Lilian95
Nov 19, 2012
Undergraduate / UC-prompt 1 Learning to be an independent thinker [10]
Hi, as the deadline is approaching, I still feel unsure about my essay. Feel I did not address the topic effectively, but don't know where to start editing. Help pls!
And I have some problem shortening my language too, anyone who can give me some suggestions on that! I will edit your essays too! Thanks!
PROMPT #1: 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(Maximum 500 words).
(543 words) I am from in a small conservative community in China where conformity is key to survival. Since little, we were educated with strict rules, obligations, and restrictions. There are right ways, and there are wrong ways. To be a doctor is right, to be a cook is wrong. Short hair for boys is right, short skirt for girls is wrong. Gradually, we were forced to transform our thoughts to fit in the standard answer, while independent thinking becomes a luxury. But is life as straightforward as being black or white? I have doubts.
Growing up during the great Cultural Revolution, my parents know how difficult not to be conformed in China, so they tried their best to encourage me to develop my own way of thinking. When I was young, every night before bedtime, I would curl up by my "aficionado of whodunnits" mom, waiting for her to vividly read me her favorite detective stories about Holmes or Poiret. But she would never uncover the secret before I proposed my own analysis about the case. Since then, a young, curious mind started her first attempt in becoming an independent thinker. For me, reading detective novels is not passively follow the authors' flow of thoughts, but to raise a battle trying to outwit them. Bit by bit, I started to enjoy the excitement not only as a reader, but also as a detective.
The days battling with great authors like Sir Conan Doyle or Agatha Christie intellectually allowed me to grow to be a meticulous thinker, who develop my judgment not upon the authority, ignorance, whim, or prejudice, but upon my own examination and evaluation of argument and evidence. And this habit of forming my own thought has attributed greatly to my academic excellence. In the high school entrance examination, I placed 19th among more than 25,000 in my city and was simultaneously admitted by all of the most selective high schools. Now, the importance of independent thinking became more and more evident not solely in academic study. More profoundly, it enables me to eliminate the noise from public opinions and listen to the voice from my heart, and listen to my dream.
I know my dream is in mathematics. I desire to become an actuary, who can use mathematic tools to explore the world of business. I want to learn how to establish mathematical model to predict the market prospects or how to analyze bank interests and calculate the price for insurance companies. Someday in the future, I hope mathematics could lead me ever further to uncover the secrets of nature, just like those predecessors who calculated out the position of Neptune on draft papers, or those who found Golden Section and Fibonacci Sequence in sunflower and conch.
Dream is always inspiring, and I know there is still a long and painstaking way to go. Most of the students apply for University of California because UC is their dream. But I choose UC because my dream needs her. With a great emphasis on independence and originality, I believe it will be an ideal school to tap my potential, to fulfill my dream, and also to become a truly independent thinker, who never chooses to easily giving up her thought to conform to others.
Hi, as the deadline is approaching, I still feel unsure about my essay. Feel I did not address the topic effectively, but don't know where to start editing. Help pls!
And I have some problem shortening my language too, anyone who can give me some suggestions on that! I will edit your essays too! Thanks!
PROMPT #1: 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(Maximum 500 words).
(543 words) I am from in a small conservative community in China where conformity is key to survival. Since little, we were educated with strict rules, obligations, and restrictions. There are right ways, and there are wrong ways. To be a doctor is right, to be a cook is wrong. Short hair for boys is right, short skirt for girls is wrong. Gradually, we were forced to transform our thoughts to fit in the standard answer, while independent thinking becomes a luxury. But is life as straightforward as being black or white? I have doubts.
Growing up during the great Cultural Revolution, my parents know how difficult not to be conformed in China, so they tried their best to encourage me to develop my own way of thinking. When I was young, every night before bedtime, I would curl up by my "aficionado of whodunnits" mom, waiting for her to vividly read me her favorite detective stories about Holmes or Poiret. But she would never uncover the secret before I proposed my own analysis about the case. Since then, a young, curious mind started her first attempt in becoming an independent thinker. For me, reading detective novels is not passively follow the authors' flow of thoughts, but to raise a battle trying to outwit them. Bit by bit, I started to enjoy the excitement not only as a reader, but also as a detective.
The days battling with great authors like Sir Conan Doyle or Agatha Christie intellectually allowed me to grow to be a meticulous thinker, who develop my judgment not upon the authority, ignorance, whim, or prejudice, but upon my own examination and evaluation of argument and evidence. And this habit of forming my own thought has attributed greatly to my academic excellence. In the high school entrance examination, I placed 19th among more than 25,000 in my city and was simultaneously admitted by all of the most selective high schools. Now, the importance of independent thinking became more and more evident not solely in academic study. More profoundly, it enables me to eliminate the noise from public opinions and listen to the voice from my heart, and listen to my dream.
I know my dream is in mathematics. I desire to become an actuary, who can use mathematic tools to explore the world of business. I want to learn how to establish mathematical model to predict the market prospects or how to analyze bank interests and calculate the price for insurance companies. Someday in the future, I hope mathematics could lead me ever further to uncover the secrets of nature, just like those predecessors who calculated out the position of Neptune on draft papers, or those who found Golden Section and Fibonacci Sequence in sunflower and conch.
Dream is always inspiring, and I know there is still a long and painstaking way to go. Most of the students apply for University of California because UC is their dream. But I choose UC because my dream needs her. With a great emphasis on independence and originality, I believe it will be an ideal school to tap my potential, to fulfill my dream, and also to become a truly independent thinker, who never chooses to easily giving up her thought to conform to others.