The student wrote about ordering pizza from Papa John’s for the “Write about something that you love to do.” essay. (Shaking my head).
http://college.usatoday.com/2017/05/31/student-writes-about-pizza-gets-into-yale/
I’m curious why that made you shake your head.
ETA: one hopes that Yale elevates her standard for what’s a good pizza 
ETA2: never mind, not attending Yale.
@CA94309 - First of all, what you quoted was barely 1/10 of a 200 word very well-written essay that showed thoughtfulness, maturity, creativity, and personality. Yes, it was about pizza. It was also about memory, instinct, passion, and gave a glimpse into someone that takes pleasure in the little things in life. Her essay was rife with imagery and poignant metaphors. I’d want her at my school!
She describes the sound of her doorbell thusly:
“the whole effect mimics an instrumental interpretation of rain finally finding a steady pace at which to fall…”
Here’s another excerpt:
“…I instantly morph into one of Pavlov’s dogs, salivating to the sound that signals the arrival of the cheesy, circular glory. It smells like celebration…”
The fact that she’s a A-student, first gen,with all sorts of honors and great ECs probably didn’t hurt.
And, after all that, she turned down Yale for Auburn University because she felt that it was a better fit and because she received scholarships to go there. (While that might not necessarily the choice I would have made, but I don’t know her financial constraints. In any case, I respect her for going with her gut.)
^^ and just think of how popular she will be at Auburn with her lifetime supply of Papa John’s :))
Checking the first gen status box got her in, not the cheesy essay. The essay shows she can write well, and it didn’t hurt her app. If it got a laugh from an ADCOM, it may have helped, but it wasn’t a deciding factor by any means.
Did she not know about the incredible pizza in New Haven, including Pepe’s? Haven’t been in years, assuming it’s still great.
@preppedparent - I wasn’t saying that the essay got her admitted, just that the OP and the article quoted made it sound like the essay was something to shake one’s head about and be looked at with disdain when it was, in fact, a decent essay. (Arguably the Stanford "Black Lives Matter"x100 essay might be in shake-one’s-head category.)
In both cases, however, the essays have to be seen within an entire corpus of work, taken with other essays, recommendations, test scores, GPA, etc. Being first gen might have helped a bit, but without the whole package, that alone – like the essay – certainly was not what got her admitted.
And, @cafe9999 - for the record, much as my D liked the pizza in New Haven (clams + pizza are a match made in heaven), it still wasn’t enough to get her to go to Yale.
"BLM"x100 and last year’s Costco essay are just examples that show if the app is strong even a bad essay cannot derail it. It makes you wonder how much essays really matter, or they are just smoke screen for a behind the door process that adcom doesn’t want you to understand.
Anyway, about this pizza girl its curious why Yale was not able to give her full ride to match Auburn given her first gen status (which I assume means her being financially under privileged when growing up.) Maybe she just likes Auburn football…
Given that Carolina was so passionate about pizza adcom could not pass the opportunity to immediately change the life of the applicant by bringing her to New Haven and drastically raise her pizza standard.
LoveThe Bard’s daughter was already familiar with good pizza so it was not clear if she could really benefit from Yale acceptance.
@jzducol - First Gen status simply means that her parents did not graduate from a four-year college or university. It has no bearing on her financial status. Obviously, she was pleased to have gotten scholarships from Auburn. I did not see any indication in the article or in anything she wrote about her being curious about why Yale was not able to give her a full ride. To answer your question, she had tweeted:
“Thank you so much! I love Yale, Auburn just felt like a better fit for me.” (Pizza notwithstanding.)
I absolutely think that essays matter – a lot! They are what give schools a way to see who students are beyond their test scores, GPAs, and ECs, they show how well students can express themselves, and what makes them tick. While he Costco essay was not a bad one. I personally didn’t love it. That said, I can see why an adcom might have liked it – it showed the writer’s intellectual vitality, humor, and personality. The BLM essay was just a supplemental one. I’m sure that the rest of the app. spoke for itself. (The problem I had with the BLM essay is that it did not answer the “why?” in “What matters to you and why?” Beyond that, I thought it was gutsy.
I thought that BLM essay was almost like sticking a thumb in adcom’s eye, completely making a mockery of the process. I cannot imagine schools like UChicago or Harvard would take it.
But on the issue of first gen, I thought the whole purpose of it is to close the economic gap between haves and have-nots. Otherwise, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zukerberg’s kids would all qualify. Of course they would be developmental admits anyway, but you get my point. I have seen small business owner kids whose families are top one percenters getting in as FG.
@jzducol - While UChicago and Harvard may or may not have accepted him – I don’t know whether or not he even applied – Stanford, Yale, and Princeton did, in fact, accept him. So mockery or no mockery, Ziad Ahmed is doing just fine for himself (he chose Yale, btw).
And, given that – for most of these top institutions – financial need has no bearing on admissions, First Gen status can only reflect parental level of education. Thus, it can only be used in order to close an educational – and not necessarily an economic – gap. The Common App asks students to indicate which institutions their parents attended and whether or not a degree was received. Zukerberg and Gates left Harvard after two years (Zukerberg has since been awarded an honorary degree), while Jobs was only at Reed for 6 months. Not sure whether or not their kids would get First Gen status…but, as you pointed out, they would hardly need it.
It is funny that everyone thinks these “out of the box” essays could not have mattered much in admissions or were a fluke. When you have tens of thousands of applications with the same grades, scores, LORS, ECs etc., the essay may be the only thing that stands out. So many have parent or paid consultant driven topics about how they went on some school or church sponsored expedition to dig wells for starving children in Africa that you could just cut and paste different names into the same tired essay and submit it. Adcoms do look for essays that stand out and i am sure during deliberations the staff advocated for the “pizza girl”.
If you read my past posts you will see that my D wrote her essay on stuttering and how she was able to win major oratorical competitions despite her severe stuttering. I am sure that it stood out in the process (since her stats were very much like the rest of the students at her rigorous top tier high school filled with legacies) and the note on the admissions letter reflected that. The derision some of these posts have for her essay is interesting. I hope she is happy at Auburn. There are few schools that are as much a polar opposite as far as environment as Auburn is from Yale. But for those that like a great school with a massive sports program and great merit aid, I am sure she made the best choice for her.
I am not really sure why this was such big news. I am certain that many kids write amazing essays about obscure topics. My own daughter wrote about thrift shops. I think it was a creative and relatable idea. Good for her!
Is it Fitzsimmons at Harvard who said above all else, “Be interesting?” The Harry Bauld material suggest that you “make 'em laugh.” “Entertain me.” There are so many serious essays as students feel the pressure to be compelling, so much so, I do believe that the comedy does help you to stand out in the sea of tens of thousands of essays. Lots of consultants however will warn you not to try to force funny. It has to come naturally. Also finding the extraordinary in the ordinary appears to be a useful tactical approach. Because afterall, everyone can relate to the ordinary, like hot, gooey, oh-so-satisfying pizza.
Although I personally don’t like this type of essay, it was a decent essay. Nothing to talk about here. I visited Auburn campus while on business. A small quaint campus. Apparently, they are attracting a lot of Chinese students from abroad who want to study English and get degrees in 4 years. I am more interested in knowing why she couldn’t get fin aid from Yale.
The pizza essay is old news. Happened last admissions cycle.