I agree with the advice that a “Seinfeldian” essay can work. Our S19 wrote his essay about sitting in our local diner with his friends. On four of his eight hard copy acceptance letters, someone in admissions (and in two cases, the head of admissions!) hand wrote that they loved his essay. I think it made very clear who he is and who he would be on a campus.
I agree with @lookingforward. The AO officer wrote a personal note on my daughter’s acceptance letter. He spoke about the fact that the one word that he kept going back to when describing my daughter to the admission committee was fearless. Interestingly enough, my son wrote in his peer letter recommendation for a different university that if he had to choose on word to describe his sister it would be fearless.
Love that word, MoM17. It says so much.
Back in the olden days of the 70s and 80s, lots of people never visited schools they applied to and ultimately attended. But then the whole admissions thing wasn’t anything like the craziness it is today.
I never saw this before. I love the final paragraph.
@momofsenior1, I read the JHU “Essays That Worked” after my daughter was accepted. I loved that! Also, I appreciated JHU’s focus on collaboration in this year’s supplement.
I read this in NYT this morning: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/09/your-money/college-application-essays-money.html?searchResultPosition=4
Thought provoking.
As one of several lectures/discussions offered at my recent college reunion (Grinnell), the admissions office hosted an advice session for parents of children in the college search process. It was full of helpful tips but what stood out to me was a discussion of characteristics and attributes they look for in students along with red flags.
Look For:
- Academic risks
- Adventurous
- Articulate
- Great recommendations
- Committed
- Speaks up
Big Red Flags:
- Negative recommendations
- Not hard worker
- Downward academic progress
- Easy courses/always in comfort zone/no big challenges
- Bad interview
Many of these items were not surprising, but I was surprised by how much they emphasized academic risk taking.
They like academic risk taking if it succeeds. If it fails, not so much.
agree! In #27 they say they want academic risks, but then they put a big red flag if someone has downward academic progress. So do you take that extra challenging AP class? Or not? Or only if you know you can get a 5?
If they want success in rigor, there you have it. It’s not just taking the class.
Drop down in rigor to get an A and maybe you’re not their type. But this refinment really only applies to the more competitive colleges, those with so many highly competitive applicants that they can be choosey.
Then just maybe the colleges could be candid about what they want-if it is “success in rigor”, great. Phrase it that way. Do not pretend to like risk taking if you only like it when the kid succeeds. statistically, some risks are bound to fail-if the act of risk taking itself is so wonderful, then the inevitable related failures would be celebrated by the colleges. I have seen some MBA programs do that, and it is common in start up cultures, but certainly not in US college admissions. It would behoove everyone if at least some colleges just straight out said, “there is no question about whether to take the honors course for a B or the regular course for an A. If you are applying here, you really need an A in the honors course to have any chance”
As ever, it’s not just “risk” in choosing classes, not outright, “Gee, I work 3x as hard at math, I’ll take a chance on MVCalc.”
And that Grinnell lst is not the sum total or a checklist. But it should be thought provoking for a thinking sort of kid. “Hmm, how do I show this and the companion traits?”
Just once, I would love MIT ( or similar) to say- hey, there was this kid with great grades in math, but then he took a poetry or musical theatre course or whatever, and he tanked it (with his gpa for that semester). Good for him for taking the chance-Glad he can do math even if not poetry, and we welcome him to our incoming class.
@lookingforward exactly. Kids have to show the traits in their apps that schools want. These schools only know what you show them. They read the app, the recommendations and maybe they do an interview. That’s it. So kids should know who they are and make sure they show it to the schools. One might have a lot of traits that schools want but they won’t know it unless it’s somewhere in the info you give them.
Students should figure out what their transcript tells the colleges. And what their ECs say about them. And know their teachers well enough to know what they will write. Then, get anything else you want the schools to know in the essays or make sure to show it in an interview.
Lots of MIT applicants have expanded … and not tanked.
If you know you will get an A and 5, then that is a red flag of “easy courses/always in comfort zone/no big challenges”. If not, but you do not get an A and 5, then that is a red flag of “downward academic progress”. So you need to take hard courses that you are not assured of an A and 5 (i.e. take academic risks), and then earn an A and 5 (to avoid the risk turning into one of the red flags).
In other words, analogous to the answer to the question “which is better, A in easy course or B in hard course?” which is “A in hard course”.
Colleges are getting 20 times as many applicants as they can take. Anything that reduces that number works. Asking for risks is only useful in culling the numbers, if they only choose those kids whose risks worked out. If they just asked for “risk taking”, every kid who wanted to apply would make sure that the took some risks. In that case, it fails as a factor in admissions.
It is a version of the Prisoner’s Dilemma. A kid can either avoid risks, and have a below average chance at acceptance, or take risks, in which case, if they fail, their chance of acceptance drops to close to zero, but if they succeed, their acceptance rates are much higher than average.
@roycroftmom If MIT did that once, every single applicant from then on would take a poetry or acting class. at which point taking courses which are out of a student’s comfort zone will join Too Many APs as an obligatory part of the curriculum of every Ivy aspirant out there. Poetry classes will be swamped with kids who are want to go to Stanford or MIT, and kids who have a genuine interest in the subject will be forced out, as the super-competitive parents of the aspiring engineers descend en masse on the principle’s office to demand that kids with the highest math GPAs receive preference for all creative writing and performing arts classes.
Of course, on the plus side there will be a sudden interest in bringing back all those courses that were cut out from schools, because they supposedly would not help a kid get one of the High Paying Jobs Of The Future. Starbucks and independent coffee shops will be left without staff as all of the English and Art majors out there will suddenly find themselves in high demand by every High School with enough money to add more art and creative writing classes. Parents’ basements and lofts will be left empty, graduating humanities students will walk with their heads held high, no longer embarrassed to look the STEM majors in the eye. A new Golden Age for the humanities and the arts will dawn.
Nothing wrong with a 20:1 college taking the best of the best, as they see it. Just taking a magic class isn’t it.
Lets not get caught up parsing what “risk” means. It’s not jumping out of an airplane or swimming with sharks or foolishly choosing courses. I took it to mean a form of intellectual curiosity and willingness. Go for it. But after the choice, you still need to do well. Otherwise, they’ve got plenty of other applicants who did.
We’ve got to quit acting like this is so opaque. As if we need a recipe. “Academic risk” can also extend to ECs. How you enrich your learning, outside the high school box.
They don’t want kids they have to spoon feed info to. Thinking is a broad skill. Not just reading a road map.
It’s so counterintuitive to speak of colleges that want activated kids who seek knowledge and expansion and then complain that they don’t write it out for you.
Harvard, btw, does talk about this rounding. And stretch and getting your best performance. MIT expresses the same. But that alone isn’t a lock.
I think taking risks with explanation on the application shows maturity. Especially if it doesn’t work out in the applicants favor.
My son used his chess coach (also his AP Physics teacher) and his AP research teacher for his LOR not the math and pure science teacher for engineering schools. His chess coach knew him as an 8th grader that traveled with the high school team when he got accepted into the high school and they invited him to travel from Chicago to Nashville for a major tournament.
He also could only take 2AP classes his junior year at his all honors school due to scheduling. He thought he was doomed for any “good” college. So he wanted to prove to himself and colleges he could handle it plus he found the 2 AP classes actually easier then the honor classes. Having more depth made it more interesting for him. He took 6 AP with MVC plus orchestra his senior year and “A” 'd out. We actually saw him do homework nightly but he found school more interesting also. He proved to himself he was ready for college. He, as I say… “bet” on himself.
His essay was totally non typical but was unique to him no doubt.
So I think it depends on where your GPA is and what colleges you are applying to also and your intended major. If applying for stem and your application doesn’t speak to that with courses and ec’s etc or if your applying for writing and don’t have any advance courses and interests to me that speaks volumes. As shown every year the best grades don’t alway prove out. I think the essay comes more into play then we think when someone is truly themselves and original and personal and in their own voice. Also what you do with your time means something also. You can always explain away a lower grade here and there if needed. Don’t think perfection wins out over an interesting, motivated applicant. But maybe I am wrong also.