Now this is just cruel (anyone know if it means anything?)...

Colleges & Universities University of Chicago
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<p>Hey all! I was deferred from UChicago, something that I rather anticipated due to my lack-luster (okay, subpar) GPA. I was pretty upset but not entirely heartbroken until I found this ([New</a> college application questions encourage creative thinking - latimes.com](<a href=“New college application questions encourage creative thinking”>New college application questions encourage creative thinking)). It’s an article on quirky college essay topics and the quirky answers college get. I was interested, specifically, in the last sentence of the UChicago paragraph: “One ambitious student created a treasure hunt, hiding a picture of the bespectacled Waldo in the campus library and providing hints to his whereabouts.”</p>

<p>While I actually hid a doll, not a picture, this is CLEARLY my application. I wrote an essay about how much I love libraries because they’re the place of hidden things (stories are hidden in books, people get lost in stories, etc) and Waldo’s just one more thing hidden in a library. It was all phrased much more eloquently, of course, but the gist of it is that I hid a Waldo doll behind the Ralph Waldo Emerson books in the Reg. Students found it and posted it on the Overheard at UChicago Facebook page, too. </p>

<p>I’m relatively sure no one else did exactly as I did. I mean, I haven’t heard of anyone else physically hiding a Waldo, let alone in the library. </p>

<p>Essentially, I’m a little steamed that I’m good enough to publicize, that UChicago would choose the present themselves as the type of school who has applicants as creative as I am, while simultaneously not accepting me. I know I’m not owed an acceptance, and I hadn’t expected one at all, but deferring me while talking about me in a nationally recognized newspaper just seems a little cruel, especially given the holistic admissions shpiel the admissions office puts forth. </p>

<p>Before it’s brought up, my GPA is VERY weak (due to personal circumstances that were detailed in a letter), but the rest of my application was more than solid. I have good test scores and amazing teacher recs, course load, and ECs. This isn’t a case of “well, the only strong part of her application is the essay…” There were reasons aside from my scheme to admit me. Holistic, I know, doesn’t mean you can write a good essay and get away with murder, but it does seem like an essay clever enough to note in the LA Times, supplemented by miles better than average everything else, would excuse the GPA.</p>

<p>I’m just confused and hoping it works out in the RD round for me!</p>

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<p>I agree that it is cruel! I really hope you get in.</p>

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<p>Have you sent in your mid-year report? How did you do? I think they really do want to accept you, but they want to make sure your grades have improved.</p>

<p>Grades aside. I agree with you. I think the admissions office should keep its mouth shut.</p>

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<p>OP, good luck. If you don’t get in, it is their loss. you have every reason to be offended by this article. you are a great writer. I enjoyed reading your essay.</p>

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<p>This is what people refer to in the dating world as “getting mixed signals.”</p>

<p>I agree you would expect the University would cite examples of students they are accepting and not rejecting when they talk about creativity of applicants.</p>

<p>Of course, just because you were deferred doesn’t mean you won’t be accepted, although I agree that in this year’s competitive admissions situation a deferral isn’t encouraging.</p>

<p>Still, perhaps the best you can do is handle a difficult situation by exhibiting grace under pressure. Some people fold when they are deferred and others remain positive.</p>

<p>Maybe you could send a note to your admissions officer, if you haven’t already, letting them know how much you enjoyed the creativity of the essays and how much fun you had with your response. Tell them how pleasantly surprised you were to read about your essay in the paper (if that seems plausible at this point) and hope that indicates someone appreciated your effort–and let them know UChicago remains your first choice and “they ain’t seen nothing compared with the writing you’ll do if you’re given the chance to study at UChicago, etc.”</p>

<p>The trouble is, because it’s such a specific situation, commenting on these boards is probably not really anonymous for you any more; they probably know exactly who you are. </p>

<p>Maybe there is a college counselor or someone in your high school you could talk to confidentially about the situation and see what they recommend about how to handle it.</p>

<p>Still, applying to college is a lot like applying to a job in a certain way, and if you complain too much about the interviewer, for instance, you probably won’t get the job no matter what, even if you were highly qualified…</p>

<p>Well, good luck. It will be tough for everyone this year. I hope someone can give you some constructive advice about how to handle this. I don’t think they were intentionally trying to put you through the wringer.</p>

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<p>I think that if they were impressed enough by your essay to pick it out above all others to cite specifically in the LA Times article, and attribute it to an "ambitious student’, they do owe you a closer look. It’s almost like you won the grand prize for a writing contest entered by all of the students applying to UChicago. They obviously think you are wildly creative and a wonderful writer- why wouldn’t they want you at their university? Grades are only one indication of a creative thinker. I think that instead of a note, you might call your admissions couselor to casually inquire about your chances given your deferral. While on the phone, it certainly would not hurt to casually mention that you were so pleased to see your essay used as an example of a worthy essay in the LA Times article. As long as you are respectful, I think it is worth a try. Best wishes and great job!</p>

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<p>Thank you all for the encouraging messages! </p>

<p>I did mention the article, as well as link to it, in the letter I sent to my admissions representative two weeks ago. I plan on sending a final letter after getting my mid-year report (semester ends in four days!), and I’ll talk to my counselor to decide whether or not to mention it again.</p>

<p>I know I am likely easily identifiable at this point for anyone that has read my essay (so, at least two people in Chicago’s Office of Admissions), and so I mean this with no disrespect, but it does seem odd and I wanted to post the situation here in the hopes that someone could shed some light. It might have been futile, but I almost wish someone stepped forward and said “No, no you’ve got it all wrong. I hid a picture of a Waldo in the library and I was accepted. You are not a special little flower and they were probably talking about me.” As it is right now, it seems still very up in the air regarding whether or not I’ll get in. All signs point to “no” except for this glaringly obvious one. </p>

<p>Anyway, I hope someone read my essay and enjoyed it and I know that 230+ students found and ‘liked’ my Waldo on Overheard at UChicago, so it’s been appreciated quite enough.</p>

<p>I’ll post here when I get my decision in March!</p>

<p>Overall, yeah, this is the epitome of mixed signals. Then again, I’m a pretty darn weird candidate. If I get in, know that holistic admissions is about as true as it comes. If I don’t, well, all future applicants should have a ton of fun writing a creative essay and then, at the very least, they too can be gratified by seeing something akin to their name in the paper.</p>

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<p>You’re really overthinking it. Don’t assume because they liked your hiding of a physical Waldo that they liked your essay itself. Your essay definitely comes across as very personal and somewhat interesting, but it was a laborious read and had some awkward expressions and glaring errors (such as of syntactic parallelism in “a vault of diaries, of love letters and honest prose”).</p>

<p>Nonetheless, I still wish you good luck. Getting into UChic is so competitive…</p>

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<p>Imo, it’s more than possible that among 10,000 EA applications the one being referenced in the article is not yours; the “hidden in a library” theme is clever but not necessarily unique in a pool of 10,000 essays. Just read the essays on the “Post your Essay” thread here; many themes and essay approaches are duplicated. I appreciate your desire to vent, and by all means go ahead here. I’m just not convinced you can be 100% sure the one-sentence description in the newspaper article refers to your essay.</p>

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<p>Velvet, I’m sorry you thought that of my essay! I know it’s been edited by a ton of people, most people liked it but a few vehemently hated it. And that’s okay by me as my goal was only to take the premise and make it into something quite personal. </p>

<p>My point is not that they loved the essay, or even that it was a good one. I’m very proud of my work (prose and the basic idea), and I personally think I did the best that I could, but it still remains: my idea was creative enough to share. All this admissions related media that the University puts out relates to the way they wish to be perceived. The fact is, they want to be seen as the type of school that has an applicant who hid a Waldo in the library. That’s the kind of school they want people to think they are, but they don’t want to accept the applicant who hid the Waldo. </p>

<p>They had two options aside from their chosen course of action (three, if you include not releasing information specific to individual applicants). One: they could’ve accepted me and publicized that they had an applicant who hid a Waldo. Two: they could’ve rejected or deferred me and publicized someone else, someone they accepted. </p>

<p>My friend brought up a good point, I definitely hid the Waldo and, had someone else done the same, the article would’ve read “ambitious students”. It’s singular, meaning it refers to one specific person. Additionally, it wouldn’t have been out of the box enough to mention if several people had done it, right? Yet it was and I did it, leading me to believe that I must be the person they talked about. </p>

<p>tl;dr- they want to look like they have applicants like me, but they don’t want me. It’s just very weird.</p>

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<p>Also, and I don’t mean this in a confrontational way at all (I swear!), but how is synactic parallelism a “glaring error”? The quote you plucked from my essay exemplifies the way I believe books to be diaries and diaries to be love letters. It works to build the paradox that I present at the conclusion of the essay. I am sure there are errors in the essay (I never took basic grammar classes, for example, because of a mix-up with the Talented and Gifted program at my school), but I don’t think that would be one.</p>

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<p>At this point, I would be much more concerned about your mid-term report than the LA article.</p>

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<p>I’m with mutti2012. It’s possible another student did something similar. My D applied to Ga Tech, then saw on their website an article about processing applications this year in which they talked about a (female) student who wrote about her ‘passion for puzzles’ and how admissions had made a jigsaw puzzle version of her admission letter to mail to her to show how much they cared about her. Some other phrases seemed lifted from her essay. Anyway, she is admitted there, but the puzzle didn’t come, just standard packet. Also, she didn’t make semifinalist for their Presidential Scholarship program (about 500 admits) so she concluded that the topic she wrote about, as well as the wording in essay are not all that unusual and they were describing someone else.</p>

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<p>If you are not accepted, I hope you go on to achieve great things as a writer and now you will have a story to write about in years to come. Whatever happens, it will turn out just fine for you. One can learn to become a good writer, but creativity is a gift. If this does not work out the way you want, I am sure you can create another path which will be equally (and maybe more) satisfying. Success is the best revenge. Good luck!</p>

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<p>Even if it was your essay, at least you weren’t rejected. Maybe, if not for your essay, you wouldn’t even have been waitlisted. You said you had a lackluster GPA - maybe they thought “wow, great essay, let’s decide after we see his semester 1 senior grades!”</p>

<p>If your sem1 grades showed a strong upwards trend, i’m sure you have a good shot.</p>

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<p>I am also with multti2012. With 30k application to read, I really dont see why they want to go through the trouble to refer your essay but change “Waldo doll” to “picture of Waldo” knowing they are deferring u. Also, I personally know two students came up with the same idea for one of last year’s topic.</p>

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<p>Just out of curiosity and this is a general question. When people on CC say that they have “AMAZING” teachers recs. How do they know? They are not supposed to see the recs aren’t they? Also, a great relationship with the teacher does not equal, and in fact is very far from, “good recs”. A teacher can be great in teaching and being a friend to a student, while being a poor recommender.</p>

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<p>They have good relationships with teachers that they ask. I think they are mostly talking out of their behinds unless they actually see the letter at some point in the process. I will not ask for a letter from my favorite teacher because the ones he has done before are way too generic.</p>

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<p>My S’s teacher gave him a rough draft to check over to make sure there were no mistakes in it (ie. class rank, gpa, awards, etc.), which was good because it did have an error. So he did see the rough draft and it was really good and included lots of specific details.</p>

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<p>I’ve seen one of my reccommendations and listened to one of the other ones read aloud. I know my other two come from people who have great relationships with me and are good at writing such letters. I can say with a fair amount of certainty that my recs were as strong as they could’ve possibly been, given my high school experience. </p>

<p>As to the matter of the grades, I don’t mean to give off the impression that I’m not doing anything towards my midyear grades. I have been working my butt off in every area I can. </p>

<p>I mostly posted this question because I’ve read quite a few articles that anonymously single out applicants and I was wondering if other people have, like me, realized it was them while, like me, not getting accepted (at the time of the article being published).</p>