74 replies to this topic

[newms]

Last year there was a thread where people posted a Wordle of their SoPs. It was a fun idea so lets start a thread for this year. Head on over to Wordle and post your SoPs! You can remove identifying words from the graphic (if you want) by right-clicking on the word you want to remove. Wordle allows you to post the image to a gallery where you can download it. I just took a screenshot of my wordle and put it in MS Paint to get the image. Upload the image to a photo storing service like photobucket, and you can post it here. Mine is below.

Edited by newms, 19 December 2010 - 04:39 AM.

[emmm]

Here's mine.

[eklavya]

Cool. But I can see that after so many users, the patterns will be repeated.
Here's mine anyways:

[emmm]

I like the shape of yours better -- mine's too wide for its height.

[JudPolitics]

::not working::

Edited by JudPolitics, 19 December 2010 - 05:50 AM.

[eklavya]

JudPolitics, on 19 December 2010 - 05:47 AM, said:

::not working::

really? here's the 1-2-3:
1. open wordle (using the link on the OP) and paste your essay. remove words you don't want to be displayed. click on 'randomize' to select the design you like the best.
2. take a screenshot, and then open microsoft paint (or any other photo editor) and paste the image (simply hit ctrl+v). crop the image area and export/save as jpeg.
3. open photobucket (just google it) and create an account if you don't have one, or log in through facebook account. upload the image to photobucket. alternatively, you can upload the image to your blog/facebook/myspace/so on. now copy the url to the image and paste the url in the 'image' option in this blog. it's the second button from the smiley.

[katerific]

Oh man, these are pretty cool. I'm debating whether or not to post mine--I seem to have a lot of buzzwords that are a bit too distinguishing. But I might eventually post it.... maybe.


edit: also, for uploading pictures, you can use tinypic.com. You don't have to sign up or nothin' (that has its advantages and disadvantages, I guess).

Edited by katerific, 19 December 2010 - 06:14 AM.

[surprisecake]

oooo. Do you think I can send this in instead of my SOP to the rest of my schools?

[coffeecoffeebuzzbuzz]

Now I just need to find a mentor...

Edited by coffeecoffeebuzzbuzz, 19 December 2010 - 07:43 AM.

[Alyanumbers]

I like mine!

[surprisecake]

is everyone instinctively wordling the SOP version intended for their top choice school? I notice alyanumbers' wordle has "yale" in it!

[Alyanumbers]

surprisecake, on 19 December 2010 - 01:38 PM, said:

is everyone instinctively wordling the SOP version intended for their top choice school? I notice alyanumbers' wordle has "yale" in it!

Aah, I thought I'd cut all mentions out! Yes, I chose the one for my top school because it's the longest and the one I put in the most effort.

[eklavya]

surprisecake, on 19 December 2010 - 01:38 PM, said:

is everyone instinctively wordling the SOP version intended for their top choice school? I notice alyanumbers' wordle has "yale" in it!

i deleted the name of my schools and few other specifics. just for privacy sake, i guess!

[RDX]

I like mine. Actually my whole point of the SOP was, indeed, experience. BTW, yes I did pick up the SOP for my top choice, haha

Edited by RDX, 20 December 2010 - 01:50 AM.

[surprisecake]

bhikhaari, on 19 December 2010 - 05:53 PM, said:

i deleted the name of my schools and few other specifics. just for privacy sake, i guess!

No, I didn't mean we picked our top schools so they'd appear in the wordle...

[John Jacob Jingleheimer]

Here is mine! Wordle is really cool.

[bgk]

This is a cool thread, I will sticky it for a bit.

[gradschoolorbust!]

I apologize in advance if it seems like I'm hogging up space on this wonderful thread with a long textual post and no Wordle graphic. I have some (I hope) legitimate questions about Wordle layouts that perhaps others have considered, the answers to which may be helpful to future posters.

Ok, so, wow this is AWESOME! I'd love to post mine. But I do have some questions regarding Wordle layouts. It looks like several of the preceding posters have left the max word count at the default of 150. (There's no way to be sure, of course, but it's the impression I get from the considering the consistent font sizes) A higher word count makes some words way too small to read. Less words means more overall legibility, but with the consequence of (obviously) condensing the output. This is surely a question of personal taste but I'm just wondering if anyone else out there has been toying around with the layouts as obsessively as I've been or if you just clicked "randomize" a few times until finding your favorite. Does anyone have any suggestions for an approximate range for the word limit? I realize that it depends on the font and other layout preferences you've chosen. After a fair amount of tinkering, I've come to the conclusion that at 80 words - no matter which font you choose - no words appear too small. Once you hit 90, a handful of words start to become too small to read. If you're ok with smaller words, then on the upper end of the range, ~150 seems reasonable. Since more words means a greater quantity of little words, a word count that is significantly higher than 150 would make it hard to spot words you want to eliminate (unless of course you take care of that from the outset) and ultimately makes a lot of words hard to read. For the heck of it, I set the max at 1000 which was essentially my entire SOP (minus the common articles and prepositions). Obviously it's replete with minuscule words but on the bright side, if you're looking to take full advantage of the "rounder" and "straighter"-edge layout features, then a really high word count will yield either a discernibly rectangular or oval-shaped graphic.

These are just some crazy 3am musings after a while of playing around with Wordle. C'mon, I know I'm not the only one who's taking forever to finalize their image. Anyway, props to the OP and to everyone who has shared their SOP Wordles so far. They're excellent! I know it seems like the patterns will start repeating after a while, but perhaps if people customized their settings rather than accept the suggested defaults, there would be enough new-ish looking posts (with different color schemes and uncommonly-used fonts) so as to somewhat attenuate the monotony someone mentioned earlier. Besides, there will surely be enough variety in everyone's big-sized key terms so as to keep this interesting for a while. I'll post mine after considering your thoughts about these layout questions. Thanks for bearing with me!

Edited by gradschoolorbust!, 21 December 2010 - 08:30 AM.

[surprisecake]

Thanks, now I hate mine

[Bukharan]

This is first-class procrastination!