Hello :D
I'm adding my supp't essay to Yale. Please critique it. I'm not very pleased with it because I find it to be too conventional and I'm usually out-of-the-box with my writing. I'm hoping to highlight my essays in my application.
I was never a brilliant mathematician; numbers were often a struggle for my rather artistic brain. I could not paint portraits, liaise choreography, or dictate poetry with equations. Thus, math became the bane of my existence. During class, I would often lower my head and tireless work away at the presented problem; often, I would shamefully hang my head from despair when realizing the answer was off by several numbers. However, I did not relinquish- I ploughed on, practicing frequently on my own time.
During my first semesters of high school, I found math to be even more devilish than before. It was horrible and fastidious; did it really matter what x2 + 2x - 45 equalled? There was no merit in this dreary exercise. I would have rather preferred spending my time painting, reading, or writing poetry. However, I did not shelve math; I would take whole weekends and concentrate solely on it. I would approach my teacher during breaks, lunches, and afternoons with questions. I would not give up! My mother, too, laboured arduously for my mathematics to improve; she spent hours sitting at my desk, pounding derivatives into my head. And it is not to say that I didn't improve- my math marks dramatically increased in the ninth grade. I began achieving highs that I couldn't have imagined in a blue moon.
My newly found confidence with mathematics prodded me to inquire into math further. I signed up for math contests, full of hope that I would win medals and international recognitions for my achievements; however, I scored average. I did not wow any foreign-born critic with my accomplishments. In fact, they are hardly worth noting. I concluded, thus, that I bore no innate math skills. I was never going to be like the whizzes I saw on television, answering 2 in a matter of milliseconds. Surprisingly, this did not bother me in the least. Sure, it would've been nice to conclude my applications for Yale with, "I have maintained the top standing for mathematics in Canada throughout my four years of high school". However, I was not gifted with the talent to procure such magic. I was gifted, instead, with pure logic, and the ability to write decently.
Though my math hasn't been the most wondrous of my subjects, I have managed to pull decent grades. This past semester, I averaged a ninety-six percent. Pleased as I am with this performance, I realize that if not for my resilience in the previous years, I would have averaged much, much lower. It is this, in fact, that has benefited me in my quest for intellectual vitality; the most successful talents are the ones practiced! Although I am still not the greatest test-taker for math, I have managed to clear the fog from the most basic concepts. I will never be a Gauss, or a Hilbert. However, I may someday hope to pursue the shadows of Steinbeck, Perlman, and Balanchine.
"To each his own"
~Cicero
Ignore the lack of indents please. I am not computer-savvy enough to figure them out (boo hoo).
Thanks :D
I would also be very willing to help edit essays if anyone would like...?
I'm adding my supp't essay to Yale. Please critique it. I'm not very pleased with it because I find it to be too conventional and I'm usually out-of-the-box with my writing. I'm hoping to highlight my essays in my application.
I was never a brilliant mathematician; numbers were often a struggle for my rather artistic brain. I could not paint portraits, liaise choreography, or dictate poetry with equations. Thus, math became the bane of my existence. During class, I would often lower my head and tireless work away at the presented problem; often, I would shamefully hang my head from despair when realizing the answer was off by several numbers. However, I did not relinquish- I ploughed on, practicing frequently on my own time.
During my first semesters of high school, I found math to be even more devilish than before. It was horrible and fastidious; did it really matter what x2 + 2x - 45 equalled? There was no merit in this dreary exercise. I would have rather preferred spending my time painting, reading, or writing poetry. However, I did not shelve math; I would take whole weekends and concentrate solely on it. I would approach my teacher during breaks, lunches, and afternoons with questions. I would not give up! My mother, too, laboured arduously for my mathematics to improve; she spent hours sitting at my desk, pounding derivatives into my head. And it is not to say that I didn't improve- my math marks dramatically increased in the ninth grade. I began achieving highs that I couldn't have imagined in a blue moon.
My newly found confidence with mathematics prodded me to inquire into math further. I signed up for math contests, full of hope that I would win medals and international recognitions for my achievements; however, I scored average. I did not wow any foreign-born critic with my accomplishments. In fact, they are hardly worth noting. I concluded, thus, that I bore no innate math skills. I was never going to be like the whizzes I saw on television, answering 2 in a matter of milliseconds. Surprisingly, this did not bother me in the least. Sure, it would've been nice to conclude my applications for Yale with, "I have maintained the top standing for mathematics in Canada throughout my four years of high school". However, I was not gifted with the talent to procure such magic. I was gifted, instead, with pure logic, and the ability to write decently.
Though my math hasn't been the most wondrous of my subjects, I have managed to pull decent grades. This past semester, I averaged a ninety-six percent. Pleased as I am with this performance, I realize that if not for my resilience in the previous years, I would have averaged much, much lower. It is this, in fact, that has benefited me in my quest for intellectual vitality; the most successful talents are the ones practiced! Although I am still not the greatest test-taker for math, I have managed to clear the fog from the most basic concepts. I will never be a Gauss, or a Hilbert. However, I may someday hope to pursue the shadows of Steinbeck, Perlman, and Balanchine.
"To each his own"
~Cicero
Ignore the lack of indents please. I am not computer-savvy enough to figure them out (boo hoo).
Thanks :D
I would also be very willing to help edit essays if anyone would like...?
