Do controversial students do better in admissions?

SeekingPam
Sun, 27 Mar 2016 18:21:14 +0000

A lot of good points made.

As much as they say they want interesting or quirky (depending on the school) or passionate kids, every AdCom is also worried about making sure the kids they admit are stable and will not try to take over the chemistry lab (Columbia in the 60s) and you never want your kid’s essay to have that potential sound.

If she has the stats I would look at Harvard. As others have said, she needs to walk the walk, soup kitchen, political campaign, semester in China, whatever. Also as someone said, there needs to be depth and understanding, not just a parrot.

I like the idea someone else mentioned of hiring an essay consultant to tone her down and act as a mediator and to give a reality check. I personally did not find my kid’s teachers helpful with that.

I would divide her schools into two piles, at each level, reach, target and safety. Maybe apply to a few more than you otherwise would. At each level, I would do one essay her way, and for the peer school do something more conventional. Paying attention to fit so for Harvard I would do her way, for Yale I would do the regular essay, maybe mixing and matching in some cases. On the common app the essay can be changed three times (although double check for next year.) So she can do all using one essay and then do the rest using the other essay.