<p>Right. Can be ECs, some leadership thing, something personal that rang. D1 got a comment from one (no surprise, I guess) about her comm service. Another referred to meeting her.</p>
<p>Most of the top schools seem to think they need lot more than what common app has and so the schools who dont ask for more are very unique because of that.</p>
<p>It seems to be common practice among LACs to write the personal notes. Essays are usually about things one does since most supplemental essays are specific to personal stuff. The essays would usually cover some of your activities right?</p>
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<p>Sure, but all 3 mentioned his self-directed community service project and he only mentioned that in a supplemental essay section required by one of the three. So it doesnât necessarily relate back to the essay.</p>
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<li>believe me, it can cover whatever struck the person writing it. From the ECâs, big essay, short CA ques, or supp. Itâs not just LACs.</li>
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<p>How do they know about his self directed community project if it was not explained well enough?</p>
<p>the fact that they need to find something comment about at all makes it sound like that is the reason a kid got in.</p>
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<p>Short answer question, maybe 30 words; a listing on the page that tells what you did and how many hours it took per week. There was also an associated website provided in this case that my son learned to program himself (useful since he wanted to major in CS). I guess you could call the website a detailed supplement for anyone who cared to look.</p>
<p>The other thing that was mentioned was his self-taught AP classes, which was discussed here maybe 50 pages ago.</p>
<p>^ the value in being able to write a good, short description!</p>
<p>I can see great value in self taught AP classes.</p>
<p>I donât think the U LoremIpsumâs son got in/is at would reject anyone who could with one shot get 2400 SAT or 144 ACT with only hours of preparation, not days or weeks, in 10th grade like LIâs son did, IIRC.</p>
<p>Just saw this on another thread [Admission</a> - YouTube](<a href=âAdmissionTheMovie - YouTubeâ>AdmissionTheMovie - YouTube)</p>
<p>Brown has a 30% admit rate for perfect ACT scorers. So it was not a gimme.</p>
<p>Lorem,</p>
<p>I think my son got three hand written notes, as well. I believe they were Caltech, Harvey Mudd, and U Penn. They comments were about his community service through music, IIRC. I also took it as a way to bring in a higher yield but it was still nice to be appreciated.</p>
<p>Both of my Ds received personal phone calls from the admissions rep (but I donât know what if anything in the app was referenced), and one D received a call from a current male student who told her they serve high-class liquor at their parties. We thought that was hilarious.</p>
<p>"
I donât think the U LoremIpsumâs son got in/is at would reject anyone who could with one shot get 2400 SAT or 144 ACT with only hours of preparation, not days or weeks, in 10th grade like LIâs son did, IIRCâŠ"</p>
<p>Lake, are you new to CC?? You know elite schools turn down tons of perfect scorers. And how would they know how much prep a kid had or didnât have?</p>
<p>the only reason I even mentioned the comments was because one of my daughterâs essays was completely out of the box and had nothing at all to do with what we, as adults, might think a student âshouldâ write. I was simply saying, in other words, let your kid show, in whatever way he/she can, who he/she REALLY is and not who you or the other adults think he/she will be, someday. </p>
<p>carry on.</p>
<p>I just want to say thank you to all you guys for this conversation â My son wonât be applying until next year and I am learning SO MUCH from listening to you all talk about these issues. I have a kid who actually really likes to play the violin â We didnât force him to play, and yet I wonder if the adcom is going to go âOh, look, another kid whose mother made him play the violin and took him to Kumon.â The violin playing is actually who he is â At present, I have no idea what heâs going to write his essay on.</p>
<p>But hereâs one for you. My sister has led an interesting life. She recently divorced her husband, who has spent time in jail for assault. Whatâs interesting is listening to her four kids talk about college admissions. The oldest one says she would never write about her family, even if it got her money or admission to a prestigious school. The next child, however, is like âHeck, yeah. I got this crappy life situation and if writing about how âmy daddyâs in jailâ will get me admission and money then Iâll take it!â Question: Would the admissions committee see this as manipulative and cynical? Theyâre really nice kids who have actually thrived in adversity and probably come out of it being better people. On some level, I actually do think they would add more to a student body than my own white bread kids would.</p>
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<p>I donât know if writing about family problems can help a student get in. But I do admire the dignity of the oldest child. When admissions committees try to judge someoneâs achievements in the context of their background, and students with tough lives get bonus points for writing about them, this entails a loss of privacy, which should be weighed against the possible benefits in socioeconomic diversity.</p>
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On the other hand, criminality, like other traits, has a genetic component, and it likely that college students with parents who have been in jail commit more crimes than other students.</p>
<p>sevmom, I know your logic is stronger than that in post #2512. To say that it is possible to bully a child into becoming âsuper-duper accomplishedâ is simply to say that the set of âsuper-duper accomplishedâ people contains at least one person who is there by virtue of having been bullied. It is not to say that anyone who is âsuper-duper accomplishedâ has been bullied into it. It is also not to say that the sets âsuper-duper accomplishedâ and âsuper-duper smartâ are mutually exclusive. Not by any means.</p>
<p>The term âsuper-duper smartâ was Pizzagirlâs, so I guess she should be the arbiter of what it means. Perhaps in her thinking, there are a lot of people who are âsuper-duper smart.â As I would define âsuper-duper smart,â only a fraction of the MIT faculty would qualifyâso I do not think that a lot of people are âsuper-duper smart.â</p>
<p>800 M on the SAT does not make one âsuper-duper smartâ in my view.</p>
<p>I agree 800M doesnât make one super duper smart.</p>
<p>Re sevmomâs âScientists are pure and never consider financesâ remark: I think it is justifiable to say that if a scientist had a realistically open career path, which led with a reasonably high probability to earned income 20 times the scientistâs own by the mid-40âs, and if the scientist is not a scientist/entrepreneur with the hope/intent of striking it big, then the scientist is not pursuing wealth. I consider finances, of course; I just donât use them as my over-riding consideration.</p>
<p>Does not being motivated by wealth make one âpureâ?</p>