Minnesota Essays - MinneapolisSaint Paul, Minnesota, Minneapolis

Minnesota Hi! I'm Amanda. I chose to do my report on Minnesota because that's where I'm from. In fact, my whole family is from Minneapolis. I thought it would be interesting to know more about where I came from. So sit back, relax, and enjoy my report on Minnesota. Like all other states, Minnesota has many special qualities of its own. The Norway pine is the state tree. The loon is the state bird. The pink and white lady slipper is the lovely state flower. "Star of the North" is the state motto. Last but not least, the gopher is the state animal. They are all very interesting and unique to Minnesota. Minnesota is a weird name as many might think. That is because Indians made it up. In their language, minne means "water", and sotah means "sky-tinted". In that case, the nickname is "Land of Sky Blue Waters". There are over 4,757,757 people living in Minnesota. The four biggest cities are Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth, and Bloomington. Minneapolis is the biggest, but St. Paul is the capitol. Minnesota is surrounded by the states of Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota, and North Dakota and Canada. I've visited many of these states, and I can tell you that some of the nicest people live in Minnesota. In Minnesota, there are many interesting places to go. Some of the most popular are the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, the Mayo Clinic, Fort Snelling, the Glensheen Mansion, Ironworld USA, the Minnesota Zoo, Murphy's Landing, the Science Museum of Minnesota, Paul Bunyan Land, The Guthrie Theater, and one of the most popular of them all (especially me), the Mall of America. There are also many lakes, forests, state parks, and sporting events. I never knew there could be so many places to go in one state. Like many other states, Minnesota has its own ways of doing things. With natural resources of fertile soil, important minerals, and thick evergreen forests, the major industries are farming, mining, and the building of roads, office buildings and hotels. The crops farmers grow are corn, oats, wheat, potatoes, soybeans, peas, and many others. With all the big cities, I never knew there was so much farming in Minnesota. Minnesota's climate has four definite seasons. Temperatures average around 68 degrees F in July and 2 degrees F in January. Also, throughout the year, they get about 19 inches of rain and snow. It's a fun place to live if you like both summer and winter activities. There are many historical facts about Minnesota. Long ago glaciers covered most of the land that we now call Minnesota. Two famous French fur traders, Pierre Esprit Radisson and Medart Chouart were the first white men to set foot on this land. Before that, only Indians lived here. Another famous person, Sinclair Lewis (an American novelist) lived in Minnesota. Some other interesting facts about Minnesota are that it has the biggest mall in America (the Mall of America), and one of the most well known rivers in America (the Mississippi river) begins here. There are a lot of interesting things about Minnesota. When I chose to write about Minnesota, I just did it because that's where I was born. Until I did this report, I never knew how interesting one state could be. Now that I picked it, I feel I made a good choice. If I had to chose over again I wouldn't change my mind. After studying Minnesota, I'm very proud to say that's where I'm from.

Hard High School How It Affects Your College Chances

Hard High School How It Affects Your College Chances SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Attending a tough high school can certainly affect some of your performance statistics. It's natural to wonder whether these shifts in your numbers are going to affect your chances of college admission. In this article, we cover what colleges are really concerned with when they look at your record, and we explain why you don't need to be worried if your high school is especially hard. What Is a "Hard" High School? There are a few reasons a high school might be considered "hard." Usually, it's because the school iscompetitive within the student body; there are a lot of students taking the really tough classes and doing well in them. Grading policy is also a consideration.Hard schools are slow to give out A's, whereas others practically chuck them at any student in sight. Size can also impact how hard a high school appears to be. At a large and competitive school, it's hard to get a top class rank- you're competing against a lot of other people. At a small and competitive school, it's hard to get a good percentile ranking because a slight difference in rank can translate to a relatively large percentile discrepancy. A hard high school is one where students who would otherwise get top grades and top ranking have a hard time doing so, either because the grading is so tough or because their peers are so competitive. What Colleges Look At Many students worrythat the relatively lackluster grades or ranking they achieve at a hard school may seem unimpressive to colleges. Basically, they're afraid they won't look smart. They think they won't be able to get into their desired college(s) because they didn't a perfect GPA and graduate as valedictorian. As it turns out, colleges, especially the more selective ones, do their best to view youwithin the context of yourhigh school environment. When colleges receive your transcript, they also receive a brief "school profile"whichsummarizes the school in terms of courses offered, the grading scale, average grades and tests scores, and the class size. Admissions officers will see that your school has tough grading policies and that an imperfect GPA doesn't imply a lack of understanding in your courses. Colleges are looking to see whether you sought out the most rigorous courses available to you and whether you excelled in them. Also, remembercolleges are looking for the whole package. Grades are a huge part of it, but they're also looking at test scores, extracurriculars, letters of recommendation, and personal statements. Colleges won't assign (or dock) you points based on how difficult your high school is- they'll do their best to be fair to students from all backgrounds. There areplenty of factors to weigh when it comes to college admissions. Ways to Boost Your Application You're essentially trying to stand out by means of some skill or accomplishment. Commitment to extracurricular endeavors is a great place to start. Quality trumps quantity here; it's better to be deeply involved in a few select activities than barely involved in a whole bunch. Stellar application essaysalso score major points. Spend serious time on your personalstatement, and get help revising and editing it. Make sure it has a balance of the personal and professional- this isn't a scholarly essay for an academic journal, but it's not a diary entry, either. Awesome letters of recommendation make a great impression. Choose your recommendation writerscarefully. It's alright to remind them of your accomplishments- describe the points you'd definitely like them to include. Impeccable test scores catch the eye. Standardized tests are a convenient place to shine. Invest your time and energy in preparing for the SAT and/or ACT ahead of time. The Final Word You don't need to worry about a college looking down on you because of your hard high school. The most selective colleges spend extra time looking at the context of your numbers, and the less selective schools are, well, less selective. The best you can do is perform your best at the high school you attend. Take the hardest classes you can actually manage, and don't worry overmuch about how the resulting grades will look. If it so happens that you don't get into the college you'd hoped for, remember there are multiple reasons why things may not have lined up; it's almost certainly not a matter of the hard high school you attended, but just the fallout of an extremely- and often unjustly- selective system. What's Next? Are you getting started on the college application process? Pay attention to the important deadlines listed in our article on that topic. If you're wondering what kind of application you ought to submit, read what our experts have to say about that very issue. Also check out this inspirational guideto how one student was successfully admitted to Harvard. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points? We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now: