- Purpose
- Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom. (UC Personal Insight Questions, 350 words)
- We are inspired by students who are flexible in their approach to learning, who are comfortable with experimentation, and who are willing to take intellectual risks that move them out of their comfort zone. Reflect on a time that you were intellectually challenged, inspired, or took an intellectual risk—inside or outside of the classroom. How has that experience shaped you, and what questions still linger? (Swarthmore Application, 250 words)
Stanford Application Version
- Leave comments on the flow of Marinasan’s essay and review it again.
Caltech Application Version
- Improvements from v1
- Consider whether to use the puzzle piece metaphor or not.
- Want to shorten it to 250 words, so remove parts from v1.
- Although the word count is the same as Stanford’s, I want to adjust the introduction and conclusion. (blu3mo)
v1
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It’s better to be exposed to various fields in college.
- Specialization in Information Processing Methods in IB
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It seems good to talk about History EE.
- Technological Determinism and Cybernetics in the Cold War
- Then, it could be interesting to connect it to Tendency to Think about High-level Things or something.
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Also, the topic of cybernetics seems to be relevant to explaining my interest.
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Rather than just EE, should I mention “history” overall?
- History as a result of systems, Tendency to Think about High-level Things
- I feel like the interesting part is here.
- It’s exactly like EE.
- Well, I don’t intend to major in history, so I want to make sure I’m not misunderstood there.
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Ah, but are they asking about how I furthered the interest?
- Well, it’s probably fine to talk about research methods.
- And also refer to the current discussion,
- There are both historical analysis and implementation, like “History,” something like that.
- But 350 words might be tight.
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The interesting part
- History
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Things to show
- How the subject inspires me
- How I further it
From the excerpt of the University of Tokyo recommendation:
As part of the International Baccalaureate curriculum offered at my high school, there is an Extended Essay in which students choose a theme freely and conduct research for one year, culminating in a 4,000-word research paper. I chose world history and wrote a paper titled “Evaluation of technological deterministicness of the history of Cybernetics, by a comparison of the Western and the Eastern society” (source 8). In the research, based on previous studies on the technological determinism and social constructionism of the history of technology, I examined the strength of technological determinism in the development process of cybernetics in the early Cold War era in the United States and the Soviet Union. Taking advantage of the academic and cultural divide between the United States and the Soviet Union, I analyzed the impact of society on technology by comparing the independent development processes. I tackled research in a field I had never touched before, and learned that different analytical methods and ways of thinking exist depending on the field. In addition, through the experience of combining historical and scientific methods during the research, I also discovered the enjoyment of interdisciplinary research.
From the EE reflection:
- Second
- I studied Soviet Cybernetics by reading the book “From Newspeak to Cyberspeak” and other secondary sources in Jstor. I also found primary sources by looking at bibliographies. This method was successful since this increased the variety of referenced sources.
- As I read sources, I summarized the content with my comment of realizations and critical evaluation. This was also effective because this enabled me to efficiently compare the histories of the US and Soviets.
- My plan was to complete the first draft by this time, but I couldn’t follow the schedule. It’s because reading sources took more time than I imagined since I took notes simultaneously.
- I found one research evaluating the “deterministicness” of history by the comparison of US and Soviet history of nuclear arms. I found this methodology interesting since I was wondering how we could conduct “control experiments” (concept of Science) in History, and this methodology was doing that. Getting inspired, I decided to compare the history of Cybernetics in the East and the West to investigate the strength of deterministic forces.
- Final
- Throughout my investigation process, my understanding of historical studies developed. In January, I once lost my motivation because I felt that historical studies are boring process of just connecting sources for meaningless purposes. I then realized what this process means for understanding of history of technology, and my motivation recovered.
- I also learned the importance of frequent communication with the EE supervisor, since the lack of contact created distance between me and EE, and that led to the delay of investigation.
- I’m still interested in other historiographical methods that are similar to scientific methods, since the method I took in the EE works only in special situations like Cold War.
- Oh, it’s already a bit of a reflective essay!! (blu3mo)
- As expected from IB (?)