<p>With a little allowance for dramatic license, I think the above scenario is perfectly realistic, and in fact describes what lots of interviews are like. (Of course, no one is rejected at the interview.) The scenario doesn’t even have to be a college admissions director – that scene could perfectly plausibly occur between a student and an experienced alumni interviewer. The basic elements are that the student’s “perfect” resume is two-dimensional, the interviewer is looking for a real person with real passions behind the numbers and bullet-points, and the student struggles with expressing who she really is (as opposed to who she thinks the college wants). And that ultimately the student feels defeated by that, is denied admission to her dream school, and (I hope) learns a Valuable Lesson from the experience.</p>
<p>What’s not believable about that? I venture to guess that tens of thousands of students have an experience very similar to that during their college application process.</p>