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Dir. of Admissions
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« on: January 01, 2006, 12:11:04 PM » |
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So I am sitting here, reading graduate school admissions essays and I cannot believe the amount of times I have read the same quote over and over again at the beginning of each essay. Some put the quotation in quotation marks, others use it as a title. Still others make no reference to the quotation at all, simply just leave the sentence there maing no effort to tie it in to the essay they are writing.
Oh well.
I am sure the faculty will appreciate it as I sift through the applications before they read them...
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Cynical-Sid
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« Reply #1 on: January 01, 2006, 04:24:05 PM » |
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Personally, I don't think they should even require high school kids to write statements of purpose for college. Very few 17 year-olds know what they truly want to do with their lives at that point anyway. Can you really blame them for providing a generic, form response. If they have the grades, test scores, and recommendations, let 'em in!
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Zarkov
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« Reply #2 on: January 02, 2006, 03:22:40 AM » |
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Wild guess, they are all reading the same how to get into grad school book.
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IndianaProf
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« Reply #3 on: January 02, 2006, 07:58:20 AM » |
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It is (supposedly) a quote from Walt Disney, and it has apparently made it into every self-help book published in the last twenty years. I think the problem is that many students don't distinguish between "dream" and "delude."
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Dale
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« Reply #4 on: January 02, 2006, 09:02:29 AM » |
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I thought these were applications for graduate school. Surely these writers, who presumably hold BA/BS degrees or soon will, know how to write and incorporate a quotation. It not I'm not sure I'd want them.
This could be a recommended convention now that's taught in lower division writing courses.
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anon2
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« Reply #5 on: January 02, 2006, 11:40:34 AM » |
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What really turns me off is the grad applicant who starts out
"ever since I was a small girl I have wondered about the workings of the universe...".
It seems like many Indian students are told this is a good way to start...
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IndianaProf
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« Reply #6 on: January 03, 2006, 02:55:19 AM » |
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Well, at least it's not "Throughout history..." or "According to Webster's New World Dictionary...."
I keep telling my students that "trite" and "bland" are not good attributes of the grad school essay, but only a handful are willing to do anything other than fix the grammar issues.
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Jus' dreamin'
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« Reply #7 on: January 06, 2006, 10:30:28 AM » |
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When admissions lets these 'if you can dream it' kids into the college, this is who we teachers end up dealing with:
Students who
*actually believe that they hang the moon and the stars
*think so highly of themselves that they cry upon receiving a grade of 'c'
*give lousy evals to teachers who are TEACHING and not pandering to students' dreaming nor acting as entertainers in their classes
*have no sense of reality, especially in terms of responsibilities or goals
This is not just a phrase, it's a bloody world view from pain-in-the-ah...-neck students whose self-esteem level greatly outpaces their academic abilities or test scores!
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Emil Thomas Chuck
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« Reply #8 on: January 08, 2006, 07:38:34 AM » |
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elsie
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« Reply #9 on: January 09, 2006, 07:39:55 AM » |
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My favorite quote of the day (from an admissions essay):
"I want to peruse my dreams"
Gotta love spell check!
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