<p>Why do I want to go to TASP? Three reasons:
1) For years now I've been fascinated by Deep Springs College, ever since my friend described how her dad almost went there (his parents would rather pay for Harvard than let him go). As a vegetarian, I was somewhat wary of working on a cattle farm and whatnot, but I was still interested. Anyway, I read the Deep Springs profile in the New Yorker this past summer and it mentioned TASP. I thought "hey, it's for juniors, and I'm going into junior year; I should check this out." So I kept in the back of my head, you know, as an option.
2) I knew I was going to apply, however, when Telluride released the seminar descriptions and I fell head over heels in love with the Cornell I seminar. I am the biggest international relations theory nerd ever - I wrote my topic essay on the philosophy of social science, using IRT as an example field, and I wrote my future education plans on how I want to be an IRT professor some day. I'm also a huge film snob - I once tried to convince a friend that the baptism scene in The Godfather was more beautiful than the Sistine Chapel. I practically died when I saw the seminar name, that it includes material on IRT, and that The Battle of Algiers (one of my favorite political films) would be screened. I knew then and there that I had to apply.
3) Then, of course, there was reading the testimionials of vegangirl, musechick, bre, and all the other TASP alumni about how great it is. Having been to CTY, I've experienced nerd camps where the teachers are vindictive and the students petty, jealous, and superficial (maybe it was just my session/class, but I hated those three weeks). Hearing that TASP is the polar opposite just confirmed my overwhelming desire to go.</p>
<p>just curious. how many of you guys haven't written at least a rough draft of each essay?</p>
<p>i haven't started on three of them at all. :(</p>
<p>and we actually had two snow days in a row! i don't know whether i should be happy or not.</p>
<p>haha crimson! another IRT aficionado!</p>
<p>Looks like your justified Crimson. :). That whole IRT profess. is pretty chill. </p>
<p>Thewu dont worry your ahead of many.</p>
<p>Dammit I just fell asleep for 3 hours :-/</p>
<p>sidjenks - are you one as well? If so, Waltz or Keohane? I suppose that's the boxers-or-briefs question of IRT. Though that would make Wendt boxer-briefs, which I'm not too sure he's comfortable with.
All normal people are advised to ignore the last paragraph.</p>
<p>Giantred - thanks! I'm, er, passionate.</p>
<p>crimson, I dont think it was just the people in your class/session. I've done CTD (cty's other half) twice before and both times I found superficial and petty students as well. It's nice to hear though that TASP is not like that at all. Now I just have to get accepted. lol</p>
<p>Haha crimson i totally did not understand what you just said.</p>
<p>Me = feeling somewhat stupid now.</p>
<p>I'm almost done writing my article for the newspaper :D I might not get to TASP tonight. Not finding inspiration. Maybe I'll just do homework in advance, so when I do find inspiration, I can work for hours and not have to do other stuff :) I guess I still have til 7:00 monday morning to finish. Hopefully that shall be enough :P</p>
<p>What your article on?</p>
<p>Our last issue (im not in Jornalism) was all focused around the material wealth of our town (basically.) They were talking about: car modifications, hottest cars for christmas, and car accidents. </p>
<p>Car mods: Some kid was tlaking how after working this summer he got some money from his internship, so he bought a subarau and got about 12k in parts for it. <---YOu dont make 12grand off of a internship</p>
<p>Hottest Cars: SUV. Escalades (2) Hummer3s (2) Were the most popular cars over xmas this year</p>
<p>Car Racing/Accidents: 2 kids crashed their brand new BMWs into each other. Total damage=14K+</p>
<p>Thats Saratoga for ya' Jenny. I know Monta Vista aint that bad.</p>
<p>Hmmm I'm writing an article on a new wrestling law that was passed just this year, designed to keep the athletes healthier (basically, that they can no longer lose 20+ pounds a week, I think most can lose around 3-5 safely) Hehe the coach was all - this is great. but so much more paperwork!!!!!!!</p>
<p>Our last newspaper...well we don't usually have a central theme. I guess we have centerspread (middle two pages) which is in color and focuses on a big theme, last issue (december) we did gift-giving + ideas, etc. </p>
<p>Me = centerspread editor -> I love my job.
HOTTEST TWO PAGES IN THE NEWSPAPER, HECK YEAH.</p>
<p>Yes. :)</p>
<p>So... do you guys think Telluride uses what we write for our seminar rankings to assess our writing ability and all that, or is it simply to see how closely our interests match with the topics at hand? Does it really need to be as thoughtfully, painstakingly put together as the other essays?</p>
<p>thecomisar, from what I have been hearing, no - rankings essay is much less important than the other essays like conflict, issue and analysis.</p>
<p>they are always grading you :-/
Also I dont think the matching is necessarily what they judge you on. It is really just to get a scope of who you are and what you want to get out of this program. We spend so much time writing these essays about internal and personal conflicts, but this essay gives a chance to express what we want to "get out" of attending the program. After all we wouldn't be applying if their wasn't something there (besides the social aspect.) So be raw with this essay, don't have careless mistakes and or grammatical flaws (that just detracts,) but don't spend time trying to hide behind the words trying to make yourself look better. They want a good sense of who you are and this essay is the only prompt which formally asks that question. Obviously you can have little caveats in other essays to show this, but thats the sort of core of the essay.</p>
<p>Aida I (we) miss you. Be done with scholarships.</p>
<p>^ Amen! haha</p>
<p>All right guys. Read this sentence, and tell me if the part in parentheses is stupid/inappropriate, or ok. (I hardly used parentheses at all in any of my essays, if it matters.)</p>
<p>In my travels to Europe, the most interesting part for me is seeing the history that has left its indelible mark on life in the city (yes—this is even more interesting than sampling the region’s native cuisine).</p>
<p>Parenthesis, eh?</p>
<p>I'm a pro at using those :D</p>
<p>Yes, it makes sense. Except I would rephrase it either like this: </p>
<p>In my travels to Europe, the most interesting part for me is seeing the history that has left its indelible mark on life in the city (yes—even more interesting than sampling the region’s native cuisine). </p>
<p>OR</p>
<p>In my travels to Europe, the most interesting part for me is seeing the history that has left its indelible mark on life in the city (yes, even more interesting than sampling the region’s native cuisine). </p>
<p>Makes it flow better, in my opinion. (Of course, I could be wrong, so you might not want to trust me on that :D)</p>
<p>Make sure parenthesis flow with the rest of your essay! Or else it seems pretty random/out of place/you're trying too hard-ish. It doesn't seem stupid at all now, but if in context you're super formal in the rest of it...</p>
<p>Hmm good point. I'm actually relatively formal-ish for the rest of that... (I don't like the way I tend to do that-- it's annoying, but I can't stop!). I'm not sure if I should scrap it or not.</p>
<p>shouldnt it be "was" not "is".... Thats just tense compatibility issues. (Gawd im still coming down from an english final high :D)</p>
<p>I like it.</p>
<p>Also I think we need nick names. :D</p>
<p>Jenny;(Tako) <3s Parentheses so ..... Jenparen.</p>
<p>(ehh. ah wow i need to finish studying and go to bed)</p>
<p>Im normally a good rhymer but [above] im not gonna get better tonight</p>
<p>Like me:</p>
<p>Corey;(giantredlobster) coined essay orgy so.... Corgy (not working for me)</p>