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But you’ve got it exactly backward – the “flawed imperfect self” is exactly the part that brings the essays to life. My daughter wrote a short answer on her favorite artist by admitting that she had discovered the painter through calendar art (“doesn’t everybody”-- and that she liked the paintings because the subjects looked like her. She answered a favorite fictional character question by reference to a children’s picture book. </p>
<p>Though she emphasized her interest in studying a particular foreign language in her applications, and had lived and studied abroad to better learn the language – her essay was about what a tough time she had with the language, some of the stupid gaffe’s she made while trying to communicate, and how she had to learn to rely more on body language to communicate while living abroad. In other words-- she got ahead by admitting how weak her foreign language skills were, not by bragging about how strong they are. </p>
<p>This wasn’t feigned – it was self-revelatory and honest. My d. had A’s in her high school foreign language class, but passing high school courses, even on an AP level, is no comparison trying to function and attend school in a country where the language is spoken. So she didn’t hurt her application by admitting how frustrated she was – rather, she revealed a lot about how she responded to a challenge. </p>
<p>Her applications were funny, charming, humorous – she reserved more serious statements for short answers to questions that were specific as to her educational goals or reasons for choosing a certain course of study. </p>
<p>Yes, the top colleges want strong students – but that information should come to them through high school transcript and recs. What they want from the essays is a sense of the student’s personality – if you focus on trying to convey how smart and accomplished you are, then you’ll tend to come off as one-dimensional or arrogant. </p>
<p>My daughter got into a bunch of highly selective schools where her SAT scores were below median, in the bottom quartile. When I see a comment like this, as well as the Wall Street Journal article, it gives me a good sense why – I think of applicants probably knock themselves out of the running by trying to hide behind a caricature of what they think the college wants, rather than confidently revealing their own selves.</p>