Soo, here's my essay...comments please:)

ddjones007
Wed, 11 Oct 2006 16:22:30 +0000

Again, I don’t think admissions is looking at things the way some of you think they are. I honestly don’t believe they are accumulating style points and looking for the next Thomas Wolff. The essay is 500 words to give them a sense of who you are beyond the numbers. I’m not saying that a student shouldn’t edit, rewrite, tighten up the piece, etc. What I’m saying is that there seems to be a mindset on the web–not just this site–that admissions counselors are looking for narrative memoirs with rhetorical flourish. I can’t get in their heads, but if I were reading literally thousands of essays, authenticity would strike me like an oasis in the dessert.

It’s the same thing your parents tell you all through school, especially those middle school and high school years. Be yourself.

I remember long ago, as a Domer, how freaked out people used to get before tests. They would literally sit in the hallway, outside the lecture room door, and begin to obsess aloud about how much they’d studied, what sections they’d studied, what sections they should have studied–to the point where even the most confident student was a paranoid mess by the time he or she walked through the doors. I learned quickly that the absolute LAST place I wanted to be before a test was hanging out in the hallway. I’d hang outside the building instead, and walk in literally at the last minute–bypassing anxiety row. I did just as well as I would have done otherwise, with a lot less anxiety…