<p>I want my interview too. My parents have been asking me to email the director, but I'm holding out for a bit more.</p>
<p>I'll PM you my screen name.</p>
<p>Antilolita, What's the deal with your CC screenname? Is it possible that we have a third Nabokovphile on this thread, or does "Antilolita" imply the opposite?</p>
<p>Just curious ;)</p>
<p>I read the thread and figured I ought to post. Coincidentally (I love coincidences) I had started re-reading Lolita recently as well. Figured a Nabokov related screenname was in order. "Antilolita" popped into head first so I went with that.</p>
<p>As for its meaning, there is none. (Which I suppose could have a meaning in and of itself, since Lolita the book is chock full of meanings, and thus being Antilolita would mean there is no meaning. But if you look at it like that there is a meaning in no meaning, which seems paradoxical. Unless I'm just confusing myself.)</p>
<p>So, I had my interview today. I had to drive to Dallas (2.5 hours) and the interview only lasted 40 minutes. He asked me a lot about my essay on fundamentalism, and why I think religious intolerance can be so harmful. My skills as a debater definitely came in handy, especially since we debated this topic (separation of church and state) not too long ago. We talked about how I wanted to be a journalist, and how I'm obsessed with the New Yorker. Then came my essay on The Fountainhead. He hadn't read it in awhile, but we talked about what it meant to have artistic integrity (Him: do you have to create something entirely new to have integrity? Me: No, I think you just have to do something well, even if it's been done before). Through his questions he finally made me realize that in my essay, I had mistakenly equated fundamentalism with religious intolerance. Then I gave him a definition of what I had really meant in my essay, and he said it was an excellent definition for intolerance.</p>
<p>All in all, I had a great time. My interviewer was very nice and engaging. I hope I came off as interesting. I talked about current events a lot--I mean a freaking lot. Probably 80% of the time was spent on some news topic. At one point I compared the Pope to Michael Jackson (and not in Catholic priest way you're thinking of). </p>
<p>He said I'll be notified in three weeks.</p>
<p>Man oh man, this has been a great weekend--I qualified for the National Speech Tournament on Saturday, found out I won a Gold Key in the REgional Scholastic Writing Competition, and my interview wasn't a disaster (I was really nervous about it).</p>
<p>Catch you later.</p>
<p>I had mine today. My performance wasn't spectacular but I thought it was good. I had either five or six interviewers, I don't remember. That was intimidating at first but it became not-too-bad. They were all mad cool, which actually made it more pressurized because it made me want to go to TASP more. </p>
<p>They asked really tough questions. I think my answers were good, if a bit bumbling. I'm not sure I came off as personable/quirky enough, even though I am. I told them I have problems with the vast majority of people at my school and that may have sounded intolerant. </p>
<p>But my interview was two hours. Two fast, fun, hardcore hours with hard question after hard question. Is long good or bad?</p>
<p>ps -- junetorbati--I got a Gold Key in writing too! I entered three categories: Poetry, Short story and Short Short Story. I spent insane amounts of time and energy on my two stories and I thought they were good. The poetry I just dashed off and it was some of my worst stuff. I got my Key in poetry only, oddly. There's no way I'll get a national prize though seeing as I submitted pure crap. <em>Sigh...</em></p>
<p>Yeah claret....us DCers had 6 interviewers. My questions were definitely really hard, and they definitely kept setting me up to contradict myself. My answers were a mixture of evading the question, reframing the argument, or weakly taking some stance. However it was a good 1.5 hours; i don't think I've ever thought that hard about anything cause they kept asking all these unanswerable questions--lose/lose situations. I think i did pretty decent though and it was a good experience; they told me we'd be notified sometime after April 10, which is kind of soon.......</p>
<p>I haven't had my interview yet. Congrats to junetorbati and claret quilty on Scholastic. I won national in 9th grade, but never again, which is weird since I sent in some REALLY good stuff this year, but didn't win. (Ok, I thought it was good. It was better than the thing that won.) I think Scholastic is strange. Some of the winners deserved it, but some of it certainly didn't.</p>
<p>Good luck to you guys with nationals. The awards ceremony is incredible.</p>
<p>My interview is ON the tenth. I know, kinda late.</p>
<p>Notification should be around the end of April or early May, not mid-April.</p>
<p>yeah, thats what my interviewer told me (late april-early may)</p>
<p>I haven't even been contacted by my interviewer yet...</p>
<p>Well, this might be a little early to start wishing people good luck, but I'm not on the board much so I thought I'd do this while I remembered. Everyone on the board sounds like nice, bright people. Good luck to everyone, and I hope (crossing my fingers) that I get a chance to meet you guys this summer...</p>
<p>If your interviewer hasn't contacted you yet, email Ellen Baer at <a href="mailto:telluride@cornell.edu">telluride@cornell.edu</a>. She'll be able to contact your interviewer(s) and hopefully make them contact you in the next couple days.</p>
<p>Definitely know what you guys mean about scholastic. My piece that actually won was a really quickly written review of a Green Day album, and reading over it recently I really wonder why they picked it out of thousands of other entries. I sent in 7 pieces total, and the music review wasn't what i thought would win. Oh well, i'm definitely not complaining. Nationals is in philly this year, which'll be mega-fun, although as a vegetarian I won't be able to partake in the philly-cheesesteak-sandwich tradition. Do you think they make a soy version?</p>
<p>My Short Short Story (for Scholastic) was my baby...one of my best, and only two pages. I was surprised it wasn't at least in the top 10% when my shoddy poetry was. Actually, not too surprised...it dealt with some very taboo issues. Anyway, I'm starting to regret having done such a bad job with the poetry because all the national fanfare sounds way cool. But I'd rather have TASP. ;-) </p>
<p>Aparicio, it seemed like three of the interviews liked me and three were indifferent (or disliked me and covered it up). It seems like this particular body of interviewers would be great at concealing its feelings during the interviews, so I'm not sure whether the fact that three of them seemed to like me is a good sign or irrelevant. What were their attitudes toward you, if you care to say?</p>
<p>Claret, mine were definitely the same way. A couple of them were very active and asking a lot of questions and encouraging and such as I tried to think of something to say. The others seemed a bit indifferent.....they were taking notes so I don't know how they felt.........perhaps they weren't interested in what I was saying, which would be bad. But perhaps it was also a product of having 6 interviewers, they all couldn't be active because they were so abundant. Umm.......I really don't know but I hope you did well and I hope that we both get in.....BTW what was your first choice for seminars? (mine was Cornell II)</p>
<p>saturday at noon in nyc wish me luck LOL!</p>
<p>Also, if possible for the nyc interview, how much was asked about books, I can't go into the details of some of by books too well, but I do remember the general lines</p>
<p>Two hours long. I went away feeling like a naive, idealistic, weak-willed hypocrite. I was totally double-teamed!!! Yet, I stood my ground, and as terrible as it was, and as much as I danced around questions that were "lose-lose," I still came away with an incredibly positive impression of my performance.</p>
<p>I can't say this for all the interviewers, but these people are out to make you contradict yourself, to make you abandon your principles. But it's not as malicious as it sounds, it's totally an intellectual exercise. My interviewers were some of the coolest people I've ever met. Just stand your ground, don't budge, and smile because when you're in the thick of it, it may seem a bit overwhelming.</p>
<p>God, I want to go so badly now.</p>
<p>Also, they told me that the decisions very well might be ready as early as April 25th.</p>
<p>saturday at noooooooon oohhhhhhhhhhh man :( lolzzzzzzz nyc anyone else on that day?</p>
<p>I've written to Telluride and I know the name of my interviewer, but he has still not contacted me yet.</p>
<p>Getting a little worried. I won't be in town during mid-late April.</p>