How Not to Get Into College: Submit a Robotic Application

Wall Street Journal
December 23, 2008
Swamped by a rise in early applications from the biggest class of high-school seniors ever, college admissions officials have some advice for the class of 2009: Be yourself.
Although this year's applicant pool is by many measures the most highly qualified yet, admissions deans at a dozen top-tier colleges and universities said in interviews last week that they're also seeing a disappointing trend: Too many students are submitting "professionalized" applications rendered all too slick by misguided attempts at perfection, parental meddling and what one admissions dean describes as the robotlike approach teens are taking in presenting themselves.
Among the symptoms: Too many formulaic, passionless personal essays. Too many voluminous résumés devoid of true commitment. And too many pointless emails and calls from overanxious students and parents -- a trend one dean labels "admissions stalking."
"We keep looking for authenticity and genuineness, for kids who are their true selves," says Jennifer Delahunty, dean of admissions at Ohio's Kenyon College. Instead, anxious students, and the adults who help them overpolish their applications, "leach all the personality out" of them, she says.
One factor, of course, is competition. Officials at more than half the highly competitive schools I contacted report sizable increases in early-decision applicants. In vying for admission to high-status schools, many students are forgetting what should be the main point of the process: finding a good fit.
Also, officials say, a growing emphasis in high school on test scores and grades has made learning seem like a race, and merit like something that can be quantified in data and lists -- thus the multipage résumés some students send to buttress their applications.
Instead, admissions officials offer applicants this advice.
Don't hide behind a polished veneer. Some applications are so "corporatized" by parents and other coaches, says Seth Allen, dean of admission at Iowa's Grinnell College, that the real applicant becomes almost invisible. This is the exact opposite of what most colleges want to see, Mr. Allen says. A telltale sign of parental meddling, says Kenyon's Ms. Delahunty, is the word "heretofore" or too many semicolons in an essay. Then, "you know the lawyer-parent factor may have been at work." Some parents even slip up and sign the applications themselves.
Pick essay topics that inspire you. While as many as one in five applicants this year are describing overseas service trips, which are certainly a worthy pursuit, too many of the resulting essays are merely shallow recitations of facts: "I went here, I did this, I made great friends, it was uncomfortable and oh, wow, I really know how less-fortunate people live now," says Grinnell's Mr. Allen. He wants deeper revelations, he says: "How did this really impact you? Give us insight into what you were feeling."
Kenyon's Ms. Delahunty says she'd rather read an essay about such everyday topics as the challenges of changing a tire in a Minnesota winter, or growing up as the only boy among eight children, if they revealed more about the writers.
Don't stalk the dean. Some applicants barrage admissions offices with numerous recommendation letters or emails with little value other than re-affirming interest. At Barnard College, one applicant sent eight thank-you notes to every person she'd met during a campus visit, from the receptionist on up, a practice Jennifer Fondiller, dean of admissions, calls "overkill." Such efforts have no bearing on applicants' fates.
Don't be afraid to take risks. Amid an overabundance of qualified candidates, colleges want applicants with traits that set them apart and promise to enrich the campus community. In a presentation recently to high-school students, says Jean Jordan, Emory University's dean of admission, this application question came up: "If you were a song, what would you sing?" The students, Ms. Jordan says, seemed baffled; one asked in bewilderment, "What should I sing?"
Ms. Jordan's firm reply: "Whoa. Be yourself."
By SUE SHELLENBARGER