College Admissions Essay-Ignorance Is Not Bliss

In December 2014, The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education published “Rethinking the Admission Process.” This article was written by Frank DiMaria, who takes a look at the research of the former president of the University of Wyoming, Robert Sternberg. DiMaria explains Sternberg’s stance against the current admissions process. Sternberg has research that depicts, “GPA, standardized tests, and essays do not successfully measure the true talent of a college applicant.” He believes that the policies need to change. Sternberg offers an alternative to the current process. Sternberg has been a part of a new admissions policy testing students not just on their memorization and analytical skills, but on their creative, practical, and wisdom-based skills as well. Sternberg’s ideas stem from his experience with disadvantaged youth and their ability to adapt and overcome obstacles. Sternberg claims that students who grow up in the upper middle class tend to have an environment which better values the analytical skills that the current tests measure. He argues that, because of this, colleges may not be getting the most creative and adaptable students. He shows that some of these less privileged students are capable of handling a college workload even though they may not have been able to score as high on the SAT or other tests. DiMaria believes that through Sternberg’s Kaleidoscope policy may be a solution. The Kaleidoscope way of admissions administers tests which ask open ended

Social aspects of my life would teach me that being homosexual or bisexual was wrong, but others (while living in Palm Springs, Ca.) taught me that it was completely normal to have such sexual orientations. I have lived in California my whole life which has always had heavy, heated debates about allowing same sex marriages, allowing homosexuals in the military, and fighting for homosexual equality, so the history behind my state has made me grow up to be comfortable around gays even with the disturbing things I had been subjected to while I was growing up in Palm Springs. This class has now taught me many things I did not know about when it comes to the psychological aspects of being homosexual or bisexual, but I am still a heterosexual, and comfortable with it.

I was crippled and trapped between choosing what my society had taught me, what was considered to be right, and what I thought was better for me. Prior to summer academy and my immigration to the United States, I had a problem finding my true self in matters like accepting homosexuality. My thoughts and my judgments were corrupt in a sense that my reaction towards such people was solemnly based on what I had been taught. I was born and raised in an environment where homosexuality was considered to be an abomination and unlawful. After immigrating to the United States, I had little to no encounters with people who considered themselves as gay or lesbian etc. Unfortunately for me, upon attending the summer program, I was paired with a person who considered himself to be gay. Initially, every thought I had was filled with ignorance and closed mindedness. But then as time progressed and my grade depended on his effort, I decided to put all the negativity and what I knew aside and tried to learn something from this friend. By the end of the program, I found out that this person was just like me: funny, amiable, sociable and essentially the difference that existed between him and me, was our sexual

Curiosity, the search for knowledge, is an essential dimension of human nature. Embracing this as fact is the beginning of ones journey into the realms of the erudite. The path this journey follows has been wearied by the feet of many great travelers, yet it is the one I have chosen to follow.

Because sexual orientationism, or homophobia, is something that is unconsciously encouraged since our youth by the media and its lack of representation of the queer community, there is often a lot of work that has to be done internally in order to understand and accept homosexuality, regardless of whether you identify with or simply wish to be an ally. My understanding of my privilege or oppression with sexual orientation comes from many years of internally restructuring my own understanding of societal norms. I had a much easier time of accepting the community from my mother who was always there to encourage my acceptance, and growth not only of, but within the community. As an individual who identifies as a pansexual male, my deconstruction of what was proposed as the norm, and reconciling that with my own understanding of what I felt inside to be true was fairly straight forward, but no less substantial. However, I do recognize my own

I was born on September the 7th of 1994 in the San Francisco Bay area, not very far from Silicon Valley. The year I was born President Bill Clinton signed the North American Free Trade agreement with Mexico and Canada which helped to stimulate economic growth about twenty years ago. Living in California made my Dad the open-minded liberal that he is today, and because of his love for discussing politics I was raised listening to him have friendly debates with my very republican grandpa over every economic issue from climate change to healthcare. For about a year and a half after I was born my parents, older brother Daniel, golden retriever sandy, and I all lived in a classic colonial style home just south of Santa Clara Valley. My father was the breadwinner in our family working as an engineer for Portola Packaging. A job he was offered not long after graduation from a small private engineering school in upstate New York called Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. My mother also worked full time but as a loan underwriter. After being offered a great relocation package by Portola to the east coast my parents quickly decided to pack up our house and move to Pittsburg Pennsylvania. In addition to being closer to our extended families they also believed that raising a family in Pennsylvania was far

Imagine me -- a hotshot 14 year old, destined for the Ivy leagues, captain of the JV wrestling squad (weighing in at an impressive 5'3", 115 pounds), and an overall smart alec strolling into high school as if it owed me something. Failure was not a part of my claimed impressive and nothing could stop me from being top of my class (spoiler if you haven't looked at the rest of my application: I'm not).

I thought was fully prepared for college when I walked across the stage on June 1st, 2015, but I was completely wrong. College is a whole new lifestyle that you eventually learn to adapt to everyday. The advice you hear from parents everyday is something you take with you as you navigate throughout campus. Some of the previous advice my mother gave to me is the advice I should of listened to. Now that I am older and on my own, it’s up to me to figure out how everything works.

What you see is not always what it is. We learn to perceive what we're looking at, and we get used to how things are supposed to be. I was always fascinated by the illusion pictures that at first glance is strikingly simple to guess what it is, if you give more attention to detail you see another picture in it. What inspired me the most and made me a curious person was how missing one detail can change the whole outlook of the picture – just as missing one aspect from patient’s evaluation can lead to a wrong diagnosis. This taught me the importance of thoroughness in doing anything in my life. My meticulous nature has been an incredible driving force behind who I am

The city of New York is where I reside, mostly when I'm not flying around the world in my elegant, exclusive, exorbitant jet; I'd always mention with a wink. I'm living the dream. Waking up to the warmth of the sun as my alarm, the view of the alluring country from my apartment and Mr. Awares, my butler the man who dresses me... haha okay, I’m not that lazy. Where do I see myself 10 years from where I stand now? A question I could never answer until 10:03pm or was it 10:05pm? Well, who knows, I fell asleep.

I have learned a great deal both through formal and informal education up to this point and am thrilled to embark on my next stage of development. I really see the college search a lot like music. There are a plethora of options out there, but it is a very personal choice which one is right for you. Some like rock, others like pop, but no matter what genre speaks to you most, the favorite choice speaks to people deeply and inspires them tremendously. When I looked at the campus of New Jersey City University I knew my heart was singing for me to go there. Researching the area, the facilities, the programs, and the demographic was like a perfect symphony all coming together at once.

If you asked the younger version of myself what failure was it would have included not earning straight A’s or not turning in my homework on time. Little did I know, the meaning of failure is not always as innocent as those days on the playground. The moment I entered junior year, I knew I discovered the world was filled with more diverse forms of what failure meant.

Ever since I have lived, I have always wanted to have the knowledge of truth in my life. A wish unimaginable has been cast upon me for a desire to know the aspects of good and evil through actions and ideas especially theological ideas. Me reading through the night about God gives me a sense of hope and a grin upon my face - especially reminiscing the past events in my life. Walking throughout the day and sleeping through the night, I usually contemplate about these matters. Going to bed every night seems normal because I have adapted to ignoring some of the beauty in Montana, but when I look at the sky, I see that something has orchestrated the heavens and the earth. The starry night, so powerful and yet peaceful, twinkling in my retina of my eye. The snow-capped mountains out of my window being observed out of my bedroom window. The mountainous terrain orchestrates the powerful magnificence of the One who created it.

Every time I close my eyes and take a deep breath, I can hear the repetitious honking of the taxi drivers, fed up with the incessant New York traffic. I can feel the soft wind blowing through the tallest trees in Central Park, lightly blowing my hair in every direction. I can smell the grease from innumerable hotdog carts, strolling their way up and down 85th Street, desperate for business. I can see the blinking traffic lights, and the countless men, women and children, all looking like they belong in New York. I wanted to be like them. I can remember everything, from the stickers on the crosswalk signs, to the name of the cluttered antique shop. I see all of these things as if they were scenes from my favorite movie. The vacation I took to New York City, the summer before I started high school, has changed my life forever.

Being a first generation United States citizen in my family, I have experienced both sides of the spectrum where my mother’s mere presence symbolizes a near sacrifice of life for a better quality of mine and work is valued over education. Sounds pretty strange when you think about it because most first generation stories you hear include an overbearing parent that values education over everything else. While my mother does value education, I never posed a need for guidance in that aspect until my junior year of high school but by that time my mother had grown accustomed to me being so independent. My mother in a way had given up on me. She found my struggle with mental health too much of a culture shock for her and consequently treated it as a burden whenever I needed support. I would go weeks without going to school because my depression was too unbearable and I was at the point where suicidal ideations were the norm for me. However, this didn’t phase her in the slightest. Attendance wasn’t something I grew up accustomed to. I