How final decisions are made - Parting words

Accepted! 50 successful college admission essays - Gen Tanabe, Tanabe Kelly 2008

How final decisions are made
Parting words

The former senior associate director of admissions at Yale University reveals what it all comes down to when deciding whom to admit

We want to share some insights from Lloyd Peterson, former senior associate director of admissions at Yale, former dean of admissions at Vassar College and director of education at College Coach.

We asked Peterson what the decision comes down to once admission offi cers have everything about the applicant, including their essay, laid out in front of them. He says, “In the end we often have to ask very nuanced questions about each applicant. There are three major categories that we ask about.

“First, is this a good institution-to-student fi t? Is your value system in line with that of my institution? Colleges and universities can be like teenagers. They all have their own personalities, and we want to make sure that a student would thrive in the environment of our school.

“Second, can the student do the work? This is pretty obvious, and many students meet this requirement—but then again some will do better than others.

“Finally, can our school meet the student’s needs outside of the classroom? We want to make sure that you will be happy.”

But where do you fi nd these answers? Peterson admits, “Most of these answers do not come from transcripts and SATs.”

This has some important implications. If you are a student with high grades and test scores, you can’t rely on these alone to get you into college. If you have less-than-perfect scores and grades, don’t give up without even trying.

No matter which type of student you are, use your essay and the rest of your application to make a strong case for yourself and convince admission offi cers like Peterson that you deserve to be at their school. strategies and mistakes that we present in each chapter. Contemplate the advice from the admission offi cers. Then go out and write your own masterpiece.

We leave you with one fi nal observation. From our own experience writing admission essays and from that of the many students we interviewed, the one thing we never found was a student who after thinking long and hard said, “I don’t have anything good to write about.” No matter where you grew up or what you experienced, you have the raw material to create a unique and powerful essay. But you do need to think.

Admission offi cers and students who have written great essays stress over and over that to write a good essay you need to think. You can’t just sit in front of the computer and expect a great essay to pour from your fi ngertips. You need to allow time for ideas to percolate and develop.

It was not uncommon among the students we interviewed for them to have revised their essays more than a dozen times over the course of several months. Between each revision they would think about what they had written and push themselves to analyze more. For many, including ourselves, the writing of the college admission essay took us to places and made us realize things about ourselves that we never knew existed when we fi rst sat down to write.

This is as it should be. This is what the admission offi cers hope you accomplish. Relish the challenge. Savor the chance to share a part of yourself on paper. Remember, the admission offi cers really want to let you into their college. Give them a reason. Let your essay help open the doors.