Welcome to SIPA with Giovanni, Jake and Rahel COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog

Welcome to SIPA with Giovanni, Jake and Rahel COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog Its an exciting time at SIPA right now Orientation Week just finished (check out photos here!), and classes start today! And of course, the 2019 application is open. We know its a lot to think about as you go through preparing your application package or even deciding if you want to make the effort. Two years in graduate school is no small choice, and we encourage you to come to an information session, ask any admissions questions you may have, and get a feel for the SIPA community. While SIPA offers a flexible theory-meets-practice curriculum, top-notch faculty, and access to all of the Columbia University resources, many alum will say that their favorite thing about SIPA is the people.  With that, heres a few of those great Seeples: Jas, Katy and Anjana. Learn more about the student organizations Jas, Rahel and Anjana are involved with: Columbia Public Policy Review Spectrum Gender Policy Working Group Monitoring and Evaluating Student Society Policy Dialogue Columbia Dhoom United Nations Studies Working Group

10 Fascinating Facts About Grasshoppers

Famed fable writer Aesop portrayed the grasshopper as a neer do well who fiddled away his summer days without a thought to the future but in the real world, the destruction wreaked by grasshoppers on farming and ranching is far from a harmless parable. Although grasshoppers are extremely common, theres more to these summertime critters than meets the eye. Heres a list of 10 fascinating grasshopper-related facts. 1. Grasshoppers and Locusts Are One and the Same When we think of grasshoppers, most people recall pleasant childhood memories of trying to catch the jumping insects in meadows or backyards. Say the word locusts, however, and it brings to mind images of historic plagues raining down destruction on crops and devouring every plant in sight. Truth be told, grasshoppers and locusts are members of the same insect order. While certain species are commonly referred to grasshoppers and others as locusts, both creatures are short-horned members of the order Orthoptera. Jumping herbivores with shorter antennae are grouped into the suborder Caelifera, while their longer-horned brethren (crickets and katydids) belong to the suborder Ensifera. 2. Grasshoppers Have Ears on Their Bellies The grasshoppers auditory organs are found not on the head, but rather, on the abdomen. A pair of membranes that vibrate in response to sound waves are located one on either side of the first abdominal segment, tucked under the wings. This simple eardrum, called a tympanal organ, allows the grasshopper to hear the songs of its fellow grasshoppers. 3. Although Grasshoppers Can Hear, They Cant Distinguish Pitch  Very Well As with most insects, the grasshoppers auditory organs are simple structures. They can detect differences in intensity and rhythm, but not pitch. The male grasshoppers song isnt particularly melodic which is a good thing since females dont care whether or not a fellow can carry a tune. Each species of grasshopper produces a characteristic rhythm that distinguishes its song from others and enables courting males and females of a given species to find one another. 4. Grasshoppers Make Music by Stridulating or Crepitating If youre not familiar with those terms, dont worry. Its not all that complicated. Most grasshoppers stridulate, which simply means that they rub their hind legs against their forewings to produce their trademark tunes. Special pegs on the inside of the hind leg act like a percussion instrument of sorts when they come in contact with the thickened edge of the wing. The band-winged grasshoppers crepitate or loudly snap their wings as they fly. 5. Grasshoppers Catapult Themselves Into the Air If youve ever tried to catch a grasshopper, you know how far they can jump to flee danger. If humans could jump the way grasshoppers do, we would be able to easily leap the length of a football field. How do these insects jump so far? Its all in those big, back legs. A grasshoppers hind legs function like miniature catapults. In preparation for a jump, the grasshopper contracts its large flexor muscles slowly, bending its hind legs at the knee joint. A special piece of cuticle within the knee acts as a spring, storing up all the potential energy. The grasshopper then relaxes its leg muscles, allowing the spring to release its energy and fling the insect into the air. 6. Grasshoppers Can Fly Because grasshoppers have such powerful jumping legs, people sometimes dont realize that they also have wings. Grasshoppers use their jumping ability to give them a boost into the air but most are pretty strong fliers and make good use of their wings to escape predators. 7. Grasshoppers Cause Billions of Dollars in Damage to Food Crops Annually One lone grasshopper cant do too much harm, although it eats about half its body weight in plants each day—but when locusts swarm, their combined feeding habits can completely defoliate a landscape, leaving farmers without crops and people without food. In the U.S. alone, grasshoppers cause about $1.5 billion in damage to grazing lands each year. In 1954, a swarm of Desert locusts (Schistocerca gregaria) consumed over 75 square miles of wild and cultivated plants in Kenya. 8. Grasshoppers Are an Important Source of Protein People have been consuming locusts and grasshoppers for centuries. According to the Bible, John the Baptist ate locusts and honey in the wilderness. Locusts and grasshoppers are a regular dietary component in local diets in many areas of Africa, Asia, and the Americas—and since theyre packed with protein, theyre an important nutritional staple as well. 9. Grasshoppers Existed Long Before Dinosaurs Modern-day grasshoppers descend from ancient ancestors that lived long before dinosaurs roamed the Earth. The fossil record shows that primitive grasshoppers first appeared during the Carboniferous period, more than 300 million years ago. Most ancient grasshoppers are preserved as fossils, although grasshopper nymphs (the second stage in the grasshopper lifestyle after the initial egg phase) are occasionally found in amber. 10. Grasshoppers  May Spit Liquid to Defend Themselves If youve ever handled grasshoppers, youve probably had a few of them spit brown liquid on you in protest. Scientists believe this behavior is a means of self-defense, and the liquid helps the insects repel predators. Some people say grasshoppers spit tobacco juice, probably because historically, grasshoppers have been associated with tobacco crops. Rest assured, however, the grasshoppers arent using you as a spittoon.

Thesis of Customer Satisfaction in Fast Food - 4413 Words

CHAPTER 1 Problem and It’s Background Customer satisfaction, a business term, is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. It is seen as a key performance indicator within business and is part of the four perspectives of a Balanced Scorecard. In a competitive market place where businesses compete for customers, customer satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element of business strategy. Customer satisfaction is an ambiguous and abstract concept and the actual manifestation of the state of satisfaction will vary from person to person and product/service to product/service. The state of satisfaction depends on a number of both psychological†¦show more content†¦Being a customer in a restaurant or fast food we expect to satisfy our needs by receiving total customer satisfaction inside the establishment. When we satisfied our needs every time we went to restaurant the tendency is that we will always visit the restaurant because we knew that the said restaurant is giving high level of customer satisfaction. In a restaurant that giving high level of customer satisfaction the volume of customer going to their establishment will go up because the customer that would feel that they pumper to a restaurant would definitely repeating their visit in that restaurant. DEFINITION OF TERMS Consumer is a broad label for any individuals or households that use goods and services generated within the economy. The concept of a consumer occurs in different contexts, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary. Customer satisfaction, a term frequently used in marketing, is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. Customer satisfaction is defined as the number of customers, or percentage of total customers, whose reported experience with a firm, its products, or its services (ratings) exceeds specified satisfaction goals. In a survey of nearly 200 senior marketing managers, 71 percent responded that they found a customer satisfaction metric very useful in managing and monitoring theirShow MoreRelatedKfc Service Quality925 Words   |  4 PagesREVIEW SERVICE QUALITY AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN KFC CHAINSTORES The purpose of this study is investigating the service quality of KFC chain stores and how the service quality affect customer satisfaction based on the theory of â€Å"service quality† and â€Å"customer satisfaction† and the Customer satisfaction survey in website: talktokfc.com. 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Locality Planning †The Key Elements Free Essays

A locality plan is a fundamental and dynamic management tool which will state a list of targets to be met within a given locality. It will be based on local needs analysis and will be used to prioritise resource allocation whilst at the same time encouraging involvement and enhancing accountability. There are many factors which will determine how such a plan might develop, some of which are the consultation processes, inter-agency and inter-service co-operation, availability of resources, service quality, monitoring and feedback procedures as well as meeting the corporate aims, values and policies of Fife Council. We will write a custom essay sample on Locality Planning – The Key Elements or any similar topic only for you Order Now Consultation will need to be participative and all who may be affected by the plan would need to be actively encouraged to participate. This would involve amongst others, local community groups, elected members, voluntary organisations, residents, businesses, council services and officials. This consultation ‘phase† would have to examine what other plans, initiatives, programmes and policies may be in place and any resultant impact on existing service provision and resources. Inter-agency and intra-agency co-operation is essential if information is to be collated and processed in any meaningful fashion and to ensure that any plan once in place will be properly supported. Barriers to co-operation need to be removed through consultation, participation, negotiation, and improved communication channels. Resource provision has to be assessed along with any plan. Existing resources, whether personnel, equipment or financial can only cater for so many needs. The targeting of these resources would need to be negotiated and agreed by all parties involved as part of the process of encouraging ownership of and participation in a locality plan. To provide a plan which meets local needs and has the necessary resources is pointless if the quality of implementation does not meet the expectations of the community. Recognition therefore of the service delivery processes are vital. Personnel need to be properly trained, highly motivated and committed to the aims of the plan. Equipment needs to be suitable for its intended purpose and utilised as effectively as possible. Monitoring and feedback are an essential part of the process if the locality plan is to remain dynamic. Monitoring allows the progress of the plan to be measured and any fine tuning can be implemented where needed. Monitoring assesses and measures the success of any plan whilst feedback allows information to be fed to, and received from, those involved at all stages of the plan from strategic policy development, to the officers implementing the plan, to the people, groups and communities receiving the benefits. The aims, policies and corporate values of Fife Council should underpin any plan. Plans should encourage openness and accountability, improve participation and involvement, provide quality and equality, promote devolved decision making and enhance learning and development. How to cite Locality Planning – The Key Elements, Essay examples

Nowadays, Computers Can Translate All Kinds of Languages free essay sample

Title: Nowadays, computers can translate all kinds of languages. Should people learn languages other than their mother tongue? Language, as a basic skill which draws a distinguishing line between human and other animal, is considered to be one of the most invaluable cultural creations. There are some people who can speak three or four languages fluently, while others struggle with their second. However, language learning might seem to be less necessary due to the development of science and technology.Hence, the debates on the necessity of learning foreign languages never stops. In my opinion, I strongly rally behind the idea of studying languages other than ones mother tongue. Some reckon that spending time on language learning is not essential as we can translate easily with a click of the mouse. For instance, Google translation enable us to obtain a paragraph of translation in a fraction of second; Electronic dictionaries are so light and cheap that we can carry it everywhere. We will write a custom essay sample on Nowadays, Computers Can Translate All Kinds of Languages or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page With the convenience that the cutting-edged technology has brought us, it is alleged that spending time and trouble learning other language is completely a waste of time. However, I do not concede that it is a waste of time. Although studying another language can be a time-consuming project, it should be valued as a vital ability. To start off, language learning is an unavoidable path to an exotic culture. For instance, reading the original version of Dream of the Red Chamber and the English translation is a world of difference.The former is full of rhythmic and gorgeous poems while the latter is dull and mundane. Therefore, language learning helps you to merge into the culture. To a great extent, language effects human mindsets. This might explain why Chinese favour bureaucracy while American like it blunt. The way that things appear in their head when they think is greatly influenced by the syntax of the different languages. In Chinese language, the methods of accomplishing something are nearly always put forward before the results, whereas American and British people prefer to announce the result before how they did it.Hence, it is actually possible to cultivate ones personality by learning foreign languages. It changes the order of ideas crossing ones mind, therefore, the individual priorities will change gradually without being noticed. Giving up learning another language is almost equivalent to refusing the chance of fostering foreign friendship. The reason why i found the opponents opinion narrow-minded and absurd is that they assume that machine translation is able to replace language study efficiently.Even Google translation is full of flaws and grammatical mistakes. Therefore, the only way enables people to communicate is speaking a language that both of them know. It is hard to imagine how people communicate with merely electronic translators. Moreover, a lot of well-known cross-broder love stories cannot exist without language learning. From John Lennon and Yoko Ono to Mark Zuckerburg and his wife of Chinese descent, it is obvious that these relationships would not even have got to started if no conversation is made.Moreover, one can never live in a foreign country without knowing anything about its language. Apart from shopping and socialising, it is life-threatening if you speed up towards school just because you thought school zone asHighway! Thus, to conclude, language learning is not only important for globalisation, but also for all aspect of life. We can only stop learning language when the magic pill which can translate languages instantaneously and accurately, is invented. Still, it will be a great loss of humanity.

Supply Chain Management Example

Supply Chain Management Example Supply Chain Management – Coursework Example Supply Chain Management (SCM) Supply Chain Management (SCM) Definition Supply chain management relates to interconnected businesses network management with the ultimate goal of providing services and products packages according to customers’ requirements (Cetinkaya et al., 2011). In essence, supply chain management entails all the fundamental process involved in storage and movement of raw materials, inventory work-in-processes, and finished goods from origin to consumption. SCM ensures that consumers get the appropriate quantity of products and services at the right time. Effective SCM focuses on forecasting, planning, assembly of products, purchasing, and storage. In addition, SCM entails distribution and sale of products and services to customers according to their preferences. It is imperative to note that SCM remains integral in the inherent success of a business within the market. An effectively planned system of supply chain management would ensure retention of loyal cu stomers through provision of standard products and services. Role of SCM in a company’s ability to compete effectively within the marketInvolvement of SCM principles in business process is fundamental to attainment of sustainable competitive advantage within the consumer market. SCM has the significant role of ensuring creation and delivery of affordable, convenient, and better products and services to consumers. For an organization to compete efficiently in the market, its SCM system must properly meet market demands through quality research and production of preferred products and services. In addition, the SCM system must commit itself to providing products and services at appropriate periods. Therefore, SCM has the fundamental role of establishing organizations’ logistics, product development, purchasing, and quality management. Moreover, SCM has to meet market pressures through establishment of competitive global procurement and sourcing, supplier relationship man agement, and inventory control. The inherent dynamism in market trends requires creativity and innovative skills of SCM professionals to enable a company compete effectively within the market. ReferenceCetinkaya, B., Cuthbertson, R., Ewer, G., Klaas-Wissing, T., Piotrowicz, W., & Tyssen, C. (2011). Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Practical Ideas for Moving Towards Best Practice. London: Springer Science & Business Media.

What Should I Give to a Teacher Writing My Recommendation Letter

What Should I Give to a Teacher Writing My Recommendation Letter SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips A substantial bribe. Just kidding. You should give your teacher recommenders something much more valuablefor writingeffective letters ofrecommendation: your input. Sharing your ideas will assistyour teacher in writingyou an insightful and specific letter. This guide will discuss what materials you shouldproduce, and why your "recommender's packet" can go a long way toward making your final letter outstanding. To start, let’s review why recommendations are important to your application.If you understand what admissions officers look for, then you can make sure that your materials are useful and relevant. With this in mind, let's consider what purpose rec letters serve in the admission process. Why Do Colleges Require Recommendation Letters? Many four-year colleges require one or two recommendation letters from your teachers and school counselor. The main reason for this requirement is to get to know you better. Colleges aren’t just looking at your grades and SAT scores. They’re seeking to learn about you in a holistic sense - how you interact with your teachers and peers, how you approach the learning process, and what motivates and excites you, to give a few examples. Teachers can speak to both your intellectual and personal qualities, as well as to the role you play in the classroom on a day to day basis. Simply having an enthusiastic recommendation shows that you made a positive impression and maintained a good relationship with your teachers. If you made a splash at high school, you’re likely to work well with your peers and professors at college and contribute on campus too. Because of all the information and support they can communicate, recommendation letters play a very important role in the college application review process. Given their weight in the admissions decision, what makes some letters stand out while others blend into the background? What Goes Into a Good Letter of Recommendation? As I mentioned above, you should share your ideas and information with your teacher recommenders, who can refer to your packet when they sit down to write your letter. However, you want to make sure your materials are useful. Without knowing what makes some letters good and others bad, you’d have a hard time knowing what kind of info to share. So, in a nutshell, a good letter of rec is insightful, personal, and enthusiastic. While your teacher should talk about your intellectual abilities and attitude towards learning, she should also speak to personal qualities, like empathy, creativity, or leadership skills. Just as importantly, she should be specific and demonstrative. By this, I mean that she should describe particular instances where you demonstrated your strengths. In a sense, her anecdotes can prove that her descriptions ofyou areaccurate. On the flip side, a bad letter may sound lukewarm and generic. It may sidestep talking about your personal qualities and instead only list data, like grades and test scores. An ineffective letter would also be unspecific and lack examples, making it effectively impersonal, even vague. Based on theseelements of a good letter, you can put together a â€Å"recommender’s packet† that will be useful to your letter writers. You can provide the type of information - your academic interests and goals, your personal strengths and values, and memorable anecdotes from class - that your teacher can incorporate to make her letter stand out. Generally, this recommenders' packet will beprovided for you by your guidance office. If it’s not for some reason, you would still be well served to put it together yourself. Read on to learn more about what kind of info should go into this packet! What Information Should You Provide for Your Recommenders? Once you ask you teacher for a letter and she agrees, you should share the following materials: Practical information, like to what schools she should send her rec letter, how to submit, and your deadlines. What you plan to study at college (if you know). What strengths, passions, of qualities you would like her to highlight in her letter. Special projects or memories from class that were significant to you. Your resume. Your brag sheet (this document is especially important, which I’ll describe in more detail below). The first few points on this list shouldn’t take too long to record, but other components, like your resume and brag sheet, may require 15or more hours of work. Let’s break down each component in more detail so you know what it is, why it’s important, and how you can prepare. Share the bare necessities, the simple bare necessities... Practical Information - Where, What, and When Perhaps it goes without saying that you have to give your recommenders the bare necessities: a list of colleges to which she should send her letter, instructions on how to submit, and, of course, your deadlines. Some teachers may uploadtheir letters to your school'sonline application, others to the Common Application, and still others to the e-docs software, Naviance. Let your teacher know what method she'll be using. What You Need to Do Ideally, you have your list of colleges and deadlines on hand when you make your request. If you’re asking especially early - maybe you’re asking your beloved 10th grade English teacher at the end of the year - then you can follow up with this information later. Remember that your teacher may have many letters to write, along with everything else she’s up to - so write everything down. That way she can refer to this information when she sits down to write your letter. Share all your deadlines, and send a reminder about a week before if you see that she hasn’t submitted her letteryet. Once she does submit, make sure to send a thank you note for her help in getting into college. Want to build the best possible college application? We can help. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools, from state colleges to the Ivy League. We know what kinds of students colleges want to admit. We want to get you admitted to your dream schools. Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in. Once you've shared the essential info, think about your special skills and interests. Also, please never try this at home. What Skills and Interests You’d Like Highlighted Maybe you’re asking your English teacher because you plan to study creative writing, and you’d love her to speak to your writing abilities. Perhaps you’re asking your Physics teacher so she can talk about your innovative contributions to the Robotics Club she supervises. Depending on your comfort level and relationship with your teacher, you wouldn’t be crossing a line if you explicitly stated what skills, qualities, or goals you’d like her to highlight in your letter. As mentioned above, the most effective recommendation letters speak to your intellectual and personal qualities. By sharing your ideas, you could ensure that your teacher includes your academic and personal strengths. What You Need to Do I’m not suggesting that you tell your recommender how to write her letter. You could keep what you say short and sweet, something like, â€Å"I’d really love if you could include my skill / interest / talent in (fill in the blank here).† Make sure that the skill, interest, or talent you mention is appropriate for a rec letter. Apassion for a subject, insightful comments in class, ora willingness to take on special projects would be worth mentioning.Your daredevil balancing stunts in tall places may be less relevant. This small amount of input could actually help provide your teacher with a theme around which to focus her letter. Let your teacher know what you learned from her class. What You Learned and Accomplished In Class Similarly, you might remind your teacher about a memorable project you worked on or lesson that was especially meaningful from class. If you had any notable achievements or important moments, you could describe them to your teacher. Since the best rec letters use specific examples, your input could be a useful reminder. Maybe you worked on a special research project or excelled in a debate. Perhaps reading A Brave New World changed your perspective on life. Maybe your teacher’s class helpedyou discover you want to be a World History major. Whatever you took away from her class, it could be useful to share. Your input could help make her letter even more specific. If nothing else, your teacher will appreciate hearing that her class made an impact on your thinking. What You Need to Do Before requesting your recommendation, list out your reasons for asking this teacher. Think about any stand out projects or instances where you went beyond requirements. Consider times that you contributed to a discussion, or perhaps had a thought-provoking conversation you had with your teacher. Write these moments down, and share them with your teacher when you make your request. As with above, you don't want to come off like you're writing the letter for your teacher. You could say something short and to the point, like, â€Å"I learned a ton from your class and was hoping you could provide me with a recommendation for college. One of my favorite projects was†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Since teacher recommendation letters provide a micro-view of you as a student - they got to know you on a day to day basis - they should include specifics from your class performance. Your teacher should have examples in mind, but it shouldn’t hurt for you to share your own memories too! Your Resume All students should include a resume in their recommender’s packet. Your teacher will mainly write about you in the context she knew you - as a student in her class. However, it’s also helpful for her to know what otherresponsibilities you balanced and what other activities you’re interested in, especially if theyconnect to her subject. For instance, maybe your Physics teacher will see that you pursued your passion for mechanical engineering for three years inRobotics Club. As described above, your teacher shouldn’t repeat your whole resume and fill your letter with data. However, it is useful for them to have context and learn more about what you’ve been up to in high school. Your resume, therefore, is an essential document to give your recommenders to help them write your letter. What You Need to Do People style their resumes based on personal taste, but the best ones include certain key elements: a summary ofskills, a list of activities and work experiences with brief descriptions, and any awards or achievements. You want to include your dates of involvement, and you may state an objective at the top. You should check out some samples and choose the format that works best for your experiences. Apart from providing a resume, you should be prepared to talk about what you learned from your experiences, especially as any relate to your teacher’s class or your academic goals for college. Even if your teacher doesn’t sit down to speak with you about it, you may provide these reflections in written form in your brag sheet. That way you can communicate not just what you did in high school, but what each experience meant to you. Your Brag Sheet Finally, we get to thebrag sheet, perhaps the most significant part of your packet. Your guidance department should provide you with this document, and its questions may vary from school to school. Whatever version you use, it should include prompts that ask you to think about your experiences, identity, and goals. Rather than giving quick, cliche answers, you should try to dig deep. Even if it feels vulnerable, being honest and revealing is the best way to communicate something real, important, and authentic. Ideally, your recommender already knows you well, but your brag sheet should help her get to know you even better. Some prompts may include: Describe your family. How have your parents influenced you? What qualities of theirs do you admire? What three adjectives would you use to describe yourself? What adjectives would your teachers use? Your parents? Give specific examples or stories of a time you exemplified each one of these qualities. Discuss an academic interest or passion. Describe an involvement that’s had a significant impact on you. How do you spend your free time? What have you learned about yourself since the time you started high school? How have you changed or grown? Describe a significant challenge or obstacle you’ve had to overcome. How did you do so, and what did you learn from it? Describe an experience that changed your thinking or perspective on an issue. Depending on your school, your brag sheet may be more or less thorough (or may not exist at all). If you feel you have more to share, you could add your own questions and answers. Besides adding more info, what else can you do to make your brag sheet as useful and telling as it can be? What You Need to Do As you can see, the questions on a brag sheet are quite personal. They’re tough to answer immediately. Instead, they call for some serious introspection and self-awareness. Don’t worry if your first reaction is to go blank. It takes some time to reflect on these questions and come up with answers that feel genuine and meaningful. One way to dig deeper might be to sit with a question and jot down any ideas that come to mind. For instance, let’s say you’re trying to describe an involvement that’s important to you. You might write down your participation in track team. Then you should ask yourself a simple question: why? Maybe track team has enhanced your confidence. Again, ask yourself, Why? Maybe you’re continuously breaking your personal records and showing yourself that you can redefine your sense of limitations. You can keep asking yourself "why" to get to something that resonates with you - maybe your achievements in running have spread into other areas in your life by showing that if you endure discomfort in the moment, you can break through to a new level that you didn’t know waspossible. Then again, another studentmight value track team because of the friendships she made there. Maybe she felt a strong sense of belonging with hertrack team, and this connectedness showed her that she can adapt to any new social situation. If you keep asking yourself why and defining your reasons, then your answer may look very different - and much more revealing - than where you started. Two students may write about their involvement in track, but they may value the experience for very different reasons. And this says something different about who they are and what's important to them. Your brag sheet willhelp your teacher write an insightful letter that reveals your character, personality, and values. They may also include significant circumstances in your family or personal background, if you're comfortable sharing them. All of this insightwill help admissions officers get to know you on a deeper level. Your letters should give admissions committees a fullersense of who you are as a student and person. By giving this same well-rounded sense to your teachers, youwill give themall the materials they need - along with the relationship they’ve already established with you - to write a personal and effective letter of recommendation. Key Points: What to Prepare and Why The most important takeaway you shouldgain from this guide is that you can play an active and influential role in getting strong recommendation letters. Of course, the foundation of your letters is how you performed in class over the year and got to know your teachers. Beyond this, though, you can prepare thoughtful information that will help your teacher write a specific, personalized, and revealing letter. Thinking about and producing your materials should take a few weeks of planning. You should expect to spend about 15 hours or more on creating and proofreading your resume and brag sheet. You shouldn’t scribble off fast answers to your brag sheet prompts; instead, take the time to sit with these questions and dig deeply, continually challenging yourself to get to the root of your answers by asking, â€Å"Why?† as in the example above. Your responses will not only jog your teacher’s memory and teach her new things about you, but they will also show her how much effort and planning you’re putting into your college applications. Hopefully, you’ve asked a teacher who supports you and knows you well. By putting in the effort to share your ideas, resume, and brag sheet, you can be confident you’ve done everything in your power to acquire an excellent letter of recommendation. What's Next? In addition to teacher recommendations, most colleges want to see an evaluation from your school counselor. To learn about how your counselor rec differs from your teacher recs, check out these examples of strong letters. For letters you don't want from your counselor, read these four examples. You may be surprised to learn how much influence you can have on your recommendation letters. Along similar lines, you also want to be strategic about how you present your extracurricular activities on your college applications. Check out this full guide on how to write about extracurriculars in the most impressive way. For more on the ins and outs of applying to college, check out this full step by step guide! It goes over everything from choosing your high school classes to brainstorming personal ideas. It's also available in snazzy infographic form! 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