<p>I really want to read ur essay !!! OTL..
It'd be a huge help for me as a upcoming senior.</p>
<p>Libra, could you PM me your essay as well (if you don't mind that is). I'd really like to see what an excellent essay is.</p>
<p>Libra, when you said "no hooks," many people would actually disagree with that statement. They would say being African-American was a hook for you.</p>
<p>Libra, I am applying next year and if you don't mind, could you PM me your essay so I'll have a rough idea of what good essays are? thank you very much!</p>
<p>hey i am done applying too! i am wondering if i can read your essays since i honestly dont know how to write a good personal statement. oh well. might as well learn for next time?</p>
<p>pm me if its okay. thanks :)</p>
<p>race? first generation? etc?</p>
<p>6-0-0</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins, Cornell
2140
One Strong EC (Yearbook since middle school, current Business Manager, one of the 3 top, but all equal editors, Photo, Editor in Chief, Business Manager)
Very Strong Essay (I wrote about growing up with my sister who became addicted to drugs during her sophomore year, eventually heroin)
300+ Hours Community Service (mostly church, missions trips bible clubs, etc, mostly in the summer)</p>
<p>congratulations!</p>
<p>hey libra, i pm-ed u =P</p>
<p>First-gen URM...I really don't think it was the essay guys</p>
<p>First-gen URM....? How could he have said he didn't have hooks! Those are the absolute top hooks, except recruited athlete. And male? That's good too, especially for the black pool...</p>
<p>RAWR. This is no fair. I got my hopes up so high--as long as I write great essays! That's not so unattainable--but nooo...he turns out to be a first-gen URM male... </p>
<p>Oh well. Congrats anyway. But you should have told us about your hooks. Seriously.</p>
<p>I thought a hook was something interesting that one has done to make him or her stand out far ahead of the pack...not something he or she was born with and therefore couldn't control. And I didn't report my parents' education level, so being a first-gen student is inconsequential in this case.</p>
<p>Well, I guess everyone needs an excuse as to why he or she didn't get in or why he or she must panic incessantly. Sorry, guys, nothing to see here, apparently (rolls eyes)</p>
<p>I got into all five schools I applied to: Notre Dame, Michigan, UChicago, Princeton, and MIT.</p>
<p>My stats got me in the range, but I'm almost positive that my essays in the last three cases were what got me in. Sure my ECs and test scores were good, but the essays were how I really let the adcoms get to know me.</p>
<p>For the record, I'm not a URM, nor am I completely first gen.</p>
<p>Libra, you most likely deserve your acceptance (who are we to say that the admissions committees at the aforementioned schools made mistakes?). We're just saying you should advertise your full stats (biographical info included), so that others who have your stats but are wealthy whites or Asians would not get false hope. It's a well-known fact that race does play a role in college admissions.</p>
<p>Congrats, ducktape! :)</p>
<p>P.S. - For the naysayers, I think you're giving URM status too much weight. Three other African-Americans in my class with similar to slightly better stats were outright rejected from the same schools to which I applied. And numerous non-URM students in the past four years alone with sub-2000 SAT scores, no legacy, or hook have gotten into the most elite of the reach schools such as Harvard, Cornell, UPenn, and Yale.</p>
<p>preach.
I def. agree.
Someone in another thread was all bitter that he got rejected from cornell and blamed it on URMs/Affirmative Action, but his ECs were average at best and he even admitted his essay was just decent.</p>
<p>Being a URM could give you a hook persay because it could present you with a very unique obstacle to overcome or opportunity to excel, but it's not the HUGE deciding factor. </p>
<p>Schools still have a standard to uphold, but if you are a URM within that standard, you're admitted because of your qualifications not birthright.</p>
<p>Well, I certainly hope I'm wrong, but as you know, affirmative action is practiced by most top-tier colleges. The debate is not even if it exists or not but whether it should exist in the first place. </p>
<p>Btw, I'm not a bitter reject. I'm already at my college, and if you look at the beginning of my post history, Northwestern has always been my first choice. I don't know for sure though whether the acceptance rate for people with URM status is higher. I definitely think people who are socioeconomically disadvantaged should be given a boost though.</p>
<p>No one is denying that AA is practiced by most top-tier colleges. What IS being denied, however, is that Caucasians and Asians should automatically get "false hope," as you wrote earlier, from my (presumably) uncommon circumstance. If I had been unqualified, but still given some AA pull, maybe one or two Ivies would have taken me, but all three to which I applied? Seems unlikely. Therefore, those of all races and backgrounds with comparably low (but still 95th percentile+) SAT scores should feel with some added conviction a sense that SAT scores alone mean very little unless buttressed by well-written essays, interesting EC's, and good character. :)</p>
<p>Not that I need to defend the Ivies' decisions or anything, but perhaps my SAT CR and W scores of 770 and 800 respectively swayed them more dramatically, since I in no instance intimated an interest in mathematics or science in my application essays.</p>
<p>I am living proof that Caucasians need not be perfect to be accepted into good colleges. I won't deny AA is practiced, but it is still possible in this day and age to get in by your own merit, which is frankly the only way I'd like to get in.</p>
<p>Those scores are certainly impressive. I'm just saying that you should've presented your stats here as you did to the admissions committees, so we could've gotten a better picture of how they made their decision. Did you tell them you were African-American? If so, you clearly found it relevant to mention. That information would've been helpful to us as well.</p>