctly, its tremendously effective (imho), shows you have a good sense of humor and likely even a good writers voice. Being a person (and a likable one at that) is imo again, really imperative in college essays.</p>
<p>That's not too much of a different stance compared with others on this thread. I don't think anyone is suggesting writing essays as if one was writing a paper for the New England Journal of Medicine or Nature. But on the flip side, peppering your essay with ebonics could be counterproductive and annoy one's readers. One has to find a balance between one's unique voice and style and clarity of communication.</p>
<p>I'm the mom of 2 current Duke students; I'm from Durham and without the ethnic/age background some of you think would be essential to understand what soulja boy is, yet have definitely have heard it, seen it, everything. I would not refer to it as Ebonics: most people with a college/hs aged kid, or who has seen more that a passing sec of youtube, facebook, or even marching band culture has heard it likely even if they don't know that as the name, and I will tell you that the adcoms here are really down with the kids. </p>
<p>I'm sure they know EVERYthing happening with popular culture right now; don't underestimate them. They no doubt have many students giving tours in and interning in admissions, they have young alum fanning out all over the country doing those info sessions in their hometowns with their own high schools or at least available to share experiences...they work alongside so much youth..it's not just like 3 or 4 stuffy old adcoms (my age, hahaha) and a gavel up in some secluded tower as one would imagine. </p>
<p>Duke is part of that very cultural triangle formed with UNC and NC State, and pop culture is hard to go unnoticed here. I'd say be yourself. I won't tell you what they wrote but you would not BELIEVE the weird essays my kids wrote. They were VERY individual and saying what they wanted to say about their experience with the world, big or small. So yeah, say it how you need to say it to get your point across without being too campy.</p>