<p>I'm thinking that one day I may become an admissions counselor just to read some of the tripe that kids churn out.</p>
<p>I was thinking the same thing...except doing it while in school since most places use current students to help out.</p>
<p>I've heard AP exams are particularly frustrating/amusing to grade.</p>
<p>Example: one student in the batch my AP Euro teacher read wrote a brilliant analysis of Adolescenza Mutante Ninja Tartarughe by an obscure Italian artist for an FRQ. The teachers thought it was magnificent and would have given him a 9, except they looked up the title and it turned out to be "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."</p>
<p>My US History teacher said the teachers for that test actually put up a HUGE wall of butcher paper, and each time a reader comes across something really stupid they write it down. At break everyone goes around and laughs at what these poor students wrote.</p>
<p>I believe the scientific term is b.s. As a master in the art of b.s. I can say that if you save it for the proper time, it can be quite useful. Still, a college essay is not the place to use it.</p>
<p>Lol I love when people do that. My teacher had one where the student wrote "I don't know. Hooby hooby hooby...(for the entire space)"</p>
<p>well, having perused some of the various forums here (the ive league ones are of course the most entertaining), it seems that kids are choosing - unintentionally or not- are choosing to bs their essays.</p>
<br>
<blockquote> <p>I'm thinking that one day I may become an admissions counselor just to read some of the tripe that kids churn out.<<</p> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>You want to do that for a living in order to read bad essays? That's crazy talk. I can't imagine a better definition of Hell on Earth than having a job where you go into the office each day to face a stack of 5000 or so dreadful essays waiting to be read.</p>
<br>
<p>become an admissions counselor just to read some of the tripe that kids churn out.</p>
<br>
<p>Trust me -- it's torture. And I only have to read twenty or so every year, and if they're really bad, I get to do something about it (i.e. help the students fix them). It's be a lot tougher with a pile of 500 and no way to tell the students that they're shooting themselves in the feet.</p>
<p>The reason it's torture is that virtually all of the bad essays fit into one of a few categories. So it's like reading the same bad essay over and over and over and over and over again. If they were terrible in a million different ways (like, say, bad American Idol contestants), then it might be fun. They never are.</p>
<p>pab*ulum <a href="09/24/03,%20scathing%20TV%20review,%20spelled%20incorrectly%20%22pablum%22%20which%20would%20make%20it%20a%201940s%20baby%20cereal">b</a>*
Pronunciation: 'pa-by&-l&m
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin, food, fodder; akin to Latin pascere to feed -- more at FOOD
Date: 1733
1 : FOOD; especially : a suspension or solution of nutrients in a state suitable for absorption
2 : intellectual sustenance
3 : something (as writing or speech) that is insipid, simplistic, or bland</p>
<p>Which are the bad categories you say most essays fall into?</p>
<p>Let me take a shot:
1. The ones full of platitudes
2. The apologetic/excusatory ones
3. The one where the author is trying to push himself/herself as being a) different b) a leader c) adversity overcomer by simply saying so and not letting the adcoms decide it for themselves
4. The negative ones
5. The badly written ones
6. The ones signifying questionable personality</p>
<p>What kinds of things are platitudes though?</p>
<p>Platitudes:</p>
<p>1) How being part of a team changed me
2) How working with kids changed me
3) How working with seniors changed me
4) How hard work in general changed me</p>
<p>Other tragically excruciating essays:
- Look at me, I'm funny!
- I was the leader of this, and I did this, and I won this, and....
- My life is difficult; emo tear.</p>
<p>Now, all of these could fly if they're well-written, but the temptation to fall into the pattern is too great for most to resist.</p>
<p>then what the hell is a good eassy if basically everything is crap or cliche?</p>
<p>I haven't read any essays from people who got into harvard, but i have read some of the stanford and yale ones, and honestly, they bore me. They were absolutely ordinary and even-toned. I didn't see passion, I didn't see uniqueness, hell I didn't even see eloquence. However, they didn't fit in any of the categories above.
I don't know who is looking for what anymore and I think that it is better this way so i could sit down and write whatever comes from within. I completed all my harvard application in two nights, the two nights before the deadline.</p>
<p>That sounds pretty true. YOu know what, I think the admissions committees like essays about nothing (kind of like Seinfeld, and wasn't that a hit?) For example at Duke or Wake, one of the two, a dean of admissions was going on about some essay about the lack of use for male nipples, watching jeopardy with one's family, cheese, etc.</p>
<p>So, go totally out there.
For me, I wrote about being a militant vegan in middle school and how I never got anywhere in life with it. So I changed strategies.</p>
<p>O yea, and I got a likely from the big H.</p>
<p>Talking about grandma's cookies or how traveling taught me that people look different but are all the same on the inside... THOSE are major platitudes which I'd avoid.</p>
<p>Eloquence can't hurt, but passion is key.</p>
<p>In my follow up, I wrote about how I thought Heaven was a bureaucracy. That was interesting. Now, I'm thinking of expanding it into a short story, hehe.</p>
<p>as bobbobbob said.. "then what the hell is a good essay if basically everything is crap or cliche?" </p>
<p>-_- hehe</p>
<p>good short story if anyone's interested, maybe you runningncircles: Allan Gurganus' "Toward A More Precise Identification of the Newer Angels"</p>
<p>It's hard to BS an essay. even the most talented actors can't (convincingly) fake passion on paper.</p>