With such a diverse and impressive applicant pool, I don’t think that X stands out in any particular way. She has above-average grades and SAT scores, has the typical long but haphazard list of extracurricular activities misguidedly designed to impress colleges (Yearbook, Environmental Club, Student Government, Art Society, etc.), and a personality that isn’t close to the caliber of at least three of the applicants that I’ve interviewed this year.
X wants to become a psychiatrist, but hasn’t really taken particularly strong steps toward achieving that goal. She claims that she wants to be a psychiatrist because she is a “people person,” and enjoyed the psychology sections of her biology classes, but she has no clear understanding of core issues in the cognitive sciences when questioned, or the particular areas of psychology that she is interested in. She raves about the Boston area as a primary reason for choosing to apply to Harvard, which left me rather bemused but unimpressed.
X describes herself as a “go-getter,” yet I have the clear impression that she doesn’t have the intellect to match this attitude. It seems clear that she has amassed her long list of activities, none of which she seems to have enormous passion for, in order to consider herself successful. This tendency indicates to me a kind of person who is much more focused on the sheer idea of success instead of the process of actually learning and benefiting from one’s activities.
In summary, there are no outstanding qualities that distinguish X, and the overall picture isn’t particularly strong either. She will be outclassed if she ends up attending Harvard; she doesn’t belong there. --
pretty similar to yours except i think i tried to be as specific as possible, and i was a lot mroe of a bitch! they followed all my recommendations to the letter the year i did it, right down to deferrals. i don't know what it's like with brown, but with harvard it's hard to distinguish people i'm sure, so going to bat for or arguing against a student makes a big difference.
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Date: 2006-01-15 10:04 pm (UTC)With such a diverse and impressive applicant pool, I don’t think that X stands out in any particular way. She has above-average grades and SAT scores, has the typical long but haphazard list of extracurricular activities misguidedly designed to impress colleges (Yearbook, Environmental Club, Student Government, Art Society, etc.), and a personality that isn’t close to the caliber of at least three of the applicants that I’ve interviewed this year.
X wants to become a psychiatrist, but hasn’t really taken particularly strong steps toward achieving that goal. She claims that she wants to be a psychiatrist because she is a “people person,” and enjoyed the psychology sections of her biology classes, but she has no clear understanding of core issues in the cognitive sciences when questioned, or the particular areas of psychology that she is interested in. She raves about the Boston area as a primary reason for choosing to apply to Harvard, which left me rather bemused but unimpressed.
X describes herself as a “go-getter,” yet I have the clear impression that she doesn’t have the intellect to match this attitude. It seems clear that she has amassed her long list of activities, none of which she seems to have enormous passion for, in order to consider herself successful. This tendency indicates to me a kind of person who is much more focused on the sheer idea of success instead of the process of actually learning and benefiting from one’s activities.
In summary, there are no outstanding qualities that distinguish X, and the overall picture isn’t particularly strong either. She will be outclassed if she ends up attending Harvard; she doesn’t belong there.
--
pretty similar to yours except i think i tried to be as specific as possible, and i was a lot mroe of a bitch! they followed all my recommendations to the letter the year i did it, right down to deferrals. i don't know what it's like with brown, but with harvard it's hard to distinguish people i'm sure, so going to bat for or arguing against a student makes a big difference.