Undergraduate / Biographical essay: the dissolved Soviet Union to the modern America [20]

To provide you with a sense of what this is application if for...it is a program aimed at low-income, high-acheiving students with the ultimate goal being admission to one of the US's most selective colleges w/ a full scholarship

We are interested in learning more about you and the context in which you have grown up, formed your aspirations, and accomplished your academic successes. Please describe the factors and challenges that have most shaped your personal life and aspirations. How have these factors caused you to grow? (800 word limit)

The Soviet Union, as one may learn in a History class, was a very bleak place for most of its inhabitants, to say the least. It was in a land far away far away from the West. It was a land where displaying opinions that diverged from what was announced as correct often resulted in a ticket to Siberia. It was a land where, in the words of most textbooks, consumer goods were very rare. It was a land where people, such as those in my family, died from starvation. The Soviet Union is my land and its depressing failings are woven into my being. I feel that in order to explain who I am today, I must start with the life out of which I gained life-my cultural and historical background has and continues to shape me and offer personal lessons from which to grow.

The sharper the contrasts between the Soviet policies and my values, the more intense are my convictions and passions. For instance, the Soviet Union stressed, possibly above all, conformity to the group. One of my most cherished qualities is nonconformity. While the Soviet Union has long been dissolved, conformity is still an insidious trap manifested in a person's desire to be accepted by society, and thus kowtow to its norms. I treasure the uniqueness of every individual and believe that my unconventionality is my greatest quality. As earnestly as the Soviet Union sought to eliminate individuality, so do I seek to illuminate all that makes me different and encourage others to appreciate their own distinct attributes rather than succumb to the pressures of "the crowd."

This is, however, not a promotion of arrogance or self-centeredness because in admiration of qualities that distinguish an individual, we also encounter his or her less charming quirks. While I am proud of things like my passion for psychology that led me to enroll in Dual Enrollment classes at a local college and earn "A's" in those courses or my whimsical, yet diligent, effort to teach myself piano, I also realize that I have a habit of correcting others' grammar when it is unsolicited and that I tend to sound very sarcastic or cynical when I have not rested sufficiently. Luckily, due to this reflection, I am more self-aware and able to modify my behavior with others in mind.

Similarly, my rather rocky transition from Ukraine, a country that, as many others have, has separated from Russia with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, to the United States is also a source for musing and a perpetual influence on my development. In 1995, my father left for New York, my mother followed him in 1996, and I was able to see both of my parents once more in 1996, when I finally arrived in the United States.

When I asked my grandmother about my parents, she told me that I could not see them because they had not yet purchased a couch while the real reason was that the immigration services in the United States were refusing to believe that I was my father's child. The reason I find this exchange interesting is that it is a fundamental principle of developmental psychology that is usually taken for granted-namely, there are some things that children are not ready to understand. I find this fascinating because it denotes the amazing progress of the human mind from the blank slate of infancy to the capacity of abstract thought attained when an individual reaches the formal operational stage and beyond. Still, while this observation can be made from a near endless source of examples, I find this one to be particularly special because it reminds me of the fragility of the human psyche-the entire, beautiful development of the mind can take a disastrous turn as a result of stressful experiences. While this was not a traumatic occurrence, it does inspire me to help those who do suffer from mental illness, especially in immigrants that are typically overlooked.

Since I entered an English school system when I was five, I had the opportunity to gain a native mastery of the language. My parents, however, have struggled in acquiring the foreign tongue. While this has been a great obstacle to their success in the workforce, they continue to persevere and, in doing so, motivate me to pursue my goals with the same unflagging determination. I understand that I have opportunities far beyond those that were available to my parents and attempt to exploit them in my quest to achieve my goals. Knowing that my father was unable to attend a higher-level university because of his Jewish heritage and religion instills in me a greater desire to matriculate and succeed in a university that challenges me intellectually and provides opportunities to explore my various interests. 802 words. =|

Undergraduate / Miscelleneous Short Answer Questions (Career goals, fav music, books, sports,etc.) [23]

What are your career goals and how did you develop them? (50 word limit)

My career goal is to become a psychiatrist. This goal developed out of my desire to help people and my fascination with the human psyche. This is the best way for me to accomplish my wish to help humanity and enjoy my work as I practice understanding the mind.

=49 words.

Alternative sentence (27 words):

Psychology is my greatest passion and I will be most able to fulfill my desire of helping humanity and being happy through a career as a psychiatrist.

30 word limits (which they claim is enough for THREE sentences) on the following:

What are your favorite types of music?
Classical, Indie, and Classic rock are the genres of music that seem to fuse with my essence and complement my moods, thus overtaking my preferences.

=25 words

What are your favorite books or movies?
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, The Dark Knight, The Princess Bride are my favorite books and movies, respectively.

=29 words Should I get rid of a few & talk about WHY those are my favorites? I was thinking of just having A.K., The Met. & The Dark Knight listed & writing about what they had in common

What are your favorite sports?
Running is, to me, the most enchanting sport because it motivates me to find an absorbing flow in all of my activities similar to the speed that propells me forward.

=30 words

What is your favorite source of inspiration?
My e-mail is a fun source of inspiration because of the variety of topics covered from environmental or humanitarian newsletters to advertisements imploring me to quickly purchase bargain-priced ink cartrideges.

=30 words

How do you spend a typical weekday evening? (I am assuming that means once school has startd)
A typical weekday evening is spent, initially, playing with my feline companion in procrastination, progresses to an eventual completion of assignments, and concludes with either studying or reading.

=28 words

How do you spend a typical weekend? (I am assuming "typical" means statistical average)
A typical weekend commences after reading for some time, involves school work--especially for online classes--and teaching myself how to play piano, and winds down with, again, reading.

=27

Who are your heroes? What qualities in them do you admire?
Oscar Wilde is my hero not only for his wit and brilliant satire, but also for the courage with which he endured persecution for his gender preferences.

=27

What is the compliment that you have been paid that you are the most proud of? Who gave you the compliment?
"You are the craziest person I know," crazy meaning unconventional, spontanteous, and eccentric, was a complement given to me by a few of my best friends, individually.

Should I go with something a little less...odd? I wouldn't want colleges to actually think I belong in an institution oO
=27

How do you rejuvenate yourself?
I feel rejuvenated after I experience something that makes me happy. For instance, breathing in redolent air provides me with the sensation of life streaming into and coursing through me.

=30

What do you consider to be your most significant achievement?
Organizing a donation drive in my school to send supplies to Haiti is my most significant achievement because it provided an impoverished area with critical provisions.

=26

If you could change one thing about your high school, what would it be and why?
I would change my school's offer of grades from eleventh and twelfth to ninth through twelfth so that students would be able to attend it throughout their high school carreers.

=30

What historical event do you wish you could have participated in and why? (As an off-topic question, why do we use the word "historical?" It seems like "historic" does the job...then there is cyclic and cyclical...what is this "-al"?)

I wish I could have participated in Gandhi's Salt March because it was a remarkable use of non-violent civil disobedience that eventually led to India's independence from Great Britain.

=29

How do you handle obstacles that stand between you and your goals?
I try to overcome obstacles that stand between me and my goals. I often seek advice or guidance from others if I am having great difficulties in determining a solution.

=30

Should I not include part of the ? in my answer? I wasn't very sure about how to approach these ?s

Thank you! =)

Undergraduate / "The Metamorphosis," "Antidisestablishmentarianism"-Unsettling novel-Favorite Word [12]

1. We are looking for passionate students to join our diverse community of scholars, researchers, and artists. Answer the question that corresponds to the school you selected above. Limit your answer to a half page or roughly 250 words.

-College of Arts and Sciences: What work of art, music, science, mathematics, or literature has surprised, unsettled, or challenged you, and in what way?

One afternoon, after I finished reading "The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka, I realized that I had lived my entire life as a vermin. "Unsettled" is an understatement for the effect this novella had on me. The psychological focus of "The Metamorphosis" allowed me to see that Gregor Samsa's life before his transformation is the life that we live and his experience after his transformation is only an exaggeration of this condition in order to serve as a metaphor for twentieth-century life. I felt a chill as I saw the modern world reflected in each of Gregor's main predicaments. The maddening uncertainty Gregor faced about his future-would he be an insect forever?-is the same fog that clouds our minds and frightens us. The agonizing alienation Gregor felt from humanity is the same rift that separates us from each other. The pitiable detachment Gregor underwent-increasingly part of the insect's world and less of the human's-is the same reason that most people do not even blink when they learn that yet another passenger plane has crashed. The heart-wrenching despair that Gregor had succumbed to is the same conclusion humanity faces as a consequence of the uncertainty, alienation, and detachment of modern life. I wonder with what complacency it was possible for society to allow our world to come to this and hope that we will be able to reverse this pattern before we launch the fatal fruit at one another. The horror of this possibility and the current dilapidation of society elucidated by "The Metamorphosis" compels me to struggle against it.

-What is your favorite word and why?

"Antidisestablishmentarianism" is quirky, historically meaningful, and psychologically significant. Like a person, this word has many layers and the best way to understand it is to go through these layers individually. Since psychology is my life's passion, this word is a perfect match for me. I feel drawn towards this word because its essence lies in its root, "establishment," referring to the Roman Catholic Church, just as an individual's psychology has its start in childhood. The word is, in turn, made increasingly complex through the additions of extra strata, such as "anti-," in a manner that makes it a perfect metaphor for the psychological processes that humans undergo and the experiences that comprise their being. Aside from its structure, the definition of antidisestablishmentarianism covers a significant and fascinating length of history: the rule of King Henry VIII, England's split from the Catholic Church, and the opposing reactions of some to this split. It is remarkable that one word can convey such a broad range of information. The definition, mainly focused on history, also enables the word to capture my attention not only because I love this subject, but also because every snippet of it carries deep psychological meaning: the stress and the ego of a King, the upheaval of a country's tradition-a part of the national psyche-and its ramifications, and the motivations and perseverance of those who chose to disagree with the new order. Thus, "antidisestablishmentarianism" has a unique, unparalleled personality among words that endows it with an irresistible spark of life that captures the hearts of all those brave enough to spell it out.