<p>So most of our round II discussion has moved to facebook, but I think we should return the favor our predecessors did us and post the round II prompts here. Last year's app made for entertaining thought during the awkward waiting period between making round two and reading the prompts.</p>
<p>So, here is what we were asked to submit:</p>
<ol>
<li>Two teacher recommendations. </li>
<li>Updated transcripts and official standardized test score reports. </li>
<li>A term paper or essay that you submitted for a class, with teacher comments
attached. Please find something under seven pages. </li>
<li>Any creative work of your own that would allow the committee to get a better idea
of who you arein past years, applicants have submitted visual artwork, music CDs,
writing samples, baked goods, and more. This is completely optional. Think carefully
before submitting supplementary material, as there are cases in which mediocre
submissions can work against a candidate. Many successful applicants submit only
the items that we require. </li>
<li>Thoughtful and concise responses to each of the following prompts. The total word
count of your three essays combined should not exceed 2500 words. We ask that
you respect this limit and let it guide you towards economy of expression. </li>
</ol>
<p>A. Choose a virtue that is popularly misunderstood, describe this misunderstanding, and
argue on behalf of a better conception. </p>
<p>B. Respond to one of the following quotations, with particular attention to the notion
of service. Please consider only the text we have given you, without regard for
contextexcept in the case of #4, which refers to Genesis 22 in the Old Testament.<br>
Were less concerned with your conclusion than with your ability to take a stance and
thoughtfully defend your argument. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>"Peace and even death are dearer to man than free choice in the knowledge of
good and evil
There is nothing more seductive for man than the freedom of his
conscience, but there is nothing more tormenting either." </p></li>
<li><p>"Anyone who involves himself with mankind and does not occasionally glisten in
all the colors of distress, green and gray with disgust, satiety, sympathy,
gloominess, and loneliness, is certainly not a man of elevated tastes; supposing,
however, that he does not take all this burden and disgust upon himself
voluntarily, that he persistently avoids it, and remains, as I said, quietly and
proudly hidden in his citadel, one thing is certain: he was not made, he was not
predestined for knowledge." </p></li>
<li><p>"Do you suppose, then, that I would have survived so many years if I had been
publicly active and had acted in a manner worthy of a good man, coming to the
aid of the just things, and, as one ought, regarding this as most important? Far
from it, nor would any other human being. </p></li>
<li><p>Should we not reinterpret the entire story and say that actually Abraham failed
the test, that an amazed and horrified God mercifully stopped him from carrying
out the despicable act and then punished Abraham and all his descendants by
laying on them the curse of Abrahams faith, under the yoke of which we have
been sacrificing our parents, children, brothers, sisters, and comrades to the
State, the Party, the True Religion, and other Higher Causes ever since? </p></li>
<li><p>The ultimate purpose of every intelligent free moral agent is either loyalty to
moral government under which he was born or rebellion against that
government by supreme devotion to his own self-interests. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>C. Examine an academic or creative discipline about which you are passionate. How
does it offer insight into the condition of man and the world?</p>