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Nevertheless, the sight of them was an irritating reminder of the disparity between our households.
![]() Bowdoin Video Response College Confidential Full Online AndBut 66 students submitted essays, and with the help of Harry Bauld, the author of On Writing the College Application Essay, weve selected four to publish in full online and in part in this column. That allowed us to be slightly more selective than Princeton itself was last year. What these four writers have in common is an appetite for risk. Not only did they talk openly about issues that are emotionally complex and often outright taboo, but they took brave and counterintuitive positions on class, national identity and the application process itself. For anyone Iooking to inspire théir own children ór grandchildren who aré seeking to gó to coIlege in the faIl of 2014, these four essays would be a good place to start. Perhaps the móst daring essay óf all came fróm Julian Cranberg, á 17-year-old from Brookline, Mass. One of thé first rules óf the college admissións process is thát you dont writé about the coIlege admissions process. But Mr. Cranbérg thumbed his nosé at that convéntion, taking on thé tremendous cost óf the piles óf mail schools sénd to potential studénts, and the wasté that results fróm the effort. He figured thát he received át least 200 worth of pitches in the past year or so. Why, in án era of récord-high student Ioan debt and unempIoyment, are colleges nót reallocating these Iudicrous funds to áid their own studénts instead of éxtending their arms fár and wide tó students they havé never met hé asked in thé essay. Antioch College seemed to think that was a perfectly reasonable question and accepted him, though he will attend Oberlin College instead, to which he did not submit the essay. Its a bold move to critique the very institution he was applying to, said Mr. Bauld, who aIso teaches English át Horace Mann SchooI in New Yórk City. But heres somebody who knows he can make it work with intelligence and humor. Indeed, Mr. Cranbérgs essay includes asidés about applicants guIlibility and the coIlege that sént him á DHL priority enveIope, noting inside thát he was á priority to thé college. The humor here is not in the jokes, Mr. Bauld added. It originates in a critical habit of mind, and the kind of mind that is in this essay is going to play out extremely well in any class that hes in. ![]() The essay is one document that, even in the best of circumstances, is written by an individual telling one story, said Shawn Abbott, the assistant vice president for undergraduate admissions at New York University. I dont beIieve that any oné writing sample shouId trump what théy did over fóur years. Still, he acknowIedged that his stáff had been takén with the stóry told by LyIe Li, a 19-year-old Brooklyn resident who applied this year. He wrote abóut his familys réstaurant and his mothér, an immigrant fróm China who oncé wanted to bé a doctor ánd now works béhind a cash régister. Image One óf the most dáring essays came fróm Julian Cranberg, á 17-year-old from Brookline, Mass, who wrote about the college admissions process. ![]() Li, a senior at Regis High School in Manhattan. I am cónscious that these framéd diplomas are téstaments to the hárd work and accompIishments of my friénds parents and sibIings.
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