Selecting a Topic for your College Essays

If you go to the ‘California Colleges’ website dedicated to perfecting the Personal Statement for the UC Application, http://californiacolleges.edu/admissions/university-of-california-uc/personal-statement.asp, you’ll be told that

“The UC personal statement is a preview to the kind of writing you'll be doing in college and on college placement exams.

Unknown Audience: You will be writing for a community of strangers.

Writer-Determined Topic: You will pick the topic for your response.

Dig Deeper: Analysis and reflection are keys.”

Few high school students have dealt with this kind of writing before. You’re now writing for strangers in some admissions office who are not only reading what it is you’ve written, but are judging you based upon what you’ve written. No one likes to be subjected to such scrutiny, especially when the stakes are so high. Plus, there is one other uncertainty, you are now selecting the topic to use in the essay, and that’s a scary proposition.  

Keep one clear principle in mind, no matter whether the prompt is: ‘Describe the world you come from — for example, your family, community or school — and tell us how your world has shaped your dreams and aspirations,’ or the University of Chicago’s Essay Option 6:’ Don't write about reverse psychology,’ the real topic is you. Accept this and the rest of the writing process will more quickly come into focus. The essay is your vehicle for developing rapport with everyone and anyone in the admissions office. Developing rapport, by the way, is best done by showing, not telling, your audience who you are. You want to select a topic that will help you do this.

Common sense suggests certain topics are best not used in your college essay. These include drug use, sexual experimentation, self-pity, criminal activity, strong religious beliefs, a travelogue…there is a more complete list on about.com, http://collegeapps.about.com/od/essays/tp/bad-essay-topics.htm, Discussing shady activities, or superficial treatments of your one week trip to the Great Wall, is hardly going to present you accurately. A topic you’re excited by will generally be your best choice. If it is rebuilding a Chevrolet 2.8 liter, V6 engine, then describe the process clearly and in detail, again, preferably around a story. Your enthusiasm will shine through if your interest is real. Even someone who doesn’t know a bolt from a screw will pick up your enthusiasm and will enjoy. (Trust me in this: your passion for any topic will be noted and shared by readers). When your passion palpitates, it attracts.

If, you can’t come up with a topic, it’s always a good idea to start asking questions. Such probing stimulates your brain cells and opens up your thinking: What do I spend a lot of time doing? What is it you like to do? In what activity do I lose track of time? If I could accomplish one thing in the next three years what would it be? Free writing and free association is a good way to generate topics, but do it with a pen or pencil on paper. Recent studies from the University of Indiana indicate handwriting evokes strong mind response and idea generation.

The painful part of selecting a topic is getting started. Don’t be intimidated by the process. Yes, you might go down some dead ends. What you write might not even come close to what it is you wanted to get across. These are all part of getting to where you want to go. Look at it from a different perspective. The pleasure of getting it right can bring incomparable rewards. You might even discover qualities about yourself within your essay that you may have never known you had. That, in itself, is the whole purpose of the enterprise in the first place: self-discovery. It’s just a question of getting it down on paper. Start now.   

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Bellwethers of Ivy Quality

• The website “What they will Learn” and the importance of a core curriculum
• Ratemyprofessor.com site’s ranking of Ivy League professorial staff teaching
• Collegeguide.org and the politicization of the classroom

How much would you be willing to pay to attend a school that had no official general education requirement (or, possibly had one or two areas spottily covered) across the following subject areas: composition; literature; foreign language; US government and history; economics; mathematics and; science?  Posed a little differently, assume you were selecting a high school and it didn’t require English (writing), history, math, science, foreign language, or literature. How much would you be willing to pay to go to such a school?  A better question is how much money would you pay to avoid going to the school?   

No one, currently, is paying money to avoid going to Ivy Leagues schools. Yet, if you examine their curriculum, teaching quality, and freedom of inquiry in the classroom, you might wonder if such a scenario might be a reality in the future.

 An examination of the curricula of the schools can be found at the site ‘What will they Learn?’ http://www.whatwilltheylearn.com/. On site is a letter from the former Dean of Harvard, Harry Lewis:  “On some campuses, it doesn’t matter at all what courses are chosen, as long as they are in the right categories…At its best, general education is about the unity of knowledge, not about distributed knowledge. Not about spreading courses around, but about making connections between different ideas.” The site then grades each campus’s core curriculum.

CORE CURRICULUM GRADE:

Brown                                                                    F

Cornell                                                                   F

Columbia                                                               B

Dartmouth                                                            C

Harvard                                                                 D

University of Pennsylvania                           D

Princeton                                                              C

Yale                                                                         F

Turning to another study regarding the quality of teaching, a recent report from the Center of College Affordability and Productivity compiled reviews from ‘Rate My Professor.com’ of professors at 610 universities. No Ivy League school ranked in the top 100:

 QUALITY OF TEACHING (ranking of 610 universities):

111. Princeton University

152. Columbia University

187. University of Pennsylvania

196. Brown University

213. Yale University

247. Harvard University

294. Dartmouth College

414. Cornell University

Details are at “Are Ivy League Professors Good Teachers? By Lynn O'Shaughnessy”  http://moneywatch.bnet.com/saving-money/blog/college-solution/are-ivy-league-professors-good-teachers/3881/ Some might discredit these findings as students might skew results if they have a vendetta against a certain professor, but this sample size is too large to be easily manipulated by students or others.

CollegeGuide.org (it is the site of the ISI which reviews, in detail, the curriculum and teaching at over 250 colleges and universities) gives campuses traffic light ratings based on how ‘politicized’ the curriculum is. Specifically: “If a school’s American history course casts the Founding in a dark light, pushes socialistic views of the economy, or claims that the Cold War was a U.S. scheme to rule the world, it is politicized.” If the curriculum is considered highly politicized it receives a red; mildly, a yellow; and open to free inquiry, a green light. 

POLITICS IN THE CLASSROOM

Princeton                                                                Green

Harvard                                                                   Yellow

Dartmouth                                                             Yellow

Brown                                                                      Red

Columbia                                                                Yellow

University of Pennsylvania                            Yellow

Cornell                                                                    Yellow

Yale                                                                         Yellow

Three different studies covering the scope of core curricula, the quality of the teaching, and the politicization of the classroom across some of the most selective schools in the country come up with alarming findings. Taking Brown as an example, it gets an “F” for its general educational program (it doesn’t have one); barely places in the top third among the 600 schools sampled in quality of teaching; and gets a red light for having an extremely politicized classroom.  If Brown were a student, would you accept it? Ironically, during the recent admissions cycle it accepted less than 14% of its applicants. The recent round of early decision applicants increased over 20%. 

Don’t misinterpret this article. There are huge swathes of academic excellence throughout the Ivy League, if you know where to find them. You need to do your homework before you attend, to discover what it is you want to get out of a university. Learn about the best courses, the best professors, and the top majors Do not go in passively expecting to be served up excellence. Even in the venerable Ivy League that is a possible recipe for disaster.

 아이비 대학의 우수성을 알아보자

l  “What they will learn”싸이트에서 알아보는 핵심교과목의 중요성

l  “Ratemyprofessor.com”에서 아이비 대학 교수 등급 알아보기

l  “Collegeguide.org”에서 알아보는 교실의 정치화

 여러분이라면 일반 교양과목 (작문, 문학, 외국어, 미국정치와 역사, 경제, 수학, 과학)이 빠진 (혹은 한 두 과목만 수강) 학교에 돈을 내고 다니겠는가?  달리 말해서, 영어, 역사, 수학 과학, 외국어나 문학을 가르치지 않는 학교에 다니겠는가?  이런 대학에 등록금을 내겠는가?  아니면, 이런 대학에 안 다니기 위해 다른 대학에 돈을 내겠는가?

 한편, 아이비 대학에 다니기 위해 기꺼이 돈을 내지 않을 사람이 없다.  그러나, 만약 교과목, 교수의 질, 교수의 자율성을 따져 본다면, 고개를 갸우뚱할 수 밖에 없다.

 먼저, 교과목에 대해 알아보기 위해 “What will they Learn?”(http://www.whatwilltheylearn.com) 싸이트를 조사하자.  그 곳에서 전 하버드 교무처장이었던 Harry Lewis의 글, “어떤 캠퍼스에서든, 학생들이 바른 선택을 한다면, 어떤 과목이든 상관없다…즉, 일반 교양과목은 분산된 지식이 아닌 지식의 결집이다.  과목만 나열하는 것이 아닌, 여러 다른 사상들을 연결해야 한다.”  이 싸이트에서는 대학들의 핵심 교과목의 점수를 다음과 같이 주고 있다.

 핵심 교과목 점수:

-Brown: F

-Cornell: F

-Columbia: B

-Dartmouth: C

-Harvard: D

-University of Pennsylvania: D

-Princeton: C

-Yale: F

 다음, 교수의 질에 관한 연구는 ‘Rate My Professor.com’에 나와 있는 Center of College Affordability and Productivity에서 조사한 610개 대학들의 교수 질을 살펴볼 수 있다.  100등 안에 든 아이비 대학이 없다.

 교수의 질 (610개 대학 중에서)

111. Princeton University

152. Columbia University

187. University of Pennsylvania

196. Brown University

213. Yale University

247. Harvard University

294. Dartmouth College

414. Cornell University

또한 Lynn O’Shaughnessy의 “아이비 대학 교수들은 좋은 교사인가?” (http://moneywatch.bnet.com/saving-money/blog/college-solution/are-ivy-league-professors-good-teachers/3881/ )의 글에서도 알 수 있다.  물론 어떤 학생이 특정 교수와 반목관계에서 나쁜 평가를 내릴 수 있지만, 자료의 샘플량이 매우 커서 이러한 영향은 배제할 수 있다.

다음, CollegeGuide.org(이 싸이트에서는 250여 개의 대학들의 수업과 교과목을 평가하고 있다)싸이트는 과목의 정치화 정도를 신호등 불로 나타내고 있다.  예를 들면, “미국 역사 과목에서 정착단계를 경제적인 사회주의적인 견해에 따르고, 냉전이 미국이 세계를 지배하려는 음모라고 주장한다면 이 과목은 정치화되었다.” 그래서 과목이 매우 정치화되었다면; 빨강, 보통은 노랑; 자유 토론이 가능하다면 녹색신호등이다.

교실의 정치성

Princeton: 녹색

Harvard: 노랑

Dartmouth: 노랑

Brown: 빨강

Columbia: 노랑

University of Pennsylvania: 노랑

Cornell: 노랑

Yale: 노랑

 위의 세가지 기준으로 명문대학들의 놀라운 평가를 할 수 있다.  브라운 대학을 예를 들면, 일반 교양과목에서 F (한과목도 없기 때문), 교수의 질에서 겨우 196등이며, 교실의 정치화에서는 빨강불이다.  여러분은 브라운 대학에 가겠는가?  풍자적이지만, 이 대학은 입학률이 14%이하이며, 응시자 수는 얼리 디시젼에서 20%이상이 증가했다.

이 기사를 잘못 해석하지는 말자.  아이비 대학의 학문 우수성을 찾을 수 있다면, 다양한 면에서 찾을 수 있다.  그러나 여러분이 대학에 들어가기 전에 대학을 나올 때 무엇을 원하는지를 생각해야 한다.  최고의 교과목, 최고의 교수, 최고의 전공을 알아보자.  무조건 최고의 서비스를 받을 것을 기대하지 말자.  대단한 아이비 대학 일지라도 여러분에게 재앙일 수 있다.