<p>I was in the creative writing club my freshman yr (I'm a junior or rising senior now) and I've been the newspaper editor for two years. Freshman year the only legitimate poem I've ever written was published in a creative teen writing anthology and I've interviewed various teachers and one student for my school paper. I also wrote an editorial about the recent inauguration and was interviewed by the Register-News because I attended it. I'm known as the walking dictionary and the walking thesaurus by my peers and my teachers regard me as one of the best writers they've ever had. Unfortunately I've never viewed writing as a viable hobby/interest/PASSION and I'm starting to regret it because everyone I know thinks it's my forte. My mezzo forte is science and it's a half passion. So I'm in science league and math club. I guess student council, peer coaching, future teachers, big bro/sis, and NHS reflect my interest in the human effort if you will, (I'm also a HOBY alum and I travelled to several countries in europe and one in africa) sociology and human psychology enraptures me...I'm also taking a college French course over the summer and I have an interview coming up to volunteer at the UPenn Hospital... so HOW WILL COLLEGES (specifially the ivies) PERCEIVE ME IN REGARDS TO MY ACTIVITIES AND IS MY WRITING SKILL LEGITIMATE CAUSE FOR SEEKING A LOCAL NEWSPAPER INTERNSHIP OR VOLUNTEER SERVICE AT A LOCAL NEWSPAPER? HELP!</p>
<p>I think we have no real way of judging how good a writer you are from one wall post. If you want to intern or volunteer at your local newspaper, then apply. If you don’t want to, then don’t apply.</p>
<p>I think we have no real way of judging how good a writer you are from one wall post. If you want to intern or volunteer at your local newspaper, then apply. If you don’t want to, then don’t apply.</p>
<p>“Unfortunately I’ve never viewed writing as a viable hobby/interest/PASSION and I’m starting to regret it because everyone I know thinks it’s my forte.”</p>
<p>Then, while you’re talented at writing, it’s not your passion. You can’t force something to become a passion. A passion is something you’d pursue even if you knew that Ivies did not like your passion.</p>
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<p>First, the term is ‘in regard to’ (no s). If you struggle with it simply use ‘regarding.’ I mention this as this is a classic mistake for many (and that includes adults). </p>
<p>If you try to tailor your application to what you think they want, you risk being wrong and not being yourself in the process.</p>
<p>It’s like Northstarmom said, if you’ve never considered writing to be your passion until now, it probably isn’t. Are you just considering getting more into writing for college admissions alone, or is something you want to do because you love doing it? </p>
<p>If I were you, I would only look into getting an internship if writing is something I truly enjoy doing. If you don’t like writing, don’t force yourself. There’s nothing wrong with having science as a passion. As a matter of fact, there does seem to be lots more oppurtunites for science passions than humanities passions.</p>
<p>In all honesty it’s been a passion all my life and I’ve just hidden it because it’s not worthy of my “brilliance” or because according to a couple of people it doesn’t make enough money. For me writing is the only way for me to express myself, the only way for my spirit to manifest itself be it broken or vibrant. And to rephrase my question I’m not trying to impress colleges. I’m trying to understand how I’m perceived by people outside of my world and I’m trying to make my latent passion a viable one. Ignore the grammatical errors please. Is my track record legitimate or faulty? Any suggestions?</p>
<p>“it’s been a passion all my life and I’ve just hidden it because it’s not worthy of my “brilliance” or because according to a couple of people it doesn’t make enough money.”</p>
<p>If it has really been a passion, you’d have been pursuing it in some ways whether or not other people knew about it. Having something that is what admissions officers would view as a passion is different than having an interest in a subject. Their view of a passion is having such a strong interest in something that you do various activities in that interest whether or not other people encourage you to do so and even if there’s no monetary or other reward for doing that activity.</p>
<p>For instance, my older S had a passion for writing. He was so into writing for fun that an effective way of punishing him was to forbid him from doing that.</p>
<p>I get it. Maybe I want to believe it’s a passion so badly that I’m deceiving myself by vehemently proclaiming that it is. Because otherwise if I don’t have writing then who am I? What am I good for? You’re right, but I have been writing for as long as I can remember whenever and wherever…and my parents don’t exactly encourage it so I’m trying to be the obedient daughter. My complaisancy sickens me and my character isn’t the best out there…thank you for helping me realize that I’m not entirely sincere in my “interest”. I won’t stop calling it my passion though…even if you and everyone else thinks it isn’t my passion. Does that make me wrong?</p>
<p>“You’re right, but I have been writing for as long as I can remember whenever and wherever”</p>
<p>If you write all of the time because you enjoy it, then writing sounds like it’s your passion. You don’t have to be in writing clubs, do an internship, etc. to have writing be your passion. Most colleges don’t care whether or not you have any passions. They make decisions overwhelmingly on your stats and (for public universities) the state of your residence.</p>
<p>The colleges that do care about passions – those colleges like HPYS – are looking for students who’ll be involved in campus organizations such as people who’ll write and edit the school newspaper, literary magazine, humor magazine or people with a documented rare level of talent such as a high school student who already has published a novel. Consequently, if all you do is write for yourself, that probably won’t help you get into such a college.</p>