<p>yeah, i’m pretty sure that we’ll have a decent amount of potential colleges in common. and i’m definitely excited about being able to keep in touch with all of you throughout the admissions process. hopefully, sunnyshine will get accepted somewhere in the u.s.! (:</p>
<p>yeoman, i feel the same way (i’m saying that a lot in this thread, hah) about the tasplication process. the essays were certainly enjoyable to write but what really made me happy was discovering that other people who are, like you said, genuine, intellectual, curious and kind are actually out there. whether i ever meet them or not, i’m content with that knowledge. if i had to pick one word to describe that quality that we all have, i think it would have to be sincerity. i just see a lack of it in so many of my peers. </p>
<p>and yes, this last year of high school is going to be a drag. hopefully, just having talked to the people on here will help us all keep a little bit of happiness in our hearts as we dawdle around in purgatory for another year. </p>
<p>just curious - what do you guys plan on studying in college?</p>
<p>I’d be quite interested to read some of your essays, once we all get over the pain and dare to look at them again, that is. ;] I had a fun time writing them, exploring myself.</p>
<p>I definitely agree with the sentiment expressed of the people. At my school, it seems like everyone is superficially concerned with just sticking things on their resume. Every other word out of their mouth seriously seems to be resume, and it’s rather ridiculous that their life revolves around a piece of paper, you know?</p>
<p>I honestly have no idea what I want to study in college, which is rather scary, to be honest, at itmes.</p>
<p>I am so happy that I created this thread (allow me a moment to brag please).</p>
<p>@lessist: good luck!</p>
<p>I took the Jan test and yeah…I will retake in May. Oh well. My life is still good.</p>
<p>I just cannot believe how powerful the internet is. Thank you so much, high-tech; otherwise I would not be connected with you guys. My counsellor told me years ago that I had to be patient enough to wait for my crowd since I did not really fit into the majority and now I feel that maybe I’ve found it. It’s kind of odd to say things like that when we haven’t even met but that’s how I feel so forgive me if you feel I am naive.</p>
<p>Yeah, thanks for the thread happy – definitely a good salve for the pain of rejection.</p>
<p>Anyway, I basically agree with everything that’s been said so far. I guess the thing I really like to see in people is that their brain’s default state is “on,” constantly whirring and buzzing and thinking and making connections, and not just passively accepting whatever comes their way, but challenging, analyzing, thinking, and questioning. I feel like that’s what really separates the “smart” from… well, I dunno if there’s a specific word for it, but someone who I’d like to be friends with, I guess. There’s a number of people at my school who may know a lot and be “smart,” but they don’t have that x-factor, that little impulse to insatiably seek new knowledge and ask new questions.</p>
<p>Well… colleges. I’d like to go to a liberal arts school, maybe Carleton or Wesleyan, but I wasn’t thrilled with my visit to Carleton, so we’ll see. MIT, UChicago, Yale, and Brown are also on the list, but it’s pretty open at this point. As for what to study, I’d like to go into public service in some fashion – dream job: White House Chief of Staff. All the interesting, important behind-the-scenes stuff without the grandstanding and posturing of being President. So I’ll probably major in Public Policy, Economics, Political Science, or International Relations.</p>
<p>Good luck on the SAT! I took it in January, and I achieved my goal of scoring high enough that I wouldn’t need to take it again.</p>
<p>that was really…incisively correct, yeoman. </p>
<p>jaques barzun definitely got it right when he said that “It is not the extent of their [students’] information that appalls; it is the absence of any reflection upon it…nothing is brought in from outside for contrast or comparison; no perspective is gained from the top of their monstrous factual pile; no generalities emerge to lighten the sameness of their endeavor.” </p>
<p>and it’s a shame because society needs minds and not just tools. the kind of “learning” that goes on in schools is embarrassing. the hoard of knowledge that students store up is worthless money not backed by gold or precious commodities, made valueless by its impotence––it has no significance because it wasn’t attained and will not be used by a functioning mind capable of inquiry and discernment between what is first-rate and second-rate, with a genuine desire for knowledge, the power to process information and formulate an original opinion, a thirst for truth, a confidence grounded in competence, a sincere joy in learning, and the ability to recognize and appreciate these character traits in others. that kind of knowledge is fiat currency––a sham, a debasement and devaluation of the real thing. and it makes me sad. </p>
<p>i think we have a lot (a scary amount, actually) in common in terms of career choices. i’m not sure about chief of staff but i’m definitely considering foreign relations/diplomacy and hoping that maybe i’ll end up as secratary of state. you’re right, all that showy business that being the president entails is just unappealing. hopefully, i’ll be relatively influential but anonymous enough that i don’t have to waste my time catering to the media. i’m thinking of a double major in linguistics (i am a major linguistics geek) and maybe economics. now i’m really curious–where do you stand politically, yeoman?</p>
<p>and my top choice schools are also liberal arts schools and brown, uchicago, etc.</p>
<p>thanks! i took all of my subject tests october - january and i’m doing the sat last. i don’t know why i did it that way. hah.</p>
<p>not at all, sunny. i feel weirdly connected with you guys, too. we have a frighteningly (lovely) amount of things in common. (: and i’m beginning to think that when i say “you guys” now i’m specifically referencing you two. i think us three have totally eaten this thread.</p>
<p>Oooh, linguistics! I’m pretty awful at languages (well, I’m ok at reading and writing, and taking 3 years of Latin in middle school helped with grammar and vocab, but I’m terrible at actually speaking the language), but I think it’s a really neat subject, looking at word origins and connections and such.</p>
<p>And I definitely agree with the primacy of actual understanding over mere facts. Actually, I almost wrote my “anything goes” TASP essay on how computers, the Internet, and the Information Revolution are changing the balance between analytical ability and mere “knowledge,” but I decided on something else.</p>
<p>By the way, lessist and anybody else, if you’re at all interested in Oberlin, let me know. I live in the city of Oberlin, and I interact a lot with the College and its students, and I’d be happy to answer any questions about it. I think it in many ways embodies a lot of the values of TASP: intellectual liberation and curiosity, combined with an emphasis on social justice and solving the world’s problems.</p>
<p>i’m actually not so interested in speaking foreign languages (with the exception of hebrew and arabic. i actually did a tasp essay on jewish and biblical culture.) i’m more attracted to the analytical, mathematical side of language–looking at patterns, connections, basic grammar rules, etc. i am sufficiently distracted by this website for at least an hour a night: <a href=“http://www.naclo.cs.cmu.edu/practice.html[/url]”>http://www.naclo.cs.cmu.edu/practice.html</a></p>
<p>and i’m super interested in oberlin. only i’m a little bit wary now because my government teacher (who is a pretty close friend of mine, too) has a daughter who went to oberlin. after studying political science there for about two months she decided to transfer the next year. she said it was insanely liberal. i’m not wary because it’s liberal (what college isn’t?), but she made it seem more like indoctrination than education.</p>
<p>Oh cool, that’s actually what appeals to me about language as well. I happened upon that site once and I spent a good deal of time on it. A friend of mine who’s also into linguistics showed me this site: <a href=“http://languagehat.com/[/url]”>http://languagehat.com/</a>. I don’t really read it, and it has a different focus than NACLO, but it might be of interest.</p>
<p>As for the “indoctrination” bit, I think it’s different for each person. Oberlin is obviously both liberal and politically engaged. At times, this can get a bit out of hand – a few Obies were arrested at the recent WTO conference in Pittsburgh… but I don’t think indoctrination is really fitting. There are plenty of liberal-oriented classes, and while I obviously can’t give first-hand accounts of classes, I think that the average professor, and 99.9% of students would be more than willing to give your point of view, whatever it may be, a fair shot, so long as you give theirs a listen as well. There’s not a whole ton of conservatism on campus, there’s no way to get around it: the Oberlin College Republicans basically stopped being an organization this year due to lack of leadership. Oberlin does though, I feel, make a point of trying to engage with those from all over the spectrum: I’ve been able to attend speeches by both Newt Gingrich and Ralph Nader, for example. I guess I would sum it up by saying that yes, there are probably a few people who are… over-enthusiastic, but I definitely wouldn’t call it indoctrination. Espousing any particular viewpoint won’t make you a pariah, and as long as you keep your wits about you, there’s no risk of brainwashing or the like.</p>
<p>hm, that site does seem pretty interesting. the second post is just perfect! i love playing guess-the-language. and it’s partially in arabic. the focus is certainly different but i don’t mind at all–those little language quirks he posts about are wonderful. have you ever read any steven pinker or noam chomsky? </p>
<p>in reference to oberlin, i think that her main concern was with a particular class and professor. i believe one of the required reading books was found to be a fake. that is, the author either plagiarized or just made the entire story up, i can’t remember. but anyway, the book was basically pro-socialist. and when she asked the professor why they were still reading it, he answered that it was because the book held “certain undeniable truths about the evils of capitalism.” at that point, she left. </p>
<p>that’s not to say everyone at oberlin thinks that way. and i’m honestly not too concerned with where people stand but rather with how well they can defend their stance. so, as long as the majority of oberlin students are intellectually engaging, whether they agree with me or not isn’t a problem. i’m still going to apply.</p>
<p>I totally agree with you lessist about wanting people who can actually, and I think that that’s what most students here are like. Yes, the vast majority are liberal, but they’ll actually be able to articulate their beliefs and defend them, not just vaguely say “um… I’m a Democrat, I guess?” (It annoys me when people describe their political views as being a Democrat or Republican. That’s not a set of political beliefs, that’s a party, which encompasses a wide variety of views, and the views themselves so often fluctuate according to political expedience).</p>
<p>The philosophy blog looks cool, although I haven’t delved into it too much. I enjoy philosophy in much the same way I enjoy a ton of other fields: I have no real education in the subject, and I’m not at all familiar with the lingo of the field, and sometimes I won’t even really have read much in the field, but I still find it really interesting when it comes up.</p>
<p>ah, that drives me crazy–people describing their political views as a political party. i’m an intern at the state republican headquarters but i am in no way a republican (actually pretty far from it). i just wanted experience working in the political sphere and the democratic headquarters was out immediately. but yeah, there are a lot of people there who are way too attached to the party itself. and you’re right, even within those two major parties there are plenty of differing factions. as for my own political ideology…i guess i could describe it as a mixture of classical liberalism, technocracy and other various things. so yeah, i don’t understand people who can identify themselves with just a political party. i don’t even think we should have parties but i could rant about that ad infinitum so i won’t even start. </p>
<p>also, since i’m seeing a lot of overlap in the summer programs we’re applying to, if we happen to get into any of the same ones, we should try to work something out. stanford, yale, harvard and emory (not so much emory, actually) have decent programs. i’ll hear back from questbridge in mid-spring about the scholarship stuff so…yeah, maybe we could try and take the same course or something. but this is pretty far-fetched, i know.</p>
<p>yeah, i just finished my brown application. the programs seem okay. and there are a ton of options. i was scrolling through the list and it’s almost overwhelming, hah. the anthropology, philosophy and political ones sound all right. i even saw one on game theory…</p>