<p>Are there any average joes out there? I've been reading the threads on this (my interview is Sunday), and you guys seem really really intelligent, and really into all this philosophical reading and such. I'm intelligent and all, but i certainly don't read half as much as any of you do. My essays were on humdrum topics like racism in America, the Iraq War, nothing special. My book list was short and lacked some real meat. I got into the interview phase and i consider myself an excellent writer and debater, but reading this thread makes me nervous that i'm not intellectually competent.
BTW, i'm in the D.C. area and i'm supposed to have 3 interviewers; does anyone have any insight on whether this is good or bad. Also, in terms of the current events, is it best to know political and international things, or does one need to look into the tech, law, relgion, and other niche things as well.</p>
<p>Marquez rocks. It would be worth learning Spanish just so I could read Hundred Years of Solitude in its original language...we read it for school, so everyone thinks I'm insane for that statement, but hey!</p>
<p>Is anyone out there an Oscar Wilde, Dumas, or Tennyson fan? I have to admit that I'm a dead, white guy reader...that probably counts against me. </p>
<p>Blurblurblur, you should read Tu Fu's "Jade Flower Palace" and see how it compares to Shelley's "Ozymandias..." I'd be interested in your opinion.</p>
<p>I'm a fan of Wilde. </p>
<p>Brilliant and, as an added bonus, gay.</p>
<p>aparicio88-I feel the same way. I don't read the heavy stuff that much! As a matter of fact, I don't think I've read anything Russian...except for about a hundred pages of War and Peace which I could not stand. (Okay, I like my reading fast-paced and adventurous. I am a Romantic (Rousseau, not Romeo kind), and reading is my place for that.</p>
<p>However, I consider myself intellectually competent. One of my major points on my issue paper was that Terry Pratchett's truths on life could be just as significant as Kafka's. TASP has no required reading. Show them that you care and that you are culturally literate. Marquez writes beautifully, but magical realism is not the only style worth studying.</p>
<p>I have three people too, including one Harvard grad. Good luck to you.</p>
<p>Anyway, if you've made it this far, average is not the best descriptor.</p>
<p>Aparicio, I feel ya. My school is about as anti-TASPish as they get so most of the year I suppress my quirkywildbrilliant TASP streak. And talking to all of these INCREDIBLE (I maintain that you are) people makes mine look rather lame in comparison. I am a literature buff, that is what I do, and I'm better read than anyone at my school but everyone here is ten zillion times better read than I. So I'm scared and beating myself up--for real! Anyway, I live in the DC area too, mine is on Sunday too, and my guess is I have the same three interviewers as you do (J.C. ring any bells)? It's possible we'll see each other at Warwick House--that'd be cool! Where do you go to school? (You can PM me if you like.) </p>
<p>I like Nabokov (his poetry too!), Mary Karr, Joseph Brodsky, Seamus Heaney, Mark Strand, Derek Walcott, Louis Simpson, Dickinson, Yeats, Fitzgerald, Langston Hughes, Ted Hughes, Verlaine, Pasternak, Gaarder, Zemyatin (Russian guy, wrote WE, read We! I heart Russian lit), Pushkin, Gluck, and that's quite enough, I need to shut up.</p>
<p>Music--Rufus Wainwright! Blur, we have that and our nabokov thing in common... Pixies, The Wallflowers (ahh Jak Dylan), Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Jewel, Enya, Bright Eyes, Rilo Kiley, Modest Mouse, The Postal Service, Ben Folds, Men Without Hats, Keren Ann, The Eels, Passi (French band), J.S. Bach. </p>
<p>Richard, my SN is Barefootsoph! And yes I wanna talk ta ya all in Realtime. That way I'll be able to do little AIM sobs on your shoulders when I don't get in and you crazymazing, "automatic, supersonic, hypnotic, funky-fresh" (sierra) people all do. Oh God, I'm a downer. Sorry.</p>
<p>i mean CIARA. Sierra is, like, a mountain range and a soda.</p>
<p>inkling i completely agree with you about marquez...the few short stories we've read in my spanish class demonstrate that there is so much lost in the translation. i was really into dumas when i was younger. i liked the lotos eaters by tennyson, because it was in a laura ingalls wilder book, and i also really like yeats, some byron, and those other dead white men. </p>
<p>and yeah, i definitely dont just read "heavy" literature, although i try not to read trashy books that ARENT entertaining (because isnt that the purpose, really?) i love scifi and fantasy, more fantasy right now though, especially jacqueline carey, george rr martin, robin hobb, phillip pullman, and i DO like harry potter quite a bit as well. </p>
<p>claret- i am borderline obsessed with ben folds. middle aged white guys rocking the piano are completely my thing.</p>
<p>aparicio88: I consider myself an average joe (jane, actually) and I'm sure that most of the other TASP finalists on CC aren't amazing geniuses. I'm a pretty normal person with normal friends and I do things that other normal people do. </p>
<p>I put UT Austin as my first choice. Everything about that program is perfect: the topic, the teacher, the city. Michigan was my second favorite.</p>
<p>Music: Interpol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Shins, The Postal Service, The Flaming Lips, Wilco, Guided By Voices, and other rock music. I mostly listen to popular rap hits though, but I listen to those bands I listed as well as classical. Has Anyone heard of The Arcade Fire? I really want their CD. </p>
<p>God...I'm so nervous. There's another person from my school who was selected as a finalist (she happens to be a good friend of mine and is class vice-president -- and I'm class president). I'm scared b/c I know that the TASP selection committee is most likely going to select only one of us to go to their program, but it is kinda cool that there are two TASP finalists at my school out of the four from my school that applied.</p>
<p>my friend looveeeess the arcade fire
i feel like the fact that someone from your school is a finalist doesnt mean that you cant both go. maybe it just means they wouldnt put you in the same program.</p>
<p>what do you know about the ut austin teachers?</p>
<p>Claret, we definitely have the same interviewer, J.C. is mine as well. Have you talked to J.C. recently, and did she give you any tips of substance? BTW, i go to T. Stone in S. Maryland. Anyone have any insight on the differences between 1, 2, and 3 interviewers?; i tend to believe that 3 makes it a bit easier to spark conversation. But once again, i reiterate the average factor about me. Quite frankly, i don't know who any of these authors you people are talking about; i'm not a reader by any stretch of the imagination, i'm just a decent essay writer.</p>
<p>another thing; though UT-Austin and U Mich have vastly superior campases, did anyone put either of the Cornell programs as their first choice?</p>
<p>wow, i'm from the D.C. area, too, but i'm an aspiring TASSer, not TASPer. do you think that i'll have the same three interviewers?</p>
<p>i put cornell as a second choice. but i think that what they lack in campus greatness (ithaca anyone?) they make up for in double the taspers</p>
<p>I have Cornell I as my first choice. I didn't consider the different campuses when I ranked the programs.</p>
<p>I put Cornell II as my first choice...</p>
<p>AND BY THE WAY IM STILL WAITING FOR THE GUY TO CALL ME TO SCHEDULE MY INTERVIEW I HATE MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!</p>
<p>I haven't gotten a call either.</p>
<p>Oh, us neglected New Jersey kids. ;)</p>
<p>Wait...</p>
<p>Are you from South/Central Jersey? Because I e-mailed the director of the program, and she said my interviewer is in Philly, so maybe we have the same guy.</p>
<p>I'm from Central Jersey. I think I'm about an hour and a half or so from Philly.</p>
<p>Hm, maybe they'll have you go up to New York. Or maybe they have someone in Jersey.</p>
<p>I just want my interview!!!</p>
<p>What's your screen name?</p>