<p>And I’m not even applying
Just got off the phone with a friend of my mothers who used to be an admissions officer at Bates. She’s my new favorite person in the world. Of course she’s retired now but if all the staff are that intelligent you guys have got it good. Her main advice for my essay was to show your voice and realize that these people are reading your essays in a totally different way than your family and teachers. Yes that means they’re going fast but that isn’t the end of the world. Just make sure your essay is very very clear as a skim. When she read mine the lack of the word “my” completely invalidated my point. It makes perfect sense (to me) without it but at a speedier read peoples interpretations are different. She also said stay away from negative statements. I had a crack about regurgitating information she told me to take out because it was dissing my school. Hope all her advice helps me at Smith! You guys are lucky though, apparently not only will your essay be read by the officer most familiar with your region, it will be read by about 3 other people as well. Certainly ups the odds doesn’t it?</p>