@ sattut Again, I admit that not providing any way for them to see my novel was a mistake (thought that attaching a 100,000 word document would leave a bad impression). But where did I state that I “attempted to copy a winning formula?” All I “copied” from Kwasi Enin’s essay, if you can even call it that, was writing my Common App essay on an activity that wasn’t directly related to my major. That was the lesson I took to heart after I read his essay online; that’s a lesson that I believe that my failure doesn’t automatically discount. If that’s copying, then half of the Common App essays in existence are forgeries.
Yes, I made a serious error in being unaware of the impression that my overall application created; yes, my round with this game didn’t turn out so well. In the pile of rejections, a thousand reasons–race, gender, geography, lack of national awards, an adcom’s bad day, the alignment of the planets, and yes, the person I made myself out to be in the essays–could have been the culprits. There is no basis for stating that “obviously,” it was the novel essay, it was the shooting essay, that was the decisive factor; as you said, I made it into Amherst with those very things. So despite what your responses in this thread suggest, you are not the authoritative arbiter of the whole college admissions process that you believe you are.