Saturday, August 31, 2019

Protective Equipment Is to Reduce Employee Exposure to Hazards Essay

Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products.[1] Slower oxidative processes like rustingor digestion are not included by this definition. The flame is the visible portion of the fire. If hot enough, the gases may become ionized to produce plasma.[2] Depending on the substances alight, and any impurities outside, the colorof the flame and the fire’s intensity will be different. Fire in its most common form can result in conflagration, which has the potential to cause physical damage through burning. Fire is an important process that affects ecological systems across the globe. The positive effects of fire include stimulating growth and maintaining various ecological systems. Fire has been used by humans for cooking, generating heat, signaling, and propulsion purposes. The negative effects of fire include water contamination, soil erosion, atmospheric pollution and hazard to human and animal life.[3] | Fire Technology is a peer-reviewed academic journal publishing scientific research dealing with the full range of actual, possible, and potential fire hazards facing humans and the environment.[1] It publishes original contributions, both theoretical and empirical, that contribute to the solution of problems in fire safety and related fields. It is published bySpringer in conjunction with the National Fire Protection Association.[2] Arson[1] is the crime of intentionally and maliciously setting fire to buildings, wildlandareas,[2] cars[3][4] or other property with the intent to cause damage. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires. Arson often involves fires deliberately set to the property of another or to one’s own property as to collect insurance compensation.[5] Heat In physics and chemistry, heat is energy transferred from one body to another by thermal interactions.[1][2] The transfer of energy can occur in a variety of ways, among them conduction,[3] radiation,[4] and convection. Heat is not a property of a system or body, but instead is always associated with a process of some kind, and is synonymous with heat flow and heat transfer. Heat flow from hotter to colder systems occurs spontaneously, and is always accompanied by an increase in entropy. In a heat engine, internal energy of bodies is harnessed to provide useful work. The second law of thermodynamicsprohibits heat flow directly from cold to hot systems, but with the aid of a heat pump external work can be used to transport internal energy indirectly from a cold to a hot body. Transfers of energy as heat are macroscopic processes. The origin and properties of heat can be understood through the statistical mechanics of microscopic constituents such as molecules and photons. For instance, heat flow can occur when the rapidly vibrating molecules in a high temperature body transfer some of their energy (by direct contact, radiation exchange, or other mechanisms) to the more slowly vibrating molecules in a lower temperature body. Oxygen is a chemical element with symbol O and atomic number 8. Its name derives from the Greek roots á ½â‚¬ÃŽ ¾Ã Ãâ€š (oxys) (â€Å"acid†, literally â€Å"sharp†, referring to the sour taste ofacids) and -ÃŽ ³ÃÅ'ÃŽ ½ÃŽ ¿Ãâ€š (-gÃŽ ¿nos) (â€Å"producer†, literally â€Å"begetter†), because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition. Atstandard temperature and pressure, two atoms of the element bind to form dioxygen, a colorless, odorless, tasteless diatomic gas with the formula O2. This substance is an important part of the atmosphere, and is necessary to sustain most terrestrial life. A fire extinguisher, flame extinguisher, or simply an extinguisher, is an active fire protection device used to extinguish or control small fires, often in emergency situations. It is not intended for use on an out-of-control fire, such as one which has reached the ceiling, endangers the user (i.e., no escape route, smoke, explosion hazard, etc.), or otherwise requires the expertise of a fire department. Typically, a fire extinguisher consists of a hand-held cylindrical pressure vessel containing an agent which can be discharged to extinguish afire. Fire prevention is a function of many fire departments. The goal of fire prevention is to educate the public to take precautions to prevent potentially harmful fires, and be educated about surviving them. It is a proactive method of reducing emergencies and thedamage caused by them. Many fire departments have a Fire Prevention Officer.In the general sense of preventing harmful fires, many aspects are discussed in the articles Fire protect ion and Fire safety. Wildfire suppression refers to the firefighting tactics used to suppress wildfires. Firefighting efforts inwildland areas requires different techniques, equipment, and training from the more familiar structure firefighting found in populated areas. Working in conjunction with specially designed firefighting aircraft, these wildfire-trained crews suppress flames, construct firelines, and extinguish flames and areas of heat to protect resources and natural wilderness. Wildfire suppression also addresses the issues of the wildland-urban interface, where populated areas border with wildland areas. Firewall may refer to: * Firewall (construction), a barrier inside a building or vehicle, designed to limit the spread of fire, heat and structural collapse * Firewall (automobile), the part of the vehicle that separates the engine from the driver and passengers * Firewall (computing), a technological barrier designed to prevent unauthorized or unwanted communications between computer networks or hosts * Firewall (Physics), a blast of Hawking Radiation seen by a freely falling observer upon crossing the horizon of a black hole. Firetrap firetrap is a British clothing company, founded in 1991,[1] specialising in premium menswear and accessories. It is the main brand within the WDT company (World Design and Trade), which also owns its sister brand Fullcircle along with previous brands SC51 and Sonnetti. Firetrap is firmly established internationally and is sold in more than 30 countries[2] and 1,500 stores worldwide. There are eight stand-alone stores in the UK: a Covent Garden store in London and others in Belfast, Liverpool, Leeds, EdinburghWestfield[disambiguation needed], Sheffield & Nottingham (2010).[3] The brand is a key player worldwide with a new store in Dubai and concessions throughout Europe including Italy, Germany and France. Conflagration A conflagration or a blaze is an uncontrolled burning that threatens human life, animal life, health, or property. A conflagration can be accidentally begun, naturally caused (wildfire), or intentionally created (arson). Arson can be accomplished for the purpose of sabotage or diversion, and also can be the consequence of pyromania. During conflagration the property is damaged or destroyed by fire. Sometimes the conflagration produces a firestorm, in which the central column of rising heated air induces strong inward winds, which supply oxygen to the fire. Conflagrations can result in casualties, deaths, or injuries from smoke inhalation orburns. Combustion Combustion (pron.: /kÉ™mˈbÊÅ's.tÊÆ'É™n/) or burning is the sequence of exothermic chemical reactions between a fuel and an oxidant accompanied by the production of heat and conversion of chemical species. The release of heat can produce light in the form of either glowing or aflame. Fuels of interest often include organic compounds (especially hydrocarbons) in the gas,liquid or solid phase. In a complete combustion reaction, a compound reacts with an oxidizing element, such asoxygen or fluorine, and the products are compounds of each element in the fuel with the oxidizing element. For example: CH4 + 2 O2 → CO2 + 2 H2O + energy A simple example can be seen in the combustion of hydrogen and oxygen, which is a commonly used reaction in rocket engines: 2 H2 + O2 → 2 H2O(g) + heat The result is water vapor. Complete combustion is almost impossible to achieve. In reality, as actual combustion reactions come to equilibrium, a wide variety of major and minor species will be present such as carbon monoxide and pure carbon (soot or ash). Additionally, any combustion in atmospheric air, which is 79 percent nitrogen, will also create several forms of nitrogen oxides. Fire point The fire point of a fuel is the temperature at which it will continue to burn for at least 5 seconds after ignition by an open flame. At theflash point, a lower temperature, a substance will ignite briefly, but vapor might not be produced at a rate to sustain the fire. Most tables of material properties will only list material flash points, but in general the fire points can be assumed to be about 10  °C higher than the flash points. However, this is no substitute for testing if the fire point is safety critical. Degree Celsius Celsius, also known as centigrade,[1] is a scale and unit of measurement for temperature. It is named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius (1701–1744), who developed a similar temperature scale. The degree Celsius ( °C) can refer to a specific temperature on the Celsius scale as well as a unit to indicate a temperature interval, a difference between two temperatures or anuncertainty. The unit was known until 1948 as â€Å"centigrade† from the Latin centum translated as 100 and gradus translated as â€Å"steps† From 1743 until 1954, 0  °C was defined as the freezing point of water and 100  °C was defined as the boiling point of water, both at a pressure of one standard atmosphere with mercury being the working material. Although these defining correlations are commonly taught in schools today, by international agreement the unit â€Å"degree Celsius† and the Celsius scale are currently defined by two different temperatures: absolute zero, and t he triple point of VSMOW (specially purified water). This definition also precisely relates the Celsius scale to the Kelvin scale, which defines the SI base unit ofthermodynamic temperature with symbol K. Absolute zero, the lowest temperature possible at which matter reaches minimum entropy, is defined as being precisely 0 K and −273.15  °C. The temperature of the triple point of water is defined as precisely 273.16 K and 0.01  °C. This definition fixes the magnitude of both the degree Celsius and the kelvin as precisely 1 part in 273.16 (approximately 0.00366) of the difference between absolute zero and the triple point of water. Thus, it sets the magnitude of one degree Celsius and that of one kelvin as exactly the same. Additionally, it establishes the difference between the two scales’ null points as being precisely 273.15 degrees Celsius (−273.15  °C = 0 K and 0  °C = 273.15 K).[3] Fahrenheit Fahrenheit (symbol  °F) is a temperature scale based on one proposed in 1724 by, and named after, the physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736).[1] Within this scale, the freezing of water into ice is defined at 32 degrees, while the boiling point of water is defined to be 212 degrees – on Fahrenheit’s original scale the freezing point of brine was zero degrees. The Fahrenheit scale was replaced by the Celsius scale in most countries during the mid to late 20th century, though Canada retains it as a supplementary scale that can be used alongside Celsius.[2][3][4][5] Fahrenheit remains the official scale of the United States,Cayman Islands, Palau, Bahamas and Belize.[6] The Rankine temperature scale was based upon the Fahrenheit temperature scale, with its zero representing absolute zero instead. Personal protective equipment Personal protective equipment (PPE) refers to protective clothing, helmets, goggles, or other garments or equipment designed to protect the wearer’s body from injury. The hazards addressed by protective equipment include physical, electrical, heat, chemicals, biohazards, and airborne particulate matter. Protective equipment may be worn for job-relatedoccupational safety and health purposes, as well as for sports and other recreational activities. â€Å"Protective clothing† is applied to traditional categories of clothing, and â€Å"protective gear† applies to items such as pads, guards, shields, or masks, and others. The purpose of personal protective equipment is to reduce employee exposure to hazards when engineering and administrative controls are not feasible or effective to reduce these risks to acceptable levels. PPE is needed when there are hazards present. PPE has the serious limitation that it does not eliminate the hazard at source and may result in emp loyees being exposed to the hazard if the equipment fails.[1]

Friday, August 30, 2019

Mnc and Foreign Direct Investment in Malaysia Essay

Multinational Corporations (MNCs) and Foreign Direct Investment (FDIs) in Malaysia Over the Past Decade: A Detailed Look at their Determinants, Patterns and Effects. 1.1 Multinational Corporation and Foreign Direct Investment in Malaysia Primarily, Multinational Corporations or also known as MNC is defined as a firm that has an extensive involvement in international business, owning or controlling facilities in several different countries other than its home country. In other words, firm or group that derives a quarter of its revenue from operations outside of its home country is considered as a MNC. Typically, these types of companies have offices or factories in different countries and continents, but they are controlled by a centralized head office that is responsible for the coordination of the global management. For such companies, the expansion and penetration into foreign market can commonly be achieved via exporting, licensing, joint venture and also foreign direct investment . Foreign direct investment or also called as FDI is a term that is commonly and closely linked to MNC and it is described as an investment made by a company or entity that is based on country into a company or entity based in another country. In order for a firm or corporation to become multinational, they must first acquire a controlling stake in foreign firm. This can be achieved by newly creating a foreign firm (international Greenfield investment), acquiring an existing foreign firm through international merger and acquisition and also through joint ventures. Inflows of FDI into a host country greatly affect the overall development of its economy due to the fact that FDI provides external source of capital, management skills, new technologies and also job opportunities. Since Malaysia first opened its door to FDI in the early 1960s, Malaysia has been receiving a steady arrival of MNC from around the world (Bernama 2012), including from Asian countries and as further as European co untries and the United States. Malaysian Industrial Development Authority (MIDA), have reported that more than 4000 foreign international companies have set their presence in Malaysia as their offshore base (MIDA, 2009). Among the MNC that have the presence in Malaysia are Dell, Intel, Shell, GlaxoSmith Kline (GSK), Schlumberger and many others. Besides the capital city of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, other states that have successfully attract MNCs and investors include Penang and Johor Bahru. According to time Magazine, in the manufacturing industry, Penang is  featured as among the preferred destinations for MNCs due to several factors such as logistics and geography. This is also in line with the Federal Government initiative to develop Penang into the third metropolis in the country, after Klang Valley and Johor Bahru. 1.2 Determinant As mentioned before, from the time Malaysia undergone into the transformation from an agricultural-based nation to manufacturing-service based nation and from the opening of its door to FDI, the number of MNC present in Malaysia has shown an increasing pattern. According to Business Times (2012) Malaysia has emerged as the fifth most popular destination for FDI in Asia in the year 2011, with an increase of 31.5 per cent from 2010 to US$11.97 (RM 37.83 billion). At 44 per cent, manufacturing sector continued to be the major contributor to FDI inflows, followed by service sector (35 per cent), mining and quarrying (20.1 per cent), and also forestry and fishing at 0.3 percent (Business Times 2012). Malaysia is also showing a positive outlook as the Economist Corporate Network’s Asia Business Outlook Survey 2012 have shown that half of the 500 multinational companies were planning to increase their investment in Malaysia in the year of 2012. The survey done also revealed that in the aspect of investment priorities for those MNCs, Malaysia is now ranking at number seven out of 12 Asian countries, while in terms of market attractiveness for the purpose of production and manufacturing; Malaysia is ranking at number four. There are definitely several determinants that resulted in such development. One of the major factors that attracted investors to Malaysia would be the commitment by the government to sustain a business setting that provides companies with the opportunities for growth and profits (Iskandar Malaysia 2012). The commitment is reflected in the government’s continuous efforts to obtain feedback from the business community through channels of consultation like regular government-private sector dialogues. Such dialogues will give the various business communities the opportunity to voice out their views and at the same time to contribute towards the formulation of government policies which concern them. Additionally, Malaysian government has also been very proactive in attracting foreign investment into Malaysia through several policy reforms such as the Investment Incentives Act 1968 that was then repealed and replaced by The Promotion of Investment Act 1986 (PIA 1986). There are three main incentives covered under this Act, namely Pioneer Status, Investment  Tax Allowance and Infrastructure Allowance (KPMG 2005). Pioneer status incentives provide full or partial exemption from the payment of income tax, whereas Investment Tax Allowance provides company with an allowance based on qualifying capital expenditure incurred. In similar manner, Infrastructure Allowance is granted to companies resident in Malaysia which has incurred capital expenditure on infrastructure in respect of business in operation in a promoted area. The introduction of this Act further encourages investment activities in this country, especially in manufacturing industries and it has resulted in the increased number of foreign investors coming into Malaysia. This is shown in the vast increased of share of foreign proposed capital investment in the approved manufacturing project from 19% in 1984 to 64% in 1992. Besides the establishment of Free Trade Zone, the introduction of more liberal incentives under PIA 1986 that allows larger percentage of foreign equity ownership in enterprise is also one of the determinants that draw large inflow of FDI into Malaysia. In addition to the government incentives, there are also various policies formulated by the government with the aim to further enhance the attractiveness of Malaysia as the go-to location for FDI. In 2011, several key initiatives have been implemented which comprise of Economic Transformation Program (ETP) and the 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP). These policies lay down the foundation for the country’s transformation into a high income economy, as foreseen in the New Economic Model (NEM). With this implementation, Malaysia continues to be a cost competitive location that has been able to proficiently attract project with significant level of investment (MIDA 2011). Apart from the policy factors, other factors that attract FDI and MNC are the well-developed infrastructure of Malaysia that is aimed to serve the business community. According to World Investment Report of 2008, MNCs usually invest in countries that have well established network of transportation as well as communication facilities (Alex, et. all 2010). Malaysia undoubtedly fulfill the needs of logistic and communication within its boundary particularly in the Peninsula of Malaysia. These well maintained PLUS highways is an advantage to industries as it link major city centers to seaports and airports throughout the peninsula, thus providing an efficient and effective means of transportation for goods. Complementary to these highways, a Kuala Lumpur-Bangkok-Kuala Lumpur containerized service that is known as the Asean  Rail Express (ARX) has been initiated with the aim of expanding it to become Trans-Asia Rail Link that will comprise of Singapore, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and ending up in China (Iskandar Malaysia 2012). In addition to that, the five international airports and seven international seaports definitely make Malaysia an ideal springboard to the Asia Pacific Market (Trade Chakra 2009). As for communication, subsequent to the successful privatization of its Telecommunication department, Malaysia’s telecommunication network has come a long way with the latest digital and fiber optics technology being utilized to provide supreme quality telecommunication service at competitive price. Other than the determinant discussed above, another major factor that attract FDI into Malaysia is the good environment and the political stability of this country (Har et. all 2008). Despite the several crises that arose recently, Malaysia political environment is still considered as relatively stable in comparison to other countries such as Thailand. Sound environment and stable political environment have attracted many foreign investors to invest in Malaysia because with such stable condition, investors and MNCs will face fewer problem and they will be able to run their business more conveniently and efficiently. According to Ajami and Ricks (1981), the political stability of a country has a positive impact on FDI because political stability is vital in creating a climate of confidence for investor. Bernama (2007) have also reported that the presence of MNCs especially those that have set up regional operating headquarters is a vote of their strong confidence in the strength of the country’s political and economic system. 1.3 Pattern of FDI in Malaysia *Source: United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Over the past decades, Malaysia ha s been received lots of Foreign Direct Investment(FDI). The flow has reached its peak in 1988 to 1993 and started to decrease after 1996 due to Asian Financial Crisis as well as world trade recession that hit Malaysia apart from other countries. From the graph above, the pattern of FDI flow into Malaysia from year 2000 to 2011 can be observed. It shows that the inflow is inconsistent and fluctuates randomly. However, in overall, Malaysia has attracted a steady inflow of net FDI in the recent decade, averaging 3% of GDP per annum with a peak of 4.5% of GDP in 2007(Har, et. al., 2008). According to UNCTAD’s World Investment Prospects & Survey, 2011-2013, Malaysia has been ranked as one of  the top host economies for FDI in 2011-2013. In year 2001, the figures for FDI is much lower compare to the other years due to global trend and collapsed of technology bubble and it increases back in year 2002(The Star Newpaper, 25 March 2010). And this trend once again can be seen during 2009, where the FDI has relatively declined greatly from 2 008 because lack of confidence from the foreign investors due to global financial crisis in 2008 and 2009 as mentioned by the Chief Economist RAM Holdings Bhd Dr Yeah Kim Leng(The Star Newspaper, 25 March 2010) and further dampened by the contraction of Malaysia’s export activities. During 2009, although the government tries to promote and attract more investors by promoting more freedom to the investors, it still did not work out. The FDI dropped by 81% which is from US$7.3bil in 2008 to US$1.4bil in 2009. Whereas from year 2006 to 2008, the FDI in Malaysia is much higher than those previous years because during this period, activities like MNEs mergers and acquisitions, establishment of joint ventures and other new investment activities took place which attract more investors to invest in Malaysia. After the crisis in year 2009, the Foreign Direct Investment(FDI) has increased tremendously in year 2010 with most FDI originated from Asian countries. *Sources : Department of Statistics Malaysia One the reason that led to the FDI increment in 2010 was the purchasing activities of US$1billion worth of stake from a local company by the Company from Republic of Korea. During the period of 2006-2009, there are 3 sectors or industries that dominated the FDI received namely the manufacturing, services and oil and gas sectors. Based on the below chart, comparing with all the industries in Malaysia, manufacturing industries shows a highest figures or amount of FDI received and followed by a service sector etc(NST business Times,6th July 2012). And according to Bank Negara annual report, 41% of the FDI received were found in the manufacturing sector whereas services and oil and gas both received 37% and 17% respectively. *Adopted from CEIC *Sources : Department of Statistics Malaysia Last year, among all the states in Malaysia, Penang has received the highest amount of FDI which exceeded the other states followed by Sarawak(Shazwan Mustafa Kamal,2011). From below data, Selangor has contributed most GDP since year 2000 until 2009. And it were reported that most of the GDP were contributed from the non-local company, showing that  there has been high foreign investment within that state. However, in 2011, Penang has showed an improvement in attracting FDI by surpassing Selangor in receiving FDI and maintain in the top list for 2 years since 2010. (more graph in the appendix) 1.4 Effects of FDI on Malaysia. Over the years, there are many impacts of Foreign Direct Investment(FDI) towards Malaysia in many aspects. One of the distinct effects of FDI on Malaysia is the growth of the country’s economy ever since 1990s especially in the manufacturing sector like petroleum, chemical industries and etc by increasing the domestic capital. Hence, the production capacity also increases and further leads to economic growth. This later creates a favorable investment environment that could help in attracting other investment from other investors and further increase the FDI into the country. According to Krugman and Obstfeld (1994), â€Å"FDI functions as one way to bridge an inter-temporal gap of capital demand and supply, and, like other capital inflows, increases the production frontier of developing countries, which normally suffer a shortage of capital†. The economic growth in Malaysia can be seen through the growth of its GDP as shown in the below graph. Malaysia’s GDP seems to be steadily increased in year 2005-2007 where the FDI is high and declined in year 2009 where the global financial crisis affected Malaysia. From the perspective of employment in Malaysia, the FDI inflow by the Multinational Companies has caused an increase in the domestic employment rate. More job opportunities were created and offered to the citizens in Malaysia especially in the manufacturing sector due to the economy expansion in Malaysia. The standard of living of Malaysians is now getting better and better. This can be observed in below data: During the year 2007, when the growth rate for Malaysia is the highest, there is less unemployment, showing that there have been more job opportunities that lead to better employment rate. And when the employment rate increase, the standard of living also increased among Malaysian. Based on the graph above, the rate for unemployment in year 2009 is the highest. This is when the growth rate in Malaysia is the lowest. People are losing job due to less job opportunities and bad economy during that period. According to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Nor Mohd Yakcop, 3.3millions of job opportunities has arisen in 2011 after the implementation of the Economic Transformation Programme that has  been used to attract foreign investors(Raina Ng, 23 September 2011). Apart from that, FDI has been an important vehicle in transferring many aspects such as new technologies, management and production skills and knowledge. There has been an improvement on the level of skills and knowledge amongst the employees in Malaysia and our local entrepreneurs. When the multinational company brings in their expertise to Malaysia, indirectly Malaysian will be able to learn some skills and knowledge from the foreigners through training or hands-on learning and improve on their technical capabilities. Employees in Malaysia are more expose to high technologies and efficiencies in managing the company’s management. Thus, this allows them to produce products that are competitive enough to compete in the international arena. And workers also are able to increase the production capacity by adapting the new technologies into the production process and this further led to increase the growth in GDP in Malaysia. Looking at previous year in 1990s where FDI started to increase in Malaysia, there has been a major improvement in the Malaysia’s export performance if compare to year 1980s with less FDI even up until now. Since Multinational Companies(MNC) has present in many international market, hence FDI from this organizations is consider as a potential source in transfer process of managerial knowledge, skills as well as new technologies that able to help in better production efficiencies and be competitive in the international arena in terms of pricing and quality of the products. The domestic firms can either obtain the information on the MNCs directly or indirectly to improve their production. The leakage of this information is known as the ‘spillovers’ and it can occur directly or indirectly. Once the domestic exporters have obtained the information regarding the international market, then they can produce accordingly to the international standard and increase the exports.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

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 . How to Write the University of Michigan Essays 2017-2018 The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor is a top-ranked public university with a long history of excellence in sports, the arts, and academics. Founded in 1817 with the motto, â€Å"Arts, Knowledge, Truth,† the university now has one of the largest alumni networks in the world. No matter which of Michigan’s 19 schools or colleges they attended, alumni are always willing to help out fellow alum because of their adoration for their shared and beloved alma mater. Year after year, the university receives a record number of applicants, and last year they accepted around 42.4% of their in-state applicants and 24.5% of their out-of-state applicants. The school is currently home to 28,312 proud undergraduate Michigan Wolverines. Michigan’s location in Ann Arbor provides its students with access to one of the continuously best-regarded college towns. It is not only a fun and attractive place to live, but it is also home to many work opportunities and an entrepreneurial spirit. With a campus spanning 3,211 acres, more than 250-degree programs, and more than 900 student organizations, Michigan is home to endless opportunities. Students looking for a large school with a diverse student body and a lot of school spirit find exactly that and more at the University of Michigan. Read on to learn how to write the University of Michigan supplemental essays. This prompt represents a common category of supplement prompts that ask you why you want to study a specific program at a specific school. The main purpose of these â€Å"Why Us?† essays is to show the school why you are interested and why you are a good fit. This is done in two parts: 1. why you want to study what you have indicated and 2. why you want to study it here at this specific school. Make sure to do some research so you can provide more than generic examples like â€Å"I want to go to a big schoolâ€Å" or â€Å"I like sports† that could apply to many other schools. To learn more about â€Å"Why Us?† type essays, read our essay guide, â€Å" How to Write the â€Å"Why Us?† College Essay .† When you start to write this essay, you first want to develop why you wish to study what you have indicated on your application. An anecdote is often the most effective means of accomplishing this. You could recount how your time in physical therapy, love for your biology class, and long history of playing sports fueled your passion to learn more about the human body and how it moves. This perfectly lines up with the field of Kinesiology. Next, you need to demonstrate why Michigan is the perfect place to study what you have selected. Continuing with the Kinesiology example, you could talk about its excellent reputation and some specific classes you really look forward to taking. With preferred admission applications, it is important to discuss your future goals as well as past experiences that make you sure you will want to be a part of this program. For example, if you apply for the Pharmacy program, you will want to discuss why you are interested in pharmacy and detail the moments in your life that have led you to this decision. Perhaps you have always had a passion for chemistry and helping others, and hearing from your friend’s mom about her career in pharmacy was consistently one of your favorite parts of your weekly hangouts. With dual-degree programs, the key is not only discussing why you want to pursue a degree in each of them, but why you think the combination is especially important for you. For example, if you are applying to the dual-degree Ross School of Business and College of Engineering program, you could discuss your dream of beginning your own tech startup and needing both the technical engineering knowledge and business savvy. You could write about how you first came up with your idea and when/how you realized Michigan’s dual-degree program would be the perfect place to bring it to life. The main purpose of this question is to get at what the applicant believes to be central to their perception of self. Michigan wants to know something special about you and your background and how that will contribute to their diverse campus. No two people have the same exact story, and this is your opportunity to show how yours is different. Often, when students read the list of possible communities in this prompt, they immediately know which of their many communities they will write about. Others have a hard time identifying a community in their life that has shaped them. For those of you who feel that way, the most helpful path to discovering this impactful community is to write out a list of the communities you belong to or have belonged to at some point in your life. It could include your hometown, grade school, in-school club, church group or something that will require more explanation like the car you drive or your favorite food. For those who are truly stumped, the latter approach can be a good way to spin something that most people would not see as a community into one. Let’s take the â€Å"favorite food† community for example. You could write an essay about being part of the community that believes waffles are superior to pancakes. You could talk about how your grandma always made you her famous waffles and taught you a life lesson that changed your perspective while mixing the ingredients. This essay would discuss how you became a part of this community and why it is important to you in a very creative way. Almost anything is possible with this prompt. No matter what approach you choose, make sure to develop your place within the community with an anecdote or deep personal reflection. Don’t forget to showcase your voice as a writer and keep this prompt personal! The communities we are a part of impact us all in very different ways. There is no right answer. Submit your essay and we’ll get back to you with helpful edits. The most important part of writing this essay is deciding which of your activities you will write about. Note that the prompt does not ask which of your activities takes up most of your time or which you have engaged in the longest. It asks which one you would keep doing if you could only choose one. For this reason, you should write about the activity to which you feel the greatest personal connection. Ask yourself: â€Å"If I had to choose one descriptive word to describe me, what would I want it to be?† Then, â€Å"Which of my activities showcases that?† Use this essay to tell Michigan about one of the most important aspects of who you are. An important thing to keep in mind is that the prompt only calls for approximately 100 words. You need to be short and sweet in your response. Do not spend too much time discussing the specifics of what the activity is. If the activity is widely known (e.g., Model UN, Speech and Debate) you may jump right into your personal involvement and connection. If the activity is not well known by outsiders, you may want to spend a short sentence discussing the activity before transitioning to its significance. Because of the personal nature of this prompt, it is nearly impossible to list exemplary activities. If five different people participated in the same five activities, they could very well all have different responses to this prompt. The one thing that should not differ in their responses is the development, or the level of detail of the â€Å"why.† If you were to write an essay about being on the varsity soccer team, you would want to talk about the leadership skills you gained as captain, how you learned to be a team player, and other formative experiences. You could talk about technical aspects of the game if they have a personal meaning for you or if they contain a metaphor for your life. Maybe you discuss how being a goalie helps you think differently because you need to anticipate the next move and developing these skills helps you on and off the field. No matter what, always go one step further in your analysis. You can read more about how to answer this type of question in our guide on How to Write â€Å"Most Important Extracurricular† Essays . The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor is looking to fill out a diverse class of incoming students. They ask the questions they do because they want to understand what makes you stand out from the pack. They want to know what you will bring to campus that will make you a key member of the community. Show them what you’ve got! Would you like more help with any of your schools’ applications or essays? Learn about our College Apps Program and Essay Editing Program . Want us to quickly edit your college essay? Submit it to our Rapid Review Program , and we’ll get it back to you quickly with comments from our expert team.

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Discussion Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 106

Discussion - Assignment Example Furthermore, he used the information to interfere with firm’s financial information leading to financial problems. As presented, Mr. Disgraces interferes with the codes of conduct and interferes with his expert power. However, the situation is confusing since he uses his expertise to handle the situation though one may argue that he violated the codes of conduct. The factor that makes it difficult to determine whether the power has been used ethically is that he uses his expertise. Without the knowledge, one can’t handle the situation. Paul, an employer, forces his employees to work overtime without overtime payment. Out of the research, the work has been confirmed to take ten hours to complete. However, Paul forces his employees to work for the employees to complete the work within eight hours. The eight hours is less for the work, and the employees have to overwork for the two hours without payment for

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Risk Isolation Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Risk Isolation - Assignment Example According to the five-factor model for personality traits, an individual may either be an extrovert or introvert. Psychologists have identified introversion as a significant cause of social isolation. The affected person may find social interaction as daunting; hence prefer spending time alone. Such a characteristic poses a risk towards the ability to interact with people; hence isolating oneself from members of the society. On the other hand, an individual’s personality may be ‘ruined’ due to inferiority complex. Such an individual may find it necessary to withdraw oneself from the public. Inferiority complex entails shame and feelings of low self-worth. The cause-and-effect relationship resulting from social isolation is that it may lead to depression and mental illnesses in the long-run. Hawthorne, (2008) attributes social isolation to feeling of superiority. Individuals who consider themselves superior and more important than others end up losing their friends. Such individuals are self-centered and have little concern for others. At first, such people get along with other people, but eventually the friendship is lost due to their perception of being superior. Such individuals end up being alone and start wondering what the problem might be. At this stage, they are already victims of social isolation. Isolation in itself is not therapy. Hawthorne, (2008) explains that victims of social isolation require therapy because prolonged cases of social isolation result in emotional isolation. It is better to seek help from experts rather than trying to tackle life stressors that may result in psychological and mental strain. Hawthorne, G., PhD. (2008). Perceived social isolation in a community sample: Its prevalence and correlates with aspects of peoples lives.  Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology,  43(2), 140-50.

Monday, August 26, 2019

International Tourism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

International Tourism - Essay Example Natural and cultural resources are viewed as exploitable resources while the industry is viewed as an expert, and development is defined in business terms. The problem in planning sets in with the number of tourists attracted and accommodated. This problem affects the hosts since they have to overcome the problem since they have to be good to the tourists. In this model of planning, planning and demand forecasting methods include; advertising, growth targets, and promotion. According to the policy of boosterism, the chief perceived conclusion is that tourist attractions have developmental benefits, which exceeds the cost. Therefore, the policies target at spending on advertisement and marketing research of tourism. Most countries apply the policy of boosterism in an attempt to promote developments of the tourism industry. These countries focus on approaches that focus on stimulating the demand of tourism. Through the stimulation of tourism demand, the number of tourists increases rem arkably. Boosterism is still adopted in most cases since it focuses on promoting tourism, which is beneficial to the host countries. It is through tourism that several employment opportunities are created to the host country. For instance, through tourism, job opportunities for individuals with little experiences are made available. Also, through tourism, certain lucrative job opportunities exist. For instance, professional athletes, entertainers, gaming and hotel managers, chefs, tourism development engineers, and directors of sporting facilities. It is through boosterism that sectors dealing with marketing and research utilize their knowledge and skills since the policy makers have to focus on marketing of tourism and the gathered research, in attracting tourists and developing tourism. Boosterism is adopted in most cases since through its application of policies that enhance tourism demand; it leads to income growth of the host nation. This is realised through the increased numbe r of tourists visiting the host country, who buy services leaving behind foreign currency. One of the objectives of governments is to promote sustainable economic and social developments. However, with the emerging politico-administrative regimes, government work in providing basic infrastructural services and security. Economic developments now depend on the private investors, who have different levels of regulations. Because of this emerging focus, private investors have developed urban cities resulting from the development of technology. Different urban centres have developed emanating from the technology. Globalization has made competition in investment among urban centres be lively. Urban centres have been the main focus of technological developments, for instance, urban centres are well connected with the internet than the urban areas. This has simplified the marketing of cities over the globe, which promotes boosterism. The marketing of the urban cities has been simplified si nce countries can market their cities through the internet in the most economical and fast way. Hence, with the growth of technology, boosterism has been made convenient, fast and effective, which has made countries use the approach. The approach is convenient since a large number of individuals can be reached with the use of the prevailing technology. It is fast since with the

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Ethical Behavior and Ethical Lenses Of Baird Essay

Ethical Behavior and Ethical Lenses Of Baird - Essay Example The ELI is sure to facilitate the self-discovery of one’s underlying values which help individuals to identify their preferred approach to solving ethical dilemmas. One’s personal code of ethics is shaped by one’s family members, teachers, norms and regulations of the community, formal and informal education, philosophy, morality and religion. Similarly, each profession and organization has its own ethical codes (values, expectations and set of preferences) which the employees have to follow. It is also important for individuals to identify the values in conflict through greater self-knowledge. These values in conflict are the result of differences between one’s personal and community values, conflicts as to which personal value should take priority in a given situation, and the disparity between one’s best and worst selves. The ELI will also equip one to identify one’s values in conflict and as such this paper seeks to address my personal et hics statement based on Baird’s ethical decision model. For Baird, the four basic values that form one’s ethical behavior and determine one’s primary ethical lens are rationality, sensibility, autonomy and equality. Among these, rationality stresses on reason, principles, critical thinking and analysis; sensibility emphasizes empathy and compassion where the individual follows his heart or intuition in ethical decisions; autonomy favors personal rights and responsibilities in ethical behavior whereas equality takes into account the needs of the community in ethical choices (Baird & Niacaris 11). Analyzing my own ethical values it is evident that rationality stands at the core of my ethical statement. I strongly believe in the power of reason, principles, critical thinking and analysis in making ethical choices. However, regarding the priority of values to be undertaken in various situations I stand divided between autonomy and equality. Even though I am a strong advocate of equality and value the needs of the community I favor my personal rights and responsibilities as well in many instances. Therefore, I realize that there are certain conflicts of values with regard to my ethical decisions which I need to sort out carefully. It is also worthwhile to analyze the four ethical lenses of Baird to have a thorough understanding regarding my own ethical perspectives. For Baird, one’s value preferences determine one’s ethical lens and therefore it is significant to identify my own core values and the corresponding ethical lens. Baird categorizes the ethical lenses into four: rights and responsibility lens, results lens, relationship lens, and reputation lens. The Rights and Responsibility Lens emphasizes the core values of autonomy and rationality and it holds that the individual is capable of making his own ethical choices through critical thinking and analysis. On the other hand, the Results Lens emphasizes the core values of auto nomy and sensibility and the focus of the individual is on the results or consequences of his actions. As such the ethical perspective has its roots in the teleological tradition which stresses on utilitarianism. The third ethical perspective is the Relationship Lens that emphasizes the core values of equality and rationality, traditionally known as theories of justice and it has its roots in the deontological tradition. This ethical perspective exhorts one to treat everyone in the community with respect and dignity. On the other hand, the Reputation Lens emphasizes the values of equality and sensibility and the lens focuses on what virtues the community believes should be cultivated by those in positions of responsibility. With regard to my e