<p>My orthodontist (went to Harvard for his masters) was telling me about a girl he knew who got into Stanford. Apparently on her application the essay was something along the lines of "tell us about yourself like you would a new roommate." So rather than writing a conventional essay, she took a bunch of post-it-notes and wrote little facts and other things about herself on them. She got in.</p>
<p>With such competitive admissions processes for top flight schools a gimmick like that has to help you stick out. Anybody else have a gimmick they used or have heard of?</p>
<p>hm? how did she manage to send those stickies? did she send her application through the mail?</p>
<p>and i think gimmicks should be done with a pinch of precaution. I wouldn’t try anything risky on a school that i would really like to get into/have a good chance of getting into</p>
<p>Yeah, this would probably be around a decade ago, so I’d say it was through the mail.</p>
<p>I think if you have a gimmick that’s reasonable it can help. Top schools like that get a lot of apps with those same high scores and similar EC’s; ya gotta make yourself stick out somehow</p>