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Columbia Action
Columbia Graduate School?
Hi, I'm a student at FIU and I'm going to get my bachelors in english next year (probably) and really want to go to Columbia for graduate school. In respect to English courses, I've gotten nothing lower than a B+, mostly A grades. Thing is that the first 2 years of college I was undecided and screwed around a lot so my gpa is only 3.44. With good letters of recommendation and admissions essays do I have a chance? I've been taking some theatre classes and could probably get a second BA in that if I stay in school for another year, effectively raising my GPA a little in the process.
I'm going to apply anyway but I still want to hear what you guys think about my situation. What do you think is the best course of action?
So long as your GRE is strong - in the range for the program you're applying to - and your reccs and the rest of your application is a good fit for the program, I think you'll be all right. Your grades in your final two years will be in your favor, and overall, your 3.44 isn't so horrible. If your GRE is at the higher ends of Columbia's English program's range, your 3.44 won't hold you back.
A second undergrad degree in theater actually combines really well with a degree in English, and might not be such a bad idea, especially if doing so will improve your GPA. You could do that if it really won't take you more than an extra year, and if you're interested in it. I can see that working very well with your English degree, especially if your interests for grad school in any way combine English with theater.
Columbia 300 :Action / Rico Layout
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Bruce Cockburn’s song “If a tree falls in the forest, does anybody hear?” conjures up an “ancient cord of coexistence,” a spirit world where the human soul is humbled in the presence of magnificent forces. George Berkeley, the philosopher, posed the same question while inquiring into the nature of mind and the problem of how we know what we know. Epistemologically, we might very well be living in Plato's cave, resigned to watching mere shadows on the wall without ever knowing the Truth. In practical terms, however, the writing is on the wall.
“Each year, 13 million hectares of forest is lost, according to 2005 figures”(CBC news story 08/06/24 Is there hope for the world’s vanishing forests?). Of course, deforestation is a natural part of human civilization; trees provide materials for industry and development. But modern forestry practices have, in general terms and until recently, left behind tree farms which then get quickly consumed by pine beetles and forest fires. Sadly, much of the profit from stumpage has gone to enormous multi-national corporations who, as Cockburn says, “cut and move on,” leaving us with barren ground, weakened water-sheds and a loss in biodiversity.
Heeding the Warning Signs
Globally, trees are falling rapidly. It is as if the armies of Sarumon in the Lord of the Rings are at work preparing for war against Middle Earth. Granted, deforestation is a natural part of human civilization; trees provide materials for industry and development. As sensible creatures what the Ents objected to was not the harvest of lumber in general but the single-minded, wholesale slaughter of living things for evil purposes. We can hardly equate modern forestry practices with Orcish Demonism or Nazi Blitzkrieg, but the result is the same: devastation.
Protecting Our Trees
Protecting our forests are the great twin pillars of culture: art and science. The artful imagination invokes the soulfulness of trees, the part they play in the spirit world. Our scientific ingenuity reveals the ways whereby we can become better stewards of the living legacy of the forests. Together the heart and the mind lead us on a path towards salvation. Great art is not created by those with eyes that cannot see, and ears that cannot hear, but by the visionary, those for whom the splintering of a forest rings like an alarm bell. In the Book of Daniel, the prophet can plainly see the runes that spell out doom for King Belshazzar’s empire. Great songs and novels do that for us today. Great science is not the product of minds dedicated to the pursuit of ultimate principles, like capturing the One Ring, as much as it is the result of applying theoretical knowledge to practical human concerns like food and shelter and love.
Innovations in technology and technique will help us to:
- improve forestry practices by minimizing waste and environmental impact
- advance civil engineering projects for eco-housing and recycling, decreasing the demand for lumber
- replace wood-based products with more ecologically sound alternatives, reducing the need for logging
Equally important for sustainable silviculture in British Columbia are revisions to the Forestry Revitalization Act, especially in the allowable annual cut, and perhaps even to those tax laws that pertain to outside interests and ownership in the logging industry.
Renewing a Reverence for the Forest
B.C. environmentalist David Suzuki notes that “Ecology and economy have the same root word – ‘eco’, and it means ‘home’. But what we have done is elevate the economy above ecology”(treehugger.com). The spiritual connotations that come with notions of family and friends are lost to market-place semantics like ‘stumpage’ and double-speak terms like ‘forestry revitalization.’ By deconstructing the language we can assign moral responsibility for the state of our forests where it truly belongs. The lyrical “parasitic greedhead scam” in the song alludes to not only the actions of lumbers barons, but also to the mindset of entitlement that can infect us all.
Instead of burning that cord of co-existence we can use it to reconnect with the natural world. Plant a tree in your garden, and enjoy its glory. Re-use scrap wood around the house and say to yourself “I’m helping to save our forests.” Take a hike in the woods, and tell others what you hear.
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Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Deforestation Practices in British Columbia