<p>i definitely know one of them is getting too many letters of rec (one officer got 17!)</p>
<p>An essay that is never-ending.</p>
<p>ECs that are completely self-serving and do nothing to help others, only the student applying.</p>
<p>Can you give an example of ECs that are completely self-serving?</p>
<p>EDIT: 17 letters?!?!</p>
<p>Um lol. I went to tour JHU. This one guy sent 48 (+ / - 10-20%)recommendations (according to the guy there). I was like Omg.. lol i am sending at most 3.</p>
<p>here's the biggest pet peeve:</p>
<p>"I want to go to John Hopkins"</p>
<p>haha notice anything wrong? If not, then you better check your application over again</p>
<p>It's okay to have ECs that are self-serving, in other words, that improve yourself as an individual, instrument, sport, etc. My point though, is to not have ANYTHING that is actually of service to others, i.e., volunteering for the needy, that sort of thing.</p>
<p>I guess an example of a self-serving EC would be listing a leisure hobby --</p>
<p>Ex: I cook for myself. </p>
<p>The John Hopkins thing is a big pet peeve, applications written in bright yellow highlighter w/ script, huge mistakes on essay (i.e. stating wrong school).</p>
<p>read the entries in the archives (January and February of 2006) of AdmissionsDaniel's blog. They include detailed profile of each member in the adcom, including the pet peeves.
<a href="http://hopkins.typepad.com/hopkins_insider/archives.html%5B/url%5D">http://hopkins.typepad.com/hopkins_insider/archives.html</a></p>