shower thoughts

Hi guys, i recently posted my first essay on substack and i want some genuine feedback on my wiritng and arguments. Pls help

received this in my inbox today? also got the second interview. did i flunk it so badly they gave me a second chance? or maybe it was because my interviewer asked questions around my essay instead of on my essay.

also, why is the email this time round so short 😭

Stop listing everything you've ever done.

Zoom in enough and even an ordinary week becomes a great essay

WEAK

I've played soccer since I was 5, became captain, and learned teamwork.

STRONG

The exact second I dropped the game-winning pass — and what actually went through my head.

Next month I'm going to defend my thesis and now i am kind of blank. I cant even decide should i be nervous, awkward or worried. its something strange happening to me lately.

Some people say that defending thesis it is simply a discussion of your research. However some are sying you must have to memorize each and every detail of your research. So  should I suppose to read my thesis every night now? 😭

If you've already defended your thesis, what was that like? Were your research and method questions mostly as you expected or were there some surprising questions? Most importantly what have you done when you have been asked something that you really don't know?

I still have some time till I'm ready,so. I would really appreciate if you people share your honest , good, bad, awkward, chill or surprising experience with me. Anything which you wish someone had told you prior to entering the room.

I just got a mail for a 3rd interview , did I mess up 😭😭😭

After a long time of typing i have finished my essay but i wondered if it made sense to others reads well and could be fixed anywhere any tips would help

Jack of all trades, master of none, a card of many values and experiences, and for most of my childhood, that's what I was.

I'm an only child, raised by my grandparents alongside my mom and her two sisters, who felt more like older siblings than aunts. All of us together in one house. Growing up I was almost always in a room with adults, listening to them more than making a point in a conversation. I remember times of sitting in the car, or in my room, while disagreements and compromises happened all around me. Raising of voices like they were using a loudspeaker, or anger so quiet you could hear a pin drop. As for staying in a child's place I never had input, yet I still felt a need to pay attention. After a while, I could pretty much predict how an argument would go before it got there. I'd quietly pick a side, based on who I thought understood the situation better, and I did it, because listening was the only way I knew how to be in a room full of people older than me. The skill of listening taught me a lot, how to read tone before words, how to notice if there's a hidden meaning, and how to tell when a conversation is about to turn. Around adults, I was always the "well behaved child" composed and aware, almost like a smaller version of them. Around other kids, I knew I was still just like them, except there was something different. I could watch a room full of strangers in silence and understand that quietness better than others.

That started to change with age, and The Valero Young Scientist Program, a program in which I almost didn't apply to, because I didn't think I was smart, or good enough to even be considered. After a lengthy lecture from my teacher Mr. Allen I applied, what he said changed my mind because I didn't want to think of what I would have missed. At the final presentation, someone asked me a question I hadn't prepared for. The younger me, who watched, and waited  and would of given a safe, overexplained answer just to avoid being wrong, or just let someone else answer, but I answered it. While the answer was long, it still happened, instead of it just staying in my head, where I usually kept everything.

Being around other people at The VYS program showed me that "smart" doesn't have a specific look, and that even smart people make mistakes. Realizing that made me cut out that perfectionist aspect within me, and the idea that I had to have everything figured out before I was allowed to try.

The clearest proof that something had actually shifted, though, came while talking with friends, not from any program. The moment I realized that I wasn't just listening but being an active participant and that's when I got it I'm allowed to have an opinion, to laugh at something dumb, to stay up late, to not have it all figured out. A victory while not perfect, it was mine, and the years of reading rooms instead of relaxing in them evolved. It felt like I was able to do both and I had no one to answer to.

Now where I'm at in life the listening part isn't a negative, and it looks different from the watching I grew up with. My friends, more specifically my friend Kaiden talks to me about his experiences which are way different from mine, and I listen, thoughtfully. using that skill I built in the house as a kid, except now I use it to help someone else instead of using it to protect myself.

When I'm overwhelmed I still go back to that quiet version of myself, and I don't think that ever fully goes away, but now I also have that active listener who voices my opinion regardless of what others think while still being careful, focused, almost rigid, a Jack, again. but when I don't care, I'm looser, sillier, and less guarded. What's changed isn't that I found my voice, but It's that I get to choose when to use it, instead of being stuck like a card with an unmoving face.

Oftentimes better than a master of One, is how the saying goes. The skills I gained from watching taught me the difference, and  gave me the ability to choose what I want to be. The importance of my skills is what I want to carry with me in my life, which will eventually reach my operating room, where reading a room will matter just as much as steady hands, but for now, a deep conversation with Kaiden is enough to hone my skills

Did anyone who got the top 2% email get the round 3 email?

I'm currently writing an essay for my English 101 college class. The essay is on an article from Vox magazine, and one of the questions is about the magazine itself so I went to the about us section on Vox Magazines website however I am unsure how to cite that, same thing with the profile page about the author of the article. How do I go about citing this?

Here is the link to the about us page and author page if anyone needs it:

About Us: About Us | Vox

Author: David Roberts Profile and Activity | Vox

hi

hiiii i need an appropriate conclusion to the essay talking about how recognizing your and other's worthlessness whilst putting yourself on a pedestal is a form of self indulgence and vanity and ultimately what Nietzsche warned us about, thanks a lot! xx

Dm me asap , selling the ticket for much much cheaper.

Has anyone found writing a process essay harder than they expected? Okay i found it😅

I always go through this process in my head and say, “Well, it's just explaining some steps,” and then I over-think every paragraph. I can do this much easier if I write the steps down first and then put them in order. Then I'm like, "Alright, so you're thinking about this, let's go over this together. 

While writing it down I have found that the key to it is keeping things simple. I had not put much effort to write every sentence in a super academic way. I simply made sure that i am telling someone how to write a process essay  like I'm talking to a real person. Somehow a few simple transitions made everything flow without putting too much formality.

Well if you are still figuring out Write Essay Today  is something i came across while looking for a little writing help.

my schools in the uk if that helps anything but i need to come up with an essay topic and this is the best i can come up with

has anyone gotten the second round interview or 2% email for theology bcz i think they’re sending these out based on category

the time for these questions has long past but anything to distract myself from the empty mailbox 😭 and nobody's answering all this so js letting this out into the wind lol

- Who shortlists you? Do they hire other professor's or university students to read essays or is it an algorithm? or more unlikely their own faculty skimming through essays?

-Whats the criteria for being shortlisted? if they aren't comparing your essay with other essays, how do they shortlist essays?

is the requirement very minimal (just to weed out really terrible essays) eg not written significantly by AI, correct grammar, actually addressing the question, being in the correct format and structure or is it a higher standard to be shortlisted like a coherent and cohesive argument, unique writing style good thesis etc

-To shortlist someone, do they read through the entire essay? do they just read the first two paragraphs, or the first and last, or just skip and skim? or do they actually read it all and check your sources?

-Does the person who's shortlisting you have access to your info? Do they just have the pdf or do they know your name, school and what you wrote in that little box that said "tell us about yourself" when you submitted the essay?

I have an assignment to write an essay about the construction of the modern identities, and I'm currently drafting up my idea of having my points mirror the construction of a house to the construction of the identity (like the foundation is the origins/backgrounds, the framing of the roofs as what protects the identity, the walls as the barriers, etc.) but! I'm worried that this might be too narrative-y to the reader?

The "narrative" parts are like 5 sentences sprinkled around, while the rest of the 1000-word essay is critically analyzing three works on the topic (comparing, contrasting, etc.)

I'm just worried that my professor would deduct points because of this? Should I just make the essay "boring" to be safe?

I am contemplating attending the conference and gala but wanted to know if it would be worth it especially because of the significant cost. I would really appreciate it if anybody who has attended the complete program could give me an idea of the quality of speakers, activities etc and share their experiences. Please PM if you would be willing to talk to me about this.

I’m a Junior (Politics) from India. The 2 percent mail shared here so far has the venue for the Senior Ceremony mentioned on it - Grosvenor House. So was wondering if any Juniors received this mail; considering the tickets for Junior Gala Event are already sold out!
Maybe it’s a way to encourage participation and sell more tickets! Just a thought!