![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
So effective it works.
Dec. 20th, 2006 02:44 amI'm trying to write a self-assessment essay for my application to graduate school.
"The self-assessment essay should be a concise, truthful, and in-depth investigation of your need to work in a personal medium. The Graduate Faculty Admissions Committee in Film & Video considers this essay the most important document in your application so it should not be a self-promoting autobiographical account. The focus should be on particular motives, attitudes, and biases that lie behind your urge to create. You should also attempt to define what special interests and strengths you would bring to the program."
This should be approximately 3-5 typewritten pages, a narrative that describes my personal goals, career aspirations, and professional strengths, that also explains why graduate work in my field is a desired extension of my previous educational and professional experiences.
This is the hardest thing I've ever had to write. They don't want an self-promoting autobiography, but a narrative that describes, among other things, my professional strengths and experiences. I'm not sure I see the difference here. The angle I'm taking seems way too honest for such an assignment. I'm admitting that my creativity only comes when I'm put to task, that I wouldn't create unless told to. This goes either way: they'd want to see that I can perform when given an assignment, but it doesn't look good that I can only perform when given an assignment. I guess it's a strength and weakness in one.
It doesn't help that the last time I wrote anything besides a journal entry was in April.
The application deadline is January 3rd. My sister, my baby niece Maia, and my sister's husband are visiting on the 23rd, so I have to write and send this before then. Or it's no grad school.
In addition to the self-assessment, they want a pre-thesis. A fucking pre-thesis. I think I'll send them a model of this idea I came up with either drunk, stoned, or half-asleep that I found jotted in my notepad:
I bet it seemed like a grand idea at the time.
This shit, along with fucking Best Buy and goddamned Haagen Dazs, has been eating away at me. I'm very confident that I'll get into school, even though I'm only applying to one. But I just need to get this fucking application done.
I'm also waiting on a recommendation from Katzman, to whom I sent the cover sheet two months ago. Delamater got his back to me in no time, and I thanked him with the Cinema Paradiso gift set that just came out. He sent a thank you letter back that smelled like it had been sprayed with cologne. Hmm...
I have work at Best Buy at 10am. I drank a bunch of coffee and took some Adderall and I'll be trying to write before work. So I'll be doing that.
"The self-assessment essay should be a concise, truthful, and in-depth investigation of your need to work in a personal medium. The Graduate Faculty Admissions Committee in Film & Video considers this essay the most important document in your application so it should not be a self-promoting autobiographical account. The focus should be on particular motives, attitudes, and biases that lie behind your urge to create. You should also attempt to define what special interests and strengths you would bring to the program."
This should be approximately 3-5 typewritten pages, a narrative that describes my personal goals, career aspirations, and professional strengths, that also explains why graduate work in my field is a desired extension of my previous educational and professional experiences.
This is the hardest thing I've ever had to write. They don't want an self-promoting autobiography, but a narrative that describes, among other things, my professional strengths and experiences. I'm not sure I see the difference here. The angle I'm taking seems way too honest for such an assignment. I'm admitting that my creativity only comes when I'm put to task, that I wouldn't create unless told to. This goes either way: they'd want to see that I can perform when given an assignment, but it doesn't look good that I can only perform when given an assignment. I guess it's a strength and weakness in one.
It doesn't help that the last time I wrote anything besides a journal entry was in April.
The application deadline is January 3rd. My sister, my baby niece Maia, and my sister's husband are visiting on the 23rd, so I have to write and send this before then. Or it's no grad school.
In addition to the self-assessment, they want a pre-thesis. A fucking pre-thesis. I think I'll send them a model of this idea I came up with either drunk, stoned, or half-asleep that I found jotted in my notepad:
I bet it seemed like a grand idea at the time.
This shit, along with fucking Best Buy and goddamned Haagen Dazs, has been eating away at me. I'm very confident that I'll get into school, even though I'm only applying to one. But I just need to get this fucking application done.
I'm also waiting on a recommendation from Katzman, to whom I sent the cover sheet two months ago. Delamater got his back to me in no time, and I thanked him with the Cinema Paradiso gift set that just came out. He sent a thank you letter back that smelled like it had been sprayed with cologne. Hmm...
I have work at Best Buy at 10am. I drank a bunch of coffee and took some Adderall and I'll be trying to write before work. So I'll be doing that.
