College essays that made a difference - Princeton Review 2010

The parts of this book

Essay Fundamentals

To emphasize the role that grammar plays in essay excellence, we composed a review of the essentials. The essay’s importance in an application is also discussed.

Q&A with Admissions Officers

We interviewed admissions folks at thirteen schools that received selectivity ratings of 95 or higher in The Best 373 Colleges. We discussed the essay, the application as a whole, and the specifics of how the admissions ship is run at each administrator’s school. Their responses will give you insight into what happens after your application is signed, sealed, and delivered.

The Applicants

Each student profile is broken down into manageable chunks. The name of the student¹ and a photograph (if he or she provided one) come first. We then offer a short paragraph, summarizing the major accomplishments and activities the student highlighted on his or her application. Next, we provide the student’s statistical record—test scores, high school GPA², high school attended—and demographic information—hometown, gender, race. We then list the school(s) that the student applied to. Finally, you will see an actual essay that the student wrote and submitted with his or her applications. If each school the student applied to did not receive the essay, we let you know which ones did. Among the essays, not every sentence is eloquent, nor every comma perfectly placed. However, these are the essays as they were submitted, read, and ultimately accepted. We think they’re all solid. Some are excellent. More importantly, they all passed the ultimate test for college application soundness: Their authors gained acceptance into at least one of the top schools to which they applied. In a few cases, we printed more than one essay written by a given student; Princeton’s application, for example, requires four short essays, so we included the complete set.

We did not group the applicants according to the quality of their essays, or according to the schools at which they eventually matriculated; you will find them in alphabetical order by first name. The location of the page listing each applicant’s admissions decision(s) can be found at the end of his or her profile.

While you read, you may want to consult the school profiles, either in The Best 373 Colleges and on our website, PrincetonReview.com. In each school profile, you will find information about students who applied in the most recent academic year, including average SAT and ACT scores, the overall number of applicants, and the yield (the percentage of students accepted who enrolled). We also break down the application elements into hierarchical categories—which components of the application each school considers very important factors, important factors, and other factors; you’ll see which of these categories the essay falls into for each college.

Where They Got In

This is an index of the admissions decisions each student received. Try putting yourself in the position of the admissions officer; in some cases, you may be surprised by the admissions staff’s decision. This index is also alphabetized by the student’s first name.