Actually, it was the common app essay.
From the article:
Plus, if it was a Stanford supplement it wouldn’t have won “admission to five Ivys” as stated in the article’s title.
Don’t confuse causation and correlation here.
@ClaremontMom, sorry if I’m mistaken. To me it was a better fit for the intellectual vitality short essay: http://admission.stanford.edu/application/freshman/essays.html
Maybe you are correct, and maybe I am, and this was use a supplement in five Ivy applications, in the end, it doesn’t really matter 
It is still a note to parents that sometimes it’s better to butt out from your kid’s application process. Easier said than done!
I agree with apprenticeprof; although there were a few phrases that made me cringe, there were some wonderful passages. I particularly liked the sophisticated sense of humor that was woven throughout, and the playful use of language. And, overall, it conveyed a voracious curiosity and intelligence.
I’m a writer and a teacher of writing, and I agree with @apprenticeprof–I might change a few things, but what it does, it does really well! The extended metaphor works very well, there’s humor, there’s plenty of hints that she knows stuff, and it says something worth saying about herself.
If you think this is poor writing, better avoid the average freshman writing class.
Clearly, I will not be a useful editor for my D17’s essays except for spotting the most egregious grammar mistakes.
This essay thing, I don’t get it.
And by editing the first layer of typos, I’ve gone meta.
I know a kid who wrote about playing Legos in his Stanford essay. He’d recreate famous historic battles with his little Lego men, and then wrote about how the greatest Lego battles were the ones he created in his imagination.
He got in.
This. :))
My daughters experienced Costco in much the same way but I don’t think they would describe the experience as formative. While unique in terms of subject, a lot of the complexity comes out as contrived.
Congrats regardless!
Did you catch this gem?
Over time, I’ve developed a habit of observing fellow patrons tote their carts piled with frozen burritos, cheese puffs, tubs of ice cream, and weight-loss supplements.
lol, she is obviously an experienced Costco shopper and observer. I enjoyed it.
I tutor and often help students online with their essays. Overwriting is the most common flaw I see. E.B. White advised writers that the use of big words is justified only when necessary for meaning. As an antidote, I often tell students to write their essay as if they are having a conversation,and go from there.
That said, this one does have some humor that is appealing and the metaphor works
My son also wrote about Legos, but with a twist. How not having all the pieces he needed sparked creativity.
Some of you were asking about her stats:
Came across this article…
http://qz.com/657374/a-high-schooler-was-accepted-to-five-ivy-league-colleges-with-an-essay-about-costco/
Also, heard on a TV news story she has a 4.9 GPA. (Humorous side note: Obviously weighted, but one of the news anchors appeared confused about how a GPA could be over 4.0…Just goes to show you not everyone lives in the same world we do here on CC)
So maybe the admissions had nothing to do with the essay.
It was certainly an enjoyable read, but whether one can infer higher abilities from such a piece remains to be seen, especially for someone wanting to pursue hard sciences. The young lady in question should have been (and was) admitted based on academic merit alone, not based on holistic doo-dahs.
To understand what I’m talking about talk to someone who got in to, say, an IIT in India. Acceptance rates are pretty somber by US standards and the exams required are nothing short of insane. If the Ivies want to attract ‘better’ students by objective standards, I would rather have specific Ivy entrance exams (super SAT subject tests?) rather than depend on volunteering and essays to distinguish oneself…
To a great extent architecture / art admissions have this and as a parent of an architecture student I’m fully onboard with such a suggestion in a more widespread basis.
Doesn’t matter. Even the student readily acknowledges the boost:
"Stinson acknowledges that her status as the daughter of a Brazilian immigrant mother who identifies as black, and a white US-born father, likely gave her admissions case a boost.
“I did declare my race and ethnicity on my applications. I think my background likely made my application stand out and impacted it positively,” "
OK, with the actual achievements and the race thing, the essay could have been about anything, even shopping at Costco, and she would be admitted. The headline that the essay won her five Ivy admissions is kinda misleading.
“If the Ivies want to attract ‘better’ students by objective standards, I would rather have specific Ivy entrance exams (super SAT subject tests?) rather than depend on volunteering and essays to distinguish oneself…”
But who says they “want” to? Presumably they are happy with the caliber of the students they admit. If not, they’d change things. Nothing prevents them from accepting all the 2400s, then all the 2390s and so forth til the class is full. They KNOW this. They reject it. They don’t think such a class would be “superior” to what they do currently. Too freaking bad YOU don’t like it.
It’s not the Ivies who are dissatisfied with the students they admit. It’s just the wannabes who want soooooo badly to be part of a club whom they deem don’t accept “good enough” students. Spare me the hypocrisy.
If indeed the students at Ivies and similar are just “not good enough” because they aren’t uniformly tippy top on standardized tests, then why do you want your kid to go there? Why wouldn’t you want to go down a notch to the schools where presumably all the “untapped” 2400s wind up? Or is it just a crisis if your kid wanted Harvard and wound up at Tufts or Brandeis? Gag.
I’m so sick of the unsophistication that only Ivies, or only Ivies plus a handful of other schools, are “good enough.” Or prestigious enough.
I feel the writng is quite good, but the main idea of curiosity inspired by repeated visits to Cotco is kind of lame. I just don’t buy it.
I think if the essay was terribly written she may very well not have gotten in.
What the essay is “about” doesn’t matter much.
Hooked with solid numbers — the essay was likely meaningless. How does this get leaked to the media, anyways? She is savvy enough to get this on national media and not broadcast her likely so-so SAT. I conclude this isn’t some naive girl who stumbled into some Ivies; the essay, like everything else about the girl, is likely a carefully curated “brand”.