<p>This thread ought to be stickied. It’s fantastic.</p>
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<p>I wonder if some of this isn’t coming from international students who are accustomed to civil servants with very little education wielding an unfortunate amount of power.</p>
<p>But, yes, it can’t hurt to repeat it: if you go into this thinking you’re smarter than the admissions officer, it will only hurt your cause!</p>
<p>Dodgersmom, I think that may be so. </p>
<p>But having taught a lot of 11th and 12th grade, I think some of it is also coming from regular American teens who just haven’t thought matters through enough to realize that lots of adults (including, but not limited to, teachers parents and, apparently, admissions officers) already learned long ago a lot of the stuff (including, but not limited to, fancy vocabulary words) that they are just now learning. </p>
<p>But that’s why T26E4’s comment in Post #48 is so perfect: it isn’t that the admissions officers would be sent scrambling for their dictionaries every 5 seconds; it’s that they’d be rolling their eyes and sighing sadly to themselves, “Ugh…another 18-year-old who read Gulliver’s Travels in AP English and now thinks brobdingnagian is a word people should really use!”</p>
<p>I know I am really new to CC and all but I am really frustrated because there is one college’s writing supplement that I have been trying to tackle for like 2-3 weeks and can’t even get a handle on it because it is SO “arcane” and “erudite” that I just wish it would be like, “It’s 2am on a Sunday, if you’re awake, what are you thinking about or doing, and if you’re asleep, what are you dreaming about, is it a good dream or a bad dream?” I can DO that essay.</p>
<p>This one is like “We seek to serve the world through education and interaction with community and the world for the future … how do you project yourself into this vision statement” … I mean, WHAT THE …</p>
<p>I have already completed four other college apps, I have to have them ready to go because I am a recruit, but I really like this college above and I hate their application. I don’t want to phone it in but I really don’t have a handle on anything they are asking for. Is it a trick question? Is it a way to get down to the BS? I’d be less stressed if I didn’t like this school, but I do like this school. And it’s making me crazy.</p>
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<p>Donald Davie wrote a very good book --“Purity of Diction in English Verse” – that addressed this very issue.</p>
<p>BTW, the sample sentences about a piano teacher illustrate perfectly the danger of using imperfect synonyms. “Ramble” and “pontificate” have very different connotations. They aren’t equivalent at all.</p>
<p>Frankly, I think it is important to remember that admissions officers are reading MANY essays every day: possibly hundreds. They are reading late at night, after reading all day. They don’t want to read an essay that makes them work, even if it is great.</p>
<p>I am so tempted to post my son’s college essay here, because it was so brilliant and simple, and because his admissions were successful, but that belongs on the bragging thread, so I won’t;).</p>
<p>BTW, it was about an article he’d read on basketball players and statistics, ostensibly, but concluded with a statement about clutch playing. So no need whatsoever to write about something heartrending or overtly emotional, just make it authentic.</p>
<p>Sometimes less commonly used words are more precise and there is no easy equivalent. For instance, erudite doesn’t really mean “smart”. It’s a synonym for “learned”, which although similar, is different. Someone can be very smart but uneducated, in which case he or she wouldn’t be erudite. The question would really be whether either the word erudite or learned could be used in an essay without making one look, in the immortal words of HalcyonHeather, like an asshat. Pomposity is not appealing.</p>
<p>I do have a problem with imprecision of language. Ramble vs. pontificate was a good example. A teenager who’d been using the words for years wouldn’t mix them up but one who was depending on a thesaurus might. Kids sometimes use words they’ve heard but don’t really know as well. I hate to see the word “enormity” (great evil or wickedness) in reference to size (“I looked up and saw the enormity of the mountain”).</p>
<p>Bottom line, if you’re searching for words to impress the admissions reader you’re in trouble.</p>
<p>Give it enough time, Sue22, and enormity will come to mean vastness. After all, literally can now mean figuratively, and peruse can mean either read intently or skim.</p>
<p>^ As a lover of language it tortures me a little to admit you’re right!</p>
<p>To add to the examples others have offered regarding good use of sophisticated vocabulary:</p>
<p>Read some of Christopher Hitchens’ articles (he uses lots of words I have never seen before) and then listen to him speak in public or at a debate. His vocabulary is probably larger than anyone I can think of off the top of my head. What is even more impressive is when he is speaking freely (without a script) and he casually rolls off words such as “sadomasochism” or “abjection” without so much as a pause to focus on the word. You can tell that this man lives and breathes literature to the extent that his daily language is affected.</p>
<p>I think that the reason most use basic vocabulary is that very few know enough words to properly use advanced ones. I would guess that the majority of people who use advanced vocab come off sounding exceedingly trite.</p>
<p>Know what I like to do? Make up words. Not for writing, but for talking. For example, “tellage.” Meaning, stuff someone told you. And then use it in the same speaking paragraph as a true complex word.</p>
<p>Here’s a source: Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.ucd.ie/artspgs/semantics/ConsequencesErudite.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ucd.ie/artspgs/semantics/ConsequencesErudite.pdf</a></p>
<p>maybe the more basic vocabulary is assumed to be more authentic to an 17-18 YO? After all, unlike GPA , class rank, course rigor and (except for some fraud) standardized testing, the essay is obviously very easy to have someone else , an older wiser smarter person perhaps, do this essay for the student. How can the admission people KNOW that the essay they are reading is the complete result of the applicant student?</p>
<p>^Because an adult write like an adult and a teenager write like a teenager.</p>
<p>Is that <em>PLETH-ora</em> or <em>ple THOR a</em>? Or is it pronounced either/either? (either, I-ther)</p>
<p>It’s PLETHora, but no one should be saying it anyway.</p>
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<p>An older wiser smarter person would probably use smaller words, actually…only unwise people think they make you sound smart.</p>
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In my opinion, your primary goal in writing your application essay is for the reader to say, “I like this kid.” As the comment above suggests, using a lot of big words probably won’t contribute to likability. As a side note, while humor can make you more likable, if you decide to go that route, make sure several adults who are not members of your family agree that it is funny and that it shows you in a positive light.</p>
<p>I have a friend who used to work in admissions at a Top 50 university. When she gave her shpiel at info sessions and got to the part about essays, she used to say, “Be yourself. If you’re funny, be funny. But if you’re not funny, don’t be funny!”</p>
<p>Using uncommon vocabulary may come off as pretentious or detract attention from the main piece.</p>
<p>That doesn’t mean you can’t do it outside college essays; those who have problems with an educated speaking or writing style have to work that out for themselves; it’s not your problem. In this context, though, just let them have their simplicity.</p>