Undergraduate / 'What IS intelligence?' - UChicago Extended Essay [6]

Did I jump from idea to idea without a clear transition or no? It makes sense to me but I want some verification:

"I got a 31 on my ACT, my friend got a 26. I'm smarter than him, right? My peers would argue that a quick glance at the two numbers can give them an accurate representation of our intellectual abilities. Not too long ago, I posed the question, "What is intelligence?" to them. The same peers of mine gave me a vague, consensus answer along the lines of 'the ability to learn and apply knowledge', which I agree with. Using that concept, why should the judgement of such an abstract ability be limited to a standardized test?

Based on experience, I will only critique the ACT. Now there are viable reasons for its popularity: its objective, understandable score and its relevance to typical American school curricula. It is considered a great test of aptitude because it is a summation of what everyone is supposed to learn in one test. When a stiff, objective curriculum is adhered to for virtually all of a student's time in school, it's hard to envision intelligence outside of that setting. What good is a person that has an in-depth understanding of his school's social interactions if he can't do trigonometry? Who cares if a person can poetically depict something as mundane as a regular school day if they aren't strong readers? My point is there are plenty of skills that people possess that students dissociate from intelligence because there is no use for them in the school system, a very rational reasoning for relying on the ACT.

It's one thing to be a college admissions officer and build a student profile based on several pages of information, but to intimately know a student's methods of learning and still subject your understanding of his/her intelligence to an ACT score is ignorant. No, test scores are not the be-all, end-all of people's comprehension of intelligence. But when an accomplished student receives a 25, you can't help but question the student. The ACT's convenience in providing a simple number is also its biggest flaw. It gives people a very strong first impression of academic promise and turns people off from making an effort to understand a person's intelligence without seeing it on paper.

Things like flirting with a girl that seems sad about something or adjusting your arm angle to improve your pitching are examples of learning something through observation or experimentation and applying the knowledge to make further progress. If this is the vague idea behind intelligence, why aren't athletes or social butterflies considered intelligent because of these skills? Filtering out things that aren't relative to us is commonplace among people, so a student trying to grasp the idea of intelligence in school will look to the high grade earners and good test takers as the epitome of it. But to do so is ignorant, and the more liberally people start viewing intelligence, the better communication will be amongst people of various mental abilities, creating progress in the general public's thinking, one way or another."

Undergraduate / 'abandoning a strict and objective class setting' - UChicago Supplemental [4]

A quick two paragraphs on why I think Chicago is bomb. Should I reference more specific things about the school or no?

The University of Chicago is unbelievably ideal! To begin, it's a decent distance from the Twin Cities which means my parents are an almost complete non-factor and the change of scenery means a new social life. The opportunity to play college baseball is exciting and the physical environment (the campus or the city), as well as the learning environment, which seems to put a lot of emphasis on ideas and critical thinking, suit me well. A part of why I believe UChicago allows for open-mindedness is on its supplement. No other college that I'm applying to is asking me about my favorite books and music, or has abstract essay prompts like guessing what is between living and dreaming (I love the Play-doh to Plato one a lot as well).

One thing I've always looked forward to about college was abandoning a strict, highly objective class setting. Being able to play around with ideas and share them at leisure while being productive is something Chicago encourages, and I was especially excited when I read about the Socratic style in which classes were taught. I've heard the workload in the core curriculum was formidable, but I feel like the copious amounts of reading and discussion would be something much more valuable than "busy work". I've always assumed that college was a place to grow intellectually, not just a stepping stone into the real world, and I haven't found another university that fits the bill as well as this one. Simply put, UChicago potentially offers me the best four years of my life, I couldn't be more excited (and nervous) about applying!

Undergraduate / 'the Redwall series + NAS' - UChicago, favorite books and music [3]

My main concern is I wasn't very specific about anything when explaining why "NY State of Mind" was a great song, but if anyone finds anything else let me know. Thanks!

"To begin, my favorite book series would have to be the Redwall series written by Brian Jacques. It is a fictional depiction of medieval times, only the characters are woodland creatures (mice, ferrets, badgers, etc.) rather than humans. What makes the series so entertaining are several things: the anthropomorphism, the unique characterization he creates for different animals through differing dialects, and the huge fight scenes.

As far as what makes anthropomorphism so effective to me, it's simple: the thought of talking, warrior-like animals is hilarious! As for the dialects he creates, Jacques writes his dialogue in a very detailed manner, and makes sure he emphasizes the speech tendencies of the animals through the use of apostrophes, different spellings to create different pronunciations (i.e., Laird MacTalon instead of Lord) and catch phrases that are characteristic of different species (i.e., a lot of the hares in the series say, "Wot wot!" at the end of their sentences). And the fight scenes, though simplistic and predictable, are still riveting because Jacques does such a good job detailing them.

As far as music goes, I end up gravitating towards genres with more variability in themes and ideas because they're reflective of societal values (which ties in to various social sciences that I might major in). Rock and pop are great, but my favorite genre would have to be hip-hop, and my favorite song being "NY State of Mind" by Nas.

From a non-hip-hop fan's perspective, a track like "NY State of Mind" sounds violent for the sake of being violent. What made "NY State of Mind" a great song was the gruesome, vulgar telling of street life, but Nas's ability to understand inner-city New York, as well as criticize the community from the outside looking in, is overlooked by the casual listener who happens to hear something like, "I think of crime, when I'm in a New York state of mind!"

He starts by taking the listener through a typical day by describing bullet-ridden doors and the helpless cocaine addicts on the block. He doesn't stop and transition his thoughts structurally, instead he challenges the listener to follow his train of thought and he plunges into a story about how "they" (probably a rival drug dealing clique) catches him off guard. He reaches for a gun and starts shooting until he hears women scream. Even in a tumultuous event such as the gun fight he's in, he can't help but feel nervous about the safety of bystanders; "heard a few chicks scream, my arm shook, couldn't look." After detailing how he got out of the situation, he reflects on how much worse his neighborhood has become as a result of people (especially kids) asserting themselves through senseless violence.

The second verse is much the same, with a narrative, a critique and a conclusion to the tales of his home. No one was, or is, able to depict inner-city life with as much skill and empathy as Nas. Where most rappers stop at anger-filled tracks, Nas provides the same first-person view along with insight in a very intelligent way. His lyrical display and complex understanding of his community are what make the song spectacular."