I am reapplying to Purdue since being dropped due to bad grades and being in a wrong major, please check my answer and see if it is ok.
On behalf of myself, Harvinder Thiara, I would like to talk about the factors that lead me to being academically dropped and why I perform better if readmitted into the College of Liberal Arts.
Since my freshman year at Purdue, I found biology to be not only a challenging major but overwhelming as well. I've encountered many obstacles while seeking to pass exams and completing homework assignments. One of the many reasons biology became overwhelming was I didn't understand or knew I needed to understand the fundamentals. I would constantly ignore my gut instincts and tell myself the material would eventually come to me. I also went through my class materials not fully understanding the concepts taught in each class yet became satisfied of somewhat understanding what had been taught. As a result, I tried to keep up with the pace of the biology and chemistry courses; I ended up skimming through class notes, skipping reading assignments and not really understanding the material that was taught in class. I thought if I could manage to "survive" or "barely pass" that the end justified the means. Overtime, I would fall behind each semester trying to play the catch up game towards finals and regrettably fail in each attempt. However, it wasn't just my time management skills or lack of understanding the material that were the core issues; the root cause was that I didn't enjoy what I was learning.
There were many times that I considered changing my focus to liberal arts courses during my sophomore year but my family kept telling me that if I studied harder and focused more, the light bulb would turn on and suddenly "I'd get it" and I believed it. My family wanted me to go into medicine and become a doctor. It was their dream that one child would become a doctor or if that fell through, I would be able to get a well paid job working at a biotech company. In their opinion, I wouldn't get anywhere with a liberal arts degree and it would be a waste of their money. Therefore, I kept trudging along in the biology and chemistry programs while ignoring my gut, slowly decreasing my confidence level and more importantly doing what made me happy and excited to learn.
What has this experience taught me and why do I think I can succeed if I'm readmitted to the College of Liberal Arts? Why liberal arts?
While majoring in biology, I had to take a few courses in psychology, political science, and sociology. I found myself enjoying the subject and looking forward to not only class but studying the material. I excelled in my liberal arts courses than I ever did in biology and chemistry. I looked forward to reading the material and contributing to class discussions. Eventually, after talking to my parents, the thought of majoring in liberal arts was not an option. At that time I didn't realize that my academic strengths were in liberal arts and not in the sciences.
Since my academic drop status at Purdue, I've spent a considerable amount of time thinking about what went wrong and about direction I want to take my academic career and future goals in. I've tough heart to heart discussions with my family about where my strengths lie and what I am passionate about studying. I've realized what I enjoyed studying the most during my time at Purdue were the liberal arts classes where I genuinely thought about the subject and was eager to learn more.
There are already considerable steps I've taken to assure academic success while taking classes Ivy Tech College. Tactically, I've started to manage my schedule and time. This means creating a spreadsheet and calendar of assignment due dates and exam dates to scheduling chunks of 1-2 hour blocks to find a quiet place to study alone without distractions as well as forming study groups. I've also learned that it's important to focus on the purpose of learning the material, to not just read the assignment reading but to genuinely think about the subject. Lastly, the most important part of part of growth was to understand the basics. In biology I realized I constantly had a weak foundation, which resulted in failing exams. In my coursework at Ivy Tech, I started with simple steps of understanding the basics.
The school I intend on applying to is the College of Liberal Arts. What I want to major in is Political Science, since this major would coincide with my level of reasoning skills. I could also see myself in the future performing government work or as a political analyst.
In the last few months, I have experienced a lot of change in my personal growth. I have developed more improved logical, reasoning and communicative skills that would help in the field of Political Science. My best performance academically comes through passion along with discipline my studies. It also has been important to be honest with myself when facing difficulty and knowing if I am keeping up with the class. Seeking input on help from my instructors has also been important to know how much understanding I have of the concepts and lessons taught in class. Discipline wraps around my studies because it is important to divide my work up each day so that I am not left with learning to many or too little concepts at one time.
In conclusion the following have been key factors to my personal growth; honesty, passion, and discipline. It was a mistake to be dishonest to myself that pushing through Biology was be a good idea. I hope you will take the time to consider how much I have learned through this recent experience and the personal growth that will be helpful when taking classes at Purdue again.
I think this is a good start. Your answer seems well thought out and has a lot of examples which makes it personal and effective.
Here are a couple of things I noticed:
-Though as a total I think it projects accurately the points you are making...There are a few questions here and I kind of lose track of if you have answered each question specifically.
It may be helpful for you, for organization of your essay and overall readability, to pick out of this essay what you intended to be your answer to each of the four questions so that you are sure to make each point.
-Personally, I would reorganize your paragraphs based on the questions. The first paragraph could be an intro to your main points but may not be entirely necessary depending on your preference of style (reads like an essay or simply but thoughtfully answers the questions in a direct way). Below are some editing ideas based on your current format. If you submit another draft I will make an effort to check it out and offer advice.
