<p>We went to an information session given by one of the DC schools to gather advance information for our HS Jr S2.</p>
<p>The admission officer said, "as for the essays, please be creative in coming up with the subject matter. We are tired of reading the same essays over and over again 10 hours a day. If you can't come up with creative essay subjects, go to the U Chicago web site and check out their essay prompts. They are great. Please feel free to use one of them. I love them all"</p>
<p>Meanwhile, a little funny story. She (adcom) was giving various tips on essays: make it about yourself, make sure to do the spell check etc. But be careful when the spell checker suggests alternatives (read the options before just taking the first one that is suggested).</p>
<p>She has one essay from a female applicant who made an unfortunate mistake of taking whatever alternative spell checker provided first. So, she had a paragraph like this</p>
<p>"So, I was a volunteer candy stripper at a local hospital. All summer long, I candy-stripped for the patients and staff 8 hours a day, 5 days a week"</p>
<p>The adcom framed that essay, hung it on the wall, and every time she is down or feeling bored reading the same essays over and over again during the admission season, she reads that candy stripper essay for fun. </p>
<p>My S actually committed the classic error of electronically submitting an essay with another school’s name in it. He waited until the last few hours to submit almost all of his applications, and was editing essays and pasting them into the Common App. Pages were taking 40 minutes to load–no joke–and our internet connection was repeatedly crashing due to unrelated factors. It was a horror show. He immediately sent an email with the correctly edited version attached asking them to substitute it in his file, and he also sent the correct version via snailmail the next day.</p>
<p>Apparently they complied with his request, because he not only got in to this highly selective LAC, but they gave him a nice little merit scholarship. (It’s a need-only school.) We referred to it as the X Debacle. :)</p>
<p>Yes, D had a couple of mis-spellings in her essay. :eek: Of course her essay was about being dysgraphic and it could have been considered illustrative! She wasn’t rejected by anyone. But, April couldn’t come quickly enough once we realized that. We still say “shoe foolish” for “shoe polish” in our house. As in you need to foolish your shoes. Please foolish the dining room table.</p>
<p>As in “don’t forget to foolish up that essay.” :)</p>
<p>Hmmm…and this from the UMich admissions website (Someone send that U Chicago anecdote to Snopes! ;)):</p>
<p>"Use spell-check and proofread your essay. Look at this slightly different (from actual essays) spelling of a, um, common word that spell-check wouldnt flag.</p>
<p>My work as a Candy Striper has really influenced me to become a nurse
vs.
My work as a Candy Stripper has really influenced me to become a nurse
Didnt catch it? Heres a hint theres an extra p in the second sentence…
Please have at least 2 people read your essay to check for major errors. Bonus if you use people who dont have a massively vested interest in your college education." </p>
<p>I would never push to deny a student simply over a mixed up school name! It’s no secret that students are applying to many schools. If someone slips up and uses a peer institution’s name in their essay, life goes on. However, if someone says they want to go to my school because of our awesome beach, we’ll have a problem. :)</p>
<p>By the way, my colleague wrote this article for US News many years ago and it’s still a very popular piece. There are some good examples of essays and some tips in there.</p>
<p>My daughter wanted to use the expression “verbal diarrhea” in one of her supplemental essays, but her Dad nixed it. He thought you really didn’t want the adcoms to associate you with, well, that.</p>
