I agree that it was a risk, but I think it was also a bit of a slap in the face to the kids with similar academic and EC profiles that spent hours working on their essays and in many cases pouring their hearts out but were rejected.
Just wondering if all the above posters who said their child’s essay received positive feedback and might have been a key factor, did they actually write it completely by themselves?
Can admissions people really tell the difference?
Does and should it matter?
^ I guess a lot depends on your definition of “completely by themselves.”
Shortnuke, it was his choice, he took the calculated risk, his “whole” apparently worked. It could have failed. Next kids set their own parameters. Sorry but each gets an admit or not, based on their own apps.
What else do you think someone should hold back on, to not offend another?
Imo, writing “completely by themselves” is a CC construct, held by some. As if no one should know the topic, see a draft, or other help.
That’s different than having someone write it for you. Frankly, I don’t believe an adult is necessarily a better writer.
Agreed.
Yes, the kid got admitted, but that demonstrates there’s a wide discrepancy between what adcoms claim to look for(higher order thinking and willingness to grow and the rest of the marketing phrases) and who they admit.
@lalalander111 My Dd definitely wrote hers herself. She is a fabulous writer, far superior to me (her teacher). She made her essays works of art. She is a lover of all things language (which her transcript and ECs demonstrated), and her essays definitely confirmed that love of words. She deliberately incorporated stylistic devices like alliteration, allusions, and internal rhyme. When I read her essays, I was blown away by just how strong they were. It wasn’t just what she wrote but how she wrote it.
I’m not sure why the default assumption is that kids can’t write excellent essays on their own. ???
I think few kids these days, at least those shooting for the top 20-ish schools, “completely” write their essays by themselves.
In addition to heli-parent input, it is now increasingly common for the main Common App essay to be an assignment in HS English class during the fall senior semester. So you’ve also got discussion, input and editing from the English teacher. Also common for the high schools to have summer application workshops, with essay assistance being one of the services offered. Plus private college coaches.
So increasingly “it takes a village” to write a college essay.
Not so different from how standardized tests now work. In the olden days it was one sitting, no prep, one and done. But today’s 99th percentile reported SAT score is the product of an extensive process – coaching, multiple practice tests, multiple actual tests (few of which get reported), super-scoring, etc.
All of the apples in the submitted college application basket are the product of serious polishing these days.
Know what? If a kid is going to enter into this competition, at the highest levels, it helps more to look for what the college wants, assess and process that, and then put out the best he can. For that moment, set aside the distrust. Dig deep.
Imo, from what we see, not knowing his full app strengths, this kid had a lot covered. Otherwise, they would have been smacking their heads.
Would I tell a kid to try a stunt like that? Absolutely not. (I’d have suggested a little prose in there.)
My younger son took a calculated risk when he sent in a story instead of a political position paper to Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service. He didn’t figure he was getting in on stats, he felt he had to do something different. He knew they might hate it, or that it wouldn’t make a difference. He didn’t get in, but he was fine with that.
Eons ago Stanford’s essay was “What’s your greatest flaw.” My brother sent the application in a day late, and said “Procrastination.” He felt really badly when he got in and his best friend (who really wanted to go, it wasn’t my brother’s first choice) didn’t. But that the way it works. Sometimes you’ll tickle their funny bone, and sometimes you won’t. It’s not an unreasonable strategy, but it’s very risky.
Tufts application told the kids to have someone read their essays and make sure it sounded like them.
I’ve never remotely heard any college say that’s what they were looking for in an essay. The message I got was that they wanted to get to know the applicant as a person. I think they learned that the Black Lives Matter kid was passionate, a bit of a risk taker, sassy and confident.
@lookingforward I agree with you that he took a risk (assuming he’s being truthful…Stanford never confirmed his story from what I can tell). My issue isn’t with him at all, it’s with Stanford for accepting what I think was a lazy approach when thousands of students put so much effort into their essays. BLM is an outstanding topic for a young activist to write about, but he didn’t really write about it at all. He just copied and pasted a hash tag.
To be honest, I question how much of a risk it really was to him. According to the linked story, he had not decided where he was going to attend. At the very least, it appears that he did not apply Restrictive Early Action (Stanford doesn’t have ED). It’s likely Stanford either wasn’t his first choice or he didn’t expect to be admitted. In either case, the risk he took would be far less that if Stanford was his definite first choice or if he did the same essay for a school that he applied ED for.
There are colleges that suggest essay guidelines.
@mathmom you might like this one, for the frankness
http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/how-to-write-a-college-essay
“The sad truth is that most college application essays are not very good. When I say they are “not very good”, I mean they are either boring, impenetrable, melodramatic, or all of the above.” And I’d add, not relevant.
Per the web, he’s at Yale. From his comments, Stanford was an RD decision.
Yes, maybe he stuck his neck out for Stanford only. But too many see the app package for its pieces, like some to-do checklist, and miss that how it all has to work- both as pieces and as a whole. You’re communicating to adult strangers who cull through thousands annually.
So what if some kids put “more effort” into their essays? There are no points for effort. You could, eg, put weeks into the Why Us and still miss the mark. (Again, I refer to top colleges.)
It might help some to accept that one has to have the stats and rigor, but after that, how a kid thinks matters. And that comes out in his choices through high school (including ECs) and in his self presentation (that’s the whole, including all writing.) The ultimate “Show, not just tell.”
In 2006, George Allen was running for reelection to the US Senate. A kid, S. R. Sidarth, was following him and filming all his speeches for opposition research. Allen introduced Sidarth to the crowd as ‘macaca’. It blew up on national TV and cost Allen his Senate seat.
That fall, Sidarth applied to Larry Sabato’s highly selective UVA seminar with a 3 word essay, “I am macaca”. And got in.
I always liked that story as evidence that you don’t need a lot of words, just the right words for the right audience. Malala Yousafzai probably could get into 99.9% of the world’s colleges with a sentence-long essay. However if you’re not on that level of fame, you probably need something more.
" I think it was also a bit of a slap in the face to the kids with similar academic and EC profiles that spent hours working on their essays and in many cases pouring their hearts out but were rejected."
Have you seen a Stanford application lately? “What matters to you and why?” is just one of three required supplemental essays. That’s on top of the common app personal statement. So this kid wrote essays. If the rest had been gimmicky, surely he would have shared them, too.
I’ve never met a kid who got into Yale and Stanford without working his butt off. But if there is one so talented that he can just sit down and bang out a winning application in ten minutes…well, elementary school may give an A for effort. In the adult world, people who do better work faster get the edge.
@ninakatarina And a little rest of the story is interesting here.
“Weeks after Allen’s blunder, Sidarth finds himself writing an entrance essay for a class… “I get all these large, elaborate essays about the meaning of politics and why they are going to be president,” says Larry Sabato, the professor. Sidarth writes only three words. “I am macaca.” Sabato lets him in. “When you have the right stuff, you don’t need to brag,” the teacher explains.”
That’s not to say anyone can go with shorthand. But pouring on the words, going for expository greatness, literary mastership, or working so hard to show your voice (that an adcom feels like part of your posse at the lunch table,) aren’t it.
In life, in competitive apps, debate team, your adult resume etc, it’s not the tsunami of words, but the right filters, writing to the purpose. A skill.
Here’s an idea: maybe schools that require essays should all make the ACT/SAT with writing mandatory and incorporate a couple common admission essay questions into the standardized tests. If I was an adcom I would love to see a candidate’s genuine response and how clearly they can express themselves in an efficient manner. I would place much more value on this approach vs. the current approach where kids often work on their Common App essay for an entire summer or longer - seems ridiculous to me. Sure it would not be personalized to a given school but it might just work better than the current system.
This approach might also put some college counselors or essay coaches out of business, but the essays would be 100% their own and make the essay much less of an event.
@my2caligirls, It’s interesting because at one LAC’s information session the AC said that they put much more emphasis on the application essay as opposed to the ACT/SAT essays because they want to see what a student cares to convey to them during the application process rather than an essay written under pressure with a prompt that the student may have little to no interest in.
Hours of effort do not count at all. The best students will require far less effort to produce far better results. This includes class grades, test results and essays. It also includes the workplace. The company does not care how much time you put in, it cares about the results. Some colleges and work places have set the standards/production expectations high enough that only the top tier can successfully get the job done in the time expected. Hopefully the rewards are worth it, or a switch is indicated. btw- rewards are not just monetary.
“If I was an adcom I would love to see a candidate’s genuine response and how clearly they can express themselves in an efficient manner.”
I would, too, and that’s pretty much what the ACT writing section is supposed to do. That section forces them to respond to a particular set of texts, so they can’t prepare in advance. The problem is that colleges don’t just want to see writing skill. They want the personal insight they get from the essay. If the prompt on a standardized test asked for something personal, then students could (and would) prepare drafts in advance.
@Hanna, is the writing section scored by machine? I know that, at one point, they were testing that.