She will forever be known as the “Costco Girl” on college confidential. I guess that is better that “Shrieking Girl,” or “Mattress Girl” or “UChicago Grad with a 3.5 GPA who couldn’t get into med school”.
Frankly, we’ll never know if she got in because of her essay, ** despite ** her essay, or without regard to her essay at all. Likewise, assuming she had denials we’ll never know how (if at all) her essay played into that.
And people say minorities are so quick to throw in the race card… I’ve never seen “actual achievements” dismissed so quickly and casually. I’m pretty sure there are minorities “with actual achievements” and “the race thing” who were rejected by Yale, Columbia, et al.
But they don’t. That’s what a persistant fraction of poster just don’t get. They want some truly great academic minds and they have no trouble identifying about 200 of them per class according to Fitzsimmons at Harvard, but they are looking mainly for leaders in a variety of fields and we have no measurements for that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSUcwGMwc2E
I always think of YoYo Ma as having that quality. He isn’t just a great cellist. His Silk Road Project shows his interest in making connections and creating something beyond his performances. http://www.silkroadproject.org/
The only verifiable achievement is the standardized test score, which she didn’t want to share. Everything else can be gamed or awarded for being underrepresented. And sorry, I’m always going to cast a skeptical eye on anyone who sends this sort of thing out to the media. I have friends that just got into a couple Ivies, Notre Dame, Duke and nobody but their family and a couple of their closest friends even know.
Who said she did? Maybe a HS counselor or teacher or anyone else who knew her did. Hopefully, with her permission, but it doesn’t mean it was her idea. And just what are you skeptical about?
While the essay was clever and the writer’s voice clearly shone through, I found the subject matter rather trite, which, is obviously part of the point. If I had to guess, I would say that the author had worked with an admissions counselor that helped her in developing a topic that would perhaps stand out in the eyes of the Adcoms, rather than developing one that would be, in and of itself, outstanding.
Moreover, one gets the distinct impression that the author sat with a thesaurus in an attempt to replace every 5 cent word with a 25 cent one.
Lastly, I would hardly qualify her experiences in Costco as part of a “background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it” but, apparently, it less important to answer the question than it is to amuse the Adcoms. Let’s see how that plays when she has to answer essay prompts for her professors.
I’m skeptical that this girl is authentic in any way. I think she’s a phony that plays angles and has created a brand, a brand she’s savvy enough to shield from her so-so SAT score. As someone just commented, this isn’t an organic quirky essay, it was probably brainstormed by an admissions consultant. Maybe the same consultant leaked this to the media so they could include all this press in their portfolio.
@futureNU16, I would say the only verifiable achievement is the legacy you leave when you die. Standardized tests can never accurately reflect everyone’s level of intellectual vigor. Just like some schools are more rigorous and therefore more difficult to get a perfect GPA at, some students are just more adept at taking timed, standardized tests.
There is a photo of her standing in front of a Costco holding the brochures from the schools she was accepted to.
I’m surprised so many people here are acting so snobbishly toward her essay. How well did you write as a 17 year old? I looked at my college essays from just over a year ago and I cringed at them. Her language might be unnecessarily complicated, but it seems to me that there’s a lot of creative potential and ideas to build off of, which is certainly what a lot of colleges are looking for.
Sure, it’s about costco, but I admire people who can find the extraordinary in the ordinary because it’s difficult. I had a wonderful teacher who once told me that things only become boring when you make them boring. I applaud her for presenting an otherwise “boring” topic with interest and wit.
And anyways, she submitted additional supplemental essays to all of those colleges as well, so it’s not as if she only wrote about Costco to get accepted. Many things go into the admissions process, and the most we can say is that ALL of her essays in combination with her GPA, SAT, ECs, etc contributed to her success.
That really sounds like a parent idea to me, rather than a student or child idea.
I thought the essay was great as a creative piece, but wonder who decided the essay was the reason she got in when she clearly has very strong academic credentials as well. I also think it’s a good essay to answer an intellectual vitality prompt, but agree with LovetheBard that it’s a stretch to call entertaining oneself while shopping at Cosco a “background, identity, interest or talent.”
Pizzagirl, Both my girls are/are headed to flagship states, with near full rides. My point about objectivity in admissions is simple - if we get to the point that getting into an exclusive school is a roll of the dice, as it is now, at some point this will backfire. People will stop applying if they know that perfect scores and GPA’s aren’t enough. I’m sure the Ivies will get enough applicants to keep going, but a non-deterministic smoke filled room admission atmosphere is beneficial for nobody.
But then, I grew up in a country where national entrance exam results are posted on the wall (or web) with names, so we all know not only who got in where, but why.
Certainly many folks in my town in NJ would regard shopping at Whole Foods or Nordstrom or Abercrombie and Fitch as central to their “background, identity, interest or talent.” 
For the next applications cycle, adcoms will probably be bombarded with essays of this type…
… when in fact the essay’s quality isn’t Cotsco. Aarggh. 
(As for her SAT score, it’s high/above 90th percentile, ie., it passed muster for these schools. Some posters on this site frequently forget that test scores are just a hurdle - if you meet it, next step. It’s not “OHHHH this person got a 790 while that other one got 720!!! Surely #1 is “better for us” than #2!” No. Both move on to the next step. Standardized test scores kids on this website obsess about are perhaps 30 seconds in their application’s review. Good enough? Check. Not good enough? Let’s see if there’s a reason.)
“I’m skeptical that this girl is authentic in any way. I think she’s a phony that plays angles and has created a brand, a brand she’s savvy enough to shield from her so-so SAT score. As someone just commented, this isn’t an organic quirky essay, it was probably brainstormed by an admissions consultant. Maybe the same consultant leaked this to the media so they could include all this press in their portfolio.”
Is there a way to post in green?
"My point about objectivity in admissions is simple - if we get to the point that getting into an exclusive school is a roll of the dice, as it is now, at some point this will backfire. "
Well, then it backfires and applications to elite schools dry up and admission rates at elites go back to 30% or 40% or 50%. Then what? So? What societal harm is done?
If I had borrowed and was paying back sizable loans to attend Ivy U back in the “good old days” when admission rates were single digit percentages and now it’s 30% or 40% because the admission process became too non-deterministic and highly qualified people stopped applying, I would be a little “harmed”… When you’re paying back mortgage sized college loans the long term reputation of the school is not insignificant and anything that impacts said long term reputation would not be welcome.
Likewise if I had hired some Big Name School kid and paid them dearly because of “pedigree” and the pedigree vanished after a few years I would not be as happy.
Why would the reputation of the school be harmed? Because a few kids from New Trier and New Canaan and Short Hills and Atherton decided to not apply?