What Colleges Should I Apply To Making a College List

What Colleges Should I Apply To Making a College List SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips With almost 4,000 colleges to choose from across the country, you may be asking yourself, "What colleges should I apply to?" How do you narrow thousands of schools down to just ten?The best way to streamline your college list is to divide it roughly equally between safety schools, matchschools, and reach schools. This guide will go over exactly what these terms mean and how tochoose the best schools for you. Before taking you through the process step by step, let’s review the research process as a whole. Making Your College List: Full Process This guide will go over a few important points, all for the purpose of helping you make your college list. Ultimately, your mission is to choose a few safety schools, a few match schools, and a few reach schools. First, you must understand what colleges are looking for in their applicants.To make your list, youshouldfocus most on yourGPA and SAT or ACT scores. Grades and scores typically aren’t the only important pieces of your application, but they’re sufficient to give you an estimate of your admissions chances.Once you know what your college expects, you can use PrepScholar's admissions calculator to see how yourcredentials stack up. This guide will go over each step of this process, starting with an explanation of how colleges evaluate candidates. As you read, keep in mind your primary mission: to make your idealcollege list. What Determines Your Chances of Getting Into College? If you’ve started down the college admissions road, then you probably have a good sense of what colleges look for in applicants. Most colleges fall into one of two categories when it comes to admissions decisions, those that use assured admissions and those that take a holistic approach. Read on to learn about both. Assured Admissions Assured admissions are pretty much based solely on grades and test scores. If you have a minimum SAT or ACT score and GPA, then the college will let you in. Oklahoma State and Washington State are two schools that use assured admissions. Several others offer assured admission for in-state residents, including state schools in California, Iowa, Missouri, Mississippi, Texas, and Nevada. If you live out of state, then other factors will become important too. Holistic Admissions Many other colleges take a holistic approach. In addition to your grades and test scores, they consider your extracurricular involvements, community service, and any internships, as well as the academic and personal qualities that come through your recommendation letters and personal essay. These colleges are seeking to get to know the â€Å"whole person,† including his/her interests and goals. Because these other elements come into play, it’s tough to make an exact prediction of whether or not you’ll get into a school. Competitive schools, like those in the Ivy League, can especially bea gamble. Even if you can’t know for sure whether you’ll get accepted, you can still estimate your chances of admission based on your GPA and SAT or ACT scores. Before delving into how to do this, let’s review why estimating your chances is a key part of making your college list. Colleges that use holistic admissions go beyond the numbers to learn about you from lots of different angles. Estimating Your Chances of Admission By understanding what colleges look for in their applicants, you can figure out which schools qualify as safety, match, or reach schools for you. You can focus on the average SAT/ACT scores and GPA of accepted students, while keeping in mind the other factors that come into play for holistic admissions schools. If your own scores and GPA are much higher than those of the average accepted student, then you might consider the school a safety. If the reverse is true, then it might be a reach school. To help you more precisely estimate your chances, we've developed a handy admissions calculator. Before showing you how to useit to make your list, let’s go over the different ways you canresearchyour colleges of interest. How Can You Find Data on Your Prospective Colleges? To estimate your chances of getting in, you should compare your grades and test scores to that of the average accepted student. So where can you find this information? There are three main sources: college search engines, official college websites, and PrepScholar’s college database. Let’s start with the search engines. 1. Use College Search Engines When you first start to research schools, college search engines can be your best friend. They let you set various filters, like GPA, test scores, location, and college size, to learn about schools. You can set as many or as few filters as you like and then explore what comes up. As you read, research, and perhaps visit campuses, you’ll start to narrow down your list to the top contenders. After using search websites, you might compile a list of 20 schools or so. Of course, sending 20 applications would takea lot of time and money, so you probably want to narrow it down to your top eight or nine. By taking a closer look at the schools’ expectations, you can further narrow down your list. Find out more about each school on its official website and PrepScholar’s database of schools. 2. Check Out the Official College Admissions Websites Your college research is sure to lead you to your college’s website pretty quickly. You can learn a lot about a college on its website, especially its admissions section. Most colleges publish data on the average GPA and SAT/ACT scores of accepted students each year. To find this info directly, you could try searching for â€Å"college name + average SAT scores† or â€Å"college name + average GPA.† To give you one example, the following graphic is lifted from NYU’s website. It shows the average GPA, SAT (math), and ACT of incoming freshmen. Every admissions site is different, and some only offered limited information. To find this data right away, head on over to PrepScholar’s database. Not only will you find information on your schools, but you’ll also find theadmissions calculator to estimate your chances! 3. PrepScholar’s Database and Admissions Calculator PrepScholar has a streamlined way for you to find the average test scores and GPA for your colleges. Simply search for the name of your college of interest plus PrepScholar to find this information, along with all the other application requirements. For instance, here’s PrepScholar’s information on NYU’s average SAT scores. In addition to learning what scores and grades you need, you can also use PrepScholar’s admissions calculator to estimate your chances. Simply input your grades and test scores. The example below shows the admissions chances of a student with a 2020 SAT score and 3.7 GPA. As you can see, a student with a 2020 on the SAT and 3.7 GPA has almost a 32% chance of admission. Of course, this is just an estimate as other factors come into play for a school like NYU that uses holistic admissions. As mentioned at the beginning of the guide, figuring out your admissions chances is a key step in making your college list. By understanding your chances, you can narrow down your list into safety, match, and reach schools. Read on for a precise definition of each and the steps for finding yours. Like a pup in his security blanket, make yourself comfortableby applying totwo to three safety schools. Want to build the best possible college application? We can help. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools, from state colleges to the Ivy League. We know what kinds of students colleges want to admit. We want to get you admitted to your dream schools. Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in. What’s a Safety School? Making your college list requires you to do someresearch on the colleges you’re interested in. Once you have a sense of their requirements, you can sort them into safety, match, and reach schools. Let’s start with your safeties. You might choose two to three safety schools for your final list. A safety school is one where your academic credentials are much stronger than thoseof the average accepted student. You feel relatively confident that you’ll get accepted. You might have an 80% or higher chance of admission, an estimate you can makewith ouradmissions calculator. As you saw above, some schools have assured admissions for all applicants or in-state residents. If you have one of these on your list, then you could consider it a safety school. Safety schools usually aren’t your first choice, but they should still be schools that you’d be happy to attend. So how can you go through the research process discussed above to find your two to three safety schools? How to Find Your Safety Schools As discussed above, you can look for information on your college’s official website and PrepScholar’s database. Let’s say, just to give an example, that you’re interested in the University of Mississippi. On its official website, you’ll find this information about regular admission: If you’re a resident of Mississippi and meet the GPA and test score requirement, then you have automatic acceptance (aka, assured admission). If this describes you, then you can definitely consider the University of Mississippi to be a safety school. If this doesn’t describe you or you still want to find more information, then you can consult PrepScholar’s database. You’ll find that the average GPA for the University of Mississippi is 3.46, the average SAT ranges from 980 to 1190 (excluding the Writing section), and ACT scores range from 21 to 27. Let’s say you’ve got a 1200 on your SAT and a 3.6 GPA. Plug in these stats to calculate your admissions chances, like so: As you can see, a student with these scores and GPA has an 81.33% chance of getting accepted. Since that’s greater than 80%, this student can consider the University of Mississippi to be a safety school. Go through this process and use the admissions calculator to find two to three safety schools where your chances of getting in are 80% or greater. Next, you can choose two to three match schools. Pick a match, but not just any match. Also, what kind of magic trick is this? Looks dangerous. What’s a Match School? Match schools, also known as on target schools, are schoolswhere you have a good, but not guaranteed, chance of getting accepted. Your academic credentials line upwith those of the average accepted student. While your safety schools might not be your first choice, match schools are typically ones you’d be excited to attend. So how can you pick out your match schools? These should be the schools where you have somewhere between a 30% and 80% chance of admission. Those on the lower end may be borderline reach schools, while those on the higher end are borderline safeties. Read on for a step-by-step example of finding a match school. How to Find Your Match Schools As mentioned above, you could consider a college to be a match school if you have between a 30% and 80% chance of getting in. Research your colleges’ requirements and head over to PrepScholar’s admissions calculator to estimate your chances. For instance, here’s a student interested in Purdue University. She has a 3.5 GPA and 1700 SAT score. So what are her chances of getting in? With this GPA and SAT score, the student has about a 39% chance of getting in. Remember that other factors come into play, so her extracurriculars, essay, and recommendation letters might boost (or weaken) her chances. Choose about three match schools across this range of 30% to 80% chance of admission. Once you've done that, you can finish your college list with a few reach schools. The final spots on your college list are reserved for reaches. This kid's actually reaching for a frisbee, not a college application. He's ten. What’s a Reach School? Once you’ve selected your safety and on target schools, you can pick a few reach schools. Often, reach schools are the ones that you aspire to and would love to attend, but can’t count on the fact that you’ll get in. Ivy League schools, by the way, should be considered a reach for just about any student, even if you have a perfect GPA and SAT/ACT score. Beyond the Ivies, you might consider any school where you have a 30% or less chance of getting in to be a reach school. For reach schools, the credentials of the average accepted student are stronger than yours. At the same time, they’re not so much higher than you have zero shot of getting accepted. Let’s go through an example of researching a reach school. How to Find Your Reach Schools Reach schools will make up the last one-thirdof your college list. In this next example, let’s consider Boston University. BU accepted students average a 3.59 GPA and 2080 SAT. A student with a 3.5 GPA and 1800 has about a 20% chance of getting in. Her chances aren’t impossible, but they’re certainly not guaranteed. While you should carefully craft all your college applications, you especially want to makea strong showing toreach schools. If your grades and test scores fall below expectations, then you should consider how you can present other aspects of your candidacy to give you an edge. Once you’ve chosen your reach schools, you should be just about finished with your college list! You’ll have about two to three each of safety schools, match schools, and reach schools. While your chances of getting accepted will help you narrow down your list, there are several other considerations when picking your colleges. Let’s review a few of the most important. In addition to estimating your chances of getting accepted, make sure to research financial aid! Some colleges these days seem to think this is what theaverage student's dorm room looks like. Want to build the best possible college application? We can help. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools, from state colleges to the Ivy League. We know what kinds of students colleges want to admit. We want to get you admitted to your dream schools. Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in. Making Your College List: 3 Extra Tips So far, this guide has mainly focused on the hard data of picking schools. To help you make concrete choices about your safety, match, and reach schools, you can focus on the numbers: average SAT/ACT scores, average GPA, and your chances of admission. Beyond estimating your chances, you should also consider other factors when making your college list. There are a number of factors to think about, but for the purposes of this guide,let’s focus on three main tips. Consider Financial Aid Financial aid is a huge factor for many students. If you’re one of them, then it should definitely factor into your application plans. In addition to figuring out your chances of admissions, research your schools’ financial aid policies. While you can’t always predict what your financial aid package will look like, you can get a sense of how much each school will meet demonstrated financial need. If you get in and can’t afford to attend, then the notions of safety, match, and reach schools are irrelevant. Make sure your schools representrealistic options. On a similar note, make sure that all the schools on your list are ones that you’d be reasonably happy to attend. Only Apply to Schools That You’d Like to Attend While your excitement about schools is sure to vary, you should still be reasonably excited about all of them. Students sometimes treat safety schools as throwaways, but that approach is unwise. Your safeties are on your list for a reason, and you don’t want to end up feeling stuck or without options. There are tons of schools throughout the country. If you haven’t found at least two to three safeties, match, and reach schools that you like, then keep looking! Find YourBest Fit Finally, a lot of other factors go into your college search than estimating your chances of admission. When you start using college search engines, you’ll start to think about what you’re looking for, in terms of school size, location, majors, extracurricular offerings, or even internship or study abroad opportunities. While you might not be sure what you plan to do or study, you should still take advantage of this time to self-reflect. Consider what excites you and what you like to study and do. Some students are swayed by a school’s reputation or prestige, but they should consider the level of fit even more seriously. Fit is a two-way street. Find a place where you think you’ll enjoy studying and living for the next four years of your life! In closing, let’s go over the key points to remember about making your college list. As long as you do your research, you can feel confident about your college list! Conclusion: What Colleges Should I Apply To? There’s no magic number of colleges to apply to, but a good total for most students is between eight and ten. About one-thirdof these can be safety schools, one-third can bematch schools, and the remaining one-third can bereach schools. To figure out your safeties, matches, and reaches, you shouldresearch your chances of admission. PrepScholar’s admissions calculator offers a great way to plug in your GPA and test scores and estimate your chances. Over 80% chance of admission qualifies as a safety, between 30% and 80% falls into a match school, and under 30% is a reach. Highly selective schools, like the Ivies, are pretty much reaches for everyone, even students with perfect grades and test scores. By taking advantage of data and the admissions calculator, you can gain a realistic understanding of your chances and put together a well-researched college list. Once you have your schools chosen, you can focus on putting together the strongest application you can! What’s Next? What other factors go into choosing a college? If you’re wondering which college you should attend, check out this great guide on how to choose! Will you be applying for financial aid? This comprehensive guide takes you through the FAFSA application process, step by step. Are college applications a financial burden for you? Learn about how you can get a college application fee waiver here. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. 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Analysing an advertising Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Analysing an advertising - Coursework Example Many advertisers use the theme to create a remarkable impact. When used effectively, the theme has the potential of associating with the brand instantly. Themes may make use of objects, celebrities, music and other aspects to convey the central idea. As evident in the image above, Coca Cola makes a good use of objects in a bid to create curiosity in many buyers. The image above consists of a Coke bottle and multiple colours emanating from the bottle and eventually forming a beautiful smiling face. This serves to create curiosity in many buyers who feel persuaded to try the product and ascertain whether it can cause such effects (Cook, 2001). Leverage has been defined as the intervention system of an advert. It involves communication of certain values that the product being marketed has. These values may impact an individual’s personal values. Such impacts may serve to convince the individual to try out the product. In the image above, the use of the terms â€Å"Live† and â€Å"Life† define a unique feature in the advert which makes people try out the product as it imparts a measure of value in their lives (Cook, 2001). The Coke advert above uses the bandwagon and glittering generalities appeal. This is because the image represents a bottle with a burst of multiple colours and a smiling face incorporated in the midst of the colours. The fact that the bottle has the words â€Å"Live on the Coke Side of Life† but does not provide a reason for this choice is a tactful use of the glittering generalities appeal (Plunkett, 2008). Executional framework denoted the specific manner in which an advert presents its appeal. In the case of the image above, the executional framework is fantasy. This is because it serves to make an individual fantasize on the miraculous uplifting resulting from taking a Coke drink. The tag line in any advertisement comprises of several words which

Research Methods Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Research Methods - Coursework Example There are many situations that would drive a researcher to want to conduct a historical research. One of those situations is the urge to understand a certain culture. The full length understanding of a culture (for examples its education or religion) requires that information about the past events of that culture be examined in order to understand its present and even predict what will happen to the future. This is possible and reliable since historical research focuses on patterns that happened in the past therefore making it easier to compare with the current patterns. Understanding of the past of a culture may is also necessary in order to compare it with the history of other cultures. Part 2 Explain the difference between external and internal evidence and give examples of each. Internal evidence in a research is determined by the absence of any confounds and it ensures that the results of the researcher are according to the procedures specified and no deviations have been made. Internal evidence is mostly used to determine causal effects and relationships in a research and this therefore means that it is bound to have many threats to it. External evidence on the other hand describes the amount of supportive information that can be acquired from other sources or other previous research to justify the current research. It can also be defined widely to include the extent the research results can be generalized to other settings other than the one currently the research is on. Part 3 Provide an explanation and an example of the following descriptive research designs: 1. Observation studies: These are done through the researcher just merely observing the subjects of the research and not manipulating them. The researcher then records the observations while they are taking place to avoid missing any details and the analysis will be carried out of the recorded information from the observation. The observation may take place for a long or short time depending on th e research objectives. This is common when dealing with research about animals where there are communication barriers. 2. Correlation research: This is a form of descriptive research design where a relationship is sought and established between the variables in a research. The relationships between the variables (if any) are used to further understand and justify the research design. An example of this type of research is in social research like poverty where there are several variables which seem interrelated. 3. Developmental designs: (there are three different types) These are research designs used to examine human relationships and interaction throughout their development and the time each developmental design takes varies. The first is the cross-sectional design where a researcher researches on different subjects with different characteristics but within a single time period that is usually specified for example researching about different age-related subjects who have the same characteristics. The other is the longitudinal design where the time period for the research is not specified and it involves studying the same subjects over and over again for a long period of time. This is true for example in medical research. Lastly, the third developmental design is the cross- sequential design. In this design, the research subjects are tested on a cross-sectional basis (ensuring the differences in traits) but repeatedly for long

Baking pastry Essay Example for Free

Baking pastry Essay Cake decorating is referred to as one of the sugar arts in the world of baking. Cakes are decorated for many people and their special occasions. Many remember the birthday cakes and wedding cakes that went along with creating such fond memories of the events. The success of certain cake decorating shows like Cake Boss, Amazing Wedding Cakes, and Ace of Cakes have taken cake decorating from ordinary and boring to an extraordinary and marvelous level. There are also many new textures and flavors of frosting that have been conjured up over the years. The varieties of frosting have been created to compliment the many creations of cake flavors. The craft has evolved into a form of art over the years using different tips and techniques. It is now a craft which requires a lot of new skills, techniques, and education. One might even pursue a four year or two year college degree in Culinary Arts from a school such as, The Culinary Art Institute. There are also many new textures and flavors of frosting that have been conjured up over the years. The varieties of frosting have been created to compliment the many creations of cake flavors. If you are not easily impressed you might still be amazed at the number, variety and creativity of cakes. Some intricate designs appear to defy gravity. The secret, Patrick says, is judicious use of inedible props, such as Styrofoam (Decorating Lane 58). Sculpted animals are popular. However, theyre at most only cake. Decorating cakes depending on the designing and style tends to be pricier. If the customer tends to ask for a sculpted cake that can make an impressive centerpiece may cost approximately 200 or more. Cakes that are decorated some special way could get good publicity and get good business. Having to sculpt the cake is highly visible and correctly and profitable. Color and dimension is what most people want to see when they order the cake. An if the customers like the work they might come back. However, the cakes must truly be memorable. . One may ask, what does it really take to be a great cake decorator and most importantly where did it all start? Decorating skills and techniques have developed greatly since three-tiered wedding and candled birthday cakes. The process has evolved to this day presenting beautiful towers of deliciousness. These unique creations also take us on an interesting trip through decorating history. As most know, cake is a term with an elaborate history and a subject with many aspects. Cake denotes a baked flour connection sweetened with sugar, honey, eggs and milk. It has a distinct texture created by mixture rising during the cooking process. Cakes found in â€Å"Swiss Lake Villages† were made from roughly crushed grains, moistened, compacted, and cooked on hot stone. Obviously cake techniques have progressed since then. As time passed, over many centuries by trial and error, baking techniques began to improve due to influence from other countries and cultures (Kroskey). Work Cited Decorating in the fast lane. Bakery Production and Marketing 24 Jan. 1992: 58. Culinary Arts Collection. Web. 14 Aug. 2013. Kroskey, Carol Meres. Color and dimension add profits to cakes. Bakery Production and Marketing 24 June 1991: 74+. Culinary Arts Collection. Web. 14 Aug. 2013. Kroskey, Carol Meres. Complementing cakes with color. Bakery Production and Marketing 24 Sept. 1991: 106+. Culinary Arts Collection. Web. 14 Aug. 2013. Kroskey, Carol Meres. Create an illusion. Bakery Production and Marketing 24 June 1993: 56+. Culinary Arts Collection. Web. 14 Aug. 2013. Kuyper, Frances. Making your own decorations in advance. Bakery Production and Marketing 24 Sept. 1991: 112. Culinary Arts Collection. Web. 14 Aug. 2013.

Good Sports Equal Aggressive Men? Essay -- Article Review

In sporting activity participation and televised sports, there is a noticeable difference between male and female interest and involvement. In the article Center of Attention: The Gender of Sports Media Michael A. Messner discusses the issues that involve all aspects of sports strictly being a man’s affair. Messner expresses ideas that men are not only the forefront of sports participation, but sports media as well. A point is made in the article about the leaders in sports being those who are the most aggressive. This point is the reasoning behind why men are the superior figures in sports. The aggressiveness of men causes there to be more interest into male sporting activity which makes men a dominant figure in sports. Messner uses the idea â€Å"Aggressive players get the prize; nice guys finish last† (480). The athletes who show the most aggression, are more likely to be acknowledged than those viewed as being weak or soft. Aggressiveness has been associated with toughness and physicality as if one balances the others. To be considered aggressive in professional sports means to not be afraid to get physical with opposing players, having a very large competitive streak, assertiveness, and being fearless. No matter how many times it is denied, men are the ones who are the most aggressive. There is a natural factor that falls into the aggression of men, that there is a shortage of in women. Societal influence has the most affect on the differences of men and women. Men being superior in not only sports but all aspects of live hadn’t just one day been set in stone as Messner makes it out to be. He doesn’t include the reasoning necessary to explain how sports became male dominant. The article Becoming Members of society: Learning... ...port; both played by men. Aggression doesn’t always explain the large difference in male and female sporting activity. Author Micheal A. Messner does have a point that male aggression does affect the response of an audience but it is only valid for sports that involved the need to be aggressive. Still, there is clearly more engaging aspects of male sporting events than women sports. Works Cited Messner, Michael A. â€Å"Center of Attention: The Gender of Sports Media.† Rereading America: Cultural Context for Critical Thinking and Writing. Ed. Gary Colombo. Et al. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004. 477-487. Print. Devor, Aaron H. â€Å"Becoming Members of Society: Learning the social Meanings of Gender.† Rereading America: Cultural Context for Critical Thinking and Writing. Ed. Gary Colombo. Et al. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004. 424-431. Print.

Comparative Paper on the Princess Bride and Copper Sun Essay

Even though the two heros in Princess Bride and Copper Sun have many similarities, they also have an abundance of differences. Amari is the protagonist of the book Copper Sun, which talks about her life as an abused slave. Wesley is the lead character of the movie Princess Bride; in the movie, he leaves his beloved Buttercup to make enough money to support them and has to come save her when she is about to marry Humperdinck, the prince and the man she does not love. These two stories may seem completely different but they have more in common than what meets the eye. Both Amari and Wesley survive their quests with determination and they fight for what they believe is important. A good example of when Amari shows determination is when she comes upon a river that lies between her and freedom, â€Å"We come too far to stop now† (Draper 84%). She is so close to her goal she is unwilling to stop now just like when Wesley is on the verge of death and he still forces himself to get up and fight for Buttercup, â€Å"I told you I would always come for you† (The Princess Bride). However, they have multiple differences, one of which is how Amari is not afraid to show emotion and Wesley’s emotion is in absence when he is the Man in Black. Both protagonists are very comfortable and secure in their hometowns, but they are both briskly ripped away from their comfort zone when they are obligated to start their quests. Amari lives in a relatively poor area of Africa and Westley lives on a farm in his medieval universe. These courageous heroes must find their way through a dangerous quest; their journeys have similarities and differences but the importance is what compels them to complete their quest. Amari and Westley’s heart and soul was shaped by this quest. The scars left behind by the quest will not heal and the memories will be burning in the back of their minds forever. Both of these strong willed characters went through impossibly difficult conditions and tests to accomplish their goal. Just in the beginning of the story, Amari has endured a gr eat deal of pain; she has been stripped from her village and family and the white men have treated her horribly, â€Å"This day she wanted to die† (Draper 2%). Another example is when Amari is reminded of her past and all she has left in her is shame this proves that not only has she gone through horrible memories but all that will never be forgotten. Wesley has started this quest with his own choice. Amari was taken abruptly and unlike Wesley. In conclusion they had their own reasons to start their incredible journeys. Risking your life just to find the lost is not something you do without motivation. Both of these exciting heroes have found themselves in the need to find either their lost true love or their perished freedom. Throughout these intriguing stories both Amari and Wesley have fought for what they thought deserved a battle. Wesley has swung his sword and punched his enemies and now he has finally came to the point where he has found Buttercup, â€Å"I told you I would always come for you† (The Princess Bride). Wesley is reassuring buttercup that no matter the risks he will always come, fight for her and that she is his mo tivation to put his life on the line. â€Å"You know, certain people are chosen to survive. I don’t know why, but you are one of those who must remember the past and tell those yet unborn. You must live† (Draper 13%). Motivation is the force that pushes and pushes the characters to continue with strength and this force is prominent in both Amari and Wesley. These quests have a rope slowly burning but finally the rope has come to an end and all that is left are the ashes. In the burning village that Amari used to call home, she had friends and family but once she was left to live and serve at the Derby farm she thought a friendship would never be something she could achieve. After a long time spent at the Derby farm, Amari and Polly have now realized that their lives are stringed together from then on. This came to a shock as Polly and Amari try to hide the fact that Mrs. Derby has had an affair with a slave situated at the farm as well, â€Å"She realized then how deeply her life was entangle with those of the slaves she had once so despised† (Draper 51% ). Polly has been with Amari through one of the worst and unpleasant journeys a character could have gone through, Polly no longer judges Amari by her skin nor does Polly think of slaves as filthy animals. Wesley has always had Buttercup’s love and even after his quest he still has her love, compared to Amari that no longer has Besa or his love. Wesley is trying to explain to Buttercup that their love is unbreakable, â€Å"Do you think this happens every day† (The Princess Bride). Amari had once eternal love but all was stripped away from her with every slash of the whip and every unbearable night spent with disgusting men. Many dangers and obstacles have been in the characters paths but now they survive with all that is left, the effects, results and memories. If the lost had never been misplaced then there would be no found or any quests. A quest starts with a loss of any sort, in this particular case it was freedom and love. Amari was just the matchstick that started the fire from within Polly and that lead to the roads made of gold in Fort Mose. Wesley just had to find Buttercup to keep his fire going. However, they all went through inexplicable danger and horror but all this just started as a quest to find what they thought was needed. Works Cited Draper, Sharon M. Copper Sun. Illus. Sonia Chaghatzbanian. First Simon Pulse Edition January 2008 ed. New York: Simon Pulse, 2008. Kindle File. Hobbs, Will. Crossing the Wire. Illus. Vince Natale and Hilary Zarycky. New York: HarperCollins e-books, 2009. Kindle File.

Andrew Beard Invents the Jenny Coupler

Andrew Jackson Beard lived an extraordinary life for a black American inventor. His invention of the Jenny automatic car coupler revolutionized railroad safety. Unlike the vast majority of inventors who never profit from their patents, he profited from his inventions. Life of Andrew Beard - From Slave to Inventor Andrew Beard was born a slave on a plantation in Woodland, Alabama, in 1849, shortly before slavery ended. He received emancipation at age 15 and he married at age 16. Andrew Beard was a farmer, carpenter, blacksmith, a railroad worker, a businessman and finally an inventor. Plow Patents Bring Success He grew apples as a farmer near Birmingham, Alabama for five years before he built and operated a flour mill  in Hardwick, Alabama. His work in agriculture led to tinkering with improvement for plows. In 1881, he patented his first invention, an improvement to the double plow, and sold the patent rights for $4,000 in 1884. His design allowed for the distance between the plow plates to be adjusted. That amount of money would be the equivalent of almost $100,000 today. His patent is US240642, filed on September 4, 1880, at which time he listed his residence at Easonville, Alabama, and published on April 26, 1881. In 1887, Andrew Beard patented a second plow and sold it for $5,200. This patent was for a design that allowed the pitch of the blades of plows or cultivators to be adjusted. The amount he received would be the equivalent of about $130,000 today. This patent is US347220, filed on May 17, 1886, at which time he listed his residence as Woodlawn, Alabama, and published on August 10, 1996.  Ã‚  Beard invested the money he made from his plow inventions into a profitable real-estate business. Rotary Engine Patents Beard received two patents for rotary steam engine designs. US433847 was filed and granted in 1890. He also received patent US478271 in 1892. There was no information found as to whether these were profitable for him. Beard Invents the Jenny Coupler for Railroad Cars In 1897,  Andrew Beard patented an improvement to railroad car couplers. His improvement came to be called the Jenny Coupler. It was one of many that aimed to improve the knuckle coupler patented by Eli Janney in 1873 (patent US138405). The knuckle coupler did the dangerous job of hooking railroad cars together, which formerly was done by manually placing a pin in a link between the two cars. Beard, himself had lost a leg in a car coupling accident. As an ex-railroad worker, Andrew Beard had the right idea that probably saved countless lives and limbs. Beard received three patents for automatic car couplers. These are US594059 granted November 23, 1897, US624901 granted May 16, 1899, and US807430 granted on May 16, 1904. He lists his residence as Eastlake, Alabama for the first two and Mount Pinson, Alabama for the third. While there were thousands of patents filed at the time for car couplers, Andrew Beard received $50,000 for the patent rights to his Jenny Coupler. This would be just shy of 1.5 million dollars today. Congress enacted the Federal Safety Appliance Act at that time to enforce using automatic couplers. View the complete patent drawings for Beards inventions.  Andrew Jackson Beard was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006 in recognition of his revolutionary Jenny Coupler. He died in 1921.