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Is learning Python "extraordinary"?

Laura Creighton lac at strakt.com
Sun Dec 30 12:07:58 EST 2001 
You may get further in impressing the folks at MIT if you describe why
you decided to learn Python.  Whatever it was that made you decide to
do something that the rest of your peers didn't is likely to be
something interesting about you.  (And, if you did it because you and
six friends at school decided to learn it together, then, that is in
itself something that makes you and your friends unusual and
interesting.)  US admissions to University is not one of the things
that I know anything about, but it seems likely that what your letter
is supposed to accomplish, if it works, is make you stand out from
the crowd.  If you happen to be exceptionally humble and modest, this
test will be rather hard for you.  Fake it.  Stand as outside of
yourself as you can and say, 'My peers are all turnips. _I_ on the
other hand, am _very interesting_ because ... and write down whatever
your mind comes up with.'  That, I suspect, is the sort of thing that
they are looking for.

Whatever you do, after you have written your letter, pack your ego
down to size so you can go back to being a humble learner.  The world
is full of traps for young people who have more ego than is good for
them, and it would be a shame to trigger a bunch of them because you
wanted to write the perfect letter to impress MIT.

Good luck with it!

Laura Creighton
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