Is it a good idea to swear in your college essay?
College Essay:Pretend that you are seated across the table from three admissions officers. They are the three (and it is only two or three) that will decide if you should be admitted or at least considered in the last round for admission. They are completely different (gender, race, religion, background).They have read your application and letters of recommendation.However, instead of writing your essay, they are Asking you the essay question and you are responding in real time:Would you swear at them???? Or would you include swear words in your answer?Would you try for Humor, not knowing which of the three, if any, would appreciate your humor?Would you comment on religion, race, gender, etc with the diversity sitting in front of you?That is how you write your essays on a college application. You are speaking directly to the admissions officer who is a human being with feelings.All the best.
Does being a TA in high school look good or bad on college apps?
It is time to register for classes for my senior year of high school. I can't decide between being a TA for my AP Biology teacher or taking another class like Computer Support. From what I have heard, the Computer Support class is too easy and effortless but looks decent on college apps. Would being a TA look good or bad on college apps? *I live in CA and plan on applying to most of the UCs.
Is it a good idea to write about gaming in your college essay?
Disclaimer: me no admissions officerOnly if it doesn't suck and addresses some of the following:What generally applicable skills have you learned from gaming? Examples include, but are not limited to self-discipline, communication, and teamwork. This is a rather fuzzy topic; see below for more involved ideas.How have you contributed to your game's community? Are you a map/mod developer? Do you publish strategy guides? Are you an active and insightful contributor to your game's most frequented forums (e.g. TeamLiquid for SC)?How do you treat n00bs? IMO, the true measure of a gamer's maturity is how he/she behaves towards those just starting out. If you make a habit of being helpful towards new players, then it might be worth developing into an essay.What leadership experience have you gained through gaming? In my experience, leading a gaming team/clan is orders of magnitude more difficult than leading a school club or extracurricular. Describing this experience in an essay would be an unconventional but interesting way to demonstrate leadership skills.OTOH, if your essay is basically "omg me sc2 masters look at my shiny blue star lol", then it doesn't really contribute anything to your application. Writing a decent gaming essay isn't easy, but it's definitely more fun than "What I did last summer" or "My favorite class".edit 3/28/14: Incidentally, I had a 100% (3/3) admit rate to the colleges for which I wrote a gaming-related essay, and a 50% (1/2) admit rate to the colleges for which I didn't. Not exactly bulletproof evidence, but...
Does being a Teacher Assistant look bad for college apps?
I'm becoming a senior in high school and my GPA right now is 4.5 approximately and I'm in the top 3% of my school. Majority of classes were all APs and Honors and I got A's on all of them. For senior year I'm taking 5 Ap's but I also want to be a Teacher Assistant and help out my favorite teacher. Will this look bad on college apps that i chose to TA rather than take an academic class? I'm aiming for schools like UCLA USC and UC Berkley