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Brody's Guide to the College Admissions Essay
Brody's Guide to the College Admissions Essay is available at bookstores and at online retailers such as Amazon.com. The book was written by a college counselor and writer who has appeared on national television to discuss admissions-related issues, and a dean of law school admissions at a major university. It has been used in high schools and in after-school programs.
For those students who would benefit from professional help with their college admissions essays, we recommend EssayEdge.com, which has been praised by the Washington Post and the New York Times.
Lessons to take away from this essay2:
1. Colleges like interesting people.
In our opinion, this essay is interesting to read. But perhaps even more importantly, it reveals an interesting person. Given the choice between a hard-working academic grind and the person described in this essay, any admissions officer would (all else being equal) choose this girl. She sounds fun. She’s creative, “artsy craftsy,” and argumentative.
She’s also come to terms with her academic side and the intellectual pursuits that that part of her personality craves. This is not a nerd-become-rebel who has decided to shun the “uncool” fields of math and science. Rather, Meredith is a well-rounded high school senior with myriad interests and accomplishments.
She is someone who would add to the vitality of any college’s freshman class.
2. It’s possible to be philosophical and still write an effective admissions essay, but it’s tough.
With this lesson we urge the utmost caution: for every successful “philosophical” essay, the college admissions landscape is littered with dozens of meandering, incomprehensible such essays that just don’t work. The problem, to be blunt, is that 17-year olds don’t usually have much to say about life in general that admissions officers haven’t heard before. In fact, applicants usually sound better when they acknowledge that they don’t already know everything there is to know about the world. As Socrates said: “The wise admits he knows nothing.”
This author avoids that trap by explaining her own personal issues without claiming too much wisdom about life. This essay is about her, and about letting the admissions committees get to know her a little bit better.
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