<p>Ben Golub gave a talk at my school last week. 'Twas quite informative -- some good insight on writing essays and the admission process in general.</p>
<p>So just wanted to issue a quick thanks. The information helped better my application.</p>
<p>Perhaps I should include some key points of what was said to make this post a bit more meaningful:</p>
<ul>
<li>Essays are important... You can have great numbers and be rejected if you write bad essays.</li>
<li>A good essay is one that excites a reader. This way, you have someone to help push you through.</li>
<li>A bad essay is one which goes something like, "I have great character because..." or "I love Caltech because of the many Nobel-winners"</li>
<li>Being deferred from Caltech is not a bad thing, it means you have an appreciable chance of being accepted.</li>
<li>Cs in Spanish aren't the end of the world, but Cs in Physics are. </li>
</ul>
<p>That is as much as I can recall for now, If I remember more I will post.</p>
<p>I do wonder if my essays helped me or hurt me... My "why I want to go to Caltech" one is kind of silly. It starts with geese and ends with discovering something "magical," with a bit more substance in the middle, but only a bit. My other one was better, but... hmm... Perhaps my test scores made up for it? Or perhaps they enjoy people being slightly offbeat.</p>
<p>I think offbeat essays tend to wake me up, and me wakeful is much more likely to be positive about an application than me sleepy.</p>
<p>And adimeola -- you're welcome ;-) I'm glad people found it useful.</p>
<p>Since people seem to be following the general trend of thanking Ben, thanks, Ben! You gave me a morale boost junior year when I posted chances here.</p>
<p>And as for essay tips, I'll add to "A good essay is one that excites a reader. This way, you have someone to help push you through": If you sound excited about something in an essay, the reader will be excited too, even if s/he has no idea what you're talking about!</p>
<p>I still remember that my "Why Caltech" essay was fairly whimsical. I definitely kept the tone informal and light-hearted (and actually spent the least amount of time revising it compared to my other essays).</p>
<p>Do students (UG, in particular) at MIT or Stanford review the admissions? Among the research unis, I think only Caltech has students sit on the admissions com.</p>
<p>I asked Ben J. recenty, coincidentally, about MIT. There, students sit in on the selection meetings, but don't read applications. Don't know about Stanford but I strongly suspect the answer is no, and I am sure students are not involved at Harvard or Princeton (nor are faculty really involved at the latter, IIRC).</p>