Hey guys! First time posting here. I'm still in the process of finishing up my second writing sample for the Harvard app that's due in two days - fml - but then I'll FINALLY be done with the whole application process. This cycle I only applied to 5 dream programs, thinking that it really wouldn't be too terrible to take a year off, get some helpful feedback, and cast out a bigger net on the second go-round. But we'll see, maybe I'll get lucky. Like some of you have said, I've basically resigned to the fact that I won't get in anywhere, because the anxiety was eating. me. alive. I really relate to the problems of relatives putting too much wind in your sails.. If only they knew how much worse that makes it! Especially because it makes me feel pressured to live up to the image that other people have of my intelligence or "potential," whatever that even means. All around, it's too much.
I think it's fair to say I'm planning on taking a more traditional approach than most of you here. My interests kind of satellite around the intellectual history of the 19th century and the impacts that shifts in cultural attitudes towards science and religion had for the individual experience... there seems to be this emergence of characters who are basically egomaniacs and who embody the zeitgeist of scientific progressivism, but then go absolutely bonkers. Even when the authors aren't religious at all, they tend to describe those characters in religious language, so I'm curious about what the hold up is, and about what it might signal about inhospitable conditions for human wellbeing. @mandelbulb I'm not sure there was a specific moment when I bumped into this topic, but reading Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in a Brit Lit survey class my junior year of undergrad played a pretty major role.
Anyways, I better get back to it. This writing sample isn't going to revise itself. Best of luck to all of you guys, I'm sure this thread's gonna be filled with good news!
(Tried to upload a pic of my dog but the file was too big /:)