Please give any feedback you may have, negative or positive, about these essays! Just to clarify, they are two separate essays but are both restricted to 100 words, so I would love if you could read over both, though even one would be helpful! If you want for me to read over your essays, please, just let me know, and I will be on it. Thanks!
Members of the Caltech community live, learn and work within an Honor System with one simple guideline; "No member shall take unfair advantage of any other member of the Caltech community." While seemingly simple, questions of ethics, honesty and integrity are sometimes challenging. Share an ethical dilemma that has challenged you. How did you respond? Your response is not limited to academic situations.
Analyzing the fusion data, something was awry: the tests produced unphysical results, only hours away from the submission deadline. All that was missing were the results, which make all the difference between forever-esteemed papers and those left to atrophy away. In such predicaments, morals waver: my partner was convinced we had to falsify data.
Yet, would the repercussions be worth it? Such was against the research spirit: building upon discoveries to conquer nature's enigmas. Falsification solely exacerbates the issue, shrouding the research community in further darkness. In turn, we reformulated our procedure, obtaining reasonable results and pushing scientific endeavors forward.
Caltech students have long been known for their quirky sense of humor and creative pranks. Please describe an unusual way in which you have fun.
As night falls, I unsheathe my spatula, adorn my apron, and scavenge the closets. I am no cooking connoisseur, yet I am an aficionado. Holding the ingredients, even I cannot predict the outcome. Noodles. Muffins. Fudge. Some even claim that I cook one-minute noodles in 58 seconds!
However, the outcome is not what I enjoy the most; rather, it is cooking itself, where the ingredients lie in front of me, though how I use them is not prescribed. Transforming my stove into a laboratory, I am always at a loss where the possibilities could lead me, but am never lost.
The way you talk about your scientific experiment seems to suggest that you were doing monumental research or something. For example, the phrase "shrouding the research community into further darkness" suggests that your experiment/lab wasn't done in a school setting, although your situation makes it pretty evident that your lab was for a school project.
I also think many people will talk about cheating in school. If you could think about another ethical problem and discuss that I think you'd be better off. Also, your tone works best in the humor essay but not in the ethical dilemma essay. Your ethical essay exaggerates the importance of this lab and seems a bit fancy. I'd prefer to see a different topic that is less discussed. When you talk about this topic, weigh both sides of the problem and explain why you made a certain choice.
Neither of your essays are bad, but your ethics essay could delve a bit deeper into the moral problems of an issue other than cheating. Cheating is pretty common and boring. Think of something bigger.
I agree with Th25cc completely. When a school says in their prompt "Not limited to academic situations," that is pretty much a strong hint that they do not want you to talk about academics [again]. Try to find an everyday situation where you were presented with a real moral dilemma . As you have stated here, the results were unordinary, so that means you would have been exposed sooner rather than later. Use an example where being caught would have been remote. -Admissions Advice Online
Hope this helps
