I’d submit a paper he is really proud of … I wouldn’t worry otherwise.
He’ll learn the style of the school once there.
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As long as it answers the prompt, is well written and is a good reflection of his writing style and maturity as a writer I would think it should be fine. S24 submitted a literary analysis of a reading passage but it did have a standard introduction and conclusion.
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At a guess, it helps them calibrate what a good paper means for the applicant, which might vary quite a bit across the range of their applicants. But I personally would not worry there was a wrong choice for a given applicant, as long as they thought whatever it was indicated their best level of work.
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My son is majoring in political economy and ethics. It’s great in every way. They have super interactive classes and professors and give the students a lot of opportunities. My son got research as a freshman, was a class Senator, and started his own club. Because it’s small and so student focused, kids really have an opportunity to shine.
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n of 1 - my daughter at Amherst chose to submit a six-page philosophy essay that was somewhat obscure and had minimal comments from the teacher, but she really loved the topic and thought it reflected the type of thinking that she wanted to do in college. She attended a run-of-the-mill public school, no advice from anyone at school about what to submit.
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Looking at the curriculum, appears to be an awesome program!!
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I don’t think they are trying to match it to a rubric of sorts but I think (and this is only my opinion) that they are looking for the quality of the writing. Can this person write a well structured analytical paper/are they prepared to write a college paper? I don’t believe they are thinking too much about the argument itself.
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During our on campus info session at Amherst, which was an exhaustive 2 hours, the AO said they would prefer to see graded papers with comments. If you don’t have a copy with comments, it’s fine. S24 is sending a paper that analyzed a couple of lines in a Latin text. It’s like 10 pages and written last year. He’s sending this one because he made a discovery about how the ancient author made an unusual change with the syntax to make an emphasis or something like that. The AO claimed they read everything. It seems to me if you are going to include a paper instead of answering a supplemental essay it better pack a punch.
As to why our session was 2 hours, there was no guided tour of the campus. We visited like 2 days before the start of school. I guess they wanted to give us our money’s worth.
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Isn’t there a concern that the AO doesn’t have time to get through a 10 pg paper? My guess is that why Princeton says one or two pages will suffice.
Maybe for a long paper comments are particularly relevant. Though my theory is that they also want to gauge what the grading is like at the school.
FWIW, when my D applied, the CC felt she should answer a prompt not send an essay since she is a very strong writer. Basically to take advantage of opportunity to add something about herself - as it was pretty clear from her application (her LORd were from English and History) that she could write.
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There seems to me a lot of contradictory advice on that subject, and logically to me it would depend on context. Amherst is on S24’s list, and I will be interested to see if our counselors have a suggested strategy based on their experience with people applying from our HS (which might well depend on S24’s own individual characteristics).
Even if they don’t read the entire paper they’ll see his analytical and writing ability. He wants to study classics. This paper was also published in a classics journal. My point to the OP if you are going to go with a graded paper it should be a good one. Otherwise it looks like you are just trying to dodge work. And that’s not a good look when applying to somewhere like Amherst and Williams.
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Of course it should be a good one, but personally I think they are less interested in the content than the technical skill. Within reason, the content is irrelevant.
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As an aside: Are you aware of the full tuition scholarships for classics students at Holy Cross? Their classics department is very impressive in terms of its depth and research opportunities as well. My S24 is also interested in classics, although he’s not sure whether that will be his major. He likes LACs and one issue with many LACs seems to be that they don’t have a deep course catalog in classics. S24 has studied both Latin and Ancient Greek for many years, and for a kid who would probably place out of a lot of the language classes there aren’t too many classes left.
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I think that the content can be relevant, if it reinforces the rest of the application (like, in my daughter’s case, reinforcing her stated passion for particular types of philosophy, and showing some depth to her interest).
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If your student chooses to submit a prompted essay, at least to Williams, make sure they check their email in February as they have been known to ask a number of students to also submit a graded paper.
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Thanks for the info. Right now S24 is EDing at another school where he was recruited to swim. He turned down Amherst’s recruitment offer. But if he doesn’t get accepted or gets deferred at the school he is EDing, we’ll look at Holy Cross. He’s also interested in mathematics. Academically, he’s just like his father, who studied both in college. But he’s taking a history/political science class now that’s rocking his world, so who knows. That’s more up my alley. He’s got time to figure what he wants to study in college. One thing for sure is he’s a liberal arts kind of guy and wants SLAC.
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Interesting - I wonder why, especially if the request is not made of everyone. To figure out the level of teaching/teacher attention at the school? Or to confirm that the first essay was not the result of too much outside help (maybe it looks a little too good)?
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I think it was for kids on the cusp academically or from a school they might not be familiar with.
This is embarrassing, but I do not remember the names of most of the places we ate. No matter where we were, there seemed to be someplace good to eat near by and we just went for it. Hole in the wall kebab place, random taqueria that I wish I could eat at every single day, etc. The day we spent in Cambridge we were walking around after visiting Harvard and stumbled on a fusion bowl type place. That day we were accidentally vegan. 
I do remember the names of the places we ate during our day in Salem…Flying Saucer Pizza (options for gluten free crust, dairy free cheese, non-tomato based sauce, and everything we had was excellent!) Lobster Shanty for dinner (homemade clam chowder with local clams!)
I tried a lobster roll at Legal Sea Food (restaurant choice of the larger group we ate with that night), I went with hot but it was so giant that I ate the rest cold from the fridge the next day…it was still good, bizarrely even the bread. Never did get to try a Boston Cream Pie.
Had a lunch of crostini, local burrata, and grapes at Bell in Hand (convenient since we were heading off to the Bells and Bones tour at King’s Chapel afterward…probably my favorite activity of the trip)
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Glad you made it to the North Shore. One of the best things about the Boston area is how many wonderful places there are to do a quick day trip. It is a great option for parent’s weekend when you have seen the campus already and are looking for someplace new to discover.
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