<p>Well I wrote about how I enjoy taking an afternoon off now and then to read the latest Discover magazine that comes to my house, and I share some of the curiosities/questions I've developed from reading its articles. What do you think?</p>
<p>pas mal (not bad)</p>
<p>could i say that i've taken several college courses outside of my HS education? like the past 2 summers, i took 12 credits.. in psychology, sociology, human bio..etc... do you think that show's intellectual vitality/or no?</p>
<p>"could i say that i've taken several college courses outside of my HS education? like the past 2 summers, i took 12 credits.. in psychology, sociology, human bio..etc... do you think that show's intellectual vitality/or no?"</p>
<p>If you can elaborate and perhaps go into specific details about really intellectually interesting experiences in your classes then I think it could work.</p>
<p>heh heh noobs. All you guys are only into the academic side. That shows nothing as Stanford (and MIT and Harvard) says about 70% of the applicants are academically qualified for admission. This means that if you have high enough GPA/SATs and have taken solid courses, you are mostly part of the 70%.
Now, the essays are VERY important. I suggest you all stop worrying about expressing "how smart you are" or "I took lots of college credits"</p>
<p>Thats bull.
I think Stanford wants people who express their concerns for the future. Ask yourself this: If you get into Stanford, what will you do later on? For the future generation? How will you contribute? </p>
<p>There are other things too. Teamwork, withstanding depression, Personal questions etc. So many. You think about it.<br>
This will be way helpful than blabbing "How smart I am"</p>
<p>This prompt also gave me much problem too.</p>
<p>Is it okay if I talk about my experiences with fruit choosing? I know it might sound weird, but I actually conducted an experiement to find out what qualities certain fruits needs to have in order to be sweet and ripe. Does this show that I have the intellectual vitality to spark the interest to actually experiment on such seemingly unimportant tast?</p>
<p>Is this too much of a risk?</p>
<p>Intellectual vitality, I think, is demonstrated in many ways, but a theme would be that you took on an intellectual challenge and pursued it in some way. And 'show, not tell' - don't tell people you were intellectual, show it through a 'slice of life.' </p>
<p>So fruit choosing, if it meets those criteria, would be just fine. I would, however, strongly advise against writing about depression, and I'm not personally seeing an obvious angle to teamwork, but in truth many things can do the job - but keep the criterion of pursuing an intellectual challenge in mind.</p>
<p>Personally, I demonstrated my intellectual vitality through something unique...like comic book reading.</p>
<p>Haha yea, sounds lame...but I used a particular instance in which I thoroughly analyzed the author's inferences, subtle and otherwise, that interpret a superhero's actions as fascist and self-serving in the book Watchmen.</p>
<p>Heh...at least it's kind of different. I let the transcript/teacher recs do the talking when it comes to academia. I figure the essays are supposed to be about you outside of school. </p>
<p>BTW, to the girl who posted about the rubik's cube thing, how long does it usually take to learn how to do those? I'm always amazed when I see these people at my school completing it in a minute or so (this kid who has a 1.5 GPA did it in under a minute...weird...)</p>
<p>illsyck, what school do you go to??!!</p>
<p>I am thinking of writing an essay for intellectual vitality on what I think about certain aspects of life, that doesnt rly sound 'intellectual' to me though, Opinions? Should it be on something academic related?</p>
<p>Er, I go to Granite Bay High...</p>
<p>why do you ask?</p>
<p>well, i was wondering what kind of school had people with a 1.5 GPA that could solve the cube that fast =)</p>
<p>in my digital arts class, a kid thats not smart can do the rubiks cube in like 3 min. hes a football player and hes not nerdy at all, and it was so funny that he could do it haha. i couldnt stop laughing cause i thought he was kidding and then he pulls it out and does it lol</p>
<p>IhateS@T, any essay that gives them insight into YOU and the 'life of the mind' for YOU is good, so the issue is not so much topic as what you write about it. If what you write could have been written by someone else, and does not reveal your own unique way of approaching life and what engages you intellectually, it doesn't do the job, but if the content meets those criteria, your topc is fine.</p>
<p>@illsyck: Search on Youtube. There're some videos which show you how to do the rubik cube in less than a min. You don't need to be super-clever to do it.</p>
<p>@tokenadult: I love your question! This thread should have been much more helpful if everyone focused on answering your question seriously.</p>
<p>I love the idea that intellectual vitality isn't about WHAT exactly that you do, but HOW you do it; it's about your approach to everything.</p>
<p>I'll ponder over this question, perhaps I may come up with sth interesting for my essays. Thank u, tokenadult!</p>
<p>Yeah I agree with 6y6y6....it's not about impressing the admission officer with whatever you do. It's about showing that you have some kind of interest in learning that isn't mandated by your school.</p>
<p>Haha - the Rubik's cube is seriously fascinating. It was the topic of my extended essay (the math behind permutations, theories and all that fun stuff)</p>
<p>As for me, I've always been more of a "languages" person. I think it's fascinating that one word may not be able to be translated in another language without loss of meaning. I was raised speaking both English and Tongan (my mother's native language) and then around 8 or 9, I had to take Hebrew classes (for a bat mitzvah that never happened :-( Eventually I became fluent and interested in etymology, so the I started studying Ancient Greek intensively at 12 for a few years until becoming fluent. At 13, I started Spanish in school and the rest is history.</p>
<p>I actually got my first internship at a tax firm serving primarily as a translator. That turned into a part-time job, which is now a full-time job. My boss recommended me for another internship 2 summers ago at a lending firm for bilingual secretarial work. But it was at work where I developed my "voice" and became politically active. At the tax firm, the majority of our clientele is Spanish-speaking, non-citizens (yes, "undocumented workers" can file tax returns) and while I was working there, I heard so many stories from people who live with a dozen people and make $3000 (yes three zeroes) selling roses and oranges off the side of the freeway. I started writing letters, calling, meeting and even presenting to representatives regarding my concern about issues from everything from immigration reform to educational budgets and even a few gender-based laws that concerned me. I'm pretty much on a first-name basis with my assemblyman :-)</p>
<p>It made for great essays and excellent letters of recommendation. (My boss wrote about my work in local government and passion in helping to improve the lives of others) But even better, it's something that an adcom would not know about me from my SAT scores. Every student is different and someone could have the same exact GPA and test scores as I do, but they might not have the same passions as I do. My ECs may be lacking, but that's not indicative of a lack of activity overall -- I just don't feel I need a group or organization to validate my actions. I learn best from experience and I feel that shows my intellectual vitality.</p>
<p>is there a way I could send my essay to one of you to get feedback?</p>
<p>Ask a counselor, english teacher, family members etc. to read your essays too...not just people on CC, who don't know if you're using your "true" voice or not</p>