<p>I've had a very strong interest and passion in poetry for a very long time.</p>
<p>I would go on and explain everything about poetry and how it has become a part of who I am but I just finished describing it all on an application.</p>
<p>Basically, my Gifted Education teacher REALLY likes my poetry and I have received much praise from her.</p>
<p>Should I send some of my poems to Andover and Lawrenceville? If yes, how?</p>
<p>I personally would not, unless your poetry has been published, in which case you should just mention it in the achievements section. The adcoms won’t have time to read those supplementary materials. If you want to send in something poetry-related, write one of your essays in the form of a poem or something.</p>
<p>I disagree. One of my worst mistakes was not sending in any of my stories.</p>
<p>Huh. What makes you think the reason you didn’t get in was your not sending in any of your stories. The frustratedly overloaded adcoms are not going to have time to read additional writings because writing is not a recruitable skill. Good writing shines through your essays, and that alone suffices.</p>
<p>In short, do whatever you like, but it’s mostly likely not going to make a difference, because if it would, you would have already been published.</p>
<p>@MBV with all due respect, you kind of jumped the gun there. stargirl never said that her lack of admission was due to her not sending in poetry, just that it was a mistake. </p>
<p>@rareparadox unless you’ve gotten recognition or awards I’m not sure about sending it in</p>
<p>Well, she should have explained why it was a mistake for her. Her post implied that sending in superfluous materials would increase one’s chance of admission. I didn’t want the OP to get the wrong impression!</p>
<p>Bombarding the admission officers with stuff that inherently holds little weight is never a good idea. Like laundry listing your activities, it sticks out in an adverse way. You don’t want to seem too desperate to impress your application readers. </p>
<p>Sorry, I was a bit too blunt, but I’m only giving personal advice to the OP based on my observations and reasoning. My apologies.</p>
<p>Actually, I know at least Deerfield asks for a graded writing sample (I assume other schools do as well). My S sent a graded essay along with a graded short story. No one ever commented or complained (and he was accepted). Just include a graded poem or two along with the essay you submit when you send in the application.</p>
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<p>I don’t know if you meant it to be, but that seemed rude to me. I never said my work hasn’t been published, and I never said it would’ve gotten me in. I’ve won writing contests (including Scholastic, which as a 7th grader, even Honorable Mention is huge), and I think that showing them my work would’ve been better than just telling them what I won. If my application ever made it to the “final round,” they could’ve looked at the writing as a factor towards whether or not they should admit me. It’s up to you, I don’t think sending in something you’re proud of will hurt your chances.</p>
<p>In addition, I didn’t do much in-school writing until the second half of the year, after everything was said and done. The essay I submitted was something I wrote in September, and I grew a lot as a writer last year. I don’t think it portrayed a very accurate picture of my skills, but I didn’t have much of a choice.</p>
<p>As long as you’re selective–one or two of your best poems–I don’t see how it could hurt. None of us know what AO’s will or will not take the time to read, but I’m pretty sure they’re more flexible than MVB is suggesting. If Admissions doesn’t want to read it, they won’t, but they do allow musical performances, art portfolios, etc., so I don’t see why they wouldn’t read a poem. And if it’s in your essay or on your application, it makes sense to me to include a concrete example. That’s far different, in my book, from sending copies of award certificates, which is the kind of thing that people typically warn against sending.</p>
<p>Thank you, classicalmama! That’s exactly what I was thinking.</p>
<p>@classicalmama: I think the musical performances and art portfolios sent in are then forwarded to their respective departments and used for recruiting purposes (to discern between the best violinists, pianists, etc.). The adcoms themselves are not going to evaluate them. I’m still skeptical about sending in pieces of writing, however, because the adcoms can readily use the essays as a metric with which to judge the applicants’ writing abilities.</p>
<p>@stargirl: if you are indeed a published writer, your essays will read as written by a published writer, so any other pieces of writing will be extraneous because both more or less exhibit excellent command of writing. If your writing had improved significantly since you had completed your essays, however, you should have just rewritten/edited them to match your ability at the time. Your and the OP’s cases are different.</p>
<p>I guess I’m not going to advise against sending the poems/stories in if they are condensed and concise as well as manifest the best of your writing ability. I doubt, however, that the adcoms will bother to read a 5 page short story in addition to the thousands of apps they have to read over the course of a month. </p>
<p>Well, each to his own. But do keep in mind that sending in supplementary writing materials could backfire if your writing, to the adcoms, does not seem as appealing as you think it should, because it would then appear like another case of resume padding.</p>
<p>I wonder how I could endorse a poem within my essay. I have not seen the questions and short answers yet.</p>
<p>And Lawrenceville also asks for a graded English or Social Studies essay.
I haven’t won any huge poetry award or contest like others. My gifted education teacher praised it highly (even said one of my poems almost made her cry) so I just thought that maybe sending it in might help a bit since they do take in music performances but like you said those are only for the music programs. I used to upload some of my poems on my old blog and I received a positive response.</p>
<p>My poems are very short and less than half a page. Most of my poetry is very short.</p>
<p>I will have to further think about whether I should send in my work. My poems are not graded as I write most of them in my free time at home but in English class if there is a poetry assignment and my teacher’s response to my work is positive then I will definitely send that in along with a graded essay.</p>
<p>I have been for the past year sending in many poems to many different literary magazines for publication. So far I’ve been rejected so I see your point of saying that if my poetry has not been published than it probably means it isn’t good enough to send to the schools.</p>
<p>Contests are hard for me to enter because I started to really discover myself in poetry after all the contests were over.</p>
<p>What is the “Special Interest Recommendation”?</p>
<p>rareparadox- Do what you think will best represent who you are. I would not put much stock in what MBVLoveless has to say, she is a student herself and has no experience in an admission office. Do not try to squeeze yourself into some admission box ie trying to be the person they want to accept. On the contrary, Be yourself and Be it Well. Good luck and avoid seeking too much advice from this blog, 70% of it is useless. One last thought, if you are passionate about poetry, consider printing 2 or 3 of your best poems and bringing them with you to your interview. You can incorporate your passion into the interview and present the poems to the interviewer at the appropriate time. If you don’t have the chance to discuss during the interview, you could use it as your closing comment- something you think the admission officer should know about you and you provide the examples. Good Luck.</p>
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<p>w-w-why</p>
<p>This is a forum. Listen to numerous points of views and decide on what you think is best, because that is exactly what forums are for - consultation, not dictation. Honestly, firstgen, for an adult, you’re seem a bit too mad at me for making a (not even offensive) comment about Andover. You even started stalking my profile and attacking me in other threads. lol</p>
<p>@rareparadox: admission is a game. Know it and play it well. I believe Lawrenceville’s prompt is very broad (not sure about this year’s), so it would not be impossible to endorse poetry within the essay. After all, it’s your essay, and YOU get to decide what form it takes. You certainly don’t have to be published to be accepted, but since it’s your passion, presenting it in a subtler, more personal way that reveals your wit and creativity rather than merely sending in what you have written beforehand, which seems like resume-padding move, certainly gives the adcoms more insights into your personality.</p>
<p>I also want to know how firstgen automatically assumes I’m a girl because my 17 years of living have proven to me that I’m of the male kind. </p>
<p>@rare: I think “Special Interest Recommendation” is for a supervisor of one of your main extracurricular activities to fill out. Also, please understand that I’m not advising you not to be yourself. I actually have a lot of sympathy for you because your passion for poetry reminds me a lot of my middle school self. I’m only advising you to think it through and play it smart–present yourself in the best light with the best method to maximize your chance of admission, whatever you construe the method to be from reading the posts. Send the poems in only if they don’t seem out of place.</p>
<p>MBVLoveless- ODD is all I can say, any where I go there you are, dishing out the advice, I would just caution anyone from putting too much stock in what you say. pardon the slip of the pronoun, I guess it was just an impression.</p>
<p>firstgen: I mean if you’re a grown up, you could have generalized your caution without specifically referring to me. In case you’re in denial that you’re not getting personal, every other poster on this board is doing the exact same thing–dishing out advice/offering his/her personal perspectives to other posters. Why not comment on that? Did my perfectly innocuous comment about Andover hit some of your soft spots somehow (if it did, I honestly don’t know why it should)? Just because I disagree with you in my perception of a school doen’t mean you should get all personal with me about other things. I could honestly care less if people don’t follow my advice because a perspective is just that - a perspective - and their application is none of my concerns.</p>
<p>Complex people spend too much time minding other peoples business. Lost souls with nothing better to do. Some of the comments on these boards do not look like they are written by the highly selected boarding school students. Like I suggested before, Be yourself and Be it well.</p>