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Wednesday, November 02, 2005

THE SIMULACRAL APPLICANT

Most people who comment on the class-rigged nature of selective college admissions mention tutoring. Applicants whose parents can afford years of guidance and prepping on all aspects of the application process (tests, writing, early admission, appropriate feeder schools, appropriate extracurricular activities, etc.) enjoy an extreme advantage.

While most colleges are probably okay with the phenomenon of “the perfectly buffed-up applicant,” as a Harvard admissions committee member puts it, others claim to make an effort at leveling things. And now that the SAT features an essay, the New York Times reports that some schools are checking that impromptu writing sample against the sometimes too “highly polished, professionally edited personal essay” they receive with the student’s application -- an essay “that barely reflects the thinking or writing, let alone the personality, of a 17-year-old high school student. ‘If it sounds like it was written by a 42-year-old attorney, chances are it was written by a 42-year-old attorney,’ said Lee Stetson, dean of admissions at the University of Pennsylvania.”




In practice, it’s pretty clear that the most selective universities, working their way through 20,000 applications, are unlikely to be comparing the two essays. Some schools, though, do say they’ve begun placing “a forced style” that looks as though it’s “been taught by a tutor," against the SAT essay, which you’ve got to write all by yourself.