<p>One of the definitions of “gimmick” in my dictionary is, “an ingenious and usually new scheme or angle.” While most of the waitlist gimmicks I’ve seen fall well short of “ingenious,” the best of them are definitely clever.</p>
<p>I tell students to consider a gimmick only when a good idea comes to mind, never when it feels forced or uncomfortable. The best gimmicks tend to be those that are tied to a students interests or talents. For instance, once when I worked at Smith, a student who was an avid photographer put together a calendar made up of a dozen atypical campus photographs. Also see “Ode to Oberlin” and “Swarthmore in Soap” in my original post. </p>
<p>And, yes, over the years I have had many admission officials recall with fondness (and only occasionally with rolled eyes) some of the most memorable gimmicks they’ve encountered.</p>
<p>Again, I stand by my position that a gimmick can sometimes help, especially this late in the game, when it’s go-for-broke time, and far more rarely will hurt (and most students should be smart enough to know which ones might fall into the latter group).</p>