<p>I really probably shouldn't be posting them but whatever the deadline to apply has passed:
1) What would you do with a free afternoon?
A free afternoon would most likely entail a game of intramural soccer, or a walk around town with friends. Nothing beats simple, happy memories.
2) Recall a compliment you received that you especially value. What was it? From whom did it come?
A peer once informed me that I am a skilled guitarist. I value this compliment because I am a self-taught musician, and now I know I have the ability to succeed independently.
3) What two qualities do you admire most in other people?
Demonstrated passion and maturity in others never fail to impress me.
4) What do you wish you were better at being or doing?
What I most wish that I were better at doing is understanding an elusive subject matter that has evaded me for the last 17 years of my life: the opposite sex.
5) If you were choosing students to form a Yale class, what question would you ask here that we have not?
People often see things that are and ask "Why?" Please tell us about a time when you saw something that never was and asked, "Why not?"</p>
<p>1) What would you do with a free afternoon?
Play soccer. Watch CNN. Read philosophy. Play music. Play basketball. Eat Shawarma. Debate.</p>
<p>2) Recall a compliment you received that you especially value. What was it? From whom did it come?
“You’re the only ref that I’ve seen that seems to know when to call fouls and when to not call them. Good job.” -a spectator at a soccer game that I refereed.</p>
<p>3) What two qualities do you admire most in other people?
Open-mindedness and argumentative precision because I like having my arguments deconstructed and being able to sustain an intense intellectual debate with others.</p>
<p>4) What do you wish you were better at being or doing?
I wish I was better at knowing exactly which premise or implicit assumption in an argument I could best utilize in order to completely deconstruct the argument.</p>
<p>5) If you were choosing students to form a Yale class, what question would you ask here that we have not?
Many times in the past, seemingly unimportant events have ended up changing the course of history. Tell us how taking a bite into an apple could change the course of history.</p>
<p>Meh, I thought they were all good till I just read them all again :(.</p>
<p>motion, i really liked your number 5! it seems more like a chicago type question though @writingismypower: thank you! but my why yale was dreadfully awful, so doubt i get in but at least they might get a laugh haha</p>
<p>@Honors, i love your # 4 too, it’s tres funny. And both of your # 5’s pretty much put mine to shame! OMG, i just read over my answers again and they are a disaster! I’m too embarassed to post them, sorry ;p</p>
<p>1) Free afternoon
Go to a authentic chinese supermarktet, buy products unknown to me and try to cook something with them
2)Compliment
A friend told me that I was the only person she knew to be completely nonjudgemental and that could get along with everyone
3)Qualities
Humor and honesty
4) I wish I was better at saying no. I often find myself doing too much at the same time because I didnt want to say no
5)Tell us a joke that is funny to you, and explain why you find it funny</p>
<p>Honors, I really like your number five. Why not indeed! :P</p>
<ol>
<li>Free afternoon
In London, watch the guard change. In Italy, cross the Rubicon. In summer heat, run through sprinklers. In winter cold, toast marshmallows by the fire. Always: follow a whim.</li>
<li>Compliment
After borrowing a copy of Dorian Gray, an acquaintance from history class said that he’d loved it - and then, smiling, that I reminded him of Oscar Wilde.
(I wrote my common app essay on Oscar Wilde. :P)</li>
<li>Qualities
Cheerfulness and eloquence. No one is always happy; I admire refusal to cast a shadow of bad mood. No one’s mind is always articulate; I admire care for quality of speech.</li>
<li>Better at
I wish I were better at taking a step back and looking at the big picture. I am often lost in details; when I don’t catch myself, I fall into the spaces between words.</li>
<li>Question
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that he “would write on the lintels of the door-post, ‘Whim.’” What is written above your door?</li>
</ol>
<p>That is the exact contemplative free-ended journal-type question my English teacher posed at us during a unit on Trascendentalism last year! Lol. Did you come up with that yourself?</p>
<p>Whoa, that’s pretty amazing! Yeah, I came up with it myself. Aww, now I’m worried about all the people your English teacher taught putting the same thing… Ah well!</p>
<p>What would you do with a free afternoon?
I enjoy F. Scott Fitzgerald books, and would consider reading (or re-reading) one, but most likely I would find myself in the city devouring a Chipotle burrito…maybe both?</p>
<p>Recall a compliment you received that you especially value. What was it? From whom did it come?
My history teacher told me that I made his life difficult in response to the ideas I brought up during class discussion. The innovative nature of my ideas challenged him.</p>
<p>What two qualities do you admire in other people?
Ambition and humility. Ambition fuels success and humility allows one to enjoy success. I admire those, who although successful, do not think themselves superior people.</p>
<p>What do you wish you were better at doing?
Motivating cultural peers to succeed. Many of their parents suffered greatly to provide them with opportunities they throw away, meaning their parents suffered in vain.</p>
<p>If you were choosing students to form a Yale class, what question would you ask here that we have not?
All humans have quirks. What is one of yours, and what do you think your life would be like without that quirk?</p>
<p>You all came up with such interesting, playful ideas!</p>
<p>Here are mine:</p>
<p>Free afternoon–I would invite my friends over to bake pumpkin bread and play Taboo (the word game).</p>
<p>Compliment–My Calculus II teacher wrote in my quarterly narrative that I “sometimes seem more like a colleague than a student.”</p>
<p>Qualities–I admire people who are firm in their beliefs but also welcome challenge, dialogue, and learning.</p>
<p>Better at–I wish I were better at resisting devouring my home-made desserts right out of the oven! (And I probably could be a bit more outgoing.)</p>
<p>Question–Q: What superpower do you wish you had?
A: 4th dimension perception (it would help with Linear Algebra!)</p>
<p>1) What would you do with a free afternoon?
I would go on a run, then indulge in a chai yerba matte, and end the night hot tubbing with my two best friends.</p>
<p>2) Recall a compliment you received that you especially value. What was it? From whom did it come?
A friend of mine once said, "---- ------, you are a romantic,” encouraging me to embrace this attribute as it was meant to be.</p>
<p>3) What two qualities do you admire most in other people?
A person who is persistent and humorous along the way is one who I would most significantly respect.</p>
<p>4) What do you wish you were better at being or doing?
I have always longed to be a better dancer and singer, so that I could successfully participate in school musicals.</p>
<p>5) If you were choosing students to form a Yale class, what question would you ask here that we have not?
What one thing will immediately bring a smile to your face and why?</p>
<p>New Haven has no Chipotle. I’m fairly sure you just earned yourself a rejection, unless your essay talked about how you would use your organizational abilities to convince the corporate executives to open a franchise here.</p>