<p>OK. That sounds good. One of my friends said 500, and I don't think I could handle that.</p>
<p>Ew, 500 words of sucking up to a school would be torture.</p>
<p>PorSK, that's interesting...I'm much less worried about grad school admissions than I am about undergrad. Not to be cocky, but the surefire way to get into an astro Ph.D. program is to do a lot of research as an undergrad and get published a few times. Doesn't even have to be as first author. I have no doubt I'll be doing research for the majority of the four years and definitely plan to get at least a few papers published, so I'm not worried about grad school. My plan is to go to either Harvard or Caltech for grad school. Ideally, I would do Harvard for bachelors, some other place like Berkeley or Cambridge or Princeton for Masters, and then Caltech for Ph.D. Not that I wouldn't be extremely happy at Caltech, but I find it to be the kind of place I'd be much better off at for grad school than undergrad, whereas Harvard offers the diversity I'm really looking for in my undergrad experience.</p>
<p>Oh my God, corranged, my Chicago question 2, I'm not sure whether they'll love me or hate me after this :p It's so random and rambling...haha. Awesome.</p>
<p>most of my essays ( except the common one ) are vague and dreamy....i wonder how the adcoms will react.</p>
<p>Hmmm. It probably shows of an important side of your personality, which will help you get in at a school that fits you best.</p>
<p>I'm print previewing the app right now and I love how this mini-essay came out...am curious to see what the adcoms will think...lol</p>
<p>I only did common app essays. Lazy me, haha.</p>
<p>Can I read your Chicago answer? I sounded a little weird and rambling in mine, I think. lol</p>
<p>But, my GC told me they would accept me based on my Why Chicago? essay alone. So, let's hope! :)</p>
<p>haha yeah, sure, I'll pm it to you. Just don't copy it!! :p I ended with "Oh, I could go on forever about this stuff, but Ive easily exceeded everything but the technical two paragraph limit set for this essay, so my apologies and please listen to Ottmar."</p>
<p>And that's really great!! Could you send me your Why Chicago? essay? I'm curious to see it :)</p>
<p>GuitarMan to be honest I don't know what it takes to get into graduate school as an engineer/computer scientist, but I know MIT is very selective. I'm not overly concerned, though; right now I'm just worried about getting prepared for college, haha. I haven't really put much thought into grad school.</p>
<p>Haha. Sure. I sent it in yesterday. You know, I kind of forget what I said in it. My last sentence in my other Chicago answer talked briefly about the New York Times, the Pythagorean Theorem, and two other random things. ;)</p>
<p>what extracurriculars do you people plan to pursue at harvard??</p>
<p>haha yeah, well, you're in college already, so don't worry about it! :D The reason I've thought about the grad school process is because this is what I heard from discussions I had with Harvard's undergraduate astronomy tutor, Bryan Gaensler. And I hate to sound cocky, I really do, but I feel pretty confident that I'll be motivated enough as a research to compete with just about anyone in the grad school admissions game. That's when your passion really gets you through.</p>
<p>haha undergrad admissions, on the other hand..........</p>
<p>Ravin--At Harvard (if I'm accepted), if you count research with the astro department as an extracurricular, then that's a given. Otherwise, as I mentioned before somewhere, I would love to have a show on the H radio station, even a little one for just a half hour or an hour. I also love writing editorials for the school paper and imagine I would continue doing that with the Crimson, but I'm not sure with what regularity that would be. I'd also be interested in debate, political groups (Harvard Libertarians anyone? ;)), etc.</p>
<p>What about the rest of yous?</p>
<p>studio art.
swimming?? hopefully.
community service...i really like it. makes me feel happy :)
havent given it much of a thought myself...</p>
<p>HOW MANY OF YOU WANNA POSE FOR THE H BOMB :D???
omg. i wud lov that. i have a nice body and i love showing off ;)</p>
<p>Music, music, and music.</p>
<p>And hanging out with the queers, some politics, some random stuff that I'm sure I'll pick up once I'm there.</p>
<p>"hanging out with the queers"</p>
<p>we will go queer hunting together :d</p>
<p>I believe you, GuitarMan, I don't consider that cocky at all, as long as you're being realistic.</p>
<p>As for extra curriculars... community service, intramural sports of some sort, and God knows what else for now. I'm really big on community service. I don't know if this makes my motives selfish or whatever, but I find that community service really makes me feel good about myself because it makes me feel useful and needed. :)</p>
<p>Will there be any girls left for me or are all the good ones going to be gotten by other girls? It's still better than the female situation at Caltech, but this still doesn't bode well for me if I want to go to H :p</p>
<p>PorSK--Not to get into philosophy now (lol because I've philosophized much on this), but it's good to hear that. I would venture to say that any act, no matter how seemingly altruistic, is inherently selfish in some way. And hey, it's better that helping others is what makes you happy than, say, being a greedy miser hording in lots of lots of money in a big dusty old mansion :p</p>
<p>My sister (yes, my sister) says most of the girls at Harvard who don't have boyfriends already make better friends than dates, buuuut remember that Tufts and all the Boston campuses are just a few T-stops away, and if you're desperate, there're some female pigeons out and about, and if you're really desperate, there's Wellesley. ;)</p>
<p>Hunting. Heh. :)</p>
<p>I doubt I'll be able to convert them all, although I'll do my best. But that's good for you; left will be the most committed heterosexuals on campus!</p>