<p>My answers are somewhat clich</p>
<p>Grinver, do you mean a genie? A genius would probably be too busy solving the mysteries of the universe to lock himself in a lamp.</p>
<p>Yeah, I meant a genie, but genius is also appropriate, although my intended definition is less immediate. I barely came up with this at the very last minute; hence, the lack of a better word (i.e. genie) and the employment of a clich</p>
<p>Applied RD. What do you think?</p>
<p>What would you do with a free afternoon tomorrow?
Kindle Scrabble. Doctor Who. Vlogbrothers on Youtube. Snacks. The Elegant Universe or Neil Gaiman or Discworld. Pandora radio (Beatles or Simon and Garfunkel). Naps.</p>
<p>Recall a compliment you received that you especially value. What was it? From whom did it come?
Whenever my math teacher uses a particularly interesting word, everyone looks at me and waits expectantly for me to define it. Including the teacher.</p>
<p>If you could witness one moment in history, what would it be and why?
The Defenestration of Prague. If it caused the creation of a term for “throwing people or things out windows,” it’s interesting enough for me.</p>
<p>What do you wish you were better at being or doing?
Remembering. Keys end up under the radiator, pens and pencils disappear into the void, and I can never quite recall where I left my coat.</p>
<p>If you were choosing students to form a Yale class, what question would you ask here that we have not?
What is the best story you’ve ever told?</p>
<p>@cloudless33: I think they’re great! I especially like the compliment one. And also the moment in history as I live in Prague for pretty much all my life. =)</p>
<p>What would you do with a free afternoon tomorrow?</p>
<p>I would meet up with some friends at Chipotle for lunch. Then, we’d gather at someone’s house, eat ice cream, and build some awesome Lego structures.</p>
<p>Recall a compliment you received that you especially value. What was it? From whom did it come?</p>
<p>"[My name] was a real leader on the team this year. His dedication, hard work, and charisma–I think it rubbed off on all of us."–Coach [name withheld]</p>
<p>If you could witness one moment in history, what would it be and why?</p>
<p>Darrow’s cross-examination of Bryan at the Scopes Trial. I want to feel the tension, energy, and passion emanating from the wooden platform outside that Tennessee courtroom.</p>
<p>If you were choosing students to form a Yale class, what question would you ask here that we have not?</p>
<p>Imagine you could spend 15 days anywhere in the world. Where would you go, and why?</p>
<p>What do you wish you were better at being or doing?</p>
<p>Driving, but I guess it’s not in my blood. </p>
<p>(No, not really. I actually wrote this: I wish I were better at piecing together into a composition the musical notes and rhythms floating around in my head.)</p>
<p>Well, here are mine.</p>
<p>1) What would you do with a free afternoon tomorrow?
I would call up my co-counsel and witnesses to work on our case at the local Starbucks; there’s no such thing as too prepared in Mock Trial.</p>
<p>2) Recall a compliment you received that you especially value. What was it? From whom did it come?
Around two years ago, my sophomore chemistry teacher commended my decision to take a risk and transfer to a new, better school, and added that this ambition impressed her.</p>
<p>3) If you could witness one moment in history, what would it be and why?
I would go back and witness what happened to the Roanoke colony that vanished. Mystery shrouds the disappearance, and it would be very interesting to find out what happened.</p>
<p>4) What do you wish you were better at being or doing?
I wish that I was better at playing the piano. Its an instrument that has always attracted me, but I haven’t had enough time to make a serious attempt at learning it.</p>
<p>5) If you were choosing students to form a Yale class, what question would you ask here that we have not?
What is your greatest weakness and what have you done to overcome it? It shows how a person handles a challenge and approaches a great inherent aspect of life: imperfection.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>What would you do with a free afternoon tomorrow?
I would spend it with two new friends who are foreign exchange students from Slovakia, exchanging tidbits of cultural differences and the language.</p></li>
<li><p>Recall a compliment…
“Your positive energy and influence is so genuine and greatly appreciated! You are an awesome leader on this team.” -A new swimming teammate’s parent</p></li>
<li><p>If you could witness one moment in history, what would it be and why?
I would choose Orville Wright’s first flight because I want to celebrate the perseverance that led to achieving an impossible now taken for granted: flight.</p></li>
<li><p>What do you wish you were better at being or doing?
I wish I was better at embracing my talents and speaking my mind rather than hiding behind my insecurities.</p></li>
<li><p>Question…
What do you think is the most important quality in a friend and why?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>mine are a bit cliche and have some awkward phrasing (and several were copied and pasted from my stanford app-- don’t tell!)</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Free afternoon:
My friends and I would trek up a mountain in thick sweaters. Weak-legged and winded, we’d eat apple pie and Cabot cheese surrounded by views that make us grateful to be alive.</p></li>
<li><p>Compliment:
“Izzy, you’re a peacemaker.” I had only mediated a dispute between cousins. My aunt, however, liked how I get people to move past anger and identify their true wants or needs.</p></li>
<li><p>Historical moment:
The first spoken word, however unidentifiable. Language is one of humanity’s most wonderful and mysterious tools, and witnessing its origins would be magical.</p></li>
<li><p>Better at being/doing:
Spatial thinking. I am a very verbal person, but I’d love to be able to visualize shapes and patterns better, to understand complex diagrams, or to paint and sculpt.</p></li>
<li><p>Question:
Everyone has a favorite story. Maybe it’s a story from your childhood or family history. Maybe it’s something you read or heard. Maybe you wrote it. What’s your story? Why?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Love this thread. I won’t share my daughter’s, because I don’t want to out her without her permission. However, reading these it is apparent how these short answers provide some real insight into who the applicants are as people. I can see how it might be very useful in shaping a class from 30 some thousand applicants with stellar grades, test scores and LORs. My daughter’s answers do really reflect who she is and what she values. I don’t know that that will match with what Yale is looking for in the class of 2016, but at least she has provided a true window into herself.</p>
<p>I’m enjoying this. I get a coherent picture of every one of you from your short takes - an almost scarily clear one! - and when I looked mine up, worrying that mine wouldn’t provide one, I found that (with a couple months of hindsight) they did.</p>
<p>Do we think that that’s because those folks at Yale are super clever when they come up with their questions, or because the college apps process means we get very fine-tuned to ‘branding’ ourselves, or because it was a genuine voyage of self-discovery which can only produce the truth and manage to boil a person down to their essence…?</p>
<p>When I say ‘branding’, I mean I must confess to typing you in a couple words having read your short takes. So we have ‘wholesome team player’, ‘writer/dreamer’, ‘perfectionist’, ‘math geek’, etc. It’s a bit more subtle than that, but not much.</p>
<p>I’m curious, were you conscious of having these ideas in your head when you wrote your short takes? Or do you think that that’s the truth about you and the short takes brought that out?</p>
<p>Can’t decide how I feel about posting mine, but I think I may have to now!</p>
<p>@missotisregrets, I would love to see yours.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what you “branded” me as (although I would be eager to know), but I did try to be as genuine as possible in my answers. I certainly put some thought into them - to make sure they were interesting-genuine and not “on my free afternoon I would stare at my computer and waste time” genuine -, but there were all certainly true to my personality.</p>
<p>Rme- I didn’t apply to Yale, but I did the supplements and I put bungee jumping too. </p>
<p>Funny.</p>
<p>how about this one… im a freshman in high school… just helping out</p>
<p>HISTORICAL MOMENT
Visiting the time the Big Bang occurred due to the fact that, that is how we and humanity came to be… not to mention our brains which are today questioning the birth of this world</p>
<p>I really like these, as well. :)</p>
<p>(Just a little note for future applicants, it’s “I wish I were better at…”</p>
<p>It’s in subjunctive because it’s a desire, rather than actuality.)</p>
<p>Missotiseegrets I think I was pretty genuine. Actually very genuine. What do you think of mine though? </p>
<p>CPUscientist, what a coincidence I must say :)</p>
<p>What would you do with a free afternoon tomorrow?
In the monsoons: Follow the ripples. In the forests: Explore the footprints. Underwater: Find secret caves.</p>
<p>Always: Chart the uncharted.</p>
<p>Recall a compliment you received that you especially value. What was it? From whom did it come?</p>
<p>“Be yourself “nocensure” and you’ll go places.”</p>
<p>-My Grandmother.</p>
<p>If you could witness one moment in history, what would it be and why?
I would want to go back to 571 B.C., when the Jain Guru Mahavira finishes a 10 year period of meditation to ask him “What did silence tell you?”</p>
<p>What do you wish you were better at being or doing?
Being less superstitious. Magical armbands don’t give 20-20 vision. Voodoo dolls don’t exist and random stones picked from the ground do not cure the common cold.</p>
<p>If you were choosing students to form a Yale class, what question would you ask here that we have not? </p>
<p>Mathematicians have discovered a new class of functions defined by f(x)= Your Life. The geometric nature of this function is not known. Find its derivative.</p>
<p>I love all your answers - now I’m worried for S! LOL!</p>
<p>Collegeinfo - you remind me of my S. He would have corrected everyone with the subjunctive too! He does it to me all the time!</p>
<p>Thanks for responding to my musings, guys! I think the short takes are basically about being honest about yourself, but trying to frame it in an interesting, captivating way. I think the weakness of mine may be in the latter area.</p>
<p>@Rme123 - I liked yours. The part about your province in Kashmir especially - I felt like it put some of your idealism (maybe even a sense of responsibility, as reflected in answers 5 and 3, perhaps even 4) in to context; I felt like your Martin Luther King response was personal and more than just a token answer. Then what I liked was that your answer to number 1 was so contrary to this idea of a sort of upstanding, responsible, idealistic fellow (I’m assuming you’re male?) I had in my head, and suggests that you have a bit of a fun side or sense of escapism, which was interesting.</p>
<p>I’d be interested to know if you think I’ve got you all wrong!</p>
<p>@Cloudless33 - Oh my God, I felt like I’d met you. You didn’t go to CTY did you? 
So on one hand you’re quite literate with your niche culture things (answer 1), which all seemed kind of male, ironic math-geek (answer 2) to me. I felt you define yourself in part by these things. I feel like you live inside your head (answer 4), where you enjoy all these wacky stories (answer 5) and idiosyncracies (defenestration of Prague - brilliant) and that it’s a pretty wonderful place up there. You seem 100% confident, even arrogant, about yourself. In a good way, I think. Bits of your app remind me of myself so I like you :P</p>
<p>So since you requested them, Cloudless33, have my short takes. No accompanying commentary so you can tell me what you think.</p>
<p>1) What would you do with a free afternoon tomorrow?</p>
<p>‘Go see a movie with my mother. We watch anything, ideally foreign, vintage, or so-bad-it’s-good. Tomorrow would be Bollywood thriller ‘Don 2’.’</p>
<p>2) Recall a compliment you received that you especially value. What was it? From whom did it come?</p>
<p>’‘You are an extremely warm person and people always feel happy around you’, from a friend’s very kind mother whom I much admire.’</p>
<p>3) If you could witness one moment in history, what would it be and why?</p>
<p>‘Marie Antoinette’s trial, to witness the clash between her and her Revolutionary accusers, and to see if the crowd or the prosecutors believed the allegations against her.’</p>
<p>4) What do you wish you were better at being or doing?</p>
<p>‘Being purely emotionally empathetic, rather than mentally analytical, about other people and their feelings.’</p>
<p>5) If you were choosing students to form a Yale class, what question would you ask here that we have not? </p>
<p>‘What is the best piece of advice you have ever received (from a book, person, movie etc.)? Why do you value it?’</p>
<p>^Thanks so much for the in-depth response. Your perceptions are largely correct (or at least, I like to think that they are), with one exception - I’m female. I never did go to CTY, although I’m acquainted with several extremely quirky people who did.</p>
<p>The best compliment you gave me was “I feel like I’ve met you.” That’s exactly what I was going for. I tried my best to be, as I mentioned before, both genuine and interesting - I’m glad to hear that at least one person thinks I succeeded!</p>
<p>In your short takes, you put an interesting amount of emphasis on empathy and emotion. It’s fascinating that your favorite compliment related to how empathetic you are, while your “better at being or doing” answer states that you wish you were more empathetic. Even your other answers - your first (a warm moment with your mom), and your third (an exploration of the emotions of the crowd - love this one) suggest that you’re interested by other people’s feelings as well as your own.</p>