Hi everyone! I’ve been staring at a blank computer screen for the past few days because I haven’t been able to come up with anything good to write about. The topic is “Describe a past intellectual experience that has engaged you or challenged you. Portray how this will contribute to your success at the University of Maryland as well as how this pertains to your future plans.” I was thinking about answering “writing this god forsaken paper” but I don’t think that will work LOL. Seriously though, I was playing around with writing about deciding on my major but I don’t think that’s original enough! It’s a full tuition scholarship so the essay needs to be perfect. Please give my any suggestions, advice, topics to write about, etc. Thanks everyone
<p>chill out. do that u know... nonstop writing thing, not thinking about what you're writing. maybe something good will appear in your huge mass of blabbing</p>
<p>u also reminded me to do my scholarships. thanks.</p>
<p>You might try a "spider chart." That often helped my boys come up with ideas. Write "intellectual experience" in a circle in the middle of the page. As you think of different intellectual experiences you have had, make branching lines to circles with those words in them. Then you can branch off from that, etc., etc. Just brainstorm wildly without analyzing for a while. Whatever pops into your head, no matter how crazy it seems. Carry the branching off wherever it wants to go. Eventually a good idea may pop out of it.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks for your help Afaforce and Susantm! I think I'll take both of your guys advice by first making a spider chart first and then free write based on the ideas I've come up with. If anyone else wants to make a suggestion or a comment, I'd really appreciate it. Sincerely, Ari</p>
<p>afaforce - Hey, I found you again outside of our panicky, obsessive, hide-away forum (sorry, I needed another name for it - Dare I say the name of that school at this hour? Nope).</p>
<p>Okay. Now I'll start being serious again.</p>
<p>Ari - This is kinda like what afaforce said but... Try just letting your mind wander for a few hours, and then start thinking about that spider web. You'd be surprised at the good ideas that will just pop into your head when you're not really focusing on thinking of them. Trust me. Some of the essays that I had to write this year for colleges and scholarships were extremely random, and i needed to actually not focus on them to think of the best ideas in my case.</p>