<p>Is there something you wish you could explain to admissions officers but can't? Even with an essay, application readers still have a fairly limited view of you. What are they missing out on? I like to believe that we are more than what can be said about us on paper. What are your thoughts?</p>
<p>What are you trying to explain to them?</p>
<p>I feel like if there’s something specific you want them to know, it can go in an essay. If it would seem stupid to write in the essay, it probably doesn’t matter/they don’t care.</p>
<p>I’m the type of person who thinks that people can’t know about others unless they actually meet each other in person… so yeah, essays aren’t exactly the way to show the admission officers about who I truly am. But I gotta try 'cause essays are the only way, right?</p>
<p>Oh well.</p>
<p>I’d like them to know that while my grades aren’t stellar, I’ve learned a lot more from my classes than some people with better grades, and that I genuinely love learning. I’m not simply a bad student, and I’m not exactly lazy; I never bothered in school because I never felt interested in the things I was told to learn. I know more than my classmates, but I know only what I learned on my own, out of curiosity. I believe I can do much better in college, where I can choose my classes (this wasn’t an option at my school) and study what I care about.</p>
<p>This attitude is hard to convey in a standard application, and I’m not even sure if I should try. Maybe it doesn’t really make me sound any more promising.</p>
<p>You can convey the attitude, but it may not help you. Colleges want to admit people with the work ethic to do the work required to graduate.</p>
<p>Someone who likes to learn, but doesn’t like to learn in school, may not be the type of person who’ll bother to do the academic work college requires. One of my sons is like that. He was an extensive reader and writer and had scores 98-99 percentile, a 2.9 average in high school. He flunked out of college (didn’t bother to go to class or to do the work) and at 26 has never returned because he feels he can learn more on his own.</p>
<p>He continues to be an extensive reader (last year was trying to read all of the Great Books for fun) and is one of the most well informed people I know. However, he’s not college material because while he loves to learn on his own, he doesn’t like the structure of formal academic environments, and he isn’t willing to do the work that colleges require.</p>
<p>The initial fallacy is that you believe that the admissions councils want more information than they ask. They ask for a specifically finite amount of info because it’s not in their interest to evaluate more. Why? Because it’s not like they are grinding lenses for the Hubble Telescope. They know there’s lots of imprecision involved and it’s 100% OK with them. They know they’ll miss some perfectly worthwhile applicants and admit some less than best applicants. For top schools, they are confident that their rejects will be fine and equally confident that those admitted will be aided by any support systems extant.</p>
<p>Your deep and compelling “you must know this about me” statement? They really don’t want to know it. Sorry. They’re admitted thousands of students, not checking out a potential spouse.</p>