New York Times College Admissions Article

The New York Times has posted an interesting set of responses from college admissions counselors about getting into selective schools that might be of some interest to you. While some of responses seem like standard admissions-speak, the responses do contain some potentially valuable insight. One of the admissions counselors explained the process in a way that might change your perspective a bit:

Jeff Brenzel of Yale University: It is not well understood that we are not aiming to pick out the best candidate in a particular school or from a particular area, as measured by some predetermined criteria. Rather, we are trying to assemble the most varied and most interesting class we can from an extremely diverse group of close to 25,000 outstanding applicants. We do not aim to compare a student primarily with other students from his or her school; we look instead for students who will bring something of particular value to the entering class.

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Heart of Darkness Test Questions

The Heart of Darkness, Apocalypse Now, and Secret Sharer exam will be on Wednesday. You can vote on the poll on the right side of the screen until Monday at midnight to eliminate one question from the test. The final test will have two questions, each to be answered with a full thesis + four paragraph response.




1. Chinua Achebe argued that Heart of Darkness is an “offensive and deplorable book” that “set[s] Africa up as a foil to Europe, as a place of negations at once remote and vaguely familiar, in comparison with which Europe’s own state of spiritual grace will be manifest.”Is Achebe correct about Heart of Darkness? Does it reduce Africa and its people to the role of a foil for Europe? Or is Conrad’s point of view more complicated, using Marlow as an ironic commentator on colonialism?


2.   Explain how Heart of Darkness functions allegorically, focusing on characters. There are two sets of allegorical representations, at least. One is the ship’s crew; the other the Intended-African Queen-Kurtz triad. It would be fair to spend more time on Kurtz than the others, but do not neglect the other characters.


3.   Explain the deliberate juxtaposition of The Intended and the The Mistress. What do we learn from their implicit comparison? What lessons does Marlow learn?


4. Which argument makes more sense, that Marlow is the imperialist and racist alter ego of Joseph Conrad, or that he is an ironic character, one from which we are intended to learn that colonialism is wrong?


5. Heart of Darkness represents a narrative reconstruction of African and its people. How might this discourse, according to Edward Said have constructed a vision of Africa for European audiences that was untrue?


Secret Sharer/Apocalypse Now Questions (cannot be voted out)

Alsbury Special

Some have contended that Leggatt represents an ideal to be emulated by the captain because of his firm actions in the face of great danger; others have argued that he displays cowardice, murderous instincts, and irrationality, and therefore represents that which is evil about the captain and humankind. Using specific references from the story, defend one of these points of view, or construct your own description of Leggatt.


Film Special

“Apocalypse Now” explores the issue of madness in two distinct ways: the madness of Colonel Kurtz and the madness of the Vietnam War. Using specific examples from the film, demonstrate how director Francis Coppola shows us this madness and make an argument for the ultimate meaning of the work. (I would guess this second part would make a nice thesis statement.)

 

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Debate: Extra Credit Opportunities

Two extra credit opportunities in debate class: add web links about the universal health care debate or blog about your feelings about the subject. Both are easy to do. Before you do either, though, you will probably need to register on the site. To do so, just go to the Register link in the login box to your right.

Add a Web Link:
  1. Login to the site.
  2. Click on “Add a Web Link” on the User Menu to the Right.
  3. Add a link, making sure to include a description, URL, and name. Remember to put the link the Debate: Universal Health Care section of the site.
  4. 5 points of extra credit for each quality entry, up to to four entries.
Write a Blog Entry
  1. Login to the site.
  2. Click on “My Blog Dashhboard on the User Menu to the Right, then “Write New Entry.”
  3. Write a blog entry, making sure to put in a title and a detailed entry.
  4. Up to 20 points of extra credit for a quality entry, which means at least a few paragraphs.
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Good Luck on Your Papers

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Romanticism and Transcendentalism Test

You’ve got an exciting exam coming up next Monday, so be prepared! The test covers these authors: Irving, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman. You can download all of the notes for the test from the class downloads section here.

You can bring one 3×5 notecard with notes for the test.

Section 1 of the test will be quotation identification, matching authors to their quotes. You don’t need to memorize quotations from the notes or readings, but do need to be familiar with their writing styles and content.

Section 2 is the meat of the exam: paragraph (6-8 sentence) responses to these topics. The test will have 5-6 to respond to, taken from this list.

  1. Themes of Romanticism
  2. Contrast Romanticism with Dark Romanticism
  3. The Utopian Impulse
  4. Mellville’s Dark Romanticism: Corruptibility of Humans
  5. Irving’s Vision of America
  6. Plato’s Influence on Transcendentalism
  7. Emerson: Nature
  8. Emerson: Self-Reliance
  9. Thoreau: Simplicity
  10. Thoreau: War
  11. Thoreau: Purpose of Existence
  12. Thoreau: Civil Disobedience
  13. Whitman: Poetic Techniques and Beliefs About Humanity
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