Undergraduate / 'like the bridge in the guitar' - Why Conncoll? [4]

Ever since I took my first Economics HL I knew this subject was the one I wanted to do in College. The areas of Micro and Macro economics were very much alluring to me in pursuing economics as my Major. Choosing Connecticut College reminds me of the time when I bought my first acoustic guitar. Though it has been eight years since then I still remember my guitar whenever I see Connecticut College. My guitar looked like any other ordinary guitar; it has a body, bridge, head and six strings. The more I pluck its strings, the more my choice seemed clear. As if each is significant in forming a melody, just like the six strings of my guitar, I think that Connecticut College has six aspects that could harmonize me into a melody. Those six strings are: the academic rigor, location, the connections I will make, the exposure to my field of study, extracurricular activities and the diverse cultures at Connecticut College. Although the strings played a major role in picking Connecticut College, they are useless without the strings and head. The bridge on the guitar holds the strings in place and the head fine tunes those strings. Hence, I think that the faculty of Connecticut College is like the bridge in the guitar while the head is the flexibility of the college. Both of these are the supporting factors of the strings which help form a finished melody which will be me once I have graduated.

Hey guys this is my Conncoll supplement! I dont think I am confident enough with this one I really need your help

Undergraduate / 'A finished melody' - Why Connecticut College? [2]

Hey guys I just finished this essay 10 mins back, I think my idea is good but I haven't elaborated well enough

Choosing Connecticut College reminds me of the time when I went to buy my first acoustic guitar. Though it has been eight years since then but whenever I see Connecticut College I get reminded about my guitar. It looked like any other ordinary guitar with a body, six strings, a bridge, a fret board and a head. The more I plucked its strings, the more my choice seemed clear. Like each string plays an important role in forming a melody, Connecticut College has six aspects like a guitar that will shape me into a melody. When I see Connecticut College as a guitar, my six strings are: the academic rigor, Location, the connections I will make, the exposure to my field of study, extra-curricular activities and the diverse cultures Connecticut College offers me. As the strings play a major role in the guitar, they are useless without the bridge and the head. The bridge on the guitar holds the strings in place and the head fine tunes the strings. In Connecticut College the faculty plays as the bridge in the guitar while the head is the flexibility of the college. Both of these are the supporting factors of the strings which help form a finished melody which will be me once I have graduated.

Harsh Comments are welcome as I really need to make this better :)

Undergraduate / "What does Community mean to you?'' Conncoll supplement. [4]

Hey guys just finished My conncoll Supplement essay on: What does community mean to you?

"Unity"- This is the first thing that comes to my mind when I think about a community. I come from the Shia Imami muslim community of Uganda. This is a close knit society of people that come from different cultural, social and economical backgrounds. Based on my experiences with this community, when I think of it, a community is a group of people with diverse minds, different cultural backgrounds and diverse economic conditions coming together and helping to ease each other's problems, celebrate a fellow colleagues success and share each other's sorrows.

Living with the Shia Ismaili community over the years has helped me define the word community. When I usually walk into my community I see food being passed from house to house even among people who may not know each other that well. It is a mark of appreciation and a symbol of sharing. People watch over each other's kids when no one is at home. Most of them do not own cars but the ones that do are never reluctant to drive their neighbors to work or to the grocery store. When emergency strikes we all band together and ease each other's burden to make it easier. In college when I think about a community I see a group of friends, who share a meal together, share their troubles, throw around a Frisbee or dream about buying a big mansion together and living in it. Basically just living life together is what I can imagine a community to be.

Undergraduate / 'Lugogo, Uganda' - Common app essay [6]

Hey guys I just finished my common app essay! Please tell me what you think about it so I can make changes to it.

Lugogo, Uganda - a serene football stadium that is home to Proline Soccer Academy- was where I met one of my closest friends, Isaac. There is a significant difference in our backgrounds. He is an underprivileged orphan whose parents passed away when he was still in his tenderness whereas I come from a middle-class Indian family. Language was a big barrier to our relationship as he could speak very limited English and I spoke broken Lunganda we still managed to express our thoughts and feelings.

I admire him as an individual because he never seems to give up. Despite the fact that his mother died while giving birth to him, his father was murdered when he was six and he is affected by HIV; he has managed to put all all these problems aside and has grown into a person who treats other people with respect, practices openness to new experiences and above all values each and every individual he meets I, on the other hand am more of an introvert, I keep my thoughts to myself, never having the courage to express and easily lose hope.

As time went by, our relationship became stronger and stronger, he used to stand up for me whenever the other kids at the training camp celled me names as I was one of the very few non-African players at the academy and I used to give him advice on how to handle certain issues as he was an extremely short tempered and easily used to get irritated when things didn't go his way. He used to cheer me up with his witty comments when I was down and I used to pull a few pranks on him when he wasn't aware. Small details like these had tightened our bonding. We both had common dream, wanting to become professional football players and enjoy the posh life of David Beckham

There was a day after training where he had got injured and was unable to walk, being his close friend I had taken the responsibility of taking him home. As soon as we reached his home I was shocked, shocked to see the poverty he was living in, it hurt me from the inside to see him living in a dirty shack. I also found out for a living he used to sell boiled maize in a taxi park to get him and his grandmother one satisfying meal.

Later that day I reached home, I got annoyed by the fact that I was taking a lot of things for granted at home while Isaac never had the privilege to take things for granted. He is put through so much suffering, but he was still well motivated to overcome his daily problems without complaining like any other individual. This was the incident that made me change my goal in life; I wanted to become a person who helped people like Isaac to bring a significant change to their lives.

In mid 2010 my parents sent me off to India to finish my high school education, at first I thought it would be hard for me to adapt to this new environment but instead I saw myself fitting in fine. I am finding it much simpler to interact with people and make new friends, handling myself calmly in rough situations and most of all appreciating people for who they are.

If it wasn't for my experiences with Isaac, I would be a very different person. My perspective of looking at other people would have been very different and I would be easily judgmental. Spending time with him has showed how to appreciate and individual and not come to a conclusion about the person after a first impression and treating people with the the respect they deserve to have. I may accept he never changed me into a perfect human being but he has a had a huge impact on a lot of areas in my life

This summer I went back home to visit my parents, after a long time I got the opportunity to meet Isaac, I was happy to see he was moving on in life. He had achieved his dream; he has become a professional football player who players for a Division II club in the Ugandan league. He had somehow got the club to sponsor his house and education. I was happy to see he was doing better in life while I am still chasing my dreams.