"How to Write a Winning Ivy League Essay"

With  a rare exception or two, I think student essays are way overrated in college admissions. (Any weight above about 0.2% is too high.) Admissions people are prone to dopey reactions like this:

For Greg Roberts, the admissions dean at University of Virginia, one of the most memorable essays he read was about a single at-bat in a high-school baseball game. The applicant wasn’t the star of the team, Roberts remembers, and didn’t even like playing baseball much. “But he talked about being nervous and excited at the same time, about how the freshly cut grass reminded him of his grandfather,” Roberts says. “I just felt like I knew him.”

But here at the Door, we're all about public service. So if you or somebody you know wants to know the Seven Big Secrets to Writing a Good Essay, have at it.

Comments

[david foster]

It strikes me that we as a society have delegated quite a bit of power to college admissions officers, without knowing much about who these people are or what they value.

I would hypothesize that the way the typical admissions officer looks at life and at people is quite different from the view of either the typical professor or the typical employer.