<p>Mackinaw: If your daughter is applying to business schools, she may have an older more experienced co-worker/boss/mentor who can help her with the essays as well. You may be too close to it. As for Q4: I think discussing essay topics is just fine.</p>
<p>BTW if you read the essay my son wrote which got him into Harvard, you’d probably wonder what Harvard was thinking. It had some good things about it - showed a hint of a sense of humor, definitely had his voice, but no soul-bearing whatsoever, and much too much a laundry list of things he’d done -very much an engineer’s essay. Not every Harvard student writes a great essay. :)</p>
<p>Thanks, DMD. I think she must have got this reasonably right because she’s been invited to interviews in the first round after submitting her applications. She made good use of currently enrolled students to get information about the programs, the interview process, and how to structure and present her resume. Having such student mentors is something that all the B-schools seem to promote. On the discussion forums that I mentioned earlier, there’s general advice about how to interpret some of the essay topics. She also got some advice from a professional friend about the process.</p>
<p>Mathmom, I think essays are overrated in general as a criterion for admission at the undergraduate level. Generally speaking they’re more important at the graduate level. Of course there’s so much more to the application than the essays at any level. Sounds like your son didn’t drive himself crazy trying to fit some idealized model of a good essay. And his personality showed through.</p>