5 Tips for Writing a Stellar Vanderbilt Supplement Essay

5 Tips for Writing a Stellar Vanderbilt Supplement Essay SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Vanderbilt is one of the United States’ highest-ranking colleges. With an acceptance rate of just 10 percent, it’s ranked as extremely competitive. It’s no surprise- Vanderbilt is known for having a wealth of appealing programs, including its school of medicine, the Peabody College of Education and Human Development, and Blair School of Music. Because it’s extremely competitive, you’ll need to set yourself apart as a prospective student. That doesn’t mean just your grades and impressive extracurriculars; it also means writing a killer essay to go along with your application. In this guide, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about Vanderbilt’s supplemental essay, including some ideal topics, some pitfalls to avoid, and even some analysis of past Vanderbilt essays that have worked. The Vanderbilt Supplement Basics Vanderbilt’s application is fairly straightforward. They accept multiple application formats, including both the Common and Coalition Applications, as well as Questbridge. What application you use is up to you. There are many reasons to choose one or the other, but regardless of which application you pick, you’ll still be answering just one supplemental essay prompt from Vanderbilt. Choose whichever application works best for you. In addition to the essays required for your Common, Coalition, or Questbridge Application, Vanderbilt requires one supplemental essay. There’s only one prompt with a 400-word limit, so you won’t have to choose between prompts. However, having just one prompt means that you’ll need to put a lot of attention into making your essay as good as it can be. You only have one chance to prove yourself in your essay, so make it count! A little latte art never hurts. What Is the Vanderbilt Supplement Essay Prompt? Vanderbilt has just one prompt for their supplemental essay, which must be answered in 400 words or less. Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences. The question is straightforward- Vanderbilt is asking you to discuss one of your extracurriculars in depth. This doesn’t just demonstrate to the admissions office that you’re dedicated to your interest, but also that you have passions outside of school. Vanderbilt wants to know that you’ll bring something besides academics to campus, and this is the space to tell them about it. Keep in mind that Vanderbilt isn’t looking for a list of activities or just a short discussion of one of your extracurriculars. They specifically ask for one, but you have 400 words to cover- which means you should spend some time unpacking not just the activity itself, but why you do it and why it matters to you. Be thoughtful; really think about your activities and why you do them beyond that they look good on your college application. Don’t just pick the extracurricular activity that you think Vanderbilt would want to hear about. If you’re a champion Mathlete but you really feel fulfilled when you’re making short films with your friends over the weekend, you should be writing about the short films. If your short film was played at a local film festival but you find more meaning in the time you spend knitting, write about knitting! It’s not about being impressive here. Plenty of other applicants will be discussing their charity work or science team victories. Use this space to discuss yourself, and why the things you do matter to you. If the most impressive thing in your repertoire and the thing that’s most personally meaningful line up, great! But don’t feel like you can only write about things like academic success, leadership roles, or entrepreneurship. Write about what’s meaningful to you and Vanderbilt will see your personality- which is really what they’re looking for- shine through. Reading Vanderbilt essays that worked is like planting a seed for your own success. Vanderbilt Essays That Worked: Analysis Vanderbilt doesn’t use the same prompts from year to year, but that doesn’t mean that looking at past successful essays can’t be useful. Consider this one from an accepted Vanderbilt student: â€Å"Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed,† Maria Montessori once said. School was about letting my curiosity lead me and teaching myself at my own pace. For example, at the start of 7th grade, I was handed the Algebra I book and told to complete it anytime in the next two years. I was intrigued to have a real textbook, but a bit overwhelmed, as the math looked like a foreign language. After reading a chapter, I’d take a stab at the problem set right away. It wasn’t about getting the problems right or wrong; it was about trying to understand the material. As frustrating as this process was, each time I conquered a new idea, my exasperation was transformed into new energy. I learned how to solve problems independently and to know when to ask others for help. ... When I did get to high school, I was surprised at how well prepared I was. My two strongest skills, time management and the ability to work well independently and in groups, mad e the transition easy for me. The Mesa Sands experience shaped me outside the classroom, too. One of my strongest qualities is trustworthiness. Because my school did not have a set structure or rules, I’ve in effect worked under an honor code from the time I was three years old. This essay was written for a different prompt, but the fact that it was successful shows you that it contains features that Vanderbilt likes to see. The writer of this essay discusses their education at a Montessori school, which doesn’t take the same approach to education as many other schools. Throughout, they refer to the school’s teachings and how they shaped their learning, not just but the things they were taught, but the way that they were taught. Not everybody had this same educational experience, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t use some of the same ideas in your own work. The writer draws a clear line between how they were brought up and the person they are now- you could do a similar thing by connecting the person you are with the activity you’ve chosen to write about. What have you learned about yourself because of what you do? The writer is also able to discuss academic strengths without referring to their GPA, which Vanderbilt is no doubt already familiar with. Instead, they discuss their strengths as traits, like adherence to an honor code, trustworthiness, and time management. More importantly, they write about where those traits come from- something you could easily do by referencing the importance of the activity you choose. What’s most important to take away from this essay is the way that the writer connects the experience of attending their unique school to the person they became. No matter what your education was or what activity you choose to write about, you can do a similar thing in your own essay! Don't be afraid of multiple drafts- they make the difference between a good essay and a great one. 5 Key Tips for Writing Your Vanderbilt Essay Vanderbilt is a prestigious school, but there are some essay standards that hold true no matter where you’re applying. Follow these steps to write an essay that’s sure to impress! #1: Start Writing Starting is the step that sounds the easiest, but it’s actually the hardest. No matter what you have to do to start writing, whether it’s freewriting, brainstorming, or just pumping out a first draft as fast as you can, you need to do it. At this point, don’t worry about quality or being impressive. Just get words down on paper so that you can edit them into shape later- if you spend too much time worrying about starting with a perfect beginning, you’ll never make it past that point. #2: Edit Step two is when you can start worrying about quality. Read your essay aloud and see if you can spot problems with word choice and flow. If you’re struggling to read it, change words and add punctuation as necessary. Also think about your overall point. Does it make sense? Are you able to trace your logic all the way through without a problem? If not, find ways to connect your thoughts from beginning to end. Be thorough in cutting extraneous words. 400 words isn’t a lot, and you’ll want to make sure you’re making your essay count by picking vibrant, active verbs and clear language. Don’t worry about being flowery or busting out the thesaurus, but do be sure that your wording doesn’t feel tired or dull. #3: Seek Feedback One of the best ways to find holes in your logic or other issues in your essay is to get others to give you feedback. Find people who want to see you succeed, but preferably not those who aren’t going to give you criticism if you need it. Teachers and other mentors are a good choice, if they’re available. Don’t feel like you have to use every piece of feedback you receive, but do consider all of it. Your essay should always be your own work, so try to rephrase suggestions in your own words or rewrite confusing passages how you would write them, not how others suggest. #4: Take a Break With deadlines looming and other essays to write, it may be tempting to just rush through after getting feedback and fix everything. But take some time away from your essay, focusing on other college application duties or on other things entirely. Anywhere from a couple days to weeks to months can be good for improving your essay, though do leave yourself time to revise.Taking a break lets your mind forget what you’ve already written, so that when you come back to revise you do so with fresh eyes. This way, you can see holes in your logic or places where your language isn’t as tight as it could be. You’ll never be able to completely shed your attachment to your essay, but spending some time away from it can give you a whole new outlook on your work! #5: Revise Now that you’ve had some time away and you have notes to incorporate, it’s time to revise. Revision can be something you do multiple times, combing through your essay for errors and places to strengthen it, but eventually you are going to have to turn it in. Don’t get caught up in perfection- focus on making your essay the best you can. Check it for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors to be sure it’s clean and easy to read, and send it off! What's Next? Starting your essay is often the hardest part. If you're unsure where to begin, check out this guide to starting a college essay perfectly, and don't be afraid to just dive right in! A good essay is just one part of a successful Vanderbilt application. If you want to really wow the admissions office, be sure your grades and test scores are up to snuff, too! Vanderbilt University may not be an Ivy League school, but that doesn't mean your application can't be Ivy League-ready. Use these tips for getting into Harvard to shape your college application, and you'll have no problem getting into any school you choose! Want to write the perfect college application essay? Get professional help from PrepScholar. Your dedicated PrepScholar Admissions counselor will craft your perfect college essay, from the ground up. We'll learn your background and interests, brainstorm essay topics, and walk you through the essay drafting process, step-by-step. At the end, you'll have a unique essay that you'll proudly submit to your top choice colleges. Don't leave your college application to chance. Find out more about PrepScholar Admissions now:

List of Common Strong and Weak Acids

List of Common Strong and Weak Acids Strong and weak acids are important to know, both for chemistry class and for use in the lab. There are very few strong acids, so one of the easiest ways to tell strong and weak acids apart is to memorize the short list of strong ones. Any other acid is considered a weak acid. Key Takeaways Strong acids completely dissociate into their ions in water, while weak acids only partially dissociate.There are only a few (6) strong acids, so many people choose to memorize them. All the other acids are weak.The strong acids are hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, sulfuric acid, hydrobromic acid, hydroiodic acid, perchloric acid, and chloric acid.The only weak acid formed by the reaction between hydrogen and a halogen is hydrofluoric acid (HF). While technically a weak acid, hydrofluoric acid is extremely powerful and highly corrosive. Strong Acids Strong acids dissociate completely into their ions in water, yielding one or more protons (hydrogen cations)  per molecule. There are only 7 common strong acids. HCl - hydrochloric acidHNO3  - nitric acidH2SO4  - sulfuric acid (HSO4-  is a weak acid)HBr - hydrobromic acidHI - hydroiodic acidHClO4  - perchloric acidHClO3 - chloric acid Examples of ionization reactions include: HCl → H Cl- HNO3 → H NO3- H2SO4 → 2H SO42- Note the production of positively charged hydrogen ions and also the reaction arrow, which only points to the right. All of the reactant (acid) is ionized into product. Weak Acids Weak acids do not completely dissociate into their ions in water. For example, HF dissociates into the H and F- ions in water, but some HF remains in solution, so it is not a strong acid.  There are many more weak acids than strong acids. Most organic acids are weak acids. Here is a partial list, ordered from strongest to weakest. HO2C2O2H -  oxalic acid  H2SO3  -  sulfurous acidHSO4  -  - hydrogen sulfate ionH3PO4  - phosphoric acidHNO2  - nitrous acidHF - hydrofluoric acidHCO2H -  methanoic acidC6H5COOH -  benzoic acidCH3COOH - acetic acidHCOOH - formic acid Weak acids incompletely ionize. An example reaction is the dissociation of ethanoic acid in water to produce hydroxonium cations and ethanoate anions: CH3COOH H2O ⇆ H3O CH3COO- Note the reaction arrow in the chemical equation points both directions. Only about 1% of ethanoic acid converts to ions, while the remainder is ethanoic acid. The reaction proceeds in both directions. The back reaction is more favorable than the forward reaction, so ions readily change back to weak acid and water. Distinguishing Between Strong and Weak Acids You can use the acid equilibrium constant Ka or else pKa to determine whether an acid is strong or weak. Strong acids have high Ka or small pKa values, while weak acids have very small Ka values or large pKa values. Strong and Weak vs. Concentrated and Dilute Be careful not to confuse the terms strong and weak with concentrated and dilute. A concentrated acid is one which contains a low amount of water. In other words, the acid is concentrated. A dilute acid is an acidic solution that contains a lot of solvent. If you have 12 M acetic acid, its concentrated, yet still a weak acid. No matter how much water you remove, that will be true. On the flip side, a 0.0005 M HCl solution is dilute, yet still strong. Strong vs. Corrosive You can drink diluted acetic acid (the acid found in vinegar), yet drinking the same concentration of sulfuric acid would give you a chemical burn. The reason is that sulfuric acid is highly corrosive, while acetic acid is not as active. While acids tend to be corrosive, the strongest superacids (carboranes) are actually not corrosive and could be held in your hand. Hydrofluoric acid, while a weak acid, would pass through your hand and attack your bones.

Letter to Francesco Vettori and The Prince Essay

Letter to Francesco Vettori and The Prince - Essay Example Alternatively, we can choose to act, and discover our own truth behind the layers of apparent realities. Different approaches to reading into events in our lives have been described down the ages, one of the most dramatic being that of Machiavelli, who suggested an alternative concept of truth, in terms of a philosophy of power, an "effective truth". According to him, reality was much opposed to the idealistic Greek and Christian concepts, and it was not primarily moral or ethical , but political, to be manipulated in order to gain power. He recommends in the fifteenth chapter of The Prince: And many have imagined for themselves republics and principalities that no one has ever seen or known to be in reality. Because how one ought to live is so far removed from how one lives that he who lets go of what is done for that which one ought to do sooner learns ruin than his own preservation: because a man who might want to make a show of goodness in all things necessarily comes to ruin among so many who are not good. Because of this it is necessary for a prince, wanting to maintain himself, to learn how to be able to be not good and to use this and not use it according to necessity. (Machiavelli,1513) Not only does Machiavelli feel that manipulation and distortion of facts is not just a part of reality, he also claims that one who truly worships power as the only truth can bend his destiny to his designs, and fate herself would comply. He clarifies this in Chapter 25 of The Prince: Nevertheless, not to extinguish our free will, I hold it to be true that Fortune is the arbiter of one-half of our actions, but that she still leaves us to direct the other half, or perhaps a little less....So it happens with fortune, who shows her power where valor has not prepared to resist her, and thither she turns her forces where she knows that barriers and defenses have not been raised to constrain her.(Machiavelli, 1513) In stark contrast is Jorge Luis Borges, for whom the reality of destiny is inescapably omnipotent, and the only way to deal with it is to fashion alternate realities, understand it in terms of myth, an opinion for which he has often been criticized : Borges takes away the "real" weight of history, situating it in a mythic horizon, negating it. When he places the whole episode (and, we might say, the whole period) in a place outside of the concrete and the factic, outside of the historical, he deprives it of all concrete importance, of every possibility of influencing reality, of forming part of the historical process.... Once again, Borges negates reality. ( Borello, 1991) Despite creating commentaries on books that did not exist, historical events that never took place, and practicing literary forgery, his concept of reality was very much accepting, in creating myths he sought not to negate reality but to pause its triumphal march so as to grasp it better. Our destiny (unlike the hell of Swedenborg or the hell of Tibetan mythology) is not frightening because it is unreal: it is frightening because it is irreversible and ironclad. Time is the substance of which I am made. Time is a river that sweeps me away, but I am the river; it is a tiger that tears me apart, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire. The world, unfortunately, is real; I, unfortunately, am Borges. ( Borges, 1946)

Production Scheduling and Control Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Production Scheduling and Control - Essay Example A simulation is a made-up world run by a user (student) within the conditions and parameters set by the programmer (instructor) (Saskatoon Public Schools). It is designed to allow students to think critically and practice their decision making skills with very minimal risks involved. The simulation offered an insight on the benefits that batching could do for a business, particularly a restaurant business like Benihana. Batching or letting clients in by groups or â€Å"batches† (Shim & Siegel, 1999) is greatly effective during the peak hours. This is so because restaurant space is maximized by having clients stay at the bar and wait to be seated until there are enough to be seated on a free table. Because of this practice, all the seats for a particular table are used and no excess space is wasted. When this happens, costs for running two to three separate tables are reduced because one table would be enough for two to three small groups of diners. In addition, clients would not wait too long, lessening the chances of them walking out of the restaurant. All these would eventually translate to higher throughput, or sales per hour (Meredith & Shafer, 2007). On the â€Å"human† side of the experience, clients get to meet new people as they may be seated with diners whom they do not know at all. Still, computer based simulation, particularly the Benihana simulation system, is a great way t o practice one’s theoretical learnings in operations management.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi Analysis Essay Example for Free

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi Analysis Essay In the book, Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, the main character is the author as a young girl growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution of 1979. She starts off as an incredibly positive child with enormous faith in herself and her relationship with G-d. Through her experiences, especially when she was in her crucial, early teenage years, she completely loses her faith in G-d and also rebels against her environment. The author wants to show the Western world that there are many people in Iran, like Marjane, that are no different than Westerners. She does this by describing her childhood teenage conflicts with her parents, with oppression and with her faith in G-d, all of which most Western teenagers could easily relate to. Marjane’s conflicts prove that she is not just a spoiled teenager, rebelling for no other reason than just being a teenager, but that the environment she was in would make most teenagers rebel. Two of Marjane’s conflicts with her parents come from her strong desire to participate in the public protests against the Shah. Marjane has a close relationship with her parents, whose activism against oppression influences her greatly. She sees her parents go to protests against the Shah and she desperately wants to join in and be a part of it. On panels 16.9-17.6, Marjane is begging her parents to allow her to join them in the next day’s protests. She says to them, â€Å"For a revolution to succeed, the entire population must support it.† They tell her she can’t go yet because it is too dangerous. She is very upset with them for not letting her go. Later, on panels 38.1-39.5, Marjane defies her parents’ authority by attending a demonstration with her maid, Mehri. The author narrates, â€Å"When I finally understood the reasons for the Revolution I made my decision.† Marjane is referring to her decision to go to a protest against the Shah. This is after her maid’s heart is broken because the boy she is in love with dumps her when he finds out she is below his social class. Marjane believes that the Revolution will abolish the social class system. These two examples of conflict with her parents show that Marjane is not just acting out against her parents, but cares deeply for the future of her country and those closest to her, like her maid. The Islamic Fundamentalists’ new rules and laws also create conflicts for Marjane because of the influence from her parents’ secular beliefs and her previous secular schooling. On panels 96.1-98.7, the author describes Marjane’s new school environment after her secular French school is shut down. The students are forced into Islamic schools where the girls and boys are separated. They have new rituals to perform, like hitting themselves to honor the Iran-Iraq war casualties. Almost immediately, the students begin to make fun of the rituals and the new teachers enforcing them. The school is so upset with the students’ behavior that the parents are called in for a lecture as well. At the end of the lecture, Marjane’s father says to the teacher, â€Å"If hair is as stimulating as you say, then you need to shave your mustache!† This shows Marjane’s parents’ rebellion against the Fundamentalism, which heavily influences Marjane. It also shows that Marjane, and her fellow students in this case, are not doing anything wrong in their parents’ eyes, but simply having a tough time adapting to this completely new set of beliefs, rules and laws. A similar conflict for Marjane revolves around the new, strict rules on what women can wear in public. On panels 130.1-134.4, Marjane’s parents return from a trip to Turkey with gifts of Western clothing for her. She immediately puts them on, gets a compliment from her mother, and goes out to buy some black market rock and roll tapes. She is confronted by the Guardians of the Revolution for wearing the Western clothing and almost gets arrested. Like any teenager who receives cool, new clothes from their parents, she wants to immediately enjoy wearing them. Also, she has only known freedom and has been taught by her parents that it is OK to express herself with clothing. Rather than being a spoiled teenager, rebelling against the Fundamentalists, she is simply a teenager expressing herself and trying to enjoy herself in her new clothes. Marjane’s environment also causes her to have a major conflict with her faith in G-d. As a young girl, Marjane truly believes that she will be the Last Prophet. (6.3-9.6) She feels so strongly about this and her relationship with G-d she even endures ridicule from her classmates for saying she will be a Prophet. But, as her environment changes, and the Revolution starts to build, she shows signs of conflict with her faith in G-d. On Panel 10.1 she says, â€Å"My faith was not unshakable.† On 10.2 the author narrates, â€Å"The year of the Revolution I had to take action. So I put my prophetic destiny aside for a while.† The fact that she truly believed she would become a prophet, to the point of enduring ridicule, showed that she was very serious about her faith in G-d. Then her environment changes so much due to the building Revolution and the terrible things happening in Iran under the Shah’s government that she takes her emotional energy away from her f aith in G-d and starts to put it towards the Revolution. Her once strong relationship with G-d ends completely when her uncle Anoosh is falsely accused of being a Russian spy and executed. (70.1) On panel 70.4, Marjane tells G-d, â€Å"Get out of my life! I never want to see you again!† Throughout the rest of Persepolis, Marjane never again mentions G-d. She went from believing she is a prophet, and talking to G-d regularly, to completely rejecting Him. This profound change shows that Marjane’s life was deeply affected by her environment. When the tough environment Marjane grew up in is considered, her conflicts with her parents, with oppression and with her faith in G-d seem understandable. Her conflicts with her parents arose mainly from her desire to protest because that’s what she thought she should be doing. Her conflicts with her oppressive, Islamic Fundamentalist school are understandable because it was all new for her and her classmates. And finally, her conflict with her faith in G-d was due to the overwhelming circumstances of the Revolution and the oppressive, Islamic Fundamentalist regime. Her reactions to her environment seem completely normal and justified. She is not a rebellious child and teenager, but is just very committed to whatever she believes in, and conflict almost always comes with commitment.

milan music :: essays research papers

Objective description: The music is so abstract, it’s almost as if some people just got together randomly and decided to make some noise. It’s sometimes calming and sometimes stressful. It’s like a call and response music, one section makes a noise and the other sections respond accordingly with a similar sounding rhythm, very interesting to listen to. Steel drums, chimes, drums, drones, flutes, and some other instruments, not even sure what the names are. I have heard them before but do not know the name. There are different types of steel drums giving out different pitches and resonations. This music is just so abstract and unlike music today. No music I listen to can compare to this type of abstract material. The most prominent thing to me in this music is the rhythm. It’s not a mono rhythm; it’s more of an ever-changing rhythm which makes me try to pick up a new one every change of the call and response. I hear a very polyphony texture with man y different instruments playing at once or responding to each others calls. The piece does not use repetition as songs do today but the way they come back to the main rhythm is somewhat of a repeat. They just call out a rhythm and then someone tries to repeat it. This music is awkward to listen to at first but the second or third song I got really used to the abstract interactions the different instruments had with each other. Functional description: Gamelan music is a way of making social groups. Gamelan music is performed as a group effort, and so there is no place for an individual showoff. Traditionally, gamelan is only played at certain occasions such as ritual ceremonies, special community celebrations, shadow puppet shows, and for the royal family. Gamelan is also used to accompany dances in court, temple, and village rituals. Besides providing music for social functional ceremonies, gamelan also provides a livelihood for many professional musicians, and for specialized craftsmen who manufacture gamelan. I took a class at Sonoma and was somewhat familiar with this type or music but before that I had no prior experience with the music. The music grew on me over time and became less awkward. Its not something I would choose to listen to but it’s a good sense of what music around the world has to offer those of us in the United states that are not open-minded to other cultures music.

Go Ask Alice Analysis Paper Essay

In the book Go Ask Alice (1971) By an Anonymous author, a teenager struggling with drugs tragically succumbs to her problems. There has been a lot of Controversy revolving around whether the author is real or if this book was just written to draw attention to drugs. Regardless of whether the supposed author actually existed, the fact that remains is that identity issues and drug addiction are very real problems for millions of teenagers. In the beginning of the book a teenage girl talks about herself and how she wants to change her image. She describes very adamantly that she is unhappy with her body and her own personality. â€Å"I want to be someone important, maybe the new me will be different† (page 4). Many Teenagers have an identity crisis, some more drastically than others. The task of being confident isn’t an easy one; teens seem to always want to be someone better. But by focusing only on the thought of becoming advanced instead improving what is already good, it causes a stalemate. The mind wants to improve but all it does is think about ameliorating, the actual action that must be taken never happens. This is what the girl in the book goes through, she is always thinking about becoming better, but as she finally starts to improve and stop just thinking about it, she accumulates a mindset of becoming better. Now this girl has a constants need to be progressive, giving her no true identity except the thought of wanting a better one. Later in the book the young girl runs away from her home and makes a new life for herself in California. She acquires a job at a department store and after a few days of working the owner of the store invites her to a party at her loft. While at the party the girl is exposed to drugs, she had been trying to stay away from the demon pills, but it didn’t work. â€Å"One of the men passed me a joint and that was it. I wanted to be ripped, smashed, torn up as I had never wanted anything before. This was the scene, and I wanted to be part of it† (page 76). This girl was exposed to drugs without her knowledge but after being exposed she needed the high. She sought out the pills. After finally getting clean she is exposed again, while she could have rejected the ‘joint’ she isn’t confident enough in herself to do so in front of others. Her uncertainty allows her judgment to be influenced, which makes her addiction grow vigorously. Teenagers of this age see drugs as a way to escape from their problems. Which is half the predicament with this generation, we are all about avoiding issues rather then facing them head on.

Cosmetic Surgery Is Moving Toward Multiethnic Beauty Ideals Essay

â€Å"The increasing number of nonwhites getting cosmetic surgery is helping society accelerate from a crawl to a full-bore sprint toward one truly melted, fusion community.† In the following viewpoint, Anupreeta Das questions whether minorities go under the knife to look more Caucasian. She suggests that as ethnically ambiguous beauties emerge in entertainment and the media, many African American, Asian, and Latino cosmetic-surgery patients want changes that harmonize with their ethnic features. In fact, Das states more surgeons today are specializing in race-specific procedures. This blending and reducing of racial characteristics through cosmetic surgery allow minorities to fit in with beauty standards that are moving away from a Caucasian ideal, she claims. Das is a journalist based in Boston. As you read, consider the following questions: 1.As stated by Das, how do rhinoplasty procedures differ among Caucasians, African Americans, and Asian Americans? 2.Why did Jewish people embrace cosmetic surgery, according to the viewpoint? 3.According to Das, what do critics say about the increase of ethnic models in the fashion industry? For almost a century, the women who have turned to cosmetic surgery to achieve beauty—or some Hollywood-meets-Madison Avenue version of it—were of all ages, shapes, and sizes but almost always of one hue: white. But now, when there seems to be nothing that a few thousand dollars can’t fix, women of color are clamoring in skyrocketing numbers to have their faces and bodies nipped, snipped, lifted, pulled, and tucked. This is a step forward, right? In the land of opportunity, we applaud when barriers break down and more people get to partake in the good life, as it were. There are many explanations for the new willingness of minorities to go under the knife: their swelling numbers and disposable income, the popularization of cosmetic surgery and its growing acceptance as a normal beauty routine,  and its relative affordability. What’s significant are the procedures minorities are choosing. More often than not, they’re electing to surgically narrow the span of their nostrils and perk up their noses or suture their eyelids to create an extra fold. Or they’re sucking out the fat from buttocks and hips that, for their race or ethnicity, are typically plump. It all could lead to one presumption: These women are making themselves look more white—or at least less ethnic. But perhaps not to the extent some suppose. â€Å"People want to keep their ethnic identity,† says Dr. Arthur Shektman, a Wellesley-based plastic surgeon. â€Å"They want some change, but they don’t really want a white nose on a black face.† Shektman says not one of his minority patients—they make up about 30 percent of his practice, up from about 5 percent 10 years ago—has said, â€Å"I want to look white.† He believes this is evidence that the dominant Caucasian-centered idea of blond, blue-eyed beauty is giving way to multiple â€Å"ethnic standards of beauty,† with the likes of Halle Berry, Jennifer Lopez, and Lucy Liu as poster girls. â€Å"No way† is the answer Tamar Williams of Dorchester gives when asked if her desire to surgically reduce the width of her nose and get a perkier tip was influenced by a Caucasian standard. â€Å"Why would I want to look white?† Growing up, the 24-year-old African-American bank teller says, she longed for a nose that wasn’t quite so wide or flat or big for her face. â€Å"It wasn’t that I didn’t like it,† Williams says. â€Å"I just wanted to change it.† Hoping to become a model, she thinks the nose job she got in November [2007] will bring her a lifetime of happiness and opportunity. â€Å"I was always confident. But now I can show off my nose.† Yet others are less convinced that the centuries-old fixation on Caucasian beauty—from the Mona Lisa to Pamela Anderson—has slackened. â€Å"I’m not ready to put to rest the idea that the white ideal has not permeated our psyches,† says Janie Ward, a professor of Africana Studies at Simmons College. â€Å"It is still shaping our expectations of what is beautiful.† A Peculiar Fusion Whether or not the surging number of minority patients is influenced by a white standard, one point comes with little doubt: The $12.4 billion-a-year plastic surgery industry is adapting its techniques to meet this demand. The American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS), for example, has in recent months held meetings on subjects ranging from Asian upper-eyelid surgery to so-called ethnic rhinoplasty. The discussion will come to Boston this summer [2007] when the academy will host a five-day event that will include sessions on nose reshaping techniques tailored to racial groups. And increasingly, plastic surgeons are wooing minorities—who make up one-third of the US population—by advertising specializations in race-specific surgeries and using a greater number of nonwhite faces on their Web sites. It could be that these new patients are not trying to erase the more obvious markers of their ethnic heritage or race, but simply to reduce them. In the process, they’re pursuing ethnic and racial ambiguity. Take Williams. With her new smaller nose and long, straight hair, the African-American woman seems to be toying with the idea of ambiguity. And maybe we shouldn’t be surprised. The intermingling of ethnicities and races—via marriages, friendships, and other interactions—has created a peculiar fusion in this country. It’s the great mishmash where Christmas and Hanukkah and Kwanzaa are celebrated in one long festive spirit, where weddings mix Hindi vows with a chuppah, where California-Vietnamese is a cuisine, where Eminem can be â€Å"black† and Beyonce can go blond. And the increasing number of nonwhites getting cosmetic surgery is helping society accelerate from a crawl to a full-bore sprint toward one truly melted, fusion community. There were 11.5 million cosmetic procedures done in 2005, including surgical ones such as face lifts and rhinoplasties and nonsurgical ones such as Botox shots and collagen injections. One out of every five patients was of African, Asian, or Hispanic descent (separate statistics aren’t available for white versus nonwhite Hispanics). According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, the number of minority patients undergoing cosmetic procedures increased from 300,000 in 1997 to 2 million in 2005.  Although the total demand for cosmetic procedures also increased—from 2 million in 1997 to 11.5 million in 2005—the rate of increase for minorities is higher than the overall rate. (Women account for more than nine-tenths of all cosmetic procedures.) Different ethnic and racial groups favor different procedures. Statistics compiled by the AAFPRS show that in 2005, more than six out of every 10 African-Americans getting cosmetic surgery had nose jobs. Unlike rhinoplasties performed on Caucasians, which may fix a crooked bridge or shave off a hump, doctors say African-American and Asian-American nose reshaping usually leads to narrower nostrils, a higher bridge, and a pointier tip. For Asian-Americans, eyelid surgery—either the procedure to create an eyelid fold, often giving the eye a more wide-open appearance, or a regular eye lift to reduce signs of aging—is popular. According to the AAFPRS, 50 percent of Asian patients get eyelid surgery. Dr. Min Ahn, a Westborough-based plastic surgeon who performs Asian eyelid surgery, says only about half of the Asian population is born with some semblance of an eyelid crease. â€Å"Even if Asians have a preexisting eyelid crease, it is lower and the eyelid is fuller.† For those born without the crease, he says, creating the double eyelid is â€Å"so much a part of the Asian culture right now.† It’s probable that this procedure is driving the Asian demand for eyelid surgeries. Breast augmentation and rhinoplasty top the list of preferred procedures for patients of Hispanic origin, followed by liposuction. Asian-Americans also choose breast implants, while breast reduction—the one procedure eligible for insurance coverage—is the third most preferred choice for African-American women after nose reshaping and liposuction. Doctors say African-American women typically use liposuction to remove excess fat from their buttocks and hips—two areas in which a disproportionate number of women of this race store fat. The Culture of Self-Improvement Of course, the assimilative nature of society in general has always demanded a certain degree of conformity and adaptation of every group that landed on American shores. People have adjusted in ways small and large—such as by changing their names and learning new social mores. Elizabeth Haiken, a San Francisco Bay area historian and the author of the 1997 book Venus Envy: A History of Cosmetic Surgery, says ethnic minorities may use plastic surgery as a way to fit in to the mainstream, just as another group used it in the early 20th century. â€Å"The first group to really embrace cosmetic surgery was the Jews,† says Haiken. Her research indicates that during the 1920s, when cosmetic surgery first became popular in the United States, being Jewish was equated with â€Å"being ugly and un-American,† and the Jewish nose was the first line of attack. Most rhinoplasties therefore sought to reduce its distinct characteristics and bring it more in line with the preferre d straighter shape of the Anglo-Saxon nose. That people would go to such extremes to change their appearance should come as no surprise. â€Å"Going back to early 20th-century culture, there is a deep-seated conviction that you are what you look like,† Haiken says. â€Å"It’s not your family, your birth, or your heritage, it’s all about you. And your looks and appearance and the way you present yourself will determine who you are.† In the initial sizing-up, the face is the fortune. Physical beauty becomes enmeshed with success and happiness. Plastic surgeons commonly say that minorities today choose surgery for the same reasons as whites—to empower, better, and preserve themselves. â€Å"It’s the universal desire to maintain youthfulness, and it doesn’t change from group to group,† says Dr. Frank Fechner, a Worcester-based plastic surgeon. The culture of self-improvement that surrounds Americans has also made plastic surgery more permissible in recent years. â€Å"Making oneself over—one’s home, one’s car, one’s breasts—is now a part of the American life cycle,† writes New York Times columnist Alex Kuczynski in her 2006 book, Beauty Junkies: Inside Our $15 Billion Obsession With Cosmetic Surgery. â€Å"Doctors have sold us on the notion that surgery †¦ is merely part of the journey  toward enhancement, the beauty outside ultimately reflecting the beauty within.† Nothing captures this journey better than the swarm of plastic surgery TV shows such as ABC’s Extreme Makeover, Fox’s The Swan, and FX’s Nip/Tuck. These prime-time televised narratives of desperation and triumph, with the scalpel in the starring role of savior, have also helped make plastic surgery more widely accepted. Through sanitized, pain-free, 60-minute capsules showcasing the tr ansformation of ordinary folks, reality TV has sold people on the notion that the Cinderella story is a purchasable, everyday experience that everyone deserves. Mei-Ling Hester, a 43-year-old Taiwanese-American hairdresser on Newbury Street, believes in plastic surgery as a routine part of personal upkeep. So when her eyelids started to droop and lose their crease, she rushed to Ahn, the plastic surgeon. He sucked the excess fat out while maintaining, he says, â€Å"the Asian characteristic† of her eyelids. Hester also regularly gets Botox injected into her forehead and is considering liposuction. â€Å"I feel great inside,† she says. With hair tinted a rich brown and eyes without lines or puffiness, her beauty is groomed and serene. â€Å"I work out, I eat right, I use good products on my face. It was worth it,† she says of her surgery. Although Hester says she pursues plastic surgery for betterment and self-fulfillment, she recognizes her privileged status as someone born with the double eyelids and sharper nose so prized in much of the Asian community. â€Å"I just got lucky, because if you look at my sister, sheâ₠¬â„¢s got a flat nose.† Another sister was born without the eyelid crease and had it surgically created, says Hester. The concept of the double eyelid as beautiful comes from the West. â€Å"For many, many years, the standards for beauty have been Western standards that say you have to have a certain shape to the eye, and the eyelid has to have a fold,† says Dr. Ioannis Glavas, a facial plastic surgeon specializing in eyelid surgery, with practices in Cambridge, New York City, and Athens. Sometimes, the demand for bigger eyes can be extreme. Glavas recalls one young Asian-American woman he saw who, in addition to wanting a double eyelid procedure, asked him to snip off some of the bottom lid to expose more of the white. â€Å"I had to say no to her,† he says. Glavas says both Asian women and men demand the double eyelid surgery because it is a way of looking less different by reducing an obvious ethnic feature. Presumably, Asian patients aren’t aiming to look white by getting double eyelids (after all, African-Americans and other minorities have double eyelids), but the goal is social and cultural assimilation, or identification with some dominant aesthetic standard. Across-the-Board Appeal In recent years, the dominant aesthetic standard in American society has moved away from the blond, blue-eyed Caucasian woman to a more ethnically ambiguous type. Glossy magazines are devoting more pages to this melting-pot aesthetic, designed (like the new Barbies) for across-the-board appeal. Today’s beautiful woman comes in many colors, from ivory to cappuccino to ebony. Her hair can be dark and kinky, and she might even show off a decidedly curvy derriere—a feature that has actually started to prompt some white women to get gluteal augmentation, or butt implants. However, critics say these are superficial changes to what is essentially a Caucasian-inspired ideal—the big-eyed, narrow-nosed, pillow-lipped, large-breasted, boyishly thin apparition. â€Å"There has been a subtle change in the kind of models you see in Victoria’s Secret catalogs or Vogue,† says Dr. Fred Stucker, the head of facial plastic surgery at Louisiana State University, Shreveport. But â€Å"they take the black girl who has the high cheekbones, narrow nose, and pouty lips.† It’s not uncommon, he says, to find â€Å"a white face with dark skin.† Going by the recent surge of minorities demanding plastic surgery, it is plausible that this attempt by canny marketers and media types to promote a darker-skinned but still relatively uniform ideal is working. After all, they are simply following the money. According to the University of Georgia’s Selig Center for Economic Growth, which compiles an annual report on the â€Å"multicultural economy† in the United States, minorities had a combined buying power of several trillion dollars in 2006. In 2007, the  disposable income of Hispanics is expected to rise to $863 billion, while African-Americans will collectively have $847 billion to spend. By 2010, Asians are expected to have buying power totaling $579 billion. And all of these groups are showing a greater willingness to spend it on themselves and the things they covet, including cosmetic surgery. Katie Marcial represents exactly this kind of person. The 50-year-old African-American is newly single, holds a well-paying job in Boston, and has no qualms about spending between $10,000 and $20,000 on a tummy tuck and breast surgery. â€Å"I’m doing this mainly because I’m economically able to do so,† says Marcial, a Dorchester resident whose clear skin and youthful attire belie her age. With her three children all grown, her money is hers to spend. â€Å"I can indulge in a little vanity,† she says. Marcial says she chose a young, Asian-American doctor to perform her surgery because â€Å"I thought she would know the latest techniques and be sensitive to ethnic skin.† Historically, plastic surgery has been tailored to Caucasian women. Glavas says that in medical texts, the measurements of symmetry and balance—two widely recognized preconditions of beauty—were made with Caucasian faces in mind. Such practices led to a general sense among minorities that plastic surgery was for whites and kept them away from tinkering with their faces and bodies. But even as the industry now adapts to its new customers, plastic surgeons are divided over whether surgical specialization in various ethnicities and races necessarily caters better to the needs of minority patients. Dr. Julius Few, a plastic surgeon at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, hails the fact that plastic surgeons are customizing their procedures to focus on minorities, â€Å"so it’s not just the one-size-fits-all mentality of saying, well, if somebody’s coming in, regardless, they’re going to look Northern European coming out.† He even sees â€Å"a sort of subspecialty† emerging in various ethnic procedures. Meanwhile, Dr. Jeffrey Spiegel, who is chief of facial plastic and reconstructive surgery at Boston University Medical Center and has a large number of nonwhite patients, is skeptical of the notion of specialization in ethnic and racial cosmetic surgery. â€Å"It strikes me more as a marketing tool  than a real specialization,† he says. In 1991, Michael Jackson crooned â€Å"It don’t matter if you’re black or white.† Jackson’s message about transcending race may have won singalong supporters, but his plastic surgeries did not. His repeated nose jobs and lightened skin color (he has maintained he is not bleaching but is using makeup to cover up the signs of vitiligo, a skin condition) were perceived by minorities—especially African-Americans—as an attempt to look white. Doctors say that â€Å"Don’t make me look like Michael Jackson† is a popular refrain among patients. â€Å"People were put off by dramatic surgeries and preferred subtle changes,† says Shektman, the Wellesley-based plastic surgeon. The New Melting-Pot Aesthetic Choices have expanded since then. Minorities can now hold themselves up against more ethnically and racially ambiguous role models that may still trace their roots to the once-dominant Caucasian standard but are becoming more composite and blended. â€Å"The concept of ideal beauty is moving toward a mix of ethnic features,† says plastic surgeon Ahn, a Korean-American who is married to a Caucasian. â€Å"And I think it’s better.† The push toward ethnic and racial ambiguity should perhaps be expected, because the cultural churn in American society is producing it anyway. Sure, promoting ambiguous beauty is a strategic move on the part of marketing gurus to cover their bases and appeal to all groups. But it’s also a reflection of reality. Not only are minorities expected to make up about half the American population by 2050, but the number of racially mixed people is increasing tremendously. The number of mixed-race children has been growing enough since the 1970s that in 2000 the Census Bureau created a new section in which respondents could self-identify their race; nearly 7 million people (2.4 percent of the population) identified themselves as belonging to more than one race. For minorities, this new melting-pot beauty aesthetic—perhaps the only kind of aesthetic standard that befits a multiethnic and multicultural society—is  an achievable and justifiable goal. Increasingly, advertisements use models whose blue eyes and dreadlocked hair or almond-shaped eyes and strong cheekbones leave you wondering about their ethnic origins. The ambiguous model might have been dreamed up on a computer or picked from the street. But advertisers value her because she is a blended product—someone everyone can identify with because she cannot be immediately defined by race or ethnicity. By surgically blending or erasing the most telling ethnic or racial characteristics, cosmetic surgery makes ambiguity possible and allows people of various ethnicities and races to fit in. For the Jewish community in the 1920s, fitting in may have had to do with imitating a Caucasian beauty ideal. For minorities today, it’s a melting-pot beauty ideal that is un iquely American. How appropriate this ambiguity is, in a culture that expects conformity even as it celebrates diversity. Das, Anupreeta. â€Å"Cosmetic Surgery Is Moving Toward Multiethnic Beauty Ideals.† The Culture of Beauty. Ed. Roman Espejo. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2010. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from â€Å"The Search for Beautiful.† Boston Globe 21 Jan. 2007. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 18 Feb. 2014. Document URL http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?failOverType=&query=&prodId=OVIC&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&mode=view&displayGroupName=Viewpoints&dviSelectedPage=&limiter=&currPage=&disableHighlighting=&displayGroups=&sortBy=&zid=&search_within_results=&p=OVIC&action=e&catId=&activityType=&scanId=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ3010659218&source=Bookmark&u=lawr16325&jsid=8af464626ea9692fea0cb02ef9c121a3 Gale Document Number: GALE|EJ3010659218

Essay What to Read for Your Own Pleasure This Summer

Essay What to Read for Your Own Pleasure This Summer Essay: What to Read for Your Own Pleasure This Summer? An old saying goes: ‘One who reads a lot, knows much – and its really true! During each academic semester, students bookworm and improve their academic knowledge gradually. But theres another important part of studies and reading: self-study, self-actualization and the simple joy we get from reading books! Reading is a part of our personal development that enriches us with new ideas and broadens our outlook each time we take a book into our hands. In addition, when we read we’re brighter of spirit and more likely to be in a good mood because we’re soaring with intellectual and cultural achievements! Why shouldn’t we? We’re worth this investment! Here are some books worth reading this summer: We can start with a rather interesting and overwhelming book The Literary Lives of the Inklings written by Carol and Philip Zaleski. It will definitely grab your attention. Its a very deep and profound overview of such literary giants as J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis and offers details of their lives, descriptions of people who were their true friends and able not only to support and understand, but also to inspire one another with new and bright ideas. The book is full of biographical details, which lead to a better understanding of the fantasy genre. (Dalfonzo, 2015) Another curious book suggested for consideration is titled Who Built That: Awe-Inspiring Stories of American Tinkerpreneurs by Michelle Malkin. Its a well-known fact that the economy of the USA is generally represented by entrepreneurs. Malkin’s book is dedicated to such people. Malkin tells the stories of famous men, their ideas and know-how which earned them success and worldwide fame (Furchtgott-Roth, 2015). You’re highly likely to find this book useful and inspiring. Who knows, maybe it will lead to your own inventions! If you’re attracted by the life-stories of the celebrities, Scott Eymans book John Wayne is right for you! Its always a fascinating experience to see a famous person differently and to get to know more about the events of their life, which led them to take this or that decision (Furchtgott-Roth, 2015). A proven path to success always draws attention because it can serve as a perfect example for others to follow. Theres every chance that the book On Duties’ written by Cicero centuries ago is still relevant today! The concept of the book is to show the meaning of leaving both fabulous and helpful life. The same as its title, the content of the book presupposes each person can be viewed in the light of service to mankind. Illustrated with bright examples taken from history, and written in a form of letters addressed by the father to his son, this literary work of a Roman orator, consul and politician is meant to be used as a life guide essential for increasing of self-motivation and personal development (Mehan, 2015). The books we’ve suggested for your summer reading are very different from one another so there is sure to be at least one that will be of interest to you! Reading for pleasure and enjoying oneself at the same time in the summer; is there a better self-studying alternative for a thoughtful and determined student? If you need  some book report / literature review or book review writing help welcome to our custom essay writing service which will help you online!

Dunkleosteus - Facts and Figures

Dunkleosteus - Facts and Figures Name: Dunkleosteus (Greek for Dunkles bone); pronounced dun-kul-OSS-tee-us Habitat: Shallow seas worldwide Historical Period: Late Devonian (380-360 million years ago) Size and Weight: About 30 feet long and 3-4 tons Diet: Marine animals Distinguishing Characteristics: Large size; lack of teeth; thick armor plating About Dunkleosteus The marine animals of the Devonian periodover 100 million years before the first dinosaurstended to be small and meek, but Dunkleosteus was the exception that proved the rule. This huge (about 30 feet long and three or four tons), armor-covered prehistoric fish was probably the largest vertebrate of its day, and almost certainly the largest fish of the Devonian seas. Reconstructions can be a bit fanciful, but Dunkleosteus likely resembled a large, underwater tank, with a thick body, bulging head, and massive, toothless jaws. Dunkleosteus wouldnt have had to be a particularly good swimmer, since its bony armor would have been sufficient defense against the smaller, predatory sharks and fish of its briny habitat, such as Cladoselache. Because so many fossils of Dunkleosteus have been discovered, paleontologists know a good deal about the behavior and physiology of this prehistoric fish. For example, theres some evidence that individuals of this genus occasionally cannibalized each other when prey fish ran low, and an analysis of Dunkleosteus jawbones has demonstrated that this vertebrate could bite with a force of about 8,000 pounds per square inch, putting it in a league with both the much later Tyrannosaurus Rex and the much later giant shark Megalodon. (By the way, if the name Dunkleosteus sounds funny, thats because it was named in 1958 after David Dunkle, a curator at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.) Dunkleosteus is known by about 10 species, which have been excavated in North America, western Europe, and northern Africa. The type species, D. terrelli, has been discovered in various U.S. states, including Texas, California, Pennsylvania and Ohio. D. belgicus hails from Belgium, D. marsaisi from Morocco (though this species may one day be synonymized with another genus of armored fish, Eastmanosteus), and D. amblyodoratus was discovered in Canada; other, smaller species were native to states as far afield as New York and Missouri. (As you might have guessed, we can attribute the profusion of Dunkleosteus remains to the fact that heavily armored skin tends to persist unusually well in the fossil record!) Given the near-worldwide success of Dunklesteus 360 million years ago, the obvious question presents itself: why did this armored fish go extinct by the start of the Carboniferous period, along with its placoderm cousins? The most likely explanation is that these vertebrates succumbed to changes in ocean conditions during the so-called Hangenberg Event, which caused marine oxygen levels to plungean event that definitely would not have favored multi-ton fish like Dunkleosteus. Secondarily, Dunkleosteus and its fellow placoderms may have been out-competed by smaller, sleeker bony fish and sharks, which went on to dominate the worlds oceans for tens of millions of years thereafter, until the advent of the marine reptiles of the Mesozoic Era.

Capstone week 4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Capstone week 4 - Essay Example In the old days, before the Internet, the most sexually explicit photos that children saw were in the National Geographic Magazine. Pictures of tribes of people who wore no clothes were seen as exciting because they were naked. However, today, with the ability of the Internet to capture anything, anywhere, and anytime, children are exposed to way more than naked people; they are exposed to some of the most disturbing pornography that was ever done. We cannot only blame the Internet, because cable TV has also given children access to hardcore pornography (porn). Children are able to find porn sites with only a few mouse clicks, and if parents have not locked porn sites from cable or other cable-like networks, children can have aces 24 hours a day. The effect of porn on children is a gap in the literature because of many reasons. Children and teens are often brought up on homes where talking about sex is taboo which makes them reluctant to talk about their sexual thoughts or their habi ts. Also, empirical studies have not been done because of the ethical and dilemmas in setting up a study where children and teens are shown porn (Haney, 2006).