<p>Yes, and just be themselves.</p>
<p>I’d prefer Palo Alto over Northeast weather. I wouldn’t tell an adcom.</p>
<p>Btw, not spring weather all year.</p>
<p>My daughter was advised by people “who should know” and do know, frankly, not to send an essay she wrote. She sent the essay. She liked the essay. It talked about things she wanted to talk about.</p>
<p>She was accepted at some of these “dream schools.”</p>
<p>I think these rules are kind of like all rules. Learn them. Then, the kids who know them and can still break them? Those are probably the ones who get in. Just sayin’. :p</p>
<p>TheGFG, is it not well-known that I am not a parent? I did not get the benefit of learning directly from admission officers (or ex) until well after applying. </p>
<p>Lookingforward, a few on this forum know exactly who the horses were. All I want to say publicly is that they are located very, very far from the east coast. I’d be glad to share details via PM.</p>
<p>Phew, D is lucky she got away with it I guess. They must have assumed her lack of knowledge of application essay rules was a result of her half-URM status. Those URM’s get too many breaks.</p>
<p>I know nothing about your personal life, xiggi.</p>
<p>Love your posts, GFG, you are making my case better than me.</p>
<p>“Know why you are applying.” That is pretty simple to me: The college has my major and the ECs I want, I loved the campus and the people I met when I visited, I like the location and I can afford it. Like I said many posts back. I still don’t know why mine is the wrong answer. It feels like exactly the right reasons for choosing a particular college.</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>I was not being flippant. I assumed that with our long mutual presence on the forum, you might know. This said, I realize that I also know nothing about you and your D. And that is the way it works on anonymous forums.</p>
<p>Edit: I just realized that I overlooked a recent comment about athletics and trees. And, TheGFG, the world appears to be a small place indeed. :)</p>
<p>My D1 also sent a supposedly deadly essay and did fine. The real tip is not to sound shallow. Or other undesirable characteristics. </p>
<p>Bay, your example is fine. Some polishing would bolster it. One would need to see it.</p>
<p>OK, xig. My experience is northeast and some Stanford.</p>
<p>Lookingforward, I think sometimes what you end up with is a GC who did not go to an elite U. So, they take all of this “advice” and they apply it. </p>
<p>But, then, the kid comes along who really does have something interesting to say about something in an interesting voice and they are told, “No. you can’t write about that.”</p>
<p>Of course, I imagine what you have been saying all along, in your own way, is that it is exactly the kid who WILL write about this or that in a compelling voice, who CAN write about this or that in a way which shows some maturity, self-knowledge and real insight, and also has the stats, who they are looking for, anyway. </p>
<p>So, be yourself as long as you are interesting. Otherwise, try to be Emma Watson or Chelsea Clinton? 
No?</p>
<p>And, can you please tell me why, if these schools continue to say over and over again, that they can admit exponentially more classes of qualified kids, it is not also a crapshoot?</p>
<p>It’s not just Ivies. USC, like most schools, emphasizes how their process is holistic, yet posts all their numerical stats right before notification including the 3 bullets below (right alongside a teasing picture of their mail room stuffed to the gills with big acceptance packages). If you are a student like Suzy who probably fits with most of the other stats, it’s frustrating. One thing that is really misleading is all the matching services on the web like collegeboard.org…and naviance…they don’t account for realities like this.</p>
<p> 1-in-9 is the first in their family to attend college
64% are students of color
17% are international students</p>
<p>Xiggi knew deepthroat when he was alive.</p>
<p>I guess I’m a little puzzled that anyone interprets “be yourself” as "if you do, you’ll get accepted.’ no matter what, they can’t take everyone. I always heard that as “we want the most qualified, interesting applicants. So be who you are so we can decide.” </p>
<p>the idea that she should have faked more to get in is just, frankly, grotesque.</p>
<p>I think somebody better get over to the “why do you want to go to an ivy” thread and do some helping out.</p>
<p>GFG 573: Right on.</p>
<p>Ah, Xiggi, now there will be a stack of essays about this professor and that at a college and the adcoms will be wondering what the heck brought that on. </p>
<p>Just remember, once an idea is voiced, it’s old news. Gotta come up with something else.</p>
<p>My son was accepted to an ivy, with an essay that both his GCs and I panned. And I still say it is not a good essay for admissions. But the admisions reader loved it enough to comment on it. It just struck his fancy. It was a term paper, IMO that gave no idea as to who wrote the thing–just informational, but I guess it was a topic of interest to that reader that day who was sick of reading all of those egocentric essays and this one was nice plain porridge after all that sugar and spice.</p>
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<p>I know. People on this site seem desperate for the next magic bullet to get into top schools, and when they think they discover what it is they turn and run in a frenzied clump like kids chasing the ball in a kindergarten soccer game. Oh, 2150 SATs are no longer good enough? Fine, we’ll get tutoring and practice and take the test again and again until we crack 2300. You want to see meaningful ECs? I got an internship at Sloan-Kettering. Sure, my dad is the chief of surgery there, but I still worked really hard! Think I sound too self-involved? Fine, I will demonstrate for you how much I care about others by spending two weeks this summer thatching huts in Guyana. </p>
<p>Fueling the fire of this ridiculousness is statements like one I responded to earlier, that essentially said “in this economy having an elite school education can make the difference between getting a great job right after graduation and sleeping on the pull-out couch in the basement till you turn 30.” The hysteria is palpable, and it defies logic and reason. There are HUNDREDS of colleges where a smart, motivated kid can do well and get started on a successful, enriching adult life. But for a lot of people who post here, THOSE places are for everyone else, not their extra-special kids. Sorry, but if that’s how they feel, they deserve what they (don’t) get.</p>
<p>Poetgrl, just lost my longish post, but 589 just hits it. Thanks.</p>
<p>No one is stupid enough to believe that “being yourself” means you’ll get in a top school. The point is that uninformed adults tell students they should do what they like, follow their passions, etc. But what if doing what you enjoy and what suits you, means you become the sort of caricature applicant some current posters on this thread have disdained on previous threads: the high-stat Asian violinist who plays tennis, is in the chess club and on the Math team, and who dreams of becoming a doctor?</p>
<p>Some current posters have implied that such a kid was na</p>
<p>I think this young woman is clever, she used her college rejections, along with her personal connection at WSJ (believe her sister is on staff there) to create a writing and media opportunity for herself. I personally didn’t like her writing, I thought her sense of her own “cleverness” was just a tad too obvious but hey that’s just my take. As others noted I also found the particular references to headdresses, scooping up a child in Africa and two moms offensive. yes, I get she was mocking the process, but still, she never recognized her own true privilege, including the sister who helped get the article in print.</p>
<p>“Despite the teenager’s 4.5 GPA, an SAT score of 2120 and work experience as a U.S. Senate page, she was shunned by Princeton, Yale, Vanderbilt and the University of Pennsylvania.”</p>
<p>Because all that guarantees an Ivy acceptance, right?..</p>