<p>^This is completely random, but has anyone ever attended HOBY???</p>
<p>^ Lol, I was at HOBY last year : )</p>
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<p>US citizen in Hong Kong…</p>
<p>For the record, TASP does accept internationals (foreign nationals).</p>
<p>Posting essay topics and word counts seems to be the thing to to, do here goes:</p>
<h1>1: “Our Virtue,” Allan Bloom’s essay, which serves as the introduction to his Closing of the American Mind (1,485 words). I was kind of unsure of how far we could stray from the text, so I ended up basically just going through the essay, stating his points, and rebutting or supporting them one-by-one. Not my best essay, but it’s solid I think. Did anybody else do a non-fiction text or just anything that wasn’t a fiction book or short story (artwork, photograph, song, etc.)?</h1>
<h1>2: How is the modern world affecting the process of natural selection and evolution? (1,492) I liked this one quite a bit; it’s kind of an oddball topic, but so are most people’s. I’m kinda scared that I’ll come off as some crazed social Darwinist though. I was tempted to put a note at the end along the lines of: “Just to let you know, I don’t support eugenics. At all. I swear.”</h1>
<h1>3: I talked about my struggles growing up to fit in and make friends while still maintaining my individuality and behaving authentically (1,367). It’s not as interesting as a lot of the topics I’ve seen here, and I’m sure most people have had similar issues, but I think I was able to say some unique things about acknowledging my flaws and being ok with living a fairly solitary life.</h1>
<h1>4: Pretty standard, I talked about my passion for social justice as well as my desire to retain my intellectual authenticity. I talked about wanting to have an opportunity to explore ideas without the normal constraints of school, as well as my desire to find other intellectually curious kids. For my influences, I talked about my past schooling experiences as well as my relative isolation from other kids my age, as well as my parents (of course), my Jewish heritage, and my love of folk music (I’m hoping there’s at least one other Dylan fanatic on this thread). (1,267)</h1>
<h1>5: UT Austin, Cornell I, Cornell II. If I were placed into Cornell II, I don’t honestly know if I’d attend, but I decided to leave it in there; I figure it can’t hurt. (682)</h1>
<h1>6: I didn’t have many books on here, I think I had 6 or 7, and about 4 of those were read for school. I had a mixture of non-fiction, classic literature (Shakespeare and Woolf), and more modern stuff (Coetzee, whom I adore). I did have lots of periodicals though – newspapers, online publications, weekly news magazines, plus a monthly magazine. Lots of politics stuff.</h1>
<p>Anyway, fingers crossed! I probably shouldn’t have looked at what other people wrote about; it definitely made me think I’m less likely to get in, but oh well.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that the seminar topic is usually much less important than the house experience. UT-Austin was my last choice in seminar.</p>
<p>One of my best friends was at WLC summer '09 for HOBY.
Alas, since he got to go I could not.</p>
<p>@Yeoman, your #2 made me laugh, because anytime someone brings up Nazism and how awful the Nazis were insofar as racism and genocide is concerned, I go off on a rant about how Hitler got a lot of the ideas for his concentration camps from “civilized” American and British sterilization procedures and eugenics theories. I am also not a supporter of eugenics, I just hate it when facts aren’t presented correctly.</p>
<p>Hmm, thanks for the info Keilexandra. That’s good to know should I get in.</p>
<p>I misused a word in one of my essays. Aurg.</p>
<p>My rankings: Cornell I, UT Austin, Cornell II. Wrote positively about the first two, didn’t really show enthusiasm for the last one - I don’t usually feign interest or anything like that; I was straightforward.</p>
<p>I liked my essay in this order: Conflict, Personal Interest/Topic, Futures, Critical Book Analysis.</p>
<p>It’s relative; I think I like all of them.</p>
<p>@ Vince and odeepthought I couldn’t help but thing O-U-T-S-T-A-N-D-I-N-G OUT OUT OUTSTANDING ahaha</p>
<p>^Lol! The hugh o’brian, hugh hugh o’brian song always gets stuck in my head.</p>
<p>If anything, reading these topics that people wrote about makes mine feel mundane.</p>
<p>oh PLEASE.
everyone on here intimidates the crap out of me.
what are yours?
if you’re a regina fan, there is definitely something right with you, so your topics are probably good!
…i love logic.</p>
<p>@yeoman- I’d actually considered doing social evolution and social darwinism as my topic, but changed it at the last minute because i thought it’d be too difficult to write about. so go you- it really is a fantastic subject, but i found its hard to discuss without somehow sounding offensive. oh well.
i ended up writing about antisocial personality disorder and why our culture doesnt consider it as big of a deal as it actually is. not up there with evolution in the modern world, though.</p>
<p>I only wrote one essay over 1000 words… will that hurt me?</p>
<p>And I’m being serious… I kind of don’t want to hear the “quality over quantity” argument.
Man, I should have gone further with my topics… I’m getting worried.</p>
<p>^chill. It’s already been sent, so try not to worry. It said on their FAQ that a student would not be penalized for word count, unless you went over the 1,500 limit.</p>
<p>@antigone: Hmm, what order did you choose for your seminars? If we get in, I’d love to talk about it more with someone who’s interested. I tried to cover it in a very neutral manner; I basically talked about how a relative abundance of food and resources has stopped competition for survival, and how human mating patterns – monogamy – both make natural selection less “selective.” Also, I mentioned how the main illness in the world today, at least, in the Western world, mostly affect people past the age of sexual maturity, thus reducing disease’s contribution to natural selection. But I added some caveats about natural disasters, nuclear proliferation, and global warming, and how they could in effect jump-start natural selection. Anyhow, it’s a fascinating topic. Yours sound really intriguing too. I’m really interested in evolutionary psychology, and also how what we consider “disorders” may confer an evolutionary advantage.</p>
<p>@TheBaus: Don’t fret. I think the application readers know how to read an application and really understand an applicant, and not just see how much they wrote. And if it helps you any, all four of my essays were over 1250 words, with two over 1450, and I’m worried they’ll think I wrote a bunch just to pad the length. Long or short, you lose either way!</p>
<p>i agree with EricLee- you people are mad intimidating. any former tassers on here? im not sure how my going to TASS last year will affect my chances this year. =P *sigh, i need to start praying again so God will help me get into TASP. jk</p>
<p>PM’ed the other Regina fan :D</p>