<p>I find it bewildering that adcoms give any weight to essays at all. With so many parents, college counselors, and even eager volunteers here on CC working them over, how can there be any comfort that an essay reflects the work of the applicant? If adcoms are tired of reading tedious manufactured essays, it’s time to drop this portion of the application entirely.</p>
<p>Fascinating thread!</p>
<p>I’m just glad my child #4 is a regular run-of-the-mill nerdy engineering type. Great test scores across the board, but no ambition for HYP or those trendy small LACs!</p>
<p>And it doesn’t bother him at all that he’s not an athlete or a musician.</p>
<p>I’ve read plenty of essays in the past for students at CC who asked for help – and I think that with the good essays, the voice of the students really shines through. I have to say that when end results were reported to me, I was not at all surprised – and that includes quite a few students who were admitted to Ivies or other elites. These essays tend to be quirky & different in some way. I’m not saying a student with a more mundane essay can’t get in – I’ve seen plenty of kids get accepted to top colleges with unremarkable essays as well. </p>
<p>But what people don’t seem to understand is that for the elite colleges, ALL (or substantially all) the applicants are strong. It’s not a matter of the college needing to use “more objective” criteria – by the time they get to the essay, the ad com has already looked at the objective stuff. If you wanted a system that was truly “objective” then a college like Harvard would screen out about 1/3 of its applications, and take the remaining 2/3 and put them in a bin and select at random from there – because every one they have in that pile is fully qualified to attend and do well. (And if the process was truly random, they’d probably end up with just as “interesting” class – but they prefer not to do it that way.)</p>
<p>The question for the applicant: once they are in the running, how can they make themselves stand out from a field of equally well qualified students. The essay is an opportunity to stand out, and that opportunity is squandered if the student submits an essay that does not let his/her voice come through or fails to make an impression. If that kid also happens to be a recruited athlete, or the daughter of a wealthy donor, or the ability to play the bassoon – then it might not matter, there are other reasons for the ad com to pick that application.</p>
<p>But the point is that the essay can help, and (as I noted in the post above), it is definitely wasted if the student is trying too hard to impress, simply because whatever impressive stuff exists should be reflected in other materials that have been submitted. It’s easer for the ad com to read a list of awards in the appropriate section of the application form, anyway – they don’t need to hear how the student won those awards all over again in the essay.</p>
<p>
you have to realize that not everyone can get into HYPSM. it’s nothing against you, or how hard you’ve worked. it’s just that there are only so many spots. </p>
<p>it’s really not as bad as you think. you still sound like a great student. maybe you aren’t “unique” enough for a Princeton or Stanford, but based on your stats, it’s not like you would not have access to equally great educations at a Duke, Northwestern, Emory, NYU, etc. you are in NO way limited in life by going to Notre Dame as opposed to Harvard. </p>
<p>i’m sorry, but it seems ridiculously pretentious to act as if you are “entitled” to a spot at an Ivy League school simply because you worked hard in high school. thousands of other kids worked just as hard as you. they can’t all be accepted. </p>
<p>if you are admittedly not very unique, why should the PREMIER institutions in the country offer you admissions?</p>
<p>^ It honestly was a moment of frustration…I did make my essays and try to be myself, have an opportunity to stand out, etc. </p>
<p>Also, I want to clarify that I was using unique in the sense of gender, race, geographic location, not in terms of personality…And no, I don’t think admissions should be offered or not offered based on those things (gender, race, location) that people can not change! </p>
<p>Obviously, i know there are not many spots and I know I am not “entitled” to any spot whatsoever because I worked hard. If anything, I know there’s less than a 5% chance RD at the schools I’m applying to! That was never my intention.</p>
<p>I don’t really want to argue anymore-I just wanted to clarify a few things with this post.</p>
<p>I only applied to 5 schools, University of Wisconsin - Madison, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, University of Texas - Austin, University of Missouri - Columbia, and Northwestern, and didn’t get rejected by a single one.</p>
<p>My “freedom” essays (so disregarding the “why did you want to apply here” and that type), I wrote about various topics. In one essay, I wrote about the process of deciding how to vote for a presidential candidate, and gave background on my influencing forces, and then a breakdown of what I liked/disliked about the presidential candidates, and the process that went into deciding who to vote for (Debates, speeches, etc.). For my other two essays, one I wrote about my basketball card collection, and the other how Yi Jianlian would be trouble for the NBA.</p>
<p>I know MANY, MANY kids who applied and were accepted to Kenyon and Grinnell, the schools featured in the articles, with heavy duty help for their apps. The reason that consultants are hired is that they do work. In this area, many families use consultants to help them through every bit of the app process. Including the essay. I think it is not long before getting professional help in this endeavor is going to be as necessary as SAT prep. </p>
<p>I don’t know how much the essay can help a kid. My son got some very specific positive feedback on an essay that both I and his GCs felt was not personal enough. He used it anyways because he was too lazy to rewrite it or choose another topic. His essay was really an impersonal research paper with maybe a paragraph of personal insight. Maybe it stood out from all of the athletic wins, out of country, helping the poor, traumatic event essays.</p>
<p>Based on behind-the-scenes tales from college and university officials interviewed for todays Work & Family Column, here are this years top college-admissions gaffes:</p>
<p>Have Mom sign your application. Admissions offices are getting applications signed by parents instead of students…</p>
<p>Praise the wrong school. …</p>
<p>Enclose your personal marketing plan. One Vanderbilt University applicant accidentally sent the admissions office a hand-written, point-by-point list detailing his familys strategy to get the child admitted…</p>
<p>Send along that Post-It to Mom. Barnard received one application with a sticky note attached saying, Mom, do you think this sounds good?</p>
<p>Expound on sex in the personal essay…</p>
<p>Upon receiving a rejection letter, load the whole family into the car, drive several hundred miles to the admissions office, and demand to see the dean…
[The</a> Juggle - WSJ.com : 2008 : December](<a href=“http://blogs.wsj.com/juggle/2008/12/]The”>http://blogs.wsj.com/juggle/2008/12/)</p>
<p>Direct link: </p>
<p>[The</a> Juggle - WSJ.com : How Not To Get Into College](<a href=“http://blogs.wsj.com/juggle/2008/12/24/how-not-to-get-into-college/]The”>http://blogs.wsj.com/juggle/2008/12/24/how-not-to-get-into-college/)</p>
<p>“A telltale sign of parental meddling, says Kenyon’s Ms. Delahunty, is the word “heretofore” or too many semicolons in an essay.”</p>
<p>This is ridiculous; I use semicolons all the time.</p>
<p>Other than that, most of this is spot-on. As for the song question, I would definitely start singing in response. And I’d totally sing “Shy.”</p>
<p>I hope schools don’t assume ridiculously meticulous punctuation means parental interference. I’m one of those people who proofread their essays and go, “well it really should be ‘high-school chemistry class’ but it looks so weird with the hyphen, but it’s technically required so I’ll put it in.”</p>
<p>Taking hyphens literally will drive you insane, according to the author of “Eats, Shoots, and Leaves,” but I do. And I am equally silly about other punctuation. I hope adcoms will believe I actually editted my essays myself…</p>
<p>I agree that giving weight to an essay is a joke as frequently there is either parental or teacher involvement. That being said, my kid did write a good essay that helped in admissions and apparently will be published after graduation.</p>
<p>Forget the semicolons, I’m still hung up on the “if you were a song, what would you sing”?</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>In other words, not necessary at all!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Hear. Hear. It would be good for a lot of young people to get back into the idea of high school days being a time of learning and exploration, and not obsessing about college admission.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Agreed, but not just young people, even us parents need to realize that. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to obsess less.</p>
<p>My son just got in ED to a top LAC. He pretty much refused all offers of help and insisted that not just the essay, but the whole application, had to be in “his voice.” This was our second time through the process, and my older child allowed us to proofread the essays (with a great outcome). Younger child is a fantastic kid, but very stubborn, self-assured, and independent. I was nervous about his application because it could have been more polished, refined, etc. Fortunately he was admitted to his first choice school and was very pleased to see the WSJ article! I think there’s truth to the idea that top schools have far more highly qualified applicants than they can accept. Maybe my son wouldn’t have impressed anyone if he had turned in a highly polished, perfect application. Instead, he felt comfortable just being himself and knowing that, whether or not he got in, it would be due to his own efforts.</p>
<p>“You are a superhero. What is your name? And, what is your power and how do you use it?” DREK.</p>
<p>I always got the feeling that keeping contact with the administration was good because it showed interest…?</p>