In the library...

at San Jose State working on my essays. For Stanford - they say the average written is 3-7 pages per essay (10 pages max). I'm finding it difficult to focus my main points without rambling. If I were taking the sobriety test from a police officer for my Stanford essays, I would fail miserably and my feet would stumble off that straight line.

Sloan questions. Oh me oh my. "Describe in detail what you thought, felt, said, and did." Every question seems similar in wanting to know an impact created or some difficulty you have overcome. My trouble is trying to figure out which experiences in my life - professional, comm service, personal - should be used to create my entire "package." So far I am drawing from work for the Cover Letter and #3, extracurricular for #1, personal for #4, and #2...??

"Please tell us about a time when you went beyond what was defined, expected, established, or popular.

"I went beyond what was 'popular' the day I got rebellious and pierced my belly back in 1998 (The idea was still so new, Britney Spears didn't even have hers done yet!) at the Shilin night market in Taiwan, a very unsanitary place where cockroaches roam. It was very unexpected because my parents never knew about it - and still don't. Then I hit up the clubs in Taipei city and scared all the conservative Taiwanese with my halter tops (I just had to show of the new, glittering belly!) and pants slit all the way up to the thigh. I decided to liven up the party by dancing with some visiting European chicks on table tops. Wanting to be the new fashion queen, I dressed up my school wardrobe by wearing skirts over pants and by sewing flowery patterns on the seams of all my jeans. Thus, I went beyond what was defined in my fashion style... or lack thereof."

I don't think that will go over very well with the Sloan adcom. :-)