Stanford students possess an intellectual vitality. Reflect on an idea or experience that has been important to your intellectual development.
For this essay, I wanted to connect my love for mathematics and rational thinking to my newly developed interest in philosophy. I also talk about how my newfound appreciation for the humanities, which is important to me as an engineer. I would ideally like help in making the language more clear, although comments on the topic of the essay will also be very helpful. Thank you for reading!
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While I have held a lifelong value for mathematics, engineering, and science, my interest in the humanities only recently developed when I realized how the logic I employ in mathematical problem solving is retained when discussing topics such as morality and politics.
When I first began to learn proof based mathematics, such as abstract algebra, I learned concepts such as proof by contradiction, induction, and logical quantifiers. Soon, I became accustomed to using the definition, theorem, proof method of making assertions within mathematics. These concepts found their place in my physics curriculum, where I found myself having to prove the Euler Lagrange Equations and Neother's Theorem. Within time, proof based mathematics began to constitute my entire concept of rationalization.
Naturally, mathematics began to invade my readings of philosophy. The arguments presented on philosophy papers morphed into the same theorem- proof format mathematics takes. I started listening to people on Youtube debate various topics such as politics and morality and it was clear that the most effective debaters rely on the same definition-theorem-proof method of arguing that is used in math. Only then did I realize that effective argumentation is not restricted to science, it permeates all human scholarship.
Logic never changes, whether it is applied to mathematics or to history or to literature. This realization helped me develop an appreciation for the humanities that did not previously exist. More importantly, it helped me rationalize views of the world that create my sense of purpose and find meaning within the complexity of existence.
Hey sjgandhi1998! The diction you utilized was great, but I think you need to restructure your essay. Nowhere in the essay did I see where you directly answered the prompt. The Stanford intellectual vitality essay is THE most important essay that Stanford admissions look at, and I recommend doing more research on the topic. Here is a good video: youtube.com/watch?v=merKgN6v7ZM If I were you, I would come up with one thing that you read/played/did that truly is unique to you that changed your way of thinking and learning, and this mathematics and philosophy doesn't really seem to do that, plus, it's rather forgettable. If mathematics and philosophy is extremely important to you, however, then try to emphasize more how it shaped your intellectuality, rather than spending many paragraphs just describing what it is. Anyways, good luck!
Hi Jeffrey, thanks for the advice. I am not sure how I didn't answer the prompt. The idea that was supposed to reflect my intellectual vitality was using logic from mathematics in the humanities. Do you have any example essays for this prompt?
By my junior year, I had covered advanced mathematical topics including linear algebra and combinatorics, but I felt that the knowledge was empty without a means of applications. Soon, I began to email professors. After nearly fifty sent emails, Professor Xiaozhe Hu from Tufts University agreed to work with me on a project in multigrid algorithms. My exact task was to improve his cascadic multigrid algorithm by introducing a Gauss Seidel smoother. For several months, I learned eigenvalue algorithms and immersed myself in numerical analysis while improving my MATLAB programming skills. After coding several multigrid algorithms and other eigenvalue algorithms, I implemented Gauss Seidel within the cascadic multigrid algorithm and soon my first research paper was written. Mathematical research is the most difficult activity I have ever undertaken. It takes time and persistence to see results. But it is the feeling of creating an effective algorithm that propels me forward.
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I revised the essay to talk about my research. Would this be good? I can still add around 100 words.
