<p>I hate to sound like a nagger, but it appears my question about physical disabilities and whether or not they impact admissions got lost in shuffle. Not that I don't trust the CC posters here, but I would love to hear from a true adcom.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>I'm not sure specifically what your question is -- usually they dont' have a big impact unless the student has had to overcome tremendous odds. In that case it would be a slight plus as would overcoming any kind of disability. Does that help? You'd still have to have the numbers and academic passion, but of course adcoms would take that into account.
As for the viral/bacteria, my doctor ruled out strep and mono, so looks like "the flu"</p>
<p>First, I would like you to know that your book has been immensely helpful to us in getting our son to -- Dartmouth! Thank you very much.</p>
<p>A question for you. While admissions officers are hard working, etc., they are rarely equipped to evaluate all accomplishments submitted by applicants, especially in the areas of math and sciences. Examples of such achievements include research projects, publications, and completion of college courses. On research projects, for example, while admissions officers can evaluate winners of well-known science competitions, there are projects outside this domain (e.g. topic not appropriate) that in fact impress professors more -- but they won't know unless they check! On college courses, a humble title like "Basic Algebra" can (but doesn't have to) be for an advanced course in group theory, while an esoteric title like "Chaos and Dynamics Theory" can (but doesn't have to) be for a high-school level course where students mostly look at photographs. When facing such folders, do admissions offices -- which are otherwise fiercely independent entities -- seek the expertise of appropriate department faculty, or do they "go alone" as best as they can? What would make them decide that this uneven applicant may just be an academic superstar, so they should consult an expert's opinion? </p>
<p>Alternatively, what should an applicant with such a backgound do to insure that fiercely independent admissions officers appreciate the significance of his record?</p>
<p>4th floor:</p>
<p>The question that you ask gets to the heart of the difference between a good application and a mediocre application.</p>
<p>The app is a blank canvas. The checkboxes, blanks, short answers, and essays are the paintbrushes. The student can use those tools to paint whatever picture he or she likes.</p>
<p>If something about an activity or interest needs to be brought to life, there are usually two or three essays that provide a perfect opportunity to do so.</p>
<p>My advice is to start the application process with a yellow legal pad and a month or two or jotting down "things" about the student that might be important to communicate. This should, ideally, be a relaxed family activity, "Hey, Bobby Jean...what about that time...". From that list, you distill the highlights: the things that will form a focused, easily-grasped picture of an engaged, lively kid. That distillation should involve culling a lot of fluff. A laundry list resume with pages and pages of actitivites and awards can actually be counterproductive because it keeps a clear picture from coming into focus.</p>
<p>Once the distilled list is complete, then you look at the application and figure out where and how each of the key items can be presented AND reinforced. In a really tight app, everything reinforces something else. For example, the EC research project that has been brought to life in an essay is reinforced by the science and math on the academic transcript and the tour of the college Chemistry department during the overnight that is featured in the "Why Podunk U?" essay.</p>
<p>If the student's main interest is something that will push buttons at the college, then you can even take this focus to the extreme: what I call the "one-trick pony" application, where the entire package reinforces a very specific identity. The best "one-trick pony" applications result in the student earning a nickname in the admissions office. Now, THAT is an identity. Identity is a good thing.</p>
<p>Almost anything can be emphasized successfully in creating an identity. But, it is up the to student to do so using the tools available on the application.</p>
<p>I totally agree with interestedad. Anyone can make even the most arcane topic understandable to an admissions officer. after all, the admissions officer doesn't have to follow the exact gist of your scientific research to see how high level it is, but if a teacher writes and says how great it is and the student has done it for years, the accomplishment is easy to understand. Likewise with talents -- you don't have to BE a concert pianist to be able to read letters by teachers saying how good the student is. The burden lies on the student to distill and explain things so these talents come across. The general rule is that the bigger schools usually don't have faculty on the committees, but some of the small liberal arts schools like Williams do. STudents can also contact professors directly, explain their research and then have the professor write on their behalf. In short, it's up to the student I wouldn't depend 100% on the admissions office.</p>
<p>Michelle- I'm also an avid reader of your books. I've read the article on the front page of this site on how to handle suspensions, etc. Do you find that a discipline problem in early high school is a deal-breaker for some colleges? I know the red-flag ones such as drugs, violence and academic dishonesty can be, but what about things like other rule violations or "pranks" which lead to suspensions- or worse? I have a child who has bounced back rather well from an "incident" several years ago and I think it can be explained. S is at a different school now with a perfect record! Thanks.</p>
<p>I do not know about you, but if we had to give prizes out for the worst essays presented on CC, the second and third places should go to the "Big Game" or the "Jock-gets-hurt-but-gets-back-just-in-time-to-score-winning-point" essays. The first prize is, however, reserved for the attempts to "explain" technical or scientific "amazing" achievements. I have few lingering doubts on this issue: if the record cannot stand on its own, it is not worth explaining. With all due respect, it is not hard to become a self-appointed or fabricated genius. With the explosion of competition of all levels, the truly exceptional students -and they exist- have no problem to find the platforms to display their talents, and earn the specific recognition. This is not different from athletic recognition: the true stars are easily identifiable through statistics and accomplishments. Any coach worth its salt in his or her sport recognizes the events in which an athlete participated. No matter how many pages one would write about making the district in Podunk City or being Co-MVP of Lucky HS, the results will be identical. If the record cannot speak for itself, it is not worth spending and wasting the best parts of the precious real estate represented by your essays. </p>
<p>Again, the essays that delve into explanations of grades or arcane and nebulous achievements are easily the most trite and misguided one could write, or even worse, having to read. Why? The efforts are usually liveless and self-congratulatory litanies of events that are memorable to everyone expect the writers and their accomplices. How many people do excel in the toughest math or science class, despite the toughest teacher ever to live? Ten of thousands! How many kids take advanced classes or have access to fancy laboratories through parental connections? Thousands! </p>
<p>On the other hand, essays and personal statements that are about the WRITER are always UNIQUE.</p>
<p>Xiggi - great advice, as always.</p>
<p>I will say, however, that some things require explanation - and that is the purpose of an addendum. Get mono during your junior year? Addendum. Had a parent die? Addendum. I do fully agree, however, that it should not be anything long or self-congratulatory: just a quick list of what happened and how it affected you. "I got mono during the second quarter of junior year. My grades dropped in almost all of my clasess, so I'm including the quarter-by-quarter breakdown instead of the usual semester one to give you a better idea of how my grades were before & after."</p>
<p>Brilliant post, Xiggi! If I were an adcom, I'd be tempted to reject every student who wrote an essay whose main theme was "let me make sure you understand just how amazing my accomplishments really are."</p>
<p>On a practical level, I would think the best way to convey such accomplishments is to let others do it for you, through awards and/or recommendations.</p>
<p>How one approaches the essays depends so much on individual circumstances and profiles. My nerdy S was advised by a kind CC parent not to write about math. There was already enough of it on his transcript and recs, and he did not wish to come across as "all math, all the time" So he wrote about one EC in which he has had very modest success; it was not so much to showcase his achievement as to present a different side of his personality, as well as his ability to turn a mundane competition into something of a cliff-hanger. The other essay was about his interest in creative writing; it was lighthearted, even humorous. Reading these, I felt I could enjoy living with the author. Well, I do live with him! :)</p>
<p>Berurah's S, however, needed to show his passion for epidiemology, something that he has pursued since elementary school but for which he did not receive national recognition. So the essay needed to have a different tone and cover different aspects of the profile than for my S. Obviously, both stategies worked since both got their authors into their #1 choices. More to the point, Berurah's S's essay captured the attention of the adcom who called several times to persuade him to attend Duke.</p>
<p>Marite, I completely agree that essays conveying genuine passion can be very good indeed. The essays I don't like are those that are smarmy and/or condescending in their efforts to impress the reader--e.g., "Most people don't truly understand what it means to invent the wheel at the tender age of seven..."</p>
<p>Yes, pranks and other incidents SHOULD be explained. If they were relatively harmless and happened early and are addressed in a mature way by the student, they do no harm. That would not keep a student out of a top school. The ones that hurt the most are academic infractions like plagiarism!</p>
<p>And Xiggi -- I agree. In matters like your brilliant discoveries, it's much better to have someone ELSE toot your horn!</p>
<p>Michelle, one of my friends has a daughter at a top prep school very interested in Dartmouth and Brown. They are not at all wealthy, but grandparents left educational funds that are able to cover cost of college and high school of choice for all the kids. Therefore, they look affluent but are really not. They live in a low income zip code in Canada.</p>
<p>Two questions. Should they try to get through that they have lived a lower middle class life despite their exceptional schooling? Is there a disadvantage applying from Canada or should they use their US school address?</p>
<p>It's really a non-issue as I see it because they will be counted as a student at that prep school. If they are actually Canadian, they will be have to be counted more or less as foreign students although some schools keep a separate category for Canandians. I don't see why their low income background would be much of a factor in this case.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your suggestions, especially interesteddad, xiggi, marite, and Dr. Hernandez for thoughtful and very helpful private messages. After some clarifications, it turns out there is general agreement amongst everyone. Yes, the essay does offer an excellent opportunity to flesh out the context of ones accomplishments, if done in an appealing and lively way. Depending on the applicant, however, the essay may be better used for other rounding out purposes, especially if competitions are available to allow ones record to stand on its own, or if someone else is available to explain things with authority.</p>
<p>Right. It all starts with the comprehensive list of possible "selling features". Then, you look at the list, deciding which to feature. And, finally, how to "package" them in the application. Sorry for the marketing/sales terminology, but that's fundamentally what a college app is. It's a brochure...for you! </p>
<p>I would add that, in general, you want to use the essays to sell your STRONGEST features. The essays largely determine whether or not your app makes the tranformation from numbers on a page to a real person in the admissions office. I hate to see kids waste valuable application ammo writing an essay on why Jay Gatsby was the literary figure who had the most impact on their lives. The adcoms don't care about literary analysis. They want to get to know you, regardless of the prompt. Personally, I wouldn't even look at the actual essay prompts on the app until after deciding what to write about and actually writing at least a rough free-flowing draft.</p>
<p>I have to pipe in ... again. It is very possible that we are all saying the same thing, but in different terms. </p>
<p>While I understand the spirit o what I-Dad writes, I am leery of the possible misinterpretation by the novice essay writers. For instance I do not read the advice of, "you want to use the essays to sell your STRONGEST features." as a carte blanche to jump into a lengthy discussion of various achievements. In my opinion, the wording "strongest features" ought to represent your strongest ATTRIBUTES and strongest QUALITIES, and NOT your strongest actions. </p>
<p>I cannot stress enough that the essay should be about the writer's as a person and not as an automaton that has been programmed at birth to become a competitive high schooler. </p>
<p>I feel that telling students that is acceptable -let alone recommended- to see the essay as a sales brochure is a ... recipe for disaster. Again, I understand the role and value of the entire application, but if there has to be "some" marketing in the application and essays, it better be subtle and short on self directed panegyrical prose. In essence, experts have stressed that the essay should be about "show" and don't tell. I personally suscribe to a theory of "showing more a lot than telling", but that is not the point. The question that begs for an answer is how can someone write a sales brochure with sufficient "show" and a whole less "tell"? If the anwers has to be found in past examples ... it does not bode well for the effectiveness of the exercise. </p>
<p>My conclusion is as follows: while there MIGHT be a few exceptional cases that deserve "borrowing" parts of the essay arsenal, the overwhelming majority of students should warned about the pitfalls of such strategy. </p>
<p>As far as the marketing of the candidate, I believe -with a strong passion- that it is crucial for students to put their best foot forward and build the best application possible. However, pushing the envelope too far and elevating the application to the level of a business proposal or professional r</p>
<p>
[quote]
I really believe that the few hundreds words of the essays should be devoted to the way a student feels and thinks about his immediate surroundings, and not so much about what he has done.
[/quote]
I wholeheartedly agree with your statement, Xiggy. My D took the generic common app essay and gave it this prompt: "Tell us something that very few people know about you". When she showed us her first draft, we were so shocked because even we didn't know about the way she approached this particular personal quirk. We were so glad she that she junked the drafts of good, but typical, essays about overcoming adversity, etc. in favor of this incredibly insightful (and somewhat humorous) look into a very, very personal characteristic that was not addressed anywhere else in her application materials.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The question that begs for an answer is how can someone write a sales brochure with sufficient "show" and a whole less "tell"?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Easy. Just tell a story. If the student's identity is scientific research, tell a story about the moment of excitement at seeing the first results of an experiment come in. Or, if it's tutoring, tell a story about some small personal moment of interaction with a student.</p>
<p>The "selling feature" applies to selecting a general topic. From there, you are absolutely right. The story you tell has to be about the personality, or feelings, or reflections that emerge from the story-telling. The reason I don't like the "literary figure" essay is that it is almost guaranteed to read like a homework assignment, holding the reader at arms length. The real goal of the college essay is to pull the reader IN to your personality.</p>
<p>this may sound stupid, but do you think it is wise to write a personal essay about how I am always the first to get the mail? This is just to bring out humor in my essay and i will write about how people appreciate my volunteerism and write thank-you letters to me. I would also write about how the chairman of the political organisations I work for give me campaign materials on which i can campaign on. the letter will go on this way about the important documentations i get in the mail (and thus show my personality and accomplishments at the same time) . I hope you get my point. So what do you think? you input is extremely important!!</p>