<p>ladylazarus, you might get to be “harpie” ;)</p>
<p>I agree with the nickname concept in broad strokes, but I bet it is frequently something out of the essay or some other tellling detail about the kid that provides a memorable handle to ‘shorthand’ a kid when talking to other admission officers. A kid who is not impressive can deliberately offer a very catchy handle but nobody will want to grab on to it.</p>
<p>For example, I saw a good essay in a book of essays about working at a donut shop-- Think it might have been called “Adventures as Donut Boy”-- so “Donut Boy” would have been a no-brainer nickname for this kid (though it probably had nothing to do with the kid’s ECs/academic passions) but this handle would happen only if you loved his essay.</p>
<p>I suspect just having anything unique and memorable about you shining through in your app is better than the formulaic hitting of the “I play trombone” note 15x in your app. Over packaging IMHO can be death-- the kid just looks like a sterile bore.</p>
<p>For example, they must get hunderds of “soccer girls” but the one soccer player they will remember might well be “pink hair girl,” or “flat tire girl,” or “sister number 7” or any other little quirk that stood out; maybe not at all related to the dead-center main EC.</p>