The quality of Rice’s academic life and the residential college system is heavily influenced by the unique life experiences and cultural traditions each student brings. What perspective do you feel that you will be able to share with others as a result of your own life experiences and background? Cite a personal experience to illustrate this.
Yeah. Well, basically, I can’t think of anything extremely significant to write about. I could sit here and tell them why I’m a great person and blah blah, but I know that’s not what they’re looking for. I’ve lived in Houston my whole life. I haven’t been through anything traumatizing, save junior high and high school, but who hasn’t dealt with that? Anyways, I just feel so average looking at this question. Can anyone give me ideas on what I might be able to write about? Anything would help.
<p>It doesn't have to be anything grand or especially unusual even. What is unique about you? How would you describe yourself to a teacher? What interests you? Anything your parents taught you that is somewhat special/unusual? What is some really important lesson you learned in life, maybe about how to deal with difficult times or the value of friendship or anything... it doesn't have to be amazingly creative. What is important to you? What do you value? Why? How do you add to the classroom setting or to your group of friends? The creativity can be in how you approach the question, not just in what you say. If I were to answer the question... hmm... what would I discuss... I think I'd use my friends essay and talk about how my relationship with my friends shows my love of learning, and how I'd challenge my peers to question everything and bring the academic material to life and make it applicable to our world... Your perspective could be a strong interest in something, maybe just general enthusiasm, maybe you're especially gifted at helping out friends when they're not feeling great, maybe you feel very strongly about some political issue... it can be really ANYTHING. Don't worry too much about it being something brilliant or creative, just worry about it really expressing who you are and what you stand for. I suppose I shouldn't use the word "just" since it might actually be harder to figure out who you are and what you stand for and effectively express it than to write something you think the admissions people will want to hear. Take some time to really think about what's important to you, and go from there. It could be something as simple as your dad making a special breakfast each Sunday or maybe some experience you had in Girl Scouts or maybe how/why religion is important to you. Brainstorm a bit, maybe get some feedback, try a few drafts, get some feedback, revise what you have, revise it again, and again, and again... until you're satisfied. It won't be perfect the first time, but that's ok. Best of luck! Hopefully some of this long post will actually be helpful.</p>
<p>Heres what I have so far? Do I seem to be on the right track? Or am I completely in the dark?</p>
<pre><code> My life, at a glance, must seem to be the epitome of that of a teenage girl. Im always laughing and goofing off with my friends, of whom I seem to be joined with at the hips, shopping every weekend, worrying about what Im going to do one night, and not appearing to care about what takes place the next. In fact, I probably dont appear to have a care in the world.
Become involved in the scene you have just viewed, and you will find that first glances can be misleading. Youll find that Im an intelligent, mature, opinionated, extremely ambitious individual, an adult struggling to completely free herself of the bonds of adolescence, and most importantly, a girl who has her own story to tell, no matter how cliché her life may appear to a spectator.
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<p>*I'm planning on talking about my friends, family, ambitions, strong beliefs, and motivation, elaborating on how each appears average and then explaining how it is not... I need to tie it all together to show how I can contribute to a diverse community.</p>
<p>You don't need that intro... Just dive right in, because you don't have that many words to spare. You can still start with the idea of what appears to be true vs. reality, but make it just one sentence, not one paragraph. The language is a little bit forced, or at least doesn't flow as well as it could. And don't tell us what you are, it should come through in your recs and essays. You might be taking on more than can fit into one essay... but just go for it, try to make it all work, and don't get too attached to what you write. Most likely you'd only really focus on maybe 2-3 things (like family, ambitions, + beliefs maybe) due to the word limit. I'd just continue writing from here, it sounds like you have a good start!</p>
<p>I thought that was a horrible prompt. I wrote a terrible essay for that last year...like really awful. and they still let me come! so try not to sweat it TOO much.</p>
<p>And what you have written already seems very much a preamble to what you really have to say. You can lop it off after you gain momentum and keep writing. Go for conciseness in generalities and detail in specifics.</p>
<p>And please don't try to write a college essay one paragraph at at time. Just do some free unstructured writing and salvage the good ideas.</p>