<p>Below is the my post on a different forum (mostly kids). The thread was initiated by somebody who asked the U Chicago applicants to post their essays (after the deadline, that is). </p>
<p>I was lurking here and there to get some feel for what's realistic for my S2 down the road (S1 applied this year: crossing my fingers.....), and I stumbled on this thread.</p>
<p>My reaction to the essays is described below. I would like to get some feedback from the veteran parents here who undoubtedly read their children's essay back and forth.... Some kids who already got EA acceptance seem to think that it's the essays that got them in, but when I read them, I felt that they were admitted IN SPITE of the essays, NOT because of them. Maybe I am really off????</p>
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<p>Caveat: I am not an adcom, don't know anybody in the business of college admission. I am an over-educated parent of a kid who would have to go through this phase later - so I am just mostly educating myself by following a few threads so that I can help him better down the road. So, my words/input may mean nothing.</p>
<p>However, in my career, I hired and fired some really, really bright people from the colleges and universities you all want to go to, so I will share my gut reaction after reading a lot of these essays, because after all, this is all about how to market and sell yourself.</p>
<p>Overall, I thought most of these essays are not very good (sorry for being blunt). Not because the writer did not come across bright and eager. All of you are. However, a very few came across authentic. So many seemingly sophisticated and clever phrases and words! Most essays seem designed to demonstrate how smart the writer is and what kind of advanced sophistry can be engineered. After reading a few of these essays, my head hurt! An image that comes to me is that of Chinese contortion artist having a stream of consciousness. After reading these essays, I still have no idea who the writer is as a person. None of these mind blowingly over-sophisticated essays stand out, since I can't tell one apart from the others they all sound about the same. They all seem like a clever mental exercise. Imagine adcoms reading these types of essays all day long. </p>
<p>You are 17 year old kids, and we the adults all know that your life is awfully short and you could not have come to some life shattering universal truth -not yet. Reading some of these convoluted essays make me feel like I am watching a kid beauty contest where 7 year old girls are presented like R rated movie stars with make up, the sultry come-hither smile and practiced phrases. </p>
<p>I like the essay posted on #291. When I read this, I feel that this is an authentic voice, an honest one. S/he managed to demonstrate a very attractive, curious, AND YES, HIGHLY INTELLECTUAL, mind in simple and unpretentious sentences. I feel like I got to know the kid, and I like this kid. </p>
<p>Again, I may be completely off: maybe this style of uber-sophistication is what the adcoms are looking for as a sign of intellectual mind. But, I have heard and given countless marketing and business proposal worth millions and billions of dollars, and the best proposal is always simply worded with no obfustication in the form and shape of tortuously clever phrases and fad slogans.</p>
<p>Just my two cents..........</p>
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