<p>Colleges don’t need to see an undying flame of love for Keats or Latin or some academic pursuit. The most selective will be looking for a special, and if you’re not an athlete or a URM, you’ll probably need some sort of special or defined interest. This doesn’t have to relate directly to intellectual pursuits, however. You could have a 3.8 reached through following directions and be awesome at visual arts/writing/the French horn/whatever. Or you could have a 4.0 and genuinely enjoy nearly every class you’ve taken, reading Hemingway and Dickens in your spare time. The one with the active passion is more appealing than the “nerdier” one.</p>
<p>Intellectual passion is the love for learning, and ability to think analytically about your subjects in school. Such a characteristic is important. It can be seen by what courses you’ve taken, what clubs you’ve joined, and mostly by teacher recommendations based on how you behave in class and out of class. For example, a teacher could note how you came up w/ some nice ideas while thinking about the concept, and shared them with him/her after school in a intellectual discussion. They want you to be able to utilize the school, and enjoy learning, so you can do well.</p>
<p>The generic term passion, is simply seen if you’ve devoted significant time to a specific activity you like. You can show intellectual passion in your EC’s, but you should truly pursue what appeals to you.</p>
<p>Chocolate ice cream passion … there are entire courses of study built around milk production, milk processing, and milk products such as ice cream! I can see someone who was really passionate about chocolate ice cream extrapolating that to a food science major … or a dairy science major … perhaps even to a restaurant management (ice cream shop!) major. I think I see Cornell on this person’s college list! My crystal ball is really cooking today (no pun intended)!</p>
<p>I was rather joking, really…but whatever goes. I understood Roger’s point. ;)</p>
<p>IDK, I never took that “help the whole world let’s all join hands and sing christian songs” angle. You don’t have to rave about how much you love giving back to the community. I know this sounds like blasphemy, but considering 50% of the people who say this are disingenuous and the next 49% are overly idealistic, the concept is hackneyed to hell.</p>
<p>Posters here prove that “passion” is a meaningless subjective buzz word. This thread started out with a question about “intellectual passion” and quickly morphed into comments on human rights activities and typing. The only meaningful criterion used to assess an applicant’s “intellectual” qualifications is a proven track record of accomplishment in academics/research, i.e., “excellence.” The rest is at best superfluous BS and, properly regarded as such.</p>
<p>My observation from the results achieved by kids I know in this past season is that the number one thing the tippy-top places want is grades. Sure, your courses have to be challenging, but if your GPA is 97 and that of a person who took an even more challenging courseload is 94, you will get in and they won’t. You also have to have good scores, but again, if the person with the 95 has higher scores, you get in and they don’t. All of this stuff about how they reject val/sals in favor of more interesting kids who have demonstrated true intellectual passion is, in my experience, hogwash. Sure, they won’t take a drone. But they will take a dedicated grade grubber who projects an “I’m a winner” aura.</p>
<p>“Posters here prove that “passion” is a meaningless subjective buzz word. This thread started out with a question about “intellectual passion” and quickly morphed into comments on human rights activities and typing. The only meaningful criterion used to assess an applicant’s “intellectual” qualifications is a proven track record of accomplishment in academics/research, i.e., “excellence.””</p>
<p>Not true. As a person who has had to assess intellectual passion while doing Harvard alum interviews, intellectual passion also is reflected in a variety of ECs and activities that include organizing activities, being involved in organizations, working jobs, doing a lot of reading in a field, etc. </p>
<p>Depending on the areas of one’s intellectual passion, it may not be possible to do coursework in that field in high school, yet one may have done other things that reflect one’s intellectual interests.</p>
<p>A big part, too, of having intellectual passion is having a track record of doing things that reflect one’s interest in learning even in situations in which one isn’t graded.</p>
<p>This post makes me oh so cynical about the admissions process. </p>
<p>Short answer: </p>
<p>Will an “intellectual passion” help? Yes
Is it necessary? No, probably not. </p>
<p>I got into a top notch school 3 years ago. I had some ideas about what I wanted to do. Vague ideas. At that time, I did have a love of learning and I think that came through in my application. But in no way did all my extracurriculars and school successes line up together in one field of “passion.” </p>
<p>The earlier example of the daughter who loves the middle east, takes arabic, and is a belly dancer, well that is fabulous for her and will probably help a lot in the admissions process, but I don’t think many 17 and 18 year olds <em>know</em> what they want to do with their life. In fact, I hope they don’t. I think experiences can play a big part in what you become passionate about and sometimes it just takes time to find that thing that you “have to do for the rest of your life.”</p>
<p>I’m 21 and only beginning to form a rough idea of what I want to do. I’ve been in college for 1.5 years, one year right out of high school, and the other half in the past 6 months. I took a year and a half off, and I think I grew most during that time. If I had dedicated myself to what I thought was my passion coming out of high school…well, damn, I don’t know where I’d be. </p>
<p>I say, if you’ve “found it” good for you. If you haven’t? Don’t stress. Most of us are right there with you. </p>
<p>I don’t think it’s something that can be forced. I have this mental image of a HS junior trying frantically to find their passion for the college admissions process. I just don’t think it works like that.</p>
<p>Intellectual passion doesn’t mean that one definitely knows what one wants to do for the rest of one’s life. It just means that one has a demonstrated interest in actively learning things – whether or not those are things that one is getting graded on.</p>
<p>Probably the majority of people aren’t that interested in intellectual things. They may be willing to do what a teacher or prof requires, but most people aren’t intellectually passionate enough to learn things unless they are forced to or are doing things for a grade.</p>
<p>
Man, I so agree with this - I have no volunteering yet and I haven’t done much community service. </p>
<p>I’ll probably be working later on when I’m older for more financial reasons and such; and other stuffs, going to Ethiopia to save the world and hospitals to care never rang anything in me. It’s different for everyone, I guess…with almost every single person I know with that “I’m saving the world and going to Africa to cure AIDS” and all that community service project mentality…and 1/2 of those are mainly doing it for college, it’s annoying.</p>
<p>But yeah, I agree that no subject really has caught on yet - it changes every year, if I do ever like a subject…due to teachers and such.</p>
<p>I consider myself a very good writer, I can write beautiful essays off the top of my head, but I find it rather boring. Passion is a very overused word in the sense that anyone can say they have passion but more often than not a single application by an average student cannot convey real passion but hollow words. I’d say excellence is also a very good word to work with too but like I said being excellent at something doesn’t mean you have the drive to continue onwards. Perhaps talk about both, and how they are what drives you, since both passion and skill can only get you so far, but only can having both allow you to be successful.</p>
<p>Northstarmom: Not true back at you. You are confusing passion for PC activities and ECs with intellectual “passion” Yuk the mere word makes me cringe. I am sure you value PC activities, but unless there is excellence in academics all the passion for all of the PC activities in the world is meaningless. By the way it’s nice that you conduct Alum interviews, but in that capacity you are there more or less as a cheerleader for the school (and a ready to be tapped source for the school’s fundraising) than, a reliable, valued source of information about the applicant that is relevant, material and probative to admissions.</p>
<p>So…Harvard makes an effort for all applicants to have an alumni interview just because they need cheerleaders and money? </p>
<p>While I have very direct knowledge that many of the students highly rated by alum interviewers do not get admitted to schools like Harvard (mostly because there are so many impressive applicants), I also know that applicants who are not impressive during an alum interview end up having their applications looked over especially carefully…and sometimes are asked to have a second interview.</p>
<p>Academic excellence (grades, SAT scores) is a “given” for most applicants to top colleges. Intellectual passion (or vitality) is what needs to come through in all aspects of the application (including interviews, if a school uses them.)</p>
<p>“I am sure you value PC activities, but unless there is excellence in academics all the passion for all of the PC activities in the world is meaningless. By the way it’s nice that you conduct Alum interviews, but in that capacity you are there more or less as a cheerleader for the school (and a ready to be tapped source for the school’s fundraising) than, a reliable, valued source of information about the applicant that is relevant, material and probative to admissions”</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Schools like HPYS can pick and choose among an overabundance of applicants with sky high grades and scores to select students who have excellent stats plus demonstrated intellectual passion and/or are outstanding (nationally/internationally) in some academic, EC or athletic area and/or have some other factor (race, religion, live in an underrepresented region, have very wealthy donor parents) that the college wishes to attract.</p></li>
<li><p>While many colleges use alum interviewers strictly as cheerleaders for their colleges, that’s not how Harvard uses them. With the country’s top yield, Harvard knows the great majority of students who apply to it would gladly go if they gain admission. Harvard does uses its alum to get valuable insight into applicants – things that H can’t learn from the applications. I have been called by Harvard adcoms with follow-up questions about students whom I interviewed. They wouldn’t be wasting time doing that if alum interviewers were only cheerleaders for Harvard.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>My ECs range from one area to another. It is because I love to try new things.
I work in a hospital because just a few months after emigrating to Canada, I had appendicitis. My parents weren’t earning any money because they were in school, and we lived off of our savings. Because of the wonderful healthcare Canada provides, we didn’t have to pay a penny. I was very greatful, which is why I’m contributing back.</p>
<p>But I don’t want to work in the medical area when I grow up.</p>
<p>I love participating in Science Fairs, because it opens my eyes to so many possiblities.</p>
<p>But I don’t want to work in Science Area either.</p>
<p>So you see my problem here, these ECs don’t really show my passion.
And when I post my chances, everyone asks, WHAT IS YOUR PASSION?</p>
<p>honestly, my passion is just trying new thingss… LOL</p>
<p>i want to go into business (stockbroker, or travel the world doing business)
… but i’m not sure how i would convey that?
what such volunteer work would show that?</p>
<p>Pulchritudious, your passion is trying new things, and your ECs reflect that.</p>
<p>I don’t think real intellectual passion is something you can manufacture. I don’t think that most high schools encourage it- nor do most parents. Intellectual passion is the desire to LEARN something for the sake of learning it- just because you have the need to know… it doesn’t matter what it is. I believe that you can have passion for sports, for hosting parties, for making money but those aren’t intellectual passion. Sadly I think that the world we have created just zaps the life out of most kids with a passion for anything. We make it all about awards, or being the absolute best, or practicing your sport 24/7. I hate that loving to do something isn’t enough these days for you kids- there is always the demand for “award” or the “grade”. I tried to raise my kids without that pressure- but it didn’t last for long. Oh well- maybe you kids can fix that when you are parents!! Surely this generation failed.</p>
<p>Northstarmom: I hope kids here don’t take that statement as justification to do a bunch of activities that they have no interest in for a few years and then stopping halfway and trying some more things that they know they don’t like and claiming that their passion is trying new things.</p>
<p>I consider myself to have “intellectual passion” but I really don’t have much to show for it concretely–it mainly consists of reading books outside of school, but I can’t record any of it as an EC; this annoys me. </p>
<p>Do you think it would be useful to take a distance education course from a university in a field of my interest as concrete proof that I do in fact like learning in itself, rather than being a sort of “mindless GPA monger”?</p>