<p>oh man. I hope you did well, though!</p>
<p>Haha thanks, me too 
How’d your SAT scores turn out?</p>
<p>I am totally stuck on my second essay. Last night I stayed up until midnight tweaking it up and adding new examples, but this morning when I read through it, I blanched. It is horrible! And none of my ideas tie together with the others because the topic I covered was too broad. So now I probably need to scrape everything and start over with a simpler concept. 
</p>
<p>I had the same problem with my PSAT scores! I almost died of anticipation in the week leading up to the distribution of the test results. You can bet that there were MANY nightmares.</p>
<p>^
That happens to me so much: I’ll write something, leave it for a day or two, and then spit at it when I read it again.</p>
<p>That’s tough >.< Why don’t you pick a smaller subtopic of the one you already wrote about, so you’ll already have at least some of it written out/planned/thought about? I’m trying to critically analyze more than one book (series) in 1500 words for my first essay, so I may be in your boat soon lol.</p>
<p>PSATs are the worst, since they take like MONTHS to send out the scores. At least I’ve only had to wait a little more than 2 weeks for the ACT.</p>
<p>My SATs were pretty good. It was 2150 total, but I know that I’ll do better in math and reading the next time around.</p>
<p>Writtenwords, is there anything we can help you with? Maybe talking through your concept with you? It’s kind of odd, I guess, because we’re all competing against eachother, but I promise I’m totally sold on my second essay topic and won’t steal yours.</p>
<p>Nice, that’s definitely a really good starting score :)</p>
<p>And yeah, I’d be happy to help and am also set on my idea, though I have to say I’m not sure I would discuss my topic on an open board because I doubt everyone on here is as completely well-intentioned as we are haha.</p>
<p>Good point. I can tend to be a little too trusting.</p>
<p>Oh, dear. My essays are wordless maintenant.</p>
<p>how long are your essays? I don’t think any of mine are going to be that close to 1,500 words, and I don’t want to put in a whole bunch of filler…</p>
<ol>
<li>uhh</li>
<li>I might recycle an essay from my NJ Scholars application and flesh it out (NJS has a 300 word LIMIT; can you believe that?!) or at least use the idea - the media and uninformed decision-making</li>
<li>I’m probably going to ask one of my friends for ideas on this.</li>
<li>I got this!</li>
<li>Shouldn’t be too bad</li>
<li>Done (might add a couple if I finish them before applications are due)</li>
</ol>
<p>But basically, I haven’t started any of the essays yet, and reading this thread makes me even more restless.</p>
<p>By the way, having 4 be a possible individual solution to 2 would be beneficial, right?</p>
<p>You’re going to single-handedly solve uninformed decision making?? Props, littlepenguin
But I see what you’re saying, and they’d probably appreciate you trying to solve problems with your life rather than, like, wasting it away on a beach.
Though I don’t know.
If I knew what they were looking for, I would be reading these essays, not writing them.</p>
<p>^ There is no advantage to having your essays “connect” or be thematically-related. My essays last year were all about completely divergent topics. Like, completely divergent. We’re talking infinite-degrees-of-Kevin-Bacon unrelated. If your second essay is about gay marriage and your dream career is to be some roving ninja-pastor performing gay marriages throughout the country, by all means write your fourth essay about that. But it’s not going to give you some sort of competitive advantage over the kid who wrote about gay marriage but wants to be an alfalfa farmer. Again, just strive to produce the best, most intellectually-rich work you are capable of.</p>
<p>OH MY GOD
I just realized my dream job: to be a roving ninja-pastor performing gay marriages throughout the country.
Thank you, epigram, for making my future clear to me :D</p>
<p>:facepalm:
If it makes it any clearer, my second essay would discuss how the media skews information to affect our uninformed decisions, and my fourth essay would be about investigative journalism.
I should’ve written “individual effort”!</p>
<p>And I wasn’t looking for a competitive advantage as much as I was wondering whether that would convey who I am better because it’s more focused. But I guess that doesn’t matter!</p>
<p>Haha littlepenguin, I was just kidding, I understood what you meant. And I think what epigram was saying is that if that’s what you really want to do with your life, that’s fantastic and you should go for it, but if you’re just doing it because your think that’s what the admissions people want to see, don’t.</p>
<p>I’ve spent 3 days working on essays for another program already. The problem is the word limit, I’m a “lengthy” writer and prefer a fluid style so a 1000-character limit on responses is terrible. I’ve spent 3-4 times more effort cutting down my essays than writing them. Facepalm. </p>
<p>After I get done tonight, I’ll have these lovely 1500-word TASP essays to look forward to… Awesome. How you all progressing with your essays? Time well spent?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I’m going to leave this for last since I’m still reading another potential book to analyze.
^Can anyone clarify whether it could be over a book which we’ve read both in school and on our own? It truly is my favorite book, unfortunately, my English class read it last year (although it was early in the year… hmm).</p></li>
<li><p>Easy? I love discussion, just gotta organize a train of thought.</p></li>
<li><p>Will have to give it some thought.
^Does this have to centralize around one majoy conflict or would a progression of minor accidents work as well?</p></li>
<li><p>Finally! The work I’ve put into other apps will be of some use. This shall be a breeze.</p></li>
<li><p>Ehh, probably Mich II although I would like to explore Cornell over the summer a bit.</p></li>
<li><p>Not too difficult I suppose! Hehe.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>OK, you guys, word count is not a big deal. Here were my word counts. </p>
<p>Essay 1 - 1478
Essay 2 - 834
Essay 3 - 1063
Essay 4 - 887</p>
<p>I got an assignment in my English class last year, and when we asked our teacher how long it needed to be, he just replied “awesome.” As in, however long or short you needed to write a paper so that it could be “awesome,” that was your page requirement. That’s sort of how the TASP essays worked for me, too. Your word limit is 1500, but your word requirement is awesome. Make it so.</p>
<p>My essay #4 is at 471 words with only a conclusion left. Not good. -___-</p>
<p>My essay 4 was about 250 words, because I honestly had no future plans, and was very direct about saying that. I like to think of this essay as the semi-optional one. It may slightly help if you write a solid critique on the achievement machine of top-tier education or help them understand your passion, but it won’t hurt if you work harder on the first three than this one.</p>