Why You Don’t Want to Have a College President Write Your Essay June 9, 2009
Paul Partridge on the difficulty of college essays
Here’s a delicious twist. The Wall Street Journal challenged presidents of 10 top colleges and universities to do the very thing required of high school seniors to gain admission – write an essay question from their own school’s application.
The rules were:
- no more than 500 words (some cheated)
- no help from PR people or speechwriters
- friends or family could make suggestions but not rewrite
- the WSJ selected the questions for the presidents, so they would not pick an easy one
- 3 weeks to complete the essay
No New Jersey colleges were on the list. The participants included:
Barnard College’s Debora Spar
Carleton College’s Robert A. Oden
Grinnell College’s Russell K. Osgood
Oberlin College’s Marvin Krislov
Pomona College’s David Oxtoby
Reed College’s Colin Diver
The University of Chicago’s Robert J. Zimmer
University of Pennsylvania’s Amy Gutmann
Vassar College’s Catharine Hill
Wesleyan University’s Michael S. Roth
Want to see how the presidents did? I was certainly surprised (read under whelmed). In my opinion, there were only one or two A-quality essays, a couple of B’s, and the rest C’s. Just shows you how difficult writing essays can be.
You can read their essays at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124155688466088871.html
Many of these presidents could have certainly benefited from our Essay Prep service, one of the 17 components of our popular Smart Track™ program.
Students learn how to choose a topic that will help stand out in a large applicant pool… understand what makes a good essay… and what admissions officers are looking for. During busy season, admissions officers evaluate 30-40 applications a day, so they don’t have time to read every word of every essay. Wouldn’t it be valuable to know what they’re looking for, and what you MUST include to get noticed?
Once your essay is written, our essay service (led by a PhD in English) will review your work and make suggestions for improvements. The essay has become more and more critical as more colleges and universities accept the Universal Application. Because so many students (and even college presidents) struggle with it, it becomes a way for you to shine if done correctly.
