1. In a short paragraph, please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences.
It doesn't matter if it's a pitcher throwing ninety miles per hour or if it's my dad throwing me batting practice, the batter's box is my favorite place to be. There's a certain joy I get out of hitting a baseball that I don't get anywhere else. It's both invigorating and refreshing and never gets old. Also, hitting is a study in emotional control. I can remember times when I became frustrated after taking a few bad swings and, because of that, my performance suffered greatly. On the other hand, there have been times when I've absolutely crushed the ball and I felt like I was the greatest hitter in the world, yet such conceit led to complacency, causing me to greatly underperform. As a result of these experiences, I now know that being able to control your emotions is an essential skill to possess in order to reach success.
2. Describe your academic interests and how you plan to pursue them at USC. Please feel free to address your first- and second-choice major selections.
For a long time now my primary academic interest has been writing. In fact, it comes in second to baseball on my list of favorite activities. I find it very rewarding to know that I can use my words to create worlds and populate them with all sorts of environments and characters. Unfortunately, the kind of writing I've had to do in school consists mostly of crafting well organized essays that have to fit into certain guidelines. While that isn't necessarily terrible, I would like to spend more time working on the fictional, creative side of writing. I want to hone my skills and perfect the art of molding my words to breathe life into what would otherwise be a blank piece of paper. Now couple this with another one of my interests-movies. I guess you could say I'm a movie buff and I absolutely love great dialogue. As a result, I have found a great deal of enjoyment in working with dialogue, and I believe that with the proper training I could eventually write for the screen.
At USC, I'm really looking forward to furthering my development as a writer and hopefully getting something published. Also, I would be nuts not to consider the screenwriting program at the School of Cinematic Arts. It looks unique, challenging, and it's at Hollywood's front door. Whether it's fiction or screenwriting, I'm sure that USC can equip me with the best possible tools to succeed.
very well written overall. However, here are my 2cents:
source of some of my greatest... - source of my greatest..
throwing me batting practice - throwing for/during batting practice
this high level of conceit - what exactly are you trying to say here?
control your emotions - control one's emotions
reach success - reach success; they have formed the man I am today.
I feel you effectively convey your passion for your sport, and thus 229 words should well suffice.
Please critique my essay :)
