Undergraduate / Georgetown Foreign Service Essay [8]

[i]Could someone comment on this essay and point out any grammatical error or awkward expressions?
I'm still working on the conclusion of this essay. Any suggestions on how to end this essay are welcomed=).

Briefly discuss a current global issue, indicating why you consider it important and what you suggest should be done to deal with it.

After the Cold War, non-traditional security threats, as opposed to traditional security threats, have taken on unprecedented importance. Traditional security threats refer to high security threats such as those pertaining to national security, territorial conflict, and sovereignty. These threats are existential. Non-traditional security (NTS) threats surpass conventional notions of security, which are usually confined by the country's boundary. NTS threats, such as economic turmoil, terrorism, Internet hacking, environmental degradation, population explosion, drug trafficking, trans-national organized crime, and HIV/AIDS, usually do not involve military clashes, but are highly global and transnational. The definition is, of course, disputable. For example, the US considers terrorism and "rogue states" as one piece and sees them as an extension of traditional security threats. Besides, scholars have not reached a consensus as to whether non-traditional security is a broader concept that includes traditional security, or a separate idea that excludes traditional security. Albeit sometimes varied classifications, the characteristics of NTS threats are in fact clear.

Firstly, the sources and subjects of traditional security threats are easier to identify; they usually come from the clash of interests among nation states and the subjects of traditional security threats are therefore the governments. On the other hand, the sources and subjects of NTS are more variegated. They usually result from the actions of individuals and non-governmental organizations rather than from the will of the state. In fact, most of the time, they are against the will of the state and the order of the law. This characteristic of NTS threats determines that despite the atypicality of the security threats, nations have good objective bases for cooperation. Secondly, NTS threats have a stronger transnational and global nature. As NTS is often directly related to individuals and communities, NTS threats spread with the movement of those, transcending national, geographic and cultural boundaries. One country's problem can soon escalate to become a global issue. This makes NTS threats hard to be dealt with. Furthermore, non-traditional security problems are deeply rooted in the economy, society and culture of the countries and therefore the specific social context often complicates the security issue.

In the past, non-traditional security threats did not receive much attention. After the Cold War, especially after 9/11, a sense of urgency for strengthening non-traditional security emerged, when the old bipolar world system collapsed and the world had walked out of the shadow of world wars. Although military crossfire, territorial conflict, and religious wars still exist in the world at large, it is unlikely that large-scale wars will breakout in the near future. Hence, conventional problems now pose a lesser threat to security. On the other hand, the increasingly hastening pace of globalization starts to give prominence to non-traditional security threats, adding complexity to world stability. 9/11 attacks marked a paradigm shift in terrorism. Fluctuating oil price and the economic crisis the world is experiencing now have elevated economic crisis to a renewed level of importance. Those are just two examples of the many non-traditional security threats that recently emerged.

Given the variegated nature of non-traditional threats to security, it's hard to propose specific solutions. The US approach of immediate military action is effective, but this approach makes it difficult for the US to garner international support as the approach is US-centric. The European approach of integrated cultural, economic, social and legal policies based on EU integration is somewhat too idealistic. Its short-term effect is limited. The Asia-Pacific approach of depending on negotiations lacks a substantial mechanism and is, too, painfully slow. In my opinion, international cooperation leveraged on multi-lateral diplomacy and international organizations is the way out. However, among diplomacy, military actions and other approaches, none should monopolize conflict resolution. In addition, the legal tools can be used more extensively.

Undergraduate / UChicago Road Essay- ("the story of one street.") [2]

Chicago author Nelson Algren said, "A writer does well if in his whole life he can tell the story of one street." Chicagoans, but not just Chicagoans, have always found something instructive, and pleasing, and profound in the stories of their block, of Main Street, of Highway 61, of a farm lane, of the Celestial Highway. Tell us the story of a street, path, road-real or imagined or metaphorical.

When I was five, every Saturday, my mom would put me on the back rack of her bicycle and take me to my dance class. I put my arms around mom's waist and lean my face on her back while her bike bumped up and down along the narrow and rough road. The small rinky-dink shops lining the street moved backwards and I saw slovenly shop owners sitting on small stools by the side of the street, moving their rush-leaf fans back and forth idly while bathing in the lovely morning sun.

Then, I would chant the names of the shops loudly to my mom (in Mandarin of course): "Changlai Eating Joint" "Weihaomei Restaurant" "Malan Noodles" "Jinpai Food Junction"- that was how I remembered the route to the dance studio. Mom would then call me "a little glutton" with a soundless laughter sent down her spine and captured by my ear flattened on her back.

I always called that street the "Snack Street". My mom would then say that I had a selective eye because there were many other shops besides food stores. I guess in those days, when I rarely saw meat on our dining table and when candy was considered a luxury to me, food stores left a particularly deep impression in me.

Occasionally, my mom would stop by at one of the shops and buy me a bowl of wantan on the way back from the dance studio. Then she would look at me gulp down the wantan with a gratified smile on her face. But most of the time, she would tell me that the wantan was unhygienic, with horrifying stories of how they actually made them. Although, at that age, I never distrusted my omniscient mother, on the rare occasions when she did buy me wantan, I secretly doubted how much truth there was in her stories.

No matter it rained or shone, every Saturday, my mom and I would be jolting on the road. I couldn't remember when I stopped repeating the names of the shops, as I no longer needed them to remember the route. I had also outgrown the age when food seemed particularly attractive. And the "snack characteristic" of the street was getting less obvious as the snacks I once craved for had become table norms. The "Snack Street" gradually blurred out of my life.

Years had past since the last time I went past the snack street. My family moved to a new house in a better neighborhood and I quitted dance class after I told mom "my bones were aging" and therefore couldn't do the split well.

A year ago, when my mom drove me past a bustling commercial street lined with the glittering glass doors of high-class department stores, she turned her head to me at the backseat of her car and said:

"Do you remember this street? Your snack street?"

I looked out of the window and was shocked.

The street in no way resembled the snack street in my childhood memory. But suddenly, the indolent shop owners and their rush-leaf fans, the white lies about wantan, the bike that almost fell into pieces because of the rough road and the warm Saturday morning sun all flashed back, so vividly like they just happened yesterday.

"Changlai Eating Joint" "Weihaomei Restaurant" "Malan Noodles" "Jinpai Food Junction" subconsciously, I started chanting to mom at the front seat again. They were still so familiar, so familiar to me, but I knew the street and my distant childhood had irreversibly faded into memory.

Could someone look thru the grammar and expressions? Any other comments are also welcome! Any idea on how to revise the last sentence of the essay? It doesn't really make sense...Thank you

Undergraduate / "Northwestern University is a school almost free from any stereotyping" [3]

Could someone please read through my essay? especially the grammar and the expressions. Thank you!!

essay question: What are the unique qualities of Northwestern-and of the specific undergraduate school to which you are applying-that make you want to attend the University? In what ways do you hope to take advantage of the qualities you have identified?

A joke well known to most college students and high school seniors goes like this:

'A young man rolls an overloaded cart to the checkout register in a Cambridge supermarket and starts to unload his many purchases. Then the salesman asks: "Are you from Harvard or MIT?" The young man proudly replies: "Harvard! How did you guess?" The salesman points to the sign "10 purchases or less" and says: "Harvard students can't count, MIT students can't read." '

In fact, the many college rumors and stereotyping going around in American high schools also spill over to Singapore. Those jokes kept me entertained during the stressful college application season.

Interestingly, Northwestern University is a school almost free from any stereotyping of this sort (as far as I know). I always thought about why. I guess that is because the school community is so diverse that there is no single trait that could possibly generalize all, if not most of Northwestern students and Northwestern's educational programs. If there ever is a word that could describe NU, then it must be "diversity"- this is not only reflected in the different racial, ethnic, geographic, and intellectual backgrounds of incoming students each year, but also manifested in the school's effort in building up prestigious programs for a wide range of disciplines and the variety and flexibility of the classes it offers.

Diversity has always been one of my key goals in the years of building up my educational experience- I have had four years of overseas education in a country with vastly different culture from my own, lived in an international boarding school with friends from all over the world and set foot in various fields of interest ranging from art to performing arts to science research to infocom to community service. I believe that the diversity of each individual and the diversity of the entire school community interplay- Northwestern's diverse culture can enrich my educational experience and promote my personal growth; my diverse background and active input can further contribute to the diversity of school community.

Any Northwestern applicants are conversant with the college's characteristics: dynamic school culture, comprehensive and well-built education system, top ranking, knowledgeable professors, competitive learning environment while lacking the Ivy League "kill or be killed" mentality and ensuing arrogance, large libraries, good location near Chicago with vibrant culture, nice scenery near Michigan Lake and the list goes on. To me, the real uniqueness of Northwestern University does not lie in each of the aforementioned characteristics, but rather, the combination of those exciting elements that NU has to offer. This combination delineates an ideal school to receive high-standard education and to live a quality college life that is particularly attractive to me.

Strong International Study Program of Northwestern University assures me that I can get the best education on the subject that interests me. I believe the newly revised International Studies curriculum can sharpen my analytical skills and satisfy my thirst for knowledge in this area. Yet, because of both my love of thinking and knowledge, I realize that tending only to international studies would be a limited way of viewing the world. There are many more things about this world to understand, and many truths about reality that are not confined to the study of international affairs alone- other areas of knowledge are likewise important to my life and my career. And because of these other things I value, I feel that the mandate of coupling international studies with another major is essential to allow me to gain a holistic picture of reality - both the natural world and the world pertaining to humans, our interactions and our thinking. Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences provides exactly the liberal arts education I desire.

In the four years of college life to come, there are a lot of things I want to achieve or, at least, to explore- to obtain knowledge, to hone my various skills, to find friends and to prepare for life. I hope, with the greatest sincerity, that Northwestern University will be the place where all these things happen.