Five greatest U.S. presidents Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Five greatest U.S. presidents - Essay Example Such a benchmark should enable one to determine varying degrees of greatness based on the extent to which each President under consideration meets or exceeds it. For purposes of this study, which purports to rank the five greatest Presidents in the history of the United States, greatness is defined as having had a direct impact on setting the course of America toward what it is today. In other words, the greatest Presidents are those without whom America would not have become the country it has become. These leaders each fundamentally altered the course of evolution of America, for better or worse, and thereby have heavily influenced present-day American life by way of their leadership. This being a top-five list out of forty-three possible choices, it need not imply that those who did not make the list were not great Presidents. Rather, the following five American Presidents were arguably the most influential in shaping America of all of the greatest and most influential leaders in American history, of which there were surely more than five. They are, in order of greatness: Franklin Roosevelt, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Harry Truman, and Bill Clinton. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was arguably the greatest American President in history. ... me and abroad, much less did so as effectively and with such positive results and while suffering from the effects of a ravaging disease (Coggan, 2003). Roosevelt led the nation with such a firmness of purpose and confident assurance that he was able to rally and inspire Americans to sacrifice in the name of a greater good for as long as it would take to achieve victory. The Great Depression was Roosevelt's first great test. Never before had the nation known such economic despair, nor lost confidence to such an extent in America's capitalist underpinnings. For the first time, the unfettered marketplace rolled over to reveal its vulnerable underbelly, and it was shocking to see how exposed it was. By the time Roosevelt entered the Oval Office, America was in the midst of a full-blown crisis that threatened its very fabric. Roosevelt reassured the nation through his "Fireside Chats" in a way that no previous President had ever before communicated with the country. He quickly went to work to craft and implement legislation that reestablished confidence in America's stock market, banking system and other capitalist institutions. He established public works programs that reemployed hundreds of thousands of laid off workers. Further, he Americanized the concept of social welfare with programs such as Social Security that peacefully coexisted with a free ma rket system. Roosevelt also led America into World War II, delivering one of the most inspirational rallying speeches in American history in the wake of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. His leadership was largely responsible for the Allied victory, and catapulted America toward its Post War Superpower status that it still retains to this day. Roosevelt essentially led the world in its greatest struggle against evil and

Competing Values Framework Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Competing Values Framework - Essay Example However, for successful implementation of this strategy, leaders have to do so by keeping the organizational culture in mind as well as understanding that the daily tensions that exist in the within their organization greatly affect their plans (Hartnell & Kinicki, 2011). The competing values framework comprises of these competing positive tensions, divided into four quadrants. For over 5 years of research and testing, results prove that competing values framework is a successful way of fostering good leadership, improving organizational effectiveness and promoting value creation. According to model, the four quadrants comprise of four hotly competing values within every organization which include collaborate, create, compete and control. In an organization’s limited resources including time, finances and labour, these four values really compete with each (Thakor, 2010). How effectively the leaders of the organization allocate for these resources determine their level of succe ss as business leaders. Their ability to respond to the tensions created by these competing values shapes the organization’s culture, practices, products and its efficiency in growing its operations (Rai, 2011). AÂ   Competing Values Framework Questionnaire developed for this purpose measures three important organizational aspects; purposes, people and practices. Purpose measures the future outcomes that a company hopes to achieve in future, practices measures the current organizational practices while people determine the individual leadership approach.... Their ability to respond to the tensions created by these competing values shapes the organization’s culture, practices, products and its efficiency in growing its operations (Rai, 2011). A Â  Competing Values Framework Questionnaire developed for this purpose measures three important organizational aspects; purposes, people and practices. Purpose measures the future outcomes that a company hopes to achieve in future, practices measures the current organizational practices while people determine the individual leadership approach of all members of the organization in their respective capacities (Moore, Kizer, & Jeon, 2011). According to Sharimllah et al (2011),the developers of the model urge business leaders to use the CVF model in measuring their level of effectiveness. Although there are different ways of defining organizational effectiveness as the competitive value model points out, companies ought to align themselves in the right definition of effectiveness. After align ing themselves, companies can thereby find an innovative potential in achieving their desired growth and outcomes. There are two ways of measuring the competing values assessment. One is at the individual level and the other at the team level. Individually, assessment focuses on the personal development and career planning ability while at the team level assessment focuses on the team development and creating a shared vision and shared valued among the group members. The initial step in competitive value framework is completion of the competing value assessment, which takes place either by the entire organizational members or by strategic business units. After

Essay about Makkah

Essay about Makkah Mecca is a holy place of Muslims in Saudi Arabia where it is believed that the prophet Muhammad lived and taught more than 1,300 years ago. Mecca is the holiest city in Islam. Mecca had become an important place in the history by the time when Prophet Mohammed (peace is upon him)  was born in about 570 AD. Mecca, the holy place has fallen with yearly ebb and flow of pilgrims as a result of growing Muslim community in the World and eventually the spread of Islam. The economic status of the city greatly depends on the large number of pilgrims visiting every year and their accommodation, feeding and transportation. (Ahmed Z.U. 1992). Prophet Mohammed (peace is upon him) was born in Makkah and was descended with the Holy Quran, and since then the propagation for Islam was launched. In the heart of the city is the Holy Mosque in the centre of which the Holy Kaaba is located, The Maqam of Prophet Ibrahim, his son Ismaiels stone (May God bless them), Zamzam well in which water has been pouring from hundreds of years, and Safa and Marwah where Muslims make Saie. There are other holy shrines of Mina, Muzdalifa, and Arafat near Makkah. Arafat is located at the Mount Arafat where pilgrims perform the main ritual of Hajj as the day of Arafat. Hajj is scheduled according to the lunar calendar and so moves 11 days earlier each year on the Gregorian calendar. Due to seasonal variation over time, the Hajj occurs at different times each year (Yamin M. et al 2009). It becomes difficult in summers as the temperatures in Saudi Arabia are very high. Unlike other Saudi Arabian cities, Mecca retains its warm temperature in winter, which can range from 17  Ã‚ °C at midnight to 25  Ã‚ °C in the afternoon. Summer temperatures are considered very hot and break the 40  Ã‚ °C mark in the afternoon dropping to 30  Ã‚ °C (86  Ã‚ °F) in the evening. Rain usually falls in Mecca in small amounts between November and January. Tourism at Mecca Mecca, the holy city in Saudi Arabia is believed to be the centre of the Islamic world. The journey to Mecca as the Hajj is popular to the Muslims all over the world but the Mecca travel is forbidden for non-Muslims. There are billions of people coming to Mecca for Hajj from all over the world. The Hajj in Mecca is the largest pilgrimage in the world. The Mecca city is Saudi Arabia is increasingly called Makkah. It is similar to the pronunciation of the Arabic word than does the English translation called Mecca. Non-Muslims are not permitted to enter the premises of Mecca, Saudi Arabia at any time of the year due to the fact that the Mecca travel and the Hajj are only intended for Muslims. It has happened in the past that several non-Muslims have entered Mecca; the penalties of it are quite harsh including deportation and jail time. Tourism in Mecca involves some advance planning. There is a special visa required by every Muslim who wishes to make the pilgrimage to Mecca. There is a valid visa required to enter the Hajj grounds. In case of Saudi citizens, permission is necessary. The foreign pilgrims intend to perform Hajj applies for a visa by furnishing information and undergoing some medical examination. The visa is granted by Saudi government by approval of the Hajj management in Saudi Arabia. Each pilgrim is assigned to a group of Hajj management called Munazzim once their visa is granted. Munnazim is responsible for their travel and accommodation arrangements in the Hejaz (Yamin M. et al 2009). In addition, a letter from the local mosque stating that the person is a Muslim is also required. Women who are under 45 years of age must travel with a male or a mahram considered being the head of the family. There should be a proof of their relationship. On the other hand, women over 45 years of age must carry a permission letter from her husband or her father along with the proof her being a part of the Mecca tourism group. The visa to travel Mecca does not permit to travel outside of Mecca and if anyone wants to travel other cities, they must apply for additional visa. The pilgrimage to Mecca commence at the Jeddah airport, a large city in Saudi Arabia. As the tourism in Mecca is very popular during the Hajj month, there are two special terminals for the people arriving to Mecca. There are direct bus services from the airport to Mecca Saudi Arabia. On arrival to the city of Mecca, the Muslims have to follow traditional rituals, called Umrah. These traditions should be followed by all the pilgrims. The rituals that are acted out in the incidents of the Quran are relatively hard to perform or rather complex and takes about a week. It is important that the pilgrims must wear the traditional pilgrimage clothing followed by a walk in the region of the Kaaba in a counter clockwise direction several times. After this ritual, next comes Saey which factually means run whereby the pilgrims walk back and forth between the hills of Safa and Marwah, the region where the wife of Prophet Abraham ran recklessly in search of water for her son. It has been written in Quran that there is a fountain that appears between the hills (Ahmed Z.U. 1992). Other rituals during the Hajj include going to Arafat. This is the the place where Mohammed gave his final sermon. The ritual is followed by drinking water from the Zamzam well which is inside the Great Mosque. It is believed by all the Muslims that their God provided water to Hajar and Ismail at this well when they were strolling in the desert. These two people are the central figures of Islam. Mecca travel is a meaningful once-in-a-lifetime experience for all the Muslims. Tourism issues There have been many tourism issues in Mecca that arise during the Hajj period. Many incidents have happened during the past years causing loss of hundreds of lives. It is estimated that there are 1.4 billion Muslims in the World and each one must visit Mecca for pilgrimage at least once in his or her lifetime if they can. It is all the way very hard to manage millions of people in Mecca during the month of Hajj. Crowd Stampede Stampedes are likely to occur at the Hajj because of the huge crowd and an extraordinary pressure. The individuals may stumble thereby precipitating an entire stampede. Massive crowds walking from one place to the other place of the pilgrimage, cause a stampede. There is a panic when the pilgrims jostle to avoid being trampled resulting in hundreds of deaths. For example, the ceremony of stoning the Devil is very crowded and dangerous and so can result in serious crowd accidents. The following incidents occurred due to massive crowding at the Hajj. 2nd July, 1990 Arafat plains of Hajj: A stampede inside a pedestrian tunnel leading out from Mecca towards Mina, Saudi Arabia and the Plains of Arafat led to the deaths of 1,426 pilgrims. 23rd May, 1994 270 pilgrims were killed in crowd during the stoning of the Devil. 9th April, 1998 Incident at Jamarat Bridge where 118 pilgrims died and 180 were injured. 5th March, 2001 During the ritual of stoning the Devil, 35 pilgrims were trampled to death. 11th February, 2003 14 pilgrims died in a rush during the stoning of the Devil ceremony. 1st February, 2004 251 pilgrims were killed and 244 people were injured in a stampede during the stoning ceremony in Mina. 12th January, 2006 346 pilgrims were killed and more than 289 were injured in Mina on the last day of the Hajj while performing the ritual ramy al-jamarÄ t. Diseases Disease spread is also a tourism issue in Mecca. This could be explained on the fact that there are millions of people from many countries visiting Mecca, of which some of them may have poor health systems, leading to the spread of epidemics. If there is a disease outbreak during the Hajj, this could make the problem worse when they returned home and passing the infection on to others. There have been such incidents in the past where the disease has spread among the pilgrims causing severe health problems. One such disease, called meningitis has been given a prompted response from the Saudi government. There were many concerns about the disease after its international outbreak at Hajj in 1987. Due to these global outbreaks of certain types of meningitis in previous years, it is now a visa requirement to be immunised with the ACW135Y vaccine before arrival. Every year, the Saudi government publishes a list of required vaccines for pilgrims, which for 2010 also includes yellow fever, p olio, and influenza. Trauma and other fatal events The word Hajj defines movement. There is a lot of chaos in transportation during the Hajj. The pilgrimage moves on foot in dense traffic for hours at a time. During the Hajj season in Mecca, there is inordinate traffic congestion. Other issues in tourism are fire incidents that happened in previous years. December 1975 Fire due to explosion a gas cylinder in a tent resulted in the death of 200 pilgrims. 15th April, 1997 Fire in a tent in Mina killing 343 pilgrims and 1,500 injured. In order to prevent such dangerous incidents, the kingdom has replaced all the tents and the tents are now fireproof with a variety of which are made up of aluminium frames with fibreglass. The risk of fire is now considered much lower (Memish Z.A. et al 2002). Tourism management Management in Mecca during the Hajj, handling millions of people during a specific month is not an easy task. The officials of the government of the Saudi Arabia should have done more to prevent such catastrophes. It is claimed by the government of Saudi Arabia that such massive crowd are very dangerous and difficult to manage, and that they have taken a number of steps to prevent problems. There are improvements of touristic facilities at Jeddah, Mecca and Madinah. There have been number of steps undertaken to overcome the hurdles and the incidents in the past. One of the controversial significant steps in action inculcates new system of registrations, passports, and visas to control the mass flow of pilgrims. This system intends to encourage and accommodate visitors travelling for the first time to Mecca, while restricting repeat visits. Such a system was protested by the pilgrims who have the desire and wishes to perform the Hajj several times and they have been biased about this system, but the Hajj Commission has stated that they see no substitute if further incidents and disasters are to be prevented. As a result of the stampede in 2004, there have been concerns and considerations by the Saudi authorities. The authorities have aboard a big construction work in and around the Jamarat Bridge area. Additional access ways, footbridges, and emergency exits were built, and concrete walls were designed to replace the three cylindrical pillars allowing more pilgrims to have a simultaneous access to them without fighting for position and deprived of crowd. A multi-million-dollar project has been designed and put into action by the government to expand the bridge to five levels. For crowd management, many organizations are using RFID chips to track and monitor people and products. This high technology is an effective way of identifying and helping people in urgent situations (Yamin M. et al 2009). These RFID carry some PDA (readable data) which can be used for medical emergencies and for reporting lost pilgrims with their groups. The device should be linked to the event database so as to facilitate the retrieval and updates as and when required. The disease spreads and recent outbreaks of H1N1 virus (swine influenza and bird flu) have made the crowd management more challenging. For the management of diseases, as mentioned earlier, there are set of medical examinations and immunizations to be undergone by the pilgrims to be registered in the event database. Therefore, the management of Hajj can be sum up in three phases. Phase one is about the necessary planning to organize Hajj and to intend pilgrims before departure to Saudi Arabia. Second phase refers to the Hajj process whereby different management steps are undertaken to control the issues in way of the Hajj process and the last phase directs to the measures undertaken to facilitate smooth return of pilgrims to their respective destinations.

Race and Destiny Essay -- Comparative, Hansberry, Ellison

Race and Destiny In this paper, I will present the two stories then I’ll show how they compare and contrast. The first one is the drama by Hansberry and the second is the text of Ellison. Since its first paragraphs, the â€Å"A Raisin in the Sun† focuses on a fundamental issue – poverty and how it’s related to race. Hansberry is drawing the portrait of a stereotypical situation, in the mid-20th century, when racial discrimination was linked to lack of money and vice versa. The plays spins around a check of $10000 from the insurance company, granted for the death of Mama’s husband. The story goes with discussing the investment choices about that sum of money. The main male character, Walter Younger, Mama’s son, is presented as man who is eager to get rich fast, over-appreciates money, and has little ethical bias. The phrase â€Å"Check coming today?† (p.1294) written in the beginning of the act one, scene one, shows Walter’s impatience and the idea that he places a greater value on material stuff, rather than interpersonal relations. Living in the Chicago Southside, Walter’s family faces some harsh living conditions. Even as much as fifty cents becomes a luxury option for the couple. This is depicted when Travis, Walter’s son, says â€Å"This is the morning we supposed to bring the fifty cents to school†, while Ruth, Walter’s wife and Travis’ mother, responds abruptly with â€Å"Well, I ain’t got no fifty cents this morning† (p.1295). In this excerpt, the author is emphasizing on two details about the Youngers: first, the value of frugality and the situation that even little money cannot be spent for wants, such as education; second, the family’s financial condition is highly unstable, because Hansberry accents that in a certain morning the famil... ... I wanted to leave but I wanted also to speak and I was afraid they’d snatch me down(P. 306 ). He noticed something wrong when he gave a speech in front of the white people. I spoke automatically and with such favor that I did not realize that the men were still talking and laughing until my dry mouth, filling up with blood from the cut, almost strangled me(P. 305 ). Conversely, when he was given a prize from a white man, he forgot what he realized something wrong. I was so moved that I could hardly express my thanks. A rope of bloody saliva forming a shape like an undiscovered continent drooled upon the leather and I wiped it quickly away (P. 306). While Walter Younger tried to fight his destiny and was striving to get rich and be â€Å"his own boss†, Ellison’s protagonist adopted the society well and was satisfied of his situation without noticing any injustice.

Korean Conflict Essay

Abstract In this essay you will learn about the Korean War conflict and how it ended and what went wrong. Also how the United States deals with the conflict of the Korean War. How did this war affect American sensibilities, including the way Americans viewed the war and themselves? There were many different consequences occurred as a result of the Korean Conflict, which ended in 1953, with thousands of fatalities but no clear victor and no peace treaty signed. The north continued to be occupied by communist forces, and the South becomes an American ally. Also, Korea illustrated how a relatively contained conflict could turn into a much broader regional conflagration. As the conflict escalated, there were points in time in which China and the Soviet Union could have conceivably been drawn into the conflict, potentially resulting in another regional, or even general war. Perhaps most importantly, Korea illustrated how tension between the U.S.S.R. and the United States could become full-scale conflicts. Other long-term consequences include the establishment of permanent nuclear installations in South Korea and the commitment of conventional U.S. military equipment and troops to South Korea for decades afterwards. Did the war change America’s world and why? Other important legislative changes include the passage of the War Power Act (1973), requiring U.S. presidents to receive explicit approval from Congress before forces could be deployed overseas for combat purposes. Politically, the conflict resulted in an aversion to further American casualties, which fundamentally changed U.S. intervention in later international conflicts. The Democratic party also experienced serious consequences in 1968. Democratic voters, split over U.S. involvement in Vietnam, divided their votes between Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace, resulting in a Republican presidential victory a Democratic party whose politics were changed fundamentally. Economically, the Vietnam Conflict resulted in inflation as spending for Vietnam continued, but the United States remunerated largely through monetizing of the money supply. Because the Americans did not know if the Korean War was over or not so the Americans try to go on with their lives but it was hard to do so. Was the outcome of the war beneficial or detrimental to the United States (or a combination of both)? I do believe that the Korean War was beneficial to the United States than it was detrimental. The United States gained knowledge from the Korean War; it was beneficial to them in the long run. The United States also gained awareness from the War. The United States of America became aware and more understanding of the â€Å"falling domino† effect of communism. After the Korean War the United States rearmed and become a world power and the United States realized that they needed to double the size of their army. For the next war that may to become of may be coming to the United States. References My campus.aiu-online.com/library/CourseGuide/5/Tutorials/AIUAPA/ebook.htpl Editorial Board. (2012). History. Schaumburg, IL: words of wisdom. Retrieve from http://mycampus.aiu-online.com/pages/bookshelf.aspx Course Materials: HIST105-1205B:U.S.History U.S. Relations: The Korean War http://www.pbs.org/newshour.uh.edu/database/Subtitles.cfm?titleID=75

African American Oral Tradition Essay

Modern African American Literature was formed under a stressful time for Africans, slavery. The only way the stories of the indigenous people of Africa were passed down was through oral recollections, or stories of the events. In America this was especially difficult for the slaves because of laws preventing them from learning English. By not being allowed to learn English, the slaves had to learn English solely on auditory purposes. This essentially made the slaves illiterate. When the slaves transferred the language that they heard to paper, a new style of language was formed which was referred to as dialect. Dialect is what the slaves thought they heard and the correct spelling of those words, not standard English. Dunbar, who wrote fluently in both standard English and dialect was praised by white critics only for his dialect poems, and not praised for his poems in standard English. His literacy works are still alive today, however the dialect works were attached with a stigma. Usually whites despised the African’s dialect. Therefore, the slaves would not try to publish any type of work with dialect because the slaves did not want to be associated with the stigma. In all, by creating a unique dialect gave the slaves a bilingual type of style. By not being able to write, slaves also made Genres such as, spiritual, folk songs and gospels. Songs such as these were ways of passing down stories to the next generation. These songs also contained secret messages. These messages may have contained information about escape routes or even the underground- railroad. However most of the songs were spiritual in nature. The songs also progressed through the years. The originals slave folk songs, spirituals, and gospels are now prevalent in modern day jazz and the blues. Martin even gives the example of Hayden, who mixes his song ideas with the ideas of Bessie Smith. Even though African are allowed to read and write, this is a form how their culture is still expressed today. Martin made the emphasis that the oral tradition is part of the African Americans distinct culture.

Hamilton and the Economy essays

Hamilton and the Economy essays The young America needed a smart and eager Secretary of the Treasury, and thats what it found in Alexander Hamilton under the George Washington administration. Hamilton knew that the countrys economy was in danger of going belly-up if there was not a drastic change and clear establishment of federal control of the direction of the budding economy. Alexander Hamiltons economic plan obligated America to pay off its national debt, establish a national bank, and establish tariff rates to make the most of American manufacturing. At the time that Hamilton became the Secretary of the Treasury, the nation was over fifty million dollars in debt, largely due to the costs of war and the foreign debts to accompany them. Hamiltons anticipation of global commerce in the decades and centuries to come fostered the creation of the Report on Public Credit. It was Hamiltons idea that the nation should pay off all war debts plus interest in full. This was a rather demanding goal for the economy, but one that would, if successful, solidify the nations credit. Hamilton also wanted all state debts to be paid assumed by the Federal government, which he believed was the proper source of responsibility for financing national defense. The Secretary wanted more responsibility for the countrys money. Namely, Hamilton wanted to control inflation, which Andrew Jackson had made a seriously problem by misuse of the previous national bank. Many were against the idea of a national bank, expressed by the argument from Thomas Jefferson and James Madison that America did not have the power to do such a thing nor was the establishment of a bank prioritized or even mentioned in the Constitution. Uneager to agree with Mr. Hamilton at first, Congress did not invest in his idea until he argued with the necessary and proper clause, making use of the Constitutions loose construction to argue that the bank...

The War on Marijuana essays

The War on Marijuana essays Slowly, the old man inhales the sweet smelling smoke and instantly relaxes. Time goes by slowly, stress melts like an ice cube, and the man feels a great sense of fatigue. Finally the man can go to sleep and rest in peace. These are just a few of the reasons people smoke marijuana. By making marijuana illegal, the government is deciding for the people what is healthy for them. Decriminalizing marijuana causes more harm than good. The war on drugs seems to be failing to achieve what it is meant for. Illegalizing marijuana violates civil liberties, causes social disorder, and increases crime and violence. The best solution to reduce these problems is to legalize marijuana for medicinal and recreational use. Marijuanas effects are nearly harmless. In fact, lethal overdose of marijuana is virtually impossible (Lowry 36). No one can say the same about alcohol. President Nixon once said, There is little proven danger of physical or psychological harm from the experimental or intermittent use of natural preparations of cannabis... (qtd. in Glasser). The author, Richard Lowry, of Weed Whackers agreed in his article by stating, ...it makes little sense to send people to jail for using a drug that, in terms of its harmfulness, should be categorized somewhere between alcohol and tobacco on one hand and caffeine on the other (36). Not only is this drug practically harmless, but people enjoy this drug for many personal reasons. They smoke it to relieve stress, mellow out, or just have fun (Kalet 82). The British medical journal Lancet could not have said it better by saying, When used in a social setting, it may produce infectious laughter and talkativeness (qtd. in Lowry). The effects of marijuana do not affect anybody else except for the user. If the effects of marijuana feel good to the user and no one else is harmed, why should it be illegal to use the drug? Drug warrio...

How to Write the UPenn Application Essays 2018-2019

Located just across the river from downtown Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania is one of the world’s premier institutions of higher learning. UPenn is known not only for its academic prowess but also for its thriving student life scene. This encompasses not only the myriad of on campus extracurricular pursuits but also the bustling metropolis just minutes away from campus. As an Ivy League institution, UPenn is one of the most elite institutions in the world. Its acceptance rate for the class of 2022 was a mere 8.39%. The middle 50 percent of ACT scores ranged from 32-35, and the middle 50 percent of SAT Math and Reading scores ranged from 690-770 and 680-750 respectively. In terms of structure, UPenn has four undergraduate divisions: the School of Arts & Sciences, Wharton School of Business, the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the School of Nursing. They also offer a myriad of interdisciplinary specialized programs that range from cognitive science to network analysis. Many of these programs combine the business of practices of UPenn’s legendary Wharton School with other disciplines, such as the Huntsman Program in International Studies & Business. This guide will provide invaluable advice for each of the essay prompts. Whether you’re majoring in chemistry or applying for the 7-year pre-dental program, we’ll provide you with plenty of tips for how to present your best self to the UPenn admissions office. Penn has one 400-650 word essay that all of its applicants must write, but those who want to apply to specialized programs, such as the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business or the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology , will have to write one or two additional essays. The first question you may have about your application is: what is the relation between your general application essay and your specialized program application essay? The first thing to know is that these specialized programs are very selective. They are not just looking for the â€Å"smartest† students, but rather the students whose particular experiences and goals best fit with what that specialized program has to offer . If you are not selected for a specialized program, it does not mean that you are intellectually inferior — it just means that other students were a better â€Å"fit.† For example, the Huntsman program is incredibly selective , admitting only 45 students per year out of an incoming class of almost 2,500. What this means is that applying for, and not being admitted to, a specialized program will not hurt your application to Penn. In your first essay (which everyone who applies to Penn must write), you will talk about how you will pursue your intellectual interests at Penn through one of its four large undergraduate schools: the Wharton School of Business, the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the School of Nursing. Then, if you are applying to a specialized program, you will make a specialized case for why you should go to that school. When you write, you’ll want to make sure that you are not repeating information between these two essays and that each essay can stand on its own . This can be a little bit of a challenge, but if you have what it takes to get into Penn it probably means that you have a wealth of different ways to talk about your interests. * Students applying to Digital Media Design and Computer & Cognitive Science should address both the specialized program and single-degree choice in their response. For students applying to the other coordinated dual-degree and specialized programs, please answer this question in regards to your single-degree school choice; your interest in the coordinated dual-degree or specialized program may be addressed through the program-specific essay. This essay is asking a very straightforward question: what do you want to study and why do you want to study that at Penn in particular. With this question, the admissions officers are trying to do three things. First, they are trying to weed out those candidates that are just applying to Penn because it is a â€Å"fancy school.† Second, they want to learn something about your intellectual passions and interests. Third, they want to see if you have done your research and started to figure out how you will use Penn to pursue those intellectual passions and interests. When they ask you to talk about your major within one of the four schools — Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Nursing, and Wharton — you should realize that you are not necessarily talking about these schools in general. Each of these schools contains a multitude of different majors, areas of focus, research opportunities, and Penn wants to know that you have taken the time to research their offerings. For example, if you are applying to the College of Arts and Sciences, you should not be talking about â€Å"Arts and Sciences† as a whole (everything from biology to French literature!). Focus on the major and classes within the school of Arts and Sciences that you want to pursue. Maybe you want to study at Penn because of its remarkably high number of professors (10!) working on differential geometry — a subject of particular interest to you. You might begin your essay by talking about how you have been interested in differential geometry ever since you asked your high school math teacher, â€Å"Okay, we’ve gone over how to find the surface area of a cube, but how would you even begin to find the surface area of something like a plastic bag floating in the air?† You can then go on to talk about the work you’ve done studying new topics in geometry over the summer, the thrill of thinking about how billiard balls bounce around differently shaped boards , and the overlap between your interests and the unique research profile of Penn’s mathematics faculty. An important thing to remember here is that you need to talk about both your passion for a particular subject area and what Penn has to offer you — both aspects are equally important! If you are interested in one of Penn’s specialized programs, you still need to write an essay about how you intend to pursue your intellectual interests at Penn, regardless of whether you are admitted to a specialized program or not. The trick here is to write an essay that communicates the full force of enthusiasm and excitement for a plan of study at Penn that does not hinge exclusively on admission to a specialized program, such as Huntsman (discussed in more detail below). Maybe you have been fascinated with international relations and diplomacy ever since you started learning French and playing Massive Online Multi-player strategy games that required weaving complex treaties with people from many different parties. You can write a great essay about how you hope to use Penn’s resources to pursue a major in international relations, and how you especially look forward to studying abroad — maybe to meet some of the people who you have been collaborating with from all over the world. Then, if you are interested in the intersection of business and international relations, you might use your Huntsman essay to talk about your abiding interest in logistics (perhaps related to your work in gaming) has drawn you to the problem of how conflicts in international law might affect the efficiency of global shipping supply chains. The College of Engineering’s special programs in Digital Media Design and Computer & Cognitive Science are something of a special case. For these two programs, your statement of why you fit into them belongs in this general admissions essay, not in a separate prompt. As such, you need to treat this essay like an application for a specialized program that also addresses the major you will pursuing outside these specialized programs. This means you will need to cram a lot into this essay. The trick in these cases is to use your essay to show how the distinctive intellectual interest that you are pursuing in the College of Arts and Sciences or the College of Engineering will be augmented by the addition of these specialized programs. For example, if you are applying to Computer & Cognitive Science, you might also be applying to the College of Arts & Sciences to study Linguistics. You can start the essay by talking about how language has always fascinated you: you always wanted to dig deeper than the rules listed in your grammar books. Why — you ask — do we say â€Å"the big red house† and not â€Å"the red big house?† Maybe part of what drove you to start learning Spanish and Russian was to see if rules of syntax in English also applied to other languages. Then, you’ll pivot in a new paragraph to talk about how your interest in syntax also makes you interested in Penn’s program in Computer & Cognitive science. Your interest in word-order might go beyond human-made languages and extend to the languages machine intelligences are starting to create . In order to show the admissions committee that your passion for computing is no less than your passion for learning new languages, you might talk about the work you did programming a chatbot or creating a little video game to help you study your Latin declensions. If you are applying to any of these interdisciplinary programs, you want to show the admissions committee that you have already started to think across disciplinary boundaries. What if you are not particularly interested in any of Penn’s specialized programs? That’s perfectly fine! Not applying to those programs will not hurt your application or make you seem like an â€Å"unambitious† student. After all, most of the specialized programs are focused on the intersection between the business school and other areas of study. Returning to our math example above, maybe you are just fascinated with geometry and not particularly concerned with its applications on Wall Street? That’s perfectly fine! But for those with a sincere interest, Penn’s specialized programs offer unique interdisciplinary possibilities. The rest of this article will tackle those prompts. Finally, though this essay asks you to discuss the â€Å"specific undergraduate school† you are applying to, that does not mean you cannot mention (in a short paragraph, maybe at the end of the essay) some of the social and cultural reasons that attracted you to the city of Philadelphia and its surrounding social and cultural possibilities. Maybe you are a history buff fascinated with Benjamin Franklin or maybe there is an exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of art that you have been dying to see. You won’t spend all your time in class at Penn, and it can’t hurt to offer a glimpse of your extracurricular interests in this essay. As Penn says, â€Å"Your essays tell us what sort of person you are — and provide a glimpse into the intangibles you might bring to our community.† The first thing to do if you are considering applying to any of Penn’s specialized programs is research . Go to their websites and read those â€Å"mission statements† and â€Å"about us† sections! More than that: go deeper and see what kinds of classes are offered and what the faculty who teach these classes research. If you can, talk to an alumnus of one of these programs. Or stroll through YouTube and see if there is a video posted from events and conferences sponsored by these different programs. The more details you have about these programs, the better you will be able to talk about how your specific interests line up with what these programs have to offer. If you want to apply to the program in Life Sciences and Management, it will not be enough to say that you are interested in â€Å"life sciences† because you really enjoyed your AP Biology class, and that you are interested in â€Å"management† because you’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur who finds â€Å"practical solutions to real world problems.† You’ll need to get specific and show that you’ve really done your homework and that your interest in these interdisciplinary fusions is more than just a passing phase. The Huntsman Program in International Studies & Business is a unique, four-year interdisciplinary undergraduate course of study that integrates business education, advanced language training and a liberal arts education. Huntsman students earn two degrees — a B.A. in International Studies from the School of Arts and Sciences and a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School. Huntsman students specialize in the area of the world in which their target language is spoken and graduate with a nuanced understanding of the political, economic and cultural complexities in a changing world. One key aspect of the Huntsman curriculum is choosing a country/culture, and then engaging in focused study for the next four years. Though this question may seem to be asking about all international issues, and though it may be tempting to try to synthesize global commerce in 500 words, what this essay really wants you to do is talk about a specific international issue from the perspective of a particular cultural or regional focus. The key is to analyze that issue from both the perspective of politics and from the perspective of business. Even if you are focusing on a very specific issue, this is a lot of ground to cover in just 500 words. Another way to give your essay focus is to talk about an issue that you have some kind of connection to or interest in because of your own history or experience. Maybe you come from or have relatives in the region that you are discussing? Maybe you have traveled to or worked in that region? Maybe you live in a neighborhood that has a lot of immigrants from a particular region? It is, of course, possible to write a thoughtful essay about a topic and region that you only know through a collection of diverse and carefully studied sources. But it can help your readers better understand your own personal interests if you can offer some kind of narrative as to why you are writing your essay on one particular issue when there is a whole world of problems to consider. For example, maybe you have family ties in Venezuela and are worried about the political and economic turmoil that country is currently experiencing. A compelling essay might discuss the challenges that come from threatening sanctions in order to get the Venezuelan government to open up its borders to foreign aid. Might sanctioning oil only cause further economic hardship for the citizens of Venezuela? Are sanctions an effective means of responding to repressive regimes? When and how can governments intervene in trade policy for humanitarian ends? The meaning of your analysis lies not only in the larger trends you are observing but also in the hospitals without medicine and the collapse of currency . An especially compelling version of this essay does not just engage in a cold analysis of international governmental and business relations, but also discusses how those problems impact the lives of real people. For another less politically charged but no less complex example, you could have a deep interest in how Chinese business has traditionally been conducted without enforced contracts . Maybe you do not have any family ties in China, but you read about this strange aspect of Chinese trade in the Wall Street Journal and wondered whether that editorial writer was just dealing in cultural stereotyping (â€Å"they are irrational!†) or whether there was something about the structure and practice of Chinese contract law that made it different from (if not necessarily better than) United States contract law. Perhaps your work in the Huntsman program will prepare you to help multinational corporations understand the nuances of informal contract law in China, perhaps even understanding how those informal structures might grant them greater flexibility. Of course, if you do write about a region that you do not have any personal connection to, you will also want to demonstrate more than a passing interest in that region. As you write this essay, you should also find space to mention how you have been studying the Chinese language for the last three years and expect to continue studying it at Penn. One last word on how the Huntsman curriculum might help you â€Å"resolve† the issue: if you are talking about a complex problem, you are not going to propose a â€Å"solution† in the space of a 500-word essay. Instead, you want to talk about how that curriculum will help you acquire the skills necessary to collaborate and further study the problem. In the Venezuelan example, you might point to the limitations of sanctions given that country’s history of seeing the United States as an â€Å" imperialist interloper .† In the Chinese example, you are exploring the nuances of communication and how promises are formed and sustained, not suddenly convincing China to take up a whole new legal framework. A mature essay avoids simple and grandiose solutions and shows that you are intellectually curious and open to the sustained inquiry and collaboration needed to tackle tough problems. LSM is an  undergraduate dual-degree program  administered jointly between Penn’s College of Arts & Sciences and the Wharton School. Each year, the program enrolls approximately 25 exceptional students and offers them the opportunity to pursue an interdisciplinary curriculum combining bioscience and business, leading to the completion of two degrees: a Bachelor of Arts in a life science major, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Economics. To ensure that every student learns how to apply their knowledge, the program provides the means for him or her to find two required, paid internships, one centered in scientific research, the other in business or public policy. Completion of the LSM program is an ideal starting point for students intent on careers in the life sciences sector by preparing them for the  advanced training we anticipate they will then go on to pursue through MD, PhD, MBA, JD, and/or  other graduate programs. LSM is suited to students with interests in h ealthcare; biomedical, agricultural, and environmental research and development; public policy; and the financial and strategic management of  life science organizations. This question is similar to the Huntsman question, as it requires to you to synthesize your interests and explain why LSM is the program for you. This program attempts to bridge the constant gap between scientific innovation and marketable solutions. An effective way to answer this is to point to a problem within a lab setting and explain how management overhauls can address it. For example, you could focus on the problem of managing the profitability of important drugs in low-margin markets. An example would be a cure to dengue fever that targets extremely low-income individuals in developing natures. As such, research efforts are dampened by a perceived lack of profitability amid large R&D expenses. An LSM education could provide the insight into the management side of life sciences to effectively raise the margins of a new drug that would motivate investment and seed funding to ultimately bring about a cure for millions of individuals. But if you go this route, you should also be wary of talking in a vague way about how â€Å"management† magically improves efficiencies. You will want to try to be specific about the organizational changes that you think might be helpful. In the dengue fever example, maybe you are interested in studying how leaders in marginalized countries might be incorporated into the drug’s distribution channels — perhaps both decreasing the need to build expensive new distribution infrastructure and hopefully securing the trust of community users. As you compose this essay, you should be aware that it asks you to be both as specific and as original as possible . You may be really excited about how gene therapies might allow HIV patients to forgo the onerous task of taking antivirals every day. On the business side, this new treatment could potentially reduce costs and lessen the number of trips patients have to take to the doctor — an especially relevant consideration for people in rural areas and people with limited mobility. But instead of just saying what we’ve said in the previous two sentences, there might be a more inventive way of approaching your prompt. What if you started your essay by presenting the script for a fictional advertisement for your new therapy? After you’ve talked up its benefits of gene therapy in your fictional TV spot, you might add a paragraph reflecting the particular challenges of getting patients to accept new treatments. The challenges facing gene therapy are not just technical challenges to be solved in the lab; there are also public relations challenges in a world where people are skittish about genetic engineering that need to be solved by an effective business communications strategy. Maybe the reason you are applying for the LSM is that you are interested in all the challenges that come with bringing a new treatment to the market from advancing through clinical trials to selling the treatment to doctors and patients. The benefit of this particular â€Å"creative† option for the essay is that it is not simply â€Å"off-the-wall,† attention grabbing for the sake of nothing more than surprise value. If you are writing about communication strategies and your essay presents itself as part of that communication strategy, then the form and content of your writing synergize. If you use a creative gimmick in your essay, it needs to amplify, rather than obscure, your central claim. The Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology, affectionately called the M&T Program, is the oldest coordinated dual degree program at the University of Pennsylvania. The Program combines academics from two phenomenal Penn assets, Penn Engineering and the Wharton School, into one unique educational experience. Students enrolled in the M&T Program pursue degrees from both schools concurrently, creating a truly interdisciplinary learning experience. This combination enables our students not only to understand engineering and business concepts, but also to understand the integration of the two and how this intersection distinctively shapes our world. This prompt is unique in the sense that it provides an opportunity for you to demonstrate your analytical reasoning and argumentation beyond discussing personal characteristics or facts about the school. Your best bet here will be taking a solutions-driven approach. Luckily, the structure of this essay is relatively clear-cut. The true difficulty comes in devising a response that is creative but also intelligibly grounded in reality. You should begin your essay by identifying one such disruptive technology and what the popular opinion is regarding its predicted significance. When selecting your form of technology, it’s important to be specific. For instance, don’t just write about machine learning, but instead write about something more detailed like machine learning software that encrypts secret government information. Also, it might be helpful to choose a technology that isn’t too ‘mainstream’ but that also does have seemingly serious implications for society. This will demonstrate your familiarity with the field. Once you’ve constructed a short introduction that establishes both your chosen technology and the common perception about its imminent success, your next step is to knock that argument down. Carefully research all possible implications of your chosen technology, and try to evaluate possible alternative nuances to each one. Brainstorm other extenuating factors that seem relatively unspoken of and could diminish the success of this technology. In essence, UPenn wants to see your ability to make a strong argumentative case against some technology. This will demonstrate both your familiarity with the effects of technology and your ability to think critically about its implications in society. Finally, you should focus on addressing the concerns arisen in the previous section. These solutions could come in many forms: possible tweaks to the initial technology, alternative uses of other, related technologies, etc. UPenn wants to see not only your foresight for potential technological issues, but also your creative problem solving capabilities that address these issues in turn. Here, admissions officers want to see that your problem-solving style demonstrates leadership/creativity. This is important because Jerome Fisher heavily emphasizes leadership and collaboration with others. Make sure your response reflects both leadership and creativity. Furthermore, you should emphasize genuine leadership through actions—not just a title you’ve held. For instance, if you were the treasurer of Key Club, talk about the initiatives you helped direct rather than solely the position itself. For example, maybe you helped start a can drive competition at your high school and then transported the cans to a local food kitchen. Furthermore, leadership in this sense doesn’t necessarily have to relate to a title. People demonstrate leadership all the time in their daily lives. For instance, maybe you were doing group work in your economics class, and you helped guide your team through a challenging problem. Just make sure you’re showing rather than telling . In terms of structure, you should first write a short introduction wherein you present the main problem. This problem can be literally anything. The important part is how you solve it. The bulk of your response should address your problem-solving method. Make sure the resolution of your problem involves both creative problem solving and effective group communication on your part. The purpose of this prompt is for UPenn to find people that have both ingenuity and strong leadership skills. For instance, maybe your robot breaks down at a robotics competition. You then respond by assembling it in a slightly flawed manner and collaborating with your team to reconstruct several lines of code. Only through your calm coordination is the team able to rebound and then place first in the competition. Likewise, only through your creative adaptability is the team able to suitably fix the robot’s code. Whatever scenario you present, make sure to address both your creativity and leadership in equal part. In the NHCM  program, you’ll study simultaneously in both schools and graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and a Bachelor of Science in Economics. Your work will include science and clinical courses, along with general education courses in the Arts and Sciences. We designed the   curriculum   to boost expertise in patient care and deepen your knowledge of how to manage the way that care is delivered. Nursing is a caring profession . Nurses handle patients when they come in the door, dressing wounds and calming anxieties long before the doctor appears. Nursing programs are justly proud of the way that they train their students in both the art of medicine and the art of empathy. The interesting challenge of this essay lies in speaking to the intersection between this deeply personal field that focuses on one-on-one interactions and the often depersonalized technocratic work of â€Å"management,† which looks to maximize systematic efficiencies. How to write an essay that situates your interests at the intersection of these apparently opposite fields For most nursing programs, the traditional essay dives into two aspects: (1) your training in science that prepares you to understand the technical aspects of working with individual bodies, and (2) your capacity for empathy and the humanistic training that allows you to treat each body as a full person. You will certainly need to address both of these topics in this essay. To do so, you might talk about a particular harrowing experience you had while shadowing a nurse at your local ER. When a patient came in after falling down the stairs, you saw how the nurse’s knowledge of applied physiology helped them maneuver the patient’s body without aggravating his head injury. But in order to learn that the patient’s head was injured, the nurses also needed to communicate with a panicked sister-in-law who was also the nurse’s best source of information. The good nurse must be both scientist and humanist in order to care for the individual. But in order to apply for the NHCM, you will need to add one more aspect to your essay: the management aspect. This includes the problems of budgeting, classification, scheduling, billing, and medical device supply chains that create an environment where healthcare professionals can do their best work. The trick is to show how these managerial concerns are actually intimately tied to the individualized caring that nurses do. For example, you might write about how you know that long shifts for nurses have been shown to result in high levels of burnout and more patient dissatisfaction . In order to make sure that the nurses are always at the top of their game (as they were when you shadowed the nurses who dealt with the head trauma), maybe you have an interest in developing new scheduling software that breaks up shifts into smaller segments and tracks the fatigue that nurses accumulate over the long term. After all, maybe it was something more than personal brilliance that allowed the nurse you were following to do their job particularly well; maybe they were also at the beginning of their shift, still fresh from a day’s rest and physically capable of navigating a complex situation. Submit your essay and we’ll get back to you with helpful edits. The VIPER program engages students in energy research early on, enabling them to perform graduate level work as undergraduates. Upon successful completion of the program, students receive two degrees: a BSE and a BA. The ultimate goal is to raise innovators in high-caliber research careers who develop sustainable ways to harness, convert, and use energy. The VIPER program has faculty and staff dedicated to advising the VIPER students and meet one-on-one with each cohort member. Cohorts bond, study, work, and get involved in research starting their first year at Penn. If you have conducted research in some sort of energy-related field, then this is a very straightforward essay. You should outline the goals of your project, your hypotheses, your approach, your results, and your conclusions. This seems like a very straightforward outline, but this essay is not just asking for a description of a research project. It is also asking you to discuss what makes you passionate about energy research and the larger social and political contexts that make your research important. The middle three terms — â€Å"hypotheses, approach, and results† — are the more straightforward terms where you say what you did in your research. Maybe you participated in a summer program where you studied how spent nuclear fuel rods behave when stored in different geological formations. You can describe the initial theory you tested, how you went about testing it, and what you found. As you do so, don’t feel the need to cram in the maximum amount of jargon in order to communicate your technical mastery. Wherever possible, use layman’s terms or define the specialized language you are offering. One of the things that these science programs are looking for when they read your essays is not just your capacity to do research, but also your capacity to communicate the importance of your research to a wider audience of non-specialists. After all, even though your VIPER application will be read by people with backgrounds in energy science, they might no t know anything about the particular subfield you were working in. The first and last terms — your â€Å"goals† and your â€Å"conclusions† — should be thought about in slightly more expansive terms. Don’t just talk what about you studied; talk about why you studied it. What is the larger social, economic, and political purpose behind the research that you were doing? For the example about researching spent nuclear fuel rods you might begin by saying that this is an especially important issue because we know that these rods need to be stored for 300 years in order to ensure safety. You might conclude your essay by taking offering a more philosophical approach, talking about how the future of sustainable energy research is not just a matter of coming up with new technologies, but also a matter of looking back and continuing to reckon with the challenges posed by the energy technologies developed in the 20th century. Alternatively, since this still a personal essay and not just a research statement, you might wan t to talk about why this research is particularly important to you . Maybe you live in Nevada’s Nye county, near Yucca Mountain , the first United States’ first nuclear waste storage repository? What if the research you have done is not directly related to energy? If so, that is perfectly fine: the skills you learned in one area of scientific inquiry can easily be transferred to another field. You should still follow the advice above about being a good communicator: avoid excessive jargon, don’t get lost in the weeds. More than a truncated research paper, the admissions committee is looking to see what you learned about the process of research from your experience. When talking about your methods you might talk about how you collaborated with your teammates to solve a particularly difficult problem. Maybe the chemical compound you were using as a catalyst was not congealing properly, and you were stuck until you figured out that the temperature reading for your refrigerator was off by one degree. More than any specific technical know-how, the applications committee is looking for teamwork and problem solving skills. You’ll be studying a lot of textbooks when you get into college, cramming your brain with more technical know-how than you can even imagine. An eager and collaborative spirit is something that you need to bring to the table. If the research experience you are talking about is not related to energy, you will also want to spend some time talking about why you want to get into the field of energy research in particular. Maybe you hope to take the teamwork skills you’ve learned doing fieldwork on sea urchin populations in Monterey Bay to the study of how salt-water algae might be farmed and used as biofuels ? You can also talk about other work that you have done which might not be directly related to scientific research, but is concerned with the political aspects of building a sustainable energy future. Maybe you worked on a campaign to convince local business to become carbon neutral? Whatever you end up writing, you need to convince the admissions committee that you are not just interested in â€Å"science† but rather that you are dedicated to building a sustainable energy future. If you have not done any directed research in the sciences, your essay will be focused on your interest in sustainable energy. You can still demonstrate that you have the skills to be a good researcher even if you have not already worked in a lab. Where have you demonstrated your problem solving skills and your capacity to work with a team? Maybe you worked for a political campaign and collaborated with a team to sort and analyze donor data? Which of your extracurricular activities demonstrates your scrupulous attention to detail and your boundless curiosity in learning how things work? Maybe you built a radio or spend your free time woodworking? Networks permeate and influence virtually every aspect of our lives-everything from how millions of Parisians travel on the Metro to how individuals make friends. Networks lift entire economies and elect presidents. They start revolutions. Move commerce. Make scientific discoveries. Cure diseases. Secure peace. Save lives. To understand and predict behavior, and to design new capabilities and services, we must understand people, systems, and incentives, and how the structure and properties of networks affects interactions. To that end, we’ve created an entirely unprecedented, multidisciplinary program that connects the study of networks with the study of human behavior. Networked & Social Systems mixes courses in engineering, mathematics and science with courses in sociology, game theory, economics and policy. More than just gaining the fundamental knowledge that navigates the various strategies and decisions that make up human interaction, you will build the digital solutions that anticipate the way people — and systems — will act. This essay is very open ended, and it is trying to gauge your capacity to think creatively about how different disciplines relate to each other, and how the concept of the â€Å"network† might hold them all together. But what is a network? A network is an abstract formal pattern. A set of nodes and edges (or lines and dots) that synthesizes the ways people, places, and things are connected. The strength of the network as an analytic tool lies precisely in its abstraction, the fact that it can be used to model and study many different phenomena, from the â€Å" transportation network † of New York’s subway system, to the â€Å" business network † of Donald Trump’s real estate empire. The questions that you might bring to any network are manifold. What is the quickest way to get from one point to another? Which actors are located in central or â€Å"influential† positions? What would happen if one node were knocked out? In statistics and mathematics, big data network analysis is a rapidly expanding research field. In ecology , scientists are using networks to analyze the ways that organisms are related to each other, and modern sociology is consumed with the anal ysis of â€Å"social networks† — not just online, but also in businesses and families and cities. The list of applications for network analysis goes on and on and on. To focus your response and avoid getting lost in the tangle, you will want to write about one specific network that fascinates you. Let’s take the example of the New York City subway system. True, this is not the â€Å"high tech† network like the â€Å"Internet,† but because a network is a kind of formal analysis, the questions raised in the study of one network can be applied to many other different networks. Moreover, NETS’ website mentions that they are interested in both â€Å" digital and real world networks .† Even a creaky old subway system is fair game. So, if you were writing about the New York City subway you might start off by saying that you first became interested in the study of networks as a child zooming along the â€Å"6,† out of Manhattan and into the Bronx. You can springboard from an account of your personal experience as a young rider to your more mature analysis as a student of urban design. Maybe Hurricane Sandy made you ask questions about how the networks that hold cities together might be made more resilient in the face of rapidly changing climate? After zooming out to think about network systems as a whole, you might end your essay by zooming back in on the unique aesthetic experiences that a modern networked world offers as a unique arts and performance space that lets new people and new artists move fluidly across the whole city. Another thing to keep in mind as you write this essay is that NETS is not just interested in the technical details that make a network work : they are also interested in the questions of power. You could call the Internet a jungle of machines-computers, cell phones, and millions of servers in data center warehouses-communing through copper, optical, and satellite links. The universal communications layer of these machines offers services and capabilities that are extensible in ways we never imagined just a few years ago, from online education and sharing jokes with millions in a matter of minutes to transforming entire media industries. But the Internet is not the sum of its machines. Who owns them? Who uses them? And who invents, negotiates and delivers the services in between? While the prompt above talks about the â€Å"creation of beneficial content for society† you might also write about the very real challenges that come with a modern networked society. The internet can be used to spread harmless content, like memes with otters snuggling goats , but it can also be used to spread more disturbing ideas . While it may seem like the Internet offers anyone and everyone a chance to speak, what does it mean if the infrastructure and management of those networks is under the control of a small number of incredibly wealthy companies ? This program is not just looking for talented engineers, it is also looking for interdisciplinary thinkers who are curious about how technologies shape societies and how societies shape technologies. Bio-Dental submatriculation is a seven-year joint program of the College and Penn’s School of Dental Medicine for students who will major in Biology and who wish to enroll in the Dental School during their senior year in the College. Application to the program must be made at the time of application to Penn. Applicants will be notified of their conditional acceptance into the program when they are notified of their admission to Penn. Full acceptance into the program is made after the student’s junior year and is based on academic performance during those three years and meeting the admissions standards of the Dental School. For details, see the   Biology Department   website. The Bio-Dental submatriculation program is highly structured and may not allow students to pursue dual undergraduate degrees. As with most of the essays for the highly structured Bio-Dental program, this essay is looking for information first, and narrative second. This does not mean that there is no room for creativity, but the most important thing is to clearly and effectively communicate what you have done and what you have learned. The first prompt lays out two different ways of answering its question depending on your level of experience. 1) The first option is more straightforward of the two: if you have medical or dental experience, you need to â€Å"list† that experience. And by â€Å"list,† they mean offer some type of resume that is specifically targeted to your interest in medicine and dentistry (no need to discuss your volunteer experience as an elementary school chorus director). The more specific you can be with numbers and dates, the better. But whatever you do, do not feel the need to inflate your accomplishments or the number of hours spent. This is very tempting, but in the end the Bio-Dental program is less interested in the exact number of hours you’ve volunteered than in the demonstration of a consistent and long-standing interest in medicine. Admissions officers know that for financial or family reasons not everyone can afford to volunteer for 15 hours a week. 2) The second option is much more difficult. If you have not had any specific medical or dental experience, then you will need to take a slightly different approach to this essay. You will need to write a very compelling 250-word statement about how your background has prepared you to enter a highly specialized and incredibly competitive seven-year dental program right out of high school. But before writing your essay, if you have absolutely no background in medicine or research, you should first question if you actually want to commit to a 7-year program in the first place (especially one as difficult to get into as Penn’s). If you are set on the decision, however, this essay is of crucial importance to legitimize your application amongst an applicant pool of relatively outstanding students with actual medicine backgrounds. Maybe you have not done any structured research, but you have had a lot of experience going to the dentist because you suffered from a rare gum ailment, and you have done a lot of independent research on your own case and hope to build on that work to help others? Maybe you are deeply interested in medicine, but instead of being able to do resume-building volunteer work you have had to spend a lot of time at home caring for your father who was suffering from Parkinson’s? This essay is attempting to gauge your physical capabilities as a doctor. Talking about your experiences in Woodshop, Robotics, etc., can be a good way of demonstrating your ability to work with your hands. If you were relatively hands-off in high school with respect to your activities, pulling an example from outside of school can help you answer this essay. Perhaps you are the one in your family that eagerly assembles Ikea furniture, or are an avid fan of Lego. Keep in mind that you don’t need to appear capable of brain surgery at this point in your life; you simply need to illustrate to Penn that you are comfortable connecting your brain and your digits. This question is a lot more open-ended. You can speak about anything from a leadership position to a community service role to even your experiences at home with siblings. If you still feel the need to highlight your interest in medicine, you can try to answer this from a medical perspective. Perhaps you had a relatively hectic administrative position in a hospital ER — your ability to calmly and collectively perform tasks with others in this stressful environment can highlight your teamwork abilities as well as emphasize, once again, your passion for medicine. This essay is more specific than a simple â€Å"Why Medicine?† essay. You need to explain why dentistry as a field appeals to you among all other medical fields. You can focus on a modern problem in the field and explain how you hope to pursue it at Penn. Alternatively, you can have a more human answer and explain why patient care in the industry is important to you, and how you hope to take your education and make some impact in that area. Be careful, however, that this essay does not too strongly overlap with your essay about pre-dental experience. If you had no experience to begin with, you likely wrote about how you developed an interest in the field. Make sure you don’t use the same topic for this essay.    There is also a little bit of a trick here: the â€Å"what interests you least† part of the prompt may seem a little bit unusual. In an essay where you are supposed to be communicating your passion about dentistry, wouldn’t it come off as strange to spend precious words talking about what you don’t want to do? The thing to recognize is that this part of the question plays an important role weeding out the applicants who have no business committing to a 7-year dental program as an 17 or 18 year old. People with experience in their intended careers will understand what they do and do not like and where their strengths and weaknesses lie. Being able to speak to your lack of interest in a particular problem is part of how this prompt wants you to demonstrate your depth of experience and what you have learned from that experience. As you talk about â€Å"what interests you least† be careful not to be too negative; even if a certain aspect of modern dentistry does not interest you, you should still make it clear that you respect those who focus their energies on that topic. (Indeed, the people reading your admissions essay might very well be specialists in the topic that â€Å"does not interest† you). While working as a clerk in Dr. Lee’s dental office, I really admired her detailed knowledge of the latest advanced surgery routines, and we would often talk about the research she was doing on enamel erosion. But one thing that Dr. Lee and I also discussed was the difficulty of communicating complicated physiological concepts to patients who did not have her specialized medical training. What those conversations led me to think about was that I was ultimately less interested in the detailed lab research that Dr. Lee focused on, and more committed to developing new methods of clearly communicating the work in the lab to patients. What I like about this response is that it shows a deep involvement with the problems of modern dentistry, and that it pays proper respect to the detailed research that other dentists do, while also showing that you have started to learn about your own strengths. Another version of this essay might talk about how your involvement with one research project on the effectiveness of different kinds of mouthwash led you away from research on consumer products and into a deeper interest into gum tissue. You might say that are now looking into a future career that is less focused on testing consumer products and more focused on in-depth anatomy research. This is also straightforward. If you have relatives, mention them. If you do not, don’t stress too much. You won’t be disqualified for a lack of legacy. Want help on your University of Pennsylvania application or essays? Learn about our College Apps Program and Essay Editing Program . For personalized mentorship and one-on-one guidance through the application process, check out ’s mentorship program and application guidance services .

Occupy Wall Street Movement Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Occupy Wall Street Movement - Assignment Example As the discussion outlines  the main motto behind this movement was to invoke change in today’s crony capitalism by raising worldwide awareness and calling themselves as 99%. They claimed to use the tactics of Arab Spring that was to peacefully protest against the unjust. An admirer of the OWS released a video calling the youth to join the protest by gathering at lower Manhattan and occupying the Wall Street for some moths. From there other groups including the governing body, General Assembly of NYC also started joining the protest. The word of protest soon got out through the social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. The movement soon started gaining momentum and pick up steam within a month.This paper discusses that  the protest that started on the Wall Street did not put forward any demand or grievances instead it brought some agendas to be viewed. The common agenda was the gap of 1% and 99% where 1% was considered to be the â€Å"wealthy traders and bankers at the top of the financial services sector† and the 99% was regarded to be everyone else leaving the 1% including the demonstrators or the protesters. The 1% was regarded to have a lump sum amount of money, power and wealth and was interested in conflicting with â€Å"the economic well-being of the rest of the country†.  The excessive compensation paid to the Wall Street traders aggravated income inequality and promoted excessive risk-taking. On the other hand this penalized the taxpayers whose money has gone into bailing out the failed banks.

Netflix Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Netflix - Essay Example Netflix definitely has the first-mover advantage in the online video streaming industry. Over the years, other companies have jumped into the fray to cash in on the lucrative market. The major competitors of Netflix include Amazon Prime Instant Video, HBO GO and Hulu. Amazon competes with Netflix by shipping millions of items and rented ebooks. Anyone can stream a TV show or video on the company’s website. HBO Gos Nordic service, an over-the-top (OTT) video-on-demand (VOD), is a potent challenger to Netflix. HBO has also announced its plans to launch its Internet TV service next year (Seitz, 2014). Meanwhile, the Vudu-Walmart alliance enables subscribers to stream on Walmart.com (Cablefax Daily, 2011). Netflix has always maintained leadership position in the online video streaming industry. It is not difficult to fathom why Netflix has been so popular. The online video streaming company provides a compelling value proposition to its customers. Netflix members pay a low monthly price and in return get unlimited hours of access to TV shows and movies. The members can enjoy this access anytime, anywhere, on nearly any Internet-connected screen. The icing on the cake is that the content is commercial free. Moreover, subscribers can pause and resume viewing the content at will (Netflix.com, 2014). In 2000, the company launched the personalized movie recommendation system whereby member ratings were used to accurately gauge the movie choices for all the Netflix subscribers. The streaming service was introduced in 2007. A year later, Netflix inked pacts with numerous companies so that its subscribers could steam on Xbox 360, Blu-ray disc players and TV set-top boxes. The initial success prompted Netflix to pursue more tie-ups and stream on the PS3, Apple iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, and the Nintendo Wii (Pr.netflix.com, 2014). Recently, Netflix introduced a feature whereby subscribers could automatically share what they saw on

Write a single page summarizing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Write a single page summarizing - Essay Example The company was happy with the product, which manifested great features as compared to Apple II. However, the happiness was cut short, two months after introduction. The project did not consider the available software, as only three existed. Evidently, no software was expected at the time for a period of six months hence making operations difficult. Apple III software was buggy and crashed even at little functions such as the save command. Certainly, this caused frustration among journalists interested in exploring the new device. The problems did not stop at the software, but the motherboard also got hot hence pushing chips out of their sockets. In response, Apple officials advised customers to drop their systems for reset. Nonetheless, the project came at a halt when IBM launched a more effective computer at lower prices ($1,565) than Apple. In this light, customers crossed over to IBM PC without giving apple even the alternative option hence the

Middle east economy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Middle east economy - Essay Example On economic issues, there has been a traditional shaping of the way the economies are run largely by the common religion that the region shares. The political stability of the region has also not been stable owing to the many Islamist groups that have constantly fought for islamisation of all policies in the region according to the rules of the Quran. This region has not developed well relative to the world level of emerging markets (Kuran). This paper therefore seeks to establish the historical facts that have led to this underdevelopment since the development of the Islamic law and the Quran. The economic institutions that existed in pre-modern times were of the idea that all laws are to be implemented under duress. The major focus will be on historical institutions that that accounted for the subsequent institutional evolution in the region. Economic Institutions The growth of economy in the Middle East draws its historical background to the development of Islam. This brought in t he economic institutions based on advanced contract law. The Islamic law brought in principles, regulations and procedures that governed the development of the economy of this region. ... However, economic scholars of the time were not able to agree on the definition of ‘lending’ or what really constituted ‘interest’. Islam jurists supported the credit money in which there was devising strategies that allowed interest to be charged without violating the Quran principles. There were no financial institutions and therefore the lenders were just individuals and society groups. The third issue shaping the economic governance of the region was economic governance that was shallow. Most of the governance was made by the state in which case mosques, libraries and caravanserais were built and financed directly by the state. These, being Muslim states were built on the basis of two very basic principles; Provisionalism as well as Fiscalism. Any order that was contrary to these principles was not directly allowed and did not therefore get the support of the national government. Weak property rights as well as arbitrary succession were the order of the day which was reported during the early practices of economy. The Muslim statesmen in the region starting with those in the state of Saudi Arabia had tax policies that were very concrete. The same was soon spread to other areas of the missile east that had embraced civilization earlier on especially the pre-Islamic civilization. These laws however became obsolete especially in Iraq, Syria, Iran and Palestine. Therefore, just like in civilizations that were coeval, there was tax discrimination in that the non-Muslims paid more taxes than the non-Muslims. This principle was unsystematic and many more communities received expropriation. However, as the practice became more applicable, there was the extent of confiscation and imposition of new taxes in the economies. This means that this industry

Case Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 27

Case Study - Essay Example The company has identified the prom from the statistics that it has collected, it will be therefore prudent to seek solution to this problem. The major objective of using AI is that it accentuates the positive, rather than seeking for a problem to fix it. Is main objective is to pursue and pinpoint the distinctive qualities and exceptional strengths of an organization, which members can build on to improve performance. The AI process consists of four steps, discovery, dreaming, design and destiny. In regard to Discovery the Parkway Nursing Care leaders should seek to identify what they think are the organizations strength. The employees of Parkway Nursing Care will give the occasions of when they felt that they are satisfied in their jobs. In the dreaming stage is supposed to make employees to use the information from discovery phase to speculate on possible futures. The design will be aimed to make the employees of Parkway Nursing Care to find a common vision on how the organization will look like in the future and agree on the unique qualities. On the fourth phase the employees will aim to fulfill their dream by typically writing actions plan and implementing their strategies. Parkway Nursing Care will face some resistance when they are implementing this phases of AI, the most common form of resistance to change will be because of fear of unknown. Resistance to change will also appear to be very selective since each employee would want a change that benefits them. There employees are not engaging in their respective jobs as required, this implies that the board of directors have to re-energize the workforce. The employees have to make believe that it is very meaningful for them to engage in their job. To reenergize the work force the employees’ job characteristics has to be enhanced as well as the make sure that the resources at Parkway Nursing Care are sufficient. This will ensure that the workers are reenergized and the work is done

Pros and Cons of the U.S. Governments Recent Passage of Affordable Essay

Pros and Cons of the U.S. Governments Recent Passage of Affordable Health Care Act - Essay Example The working Americans will pay more: Most of the middle-class Americans work full-time jobs and receive health insurance through their employers. The healthcare cost that existed before the Affordable Care Act became law and this law made the employers re-evaluate the insurance policies they offered (Skousen n.p.). As the employers tried to reduce the cost of providing coverage for the employees, the employed Americans paid more for their work-based health insurance while the citizens with high-cost work base insurance saw their benefits decline to avoid the taxes that will be incurred in the beginning of 2018. Some of the coverage is against the moral values of the employers: The law stated that contraception was to be offered free of charge to patients. This law caused a lot of issues especially for employers whose moral rules state that they don’t support any kind of contraception. This brought about a lot of lawsuits because the Americans are allowed to have freedom of rel igion; for some, the health issue was against their religious beliefs (Skousen n.p.). Adding additional health care expenses will impact workers: The employers were against the Affordable Care Act because they were already offering health care insurance to their employees. With the introduction of Obama Care, they felt that there was going to be another increase due to the law. In some cases, there was an increase in the amount employees pay for the health insurance to offset the high premiums from insurance companies. America is already very far in debt: As a country, America is facing big debt. With the additional Government program, this only causes more debts. The Affordable Care Act has had the potential to save money, but since it is over their budget, it will cost the taxpayer more money.

Case Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 27

Case Study - Essay Example The company has identified the prom from the statistics that it has collected, it will be therefore prudent to seek solution to this problem. The major objective of using AI is that it accentuates the positive, rather than seeking for a problem to fix it. Is main objective is to pursue and pinpoint the distinctive qualities and exceptional strengths of an organization, which members can build on to improve performance. The AI process consists of four steps, discovery, dreaming, design and destiny. In regard to Discovery the Parkway Nursing Care leaders should seek to identify what they think are the organizations strength. The employees of Parkway Nursing Care will give the occasions of when they felt that they are satisfied in their jobs. In the dreaming stage is supposed to make employees to use the information from discovery phase to speculate on possible futures. The design will be aimed to make the employees of Parkway Nursing Care to find a common vision on how the organization will look like in the future and agree on the unique qualities. On the fourth phase the employees will aim to fulfill their dream by typically writing actions plan and implementing their strategies. Parkway Nursing Care will face some resistance when they are implementing this phases of AI, the most common form of resistance to change will be because of fear of unknown. Resistance to change will also appear to be very selective since each employee would want a change that benefits them. There employees are not engaging in their respective jobs as required, this implies that the board of directors have to re-energize the workforce. The employees have to make believe that it is very meaningful for them to engage in their job. To reenergize the work force the employees’ job characteristics has to be enhanced as well as the make sure that the resources at Parkway Nursing Care are sufficient. This will ensure that the workers are reenergized and the work is done

Target market Essay Example for Free

Target market Essay Fitness United is a large fitness facility, in its early stages of operation. We started this fitness facility to help our members save money. While getting fit, staying in the shape they all ready are, or just starting something new. Our gyms will reduce the expenses that the average household spends on staying fit, by offering low prices and making sure that you stay on track; without there being a loss for equipment. When you stay fit and in shape you improve productivity, you feel better about yourself, and you know that you are doing all that you can to make your life better. Our target markets are demographic, psychographic, and behaviour segments. We felt that Demographic segmentation will allow us to reach everyone and anyone in our community. Our gym will have an age restriction, unfortunately youll need to be over 17 years of age to come into the gym. We will be trying to reach out to the younger people in our community and be able to accommodate their children with day care, this way gym goers will be able to workout and stay healthy knowing that their children are safe and being watched over. Beginning to plan for the future, Fitness United will allow you stay fit and healthy and be able to plan for what ever you want to do. By staying fit and healthy you can plan for that dream vacation hiking mountains in the mayan, or where ever your heart desiers. We will have the latest products and resources that our members will be able to work with to achieve their goals. The newest equipment that allows our members to get fit faster and work different muscle groups each time they attend the gym. Our trainers will help you with meal plans to make sure you get the best out of your work outs and help repair your body after workouts. Our trainers are trained to help members stay on track, with monthly weigh ins and meal plans; this is all part of the membership cost. Psychographic segmentation will let us reach out to people and make their dreams come true, with the right marketing and the right advertising we can touch on what they will be able to achieve with purchasing our membership. Not just a great body or a low fat percentage, but a new you. A new you that you can be proud of and challenge the ones around you to become the same. The power of self confidence is a key with psychographic segmentation and fitness unlimited. Behaviors segmentation will allow us to target the people to seek to fulfill their goals. We will make sure that our staff will walk with our clients step by step to achieve these goals. Knowledge is key they say, we have the best trainers and staff that will sit with our clients and make sure that they are educated about what they are doing in the gym, and be able to answer any questions clients may have. We know that there will be cheaper and flashier gyms in the community, but none will be have the expertise and equipment that we will have. We will drive sales and beat the competition by advertising everything, and I mean everything that you get without membership. No gyms will be able to offer the same as we can. From trained and certified child minding, to trained and certified trainers we will have all the tools to go above and beyond all the other gyms in our demographic.

Nuclear pollution

Nuclear pollution Any undesirable effect caused to the environment due to radioactive substances or radiations is called nuclear pollution.Major source is the Nuclear power plants. If traces of the radioactive substances are present in the water that is released from the plant, it will cause nuclear pollution. Emission of radiations can also cause this kind of pollution. It affects almost all life forms in the surrounding environment. From planktons to Human beings nothing is spared. To be more specific, the radiations can cause mutations that lead to cancer, and the dose of radiation or the level of pollution determines lethality or how deadly it is. However, nuclear pollution is extremely hazardous in nature. It occurs as a result of nuclear explosions that are performed while conducting nuclear tests. These nuclear tests are carried out to invent better nuclear weapons. The explosions cause release of 15 to 20% radioactive material into the stratosphere. On entering this layer, they start falling into the earths atmosphere. This fall can take any where from 6months to several years. 5% of these radioactive particles enter troposphere, which is the lowest layer of the atmosphere. The smallest particles of the radioactive material are called fallout. The fallout settles on the leaves of plants and trees. These leaves are eaten by the grazing animals. Radioactive material now enters the ecosystem. Humans consume these particles through the process of food chain. Serious health problems now arise. Ingestion of radioactive material can lead to cancer and genetic mutation in humans. Fallouts that do not drop on leaves accumulate over the sea. This can be harmful for the sea life, which ultimately affects the humans. It isnt necessary that only nuclear power stations cause nuclear pollution. Even other industries, not related to nuclear power production, can also contribute to it. Coal has small amounts of radioactive material in the form of uranium and thorium. These do not burn completely and become part of fly ash. Even while producing oil and gas, radium and similar elements are released in to the air. Radioactive contamination or nuclear pollution is the most dangerous for the environment since the wastes maintain their radioactive properties for thousands of years. There is no way to have them assimilated in the soil, the water or the air in the initial form. Reprocessing is the only solution we have to limit the extent of nuclear pollution and clean the planet from such increasingly harmful residues. The highest likelihood of radioactive elements reaching in open environment is by accident during the transportation to the reprocessing plants located in some parts of the globe. Reprocessing in itself causes other pollution problems adding other risks to an already fragile environment condition. Presently, no country has efficiently solved the issue of nuclear pollution in terms of radioactive waste storage. Every state would like to send the residues to some other place and be rid of them, while no truly viable conclusion is reached. Storage facilities as such require highly intransigent security and safety rules, periodical checks and regular updates on the storage environment. A responsible management of the nuclear waste would limit the risk of nuclear pollution on the long term, allowing us to live on a cleaner and safer planet, also preventing the temptation of dumping the waste in the oceans. Nuclear pollution is not the only hazard that comes together with the use of radioactive energy: mass populations are jeopardized on a current basis if something happens to a reactor, as it was the case with the Russian Chernobyl for instance. There are other energy sources that are still highly effective without the huge risks of nuclear pollution or irradiation: geothermal sources, ocean currents, tidal waves, wind and waterfalls, all make alternative power solutions that should not be neglected. Environment-friendly electricity is one of the chances this planet has to survive. Fish and ocean plants are highly contaminated due to nuclear pollution; Greenpeace has repeatedly signaled out the huge amount of plutonium effluents produced by the nuclear plant on the coasts of England, for instance. Lobsters in the area have been found to be contaminated, hence the effects not only on humans but on the entire ecosystem is devastating. Attempts have been by an American company to even built a radioactive storage facility on Marshall Islands, ignoring the even higher potential threats for nuclear pollution under the circumstances of a growing sea level. Such solutions may appear convenient from a certain perspective, but when considered from a wider point of view, irresponsibility is obvious.