HorseThief wrote:
I guess it's just me, but I don't like this for a 250. Assuming the author really was in Seoul, it's a frustrating example because how many of us were bystanders in Korea during the war? And if the author wasn't in Seoul and it's just fiction, then it seems irrelevant to the application. I'm no Asha, but I think 250's should tell something more about the author than 'I can write poetically.' What do we learn about the author's character from this 250? Not a whole lot.
5/10 would not submit.
Couldn't agree with you more HorseThief. I won't pretend that my writing is more beautiful than this example but I think the 250 can achieve a lot of different things. It may be that this was the perfect 250 (minus the fact that it went over the word limit) for this applicant but I think it would have been a terrible one for me (not just in content because I obviously didn't have this experience but in its tone and style).
So, while I think this is beautiful writing I don't think this a great prototype for almost anyone. The one thing I do like about it is its disregard for the standard essay format (intro, body, conclusion). The 250 can be so liberating if you get out of that box.
While I say this I really don't know how good my own 250 was, though, to be honest, I felt like it is probably the best piece of writing I have ever produced…so all the more telling when I am summarily rejected from Yale.
