I would just worry an ad com would be “amused” in a patronizing way reading that kind of thing. It is pretty cliche radical/liberal stuff. Perhaps she could just focus on the wealth inequality and what she is doing to address it personally.
@NCmom14 Just to clarify: You mean this was an essay on his application? What was the prompt? Did you actually see the essay? Did the essay speak in completely unpersonalized language or did your S tie in the global impact of American policies on his own life in any way shape or form?
@NotVerySmart I feel like this joke packs less punch than it could have given that none of those 3 did their undergraduate degrees at Harvard.
And I agree with posters who say that unless this is tied in with extracurricular work (in which case the essays could be more about what she’s doing to “be the change she wishes to see in the world”) it’s going to be meaningless anyway, even if it weren’t controversial.
That’s where the rub is. Is she smart enough to walk that line? And enticing to whom? (We have a few public figures in the news now behaving in very provocative ways, and enticing some people, but repelling many others).
I do agree that she should go to a school where she feels comfortable, but I don’t actually agree that it matters if admissions knows everything about her. There are plenty of things admissions doesn’t find out, and often it is best for everyone.
OP, if she is high stats, Swarthmore is a school to look at.
I agree with people who state that “doing” is more important in terms of showing what one’s contribution is to their school, neighborhood, city, State and so on. What has a person contributed to the betterment of even a tiny area around them. Most students who have fared well that I know, are doing good for some others.
@iwannabe_Brown Fair enough, though the college’s conservative wing is no laggard. Its alumni include a half-dozen GOP senators (Tom Cotton also attended Harvard Law after graduating from the college).
There is a famous quote from Churchill, which goes something like this, he who is not a liberal is his youth has no heart, he who is not a conservative in his maturity has no brain! OR something like that.
As @iwannabe_Brown said , graduate school is not the same. BTW, doesn’t Brown have a reputation for liberal diversity? Maybe OP would add that one to her prospective list.
I was talking about current/recent undergraduate students who are children of friends. They think it is the 60s and will protest any and everything. That is anecdotal. However here is a quick link I found http://www.bluegrasspundit.com/2015/05/left-wing-professor-update-harvard.html
The real and more important point to be made, regardless of which school is that too many students, to avoid seeming cookie cutter reveal information that is better left unsaid. I tried to find the article that I read awhile ago in it AdComs were relaying the worst examples of TMI in admissions essay. One girl apparently wrote how she was so happy to meet some famous professor that while waiting for him to talk to her she could not go to the bathroom and peed on herself!
While a very talented writer can make anything seem like a great topic, including a urinary tract infection, 95% of students will create something that will hit the wrong way. Whether it is an essay about your bi polar disorder, your anorexia, why you only eat white foods, or why money should be replaced with bitcoin, there really is such a thing as over sharing or being controversial without adding anything and perhaps detracting.
Op’s kid should do a draft essay and then run it by some experts in her real life. If it adds to her application great, if it does not, then out it goes or limit it to a few schools.