As to my comment above about their being something wrong or off about an application - if a kid with “36/4.0 and top five in his EC and even national TV appearance” is rejected from one top school, that’s meaningless. That’s just the way things work. But if that same kid applies to a whole set of top schools and gets rejected from all… then something is off. I don’t know the kid and I don’t know the circumstances, but it’s not about being Asian. I have seen plenty of bay area Asian kids with great but less impressive stats get into multiple Ivies as well as Chicago. There are many reasons why that particular kid may have somehow failed to impress any of the ad coms of the multiple schools he applied to… but his ethnicity wasn’t the reason. Obviously it wasn’t a positive hook
As to my daughter, I didn’t say that the essay got her in – but the essay probably drew attention to her application. It wasn’t better than others – it was simply charming and unpretentious in a field where most applicants were trying very hard to impress).
It’s was the kind of thing that would have been noticed, and possibly shared with other admissions readers, because it was amusing.
It also could have resulted in some laughs and a rejection. Or worse, given that not everyone would appreciate my daughter’s humor. But it didn’t. It was an EA application that resulted in deferral. D. submitted supplemental information after the deferral, which at least would reassured the ad com that she was capable of being serious.
I’ve already posted that I think it was her potential value to an under-enrolled academic department that would have been the reason for admission. Again: the admissions people aren’t in the business of judging a competition – their job is admit a varied set of individuals that will fill an array of institutional needs, including the need to improve enrollment in some majors, winnow out excess enrollment in others, meet a variety of diversity goals, and to make sure that important elements of student life are maintained. Despite Chicago’s reputation as a bastion for intellectuals and the place where fun comes to die, the school does have a Div III athletic program, and teams that need player. They do have a music department and a symphony orchestra that needs skilled musicians. That’s the key – what does student X bring to the college that fills a need? (And if the student doesn’t know the answer to that question before applying, then that student is already at a competitive disadvantage against those who do).