<p>I’d like more background on that It’s pretty CC. If you saw apps, you wouldn’t say some effective proportion are ghost written. As for help, I endorse a bit of that. These are hs kids with no experience pulling together a self-presentation.</p>
<p>You want to make it harder, GMT. Harder to distinguish one kid from another. All those kids with 4.0 will be hoping and praying for that dart board.</p>
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<p>GMT, I am writing this as an attempt to be constructive. I read a few of your comments about holistic admissions, and I am afraid you might misunderstand the POTENTIAL benefits of such admissions. In particular --and I hope you do not construe the comment as being condescending-- I would like to share that the essay or personal statement should not be about explaining extenuating circunstances or, even worse, explaining the reasons why one’s performance was subpar. Simply stated, explanations and excuses do not do much more than diluting the strength of an application. </p>
<p>The essay of PS are one of the few opportunities for someone to lift the veil and introduce the reader to something positive. I have used the expression “share a small slice of life” as the best subject for an application essay. Most --and it is most-- essays are simply awful as they end up being a hodgepodge of a teenager trying to impress peppered with the obvious corrective input of a well-meaning (but clueless) adult, who is often a teacher or purported counselor. The successful essays are simple but full of life. </p>
<p>And they represent the best opportunity for someone to emerge from an otherwise drab sea of scores and GPAs. Carpe Diem!</p>
<p>UT uses class rank. What could be easier?</p>
<p>I’ve got to give the benefits of the essay some more thought. I need to sleep on it for now-- literally. </p>
<p>U guys have kept me up WAY past my bedtime, in GMT+7.</p>
<p>Ditch the essays. Send teachers, social workers to visit student homes and write recommendations if we want to help the poor kids.</p>
<p>Well, then, feel free to send your kids to the many, many schools in this country that base admission on grades and test scores, GMT. Problem solved. If that’s the better way to do things, then they’ll be the best schools, right? </p>
<p>I have to say, I don’t get complaining about how a college selects its student body and then wanting it to be different so your kid can get in. If you REALLY and truly believe Selective U is going about it all wrong and just rewarding suck-ups / ghostwritten essays / rich kid volunteering / sob stories / whatever your complaint du jour, then the ONLY logical response is not to apply so your kid doesn’t have to suffer with such awful and undeserving classmates. </p>
<p>We can see right through people like you, though, GMT. You so badly DO want your kids at these places despite the supposed sub-optimal student body. It’s hypocritical.</p>
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<p>It takes no talent whatsoever to select based on SAT scores (etc). It takes talent to assemble a pool of people – whether employees, people on a committee, or a college class – and balance all different considerations and look at them holistically for a blend of skills, talents, interests, and so forth. </p>
<p>I think it’s quite evident here who has the ability to understand and do this – and those who don’t even understand the principle behind it (despite being allegedly “so smart, why look, I have really good SAT’s and I rock in a science lab where I don’t have to deal with people”).</p>
<p>^Really?! You don’t have to deal with people if you work in a lab? </p>
<p>You couldn’t be more wrong.</p>
<p>Way to miss the point of my post, collegealum. I guess some folks will always be uber-literal.</p>
<p>Your posts are a sea of strawmen. Any one of us on this thread could predict how these admissions decisions were decided in that link.</p>
<p>Holistic admissions is necessary at top colleges with small student bodies. At Berkeley, who may admit like 20,000 people per year and largely from one state, I wouldn’t say it is obvious why it’s needed. It’s relatively new. Are the student bodies at Berkeley better now than they were 20 years ago (before holistic admissions)? Do the communities have more diversity of interests than would have naturally emerged from such a large class.</p>
<p>Unintentionally, you did illustrate one problem with admissions. It’s done in a way to justify the existence of a large admissions department. It’s like saying that we need a large IRS because it takes talent to sift through the labyrinthine tax laws.</p>
<p>I wasn’t thinking about Berkeley specifically. I know this is shocking, but there are people who don’t constantly think about Berkeley and for whom it’s just another excellent state university that is mostly relevant in its home region.</p>
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<p>LOL. Well, this thread is about Berkeley.</p>
<p>Xiggi, nicely put. And more nicely than I could say it. A kid’s experience is almost totally writing for hs classes. Not personal statements. Those who can take the care to listen to good advice, put it into practice, will offer a far more positive “slice.”</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the CC advice is still explain your deficiencies, break their hearts, or explain how you cured cancer. Or that meaningless word, passion.</p>
<p>Any one of us on this thread could predict how these admissions decisions were decided in that link.</p>
<p>No you couldn’t. You looked at 5, how about 1000?</p>
<p>Well, of it’s so “predictable,” it should be easy to tailor-make yourself into an accepted candidate, bada bing bada boom.</p>
<p>^Yes, that’s what CC is for. Even ParentOfIvyHope started talking like an adcom after a year on CC.</p>
<p>PG, it’s going to cycle back to race and tales of woe. The certainty it’s all crap.</p>
<p>But, yeah, take xiggi’s advice and you can get further in the process than advice from a naysayer on CC- or some other high school kid on a chance-me.</p>
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<p>Huh? The size of the admissions department is determined primarily by the number of people needed to read the thousands of applications each year. And with so many students applying–even those who “know” how the decisions will go, and who lament the uncertainty of the admissions process–that’s a lot of adcoms. If it bothers you (or GMT, or…) so much, don’t apply to such schools. You’ll be doing your part to make sure California doesn’t need to pay more university employees to evaluate yet another student.</p>
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<p>That’s not the advice I gave my son. I encouraged him to write about something “small,” and he did. There were no sweeping statements about adversity, no tear-jerking moments, no false claims of having saved the world by his 17th birthday. And yet numerous adcoms mentioned how much they liked his essay in his acceptance letters.</p>
<p>Frontline did the disservice of making all 5 look easy. In reality, it’s more than a dozen pages. Lots of chances to shine- or to fail miserably.</p>
<p>Yeah, Sally the CC advice is off.</p>