回答下列各题 The College Essay: Why Those,500 Words Drive Us Crazy [A] Meg is a lawyer-m
om in suburban Washington, D. C., where lawyer-morns are thick on the ground.Her son Doug is one of several hundred thousand high-school seniors who had a painful fall. Thedeadline for applying to his favorite college was Nov.1, and by early October he had yet to fill outthe application. More to the point, he had yet to settle on a subject for the personal essayaccompanying the application. According to college folklore, a well-turned essay has the power toseduce (诱惑) an admissions committee. "He wanted to do one thing at a time," Meg says,explaining her sons delay. "But really, my son is a huge procrastinator (拖延者). The essay is thehardest thing to do, so hes put it off the longest. " Friends and other veterans of the process havewarned Meg that the back and forth between editing parent and writing student can be traumatic ( 痛苦的). [B] Back in the good old days--say, two years ago, when the last of my children suffered the ordea/( 折磨)--a high-school student applying to college could procrastinate all the way to New Years Day oftheir senior year, assuming they could withstand the parental pestering (烦扰). But things changefast in the nail-biting world of college admissions. The recent trend toward early decision and earlyaction among selective colleges and universities has pushed the traditional deadline of January up toNov.1 or early December for many students. [C] If the time for heel-dragging has been shortened, the true source of the anxiety and panic remainswhat it has always been. And its not the application itself. A college application is a relativelystraightforward questionnaire asking for the basics: name, address, family history, employmenthistory. It would all be innocent enough--20 minutes of busy work--except it comes attached to apersonal essay. [D] "There are good reasons it causes such anxiety," says Lisa Sohmer, director of college counseling atthe Garden School in Jackson Heights, N.Y. "Its not just the actual writing. By now everything elseis already set. Your course load is set, your grades are set, your test scores are set. But the essay issomething you can still control, and its open-ended. So the temptation is to write and rewrite andrewrite. " Or stall and stall and stall. [E] The application essay, along with its mythical importance, is a recent invention. In the 1930s, whenonly one in 10 Americans had a degree from a four-year college, an admissions committee wascontent to ask for a sample of applicants school papers to assess their writing ability. By the 1950s,most schools required a brief personal statement of why the student had chosen to apply to oneschool over another. [ F] Today nearly 70 percent of graduating seniors go off to college, including two-year and four-yeariustitutions. Even ap .art from the increased competition, the kids enter a process that has been utterlytransformed from the one baby boomers knew. Nearly all application materials are submitted online,and the Common Application provides a one-size-fits form. accepted by more than 400 schools,including the nations most selective. [G] Those schools usually require essays of their own, but the longest essay,500 words maximum, isgenerally attached to the Common Application. Students choose one of six questions. Applicants areasked to describe an ethical dilemma theyve faced and its impact on them, or discuss a public issueof special concern to them, or tell of a fictional character or creative work that has profoundlyinfluenced them. Another question invites them to write about the importance (to them, again) ofdiversity -- a word that has assumed magic power in American higher education. The most popularoption: write on a topic of your choice. [H] “Boys in particular look at the other questions and say, Oh, thats too much work, ’ ” says JohnBoshoven, a counselor in the Ann Arbor, Mich., public schools. "They think if they do a topic oftheir choice, Ill just go get that history paper I did last year on the Roman Empire and turn it into afirst-person application essay! And they end up producing something utterly ridiculous. " [I] Talking to admissions professionals like Boshoven, you realize that the list of "donts" in essaywriting is much longer than the "dos. ”“No book reports, no history papers, no character studies,"says Sohmer. [J] "It drives you crazy, how easily kids slip into cliches ( 老生常谈) ," says Boshoven. "They dontrealize how typical their experiences are. I scored the winning goal in soccer against our arch-rival. ’‘ My grandfather served in World War H, and I hope to be just like him someday. That maymean a lot to that particular kid. But in the world of the application essay, its nothing. Youll losethe reader in the first paragraph. " [K] "The greatest strength you bring to this essay," says the College Boards how-to book, "is 17 years or so of familiarity with the topic: YOU. The form. and style. are very familiar, and best of all, you arethe world-class expert on the subject of YOU... It has been the subject of your close scrutiny everymorning since you were tall enough to see into the bathroom mirror. " The key word in the CommonApplication prompts is "you. " [L] The college admission essay contains the grandest American themes--status anxiety, parental piety(孝顺), intellectual standards--and so it is only a matter of time before it becomes infected by thecountrys culture of excessive concern with self-esteem. Even if the question is ostensibly ( 表面上)about something outside the self ( describe a fictional character or solve a problem of geopolitics),the essay invariably returns to the favorite topic: what is its impact on YOU? [M] "For all the anxiety the essay causes," says Bill McClintick of Mercersburg Academy inPennsylvania, "its a very small piece of the puzzle. I was in college admissions for 10 years. I sawldds and parents beat themselves up over this. And at the vast majority of places, it is simply not abig variable in the colleges decision-making process. " [ N] Many admissions officers say they spend less than a couple of minutes on each application, includingthe essay. According to a recent survey of admissions officers, only one in four private colleges saythe essay is of "considerable importance" in judging an application. Among public colleges anduniversities, the number drops to roughly one in 10. By contrast,86 percent place "considerableimportance" on an applicants grades,70 percent on "strength of curriculum. " [O] Still, at the most selective schools, where thousands of candidates may submit identically high gradesand test scores, a marginal item like the essay may serve as a tie-breaker between two equallyqualified candidates. The thought is certainly enough to keep the pot boiling under parents like Meg,the lawyer-mom, as she tries to help her son choose an essay topic. For a moment the other day, shethought she might have hit on a good one. "His fathers from France," she says. "I said maybe youcould write about that, as something that makes you different. You know；half French, halfAmerican. I said, You could write about your identity issues. He said, I dont have any identityissues! And hes right. Hes a well-adjnsted， normal kid. But that doesnt make for a good essay,does it?" Today many universities require their applicants to write an essay of up to five hundred words.
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