Word: reader
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...Cornell and Bowdoin, admissions readers typically send art slides and music tapes out to department heads to get an expert appraisal. Those rare applicants who get a ringing endorsement are usually instant hits back in the committee room. That was the case for a student's trumpet performance, which received the top rating from Cornell's music department. But, noted reader Ken Gabard, "it's only 1 in 100 who gets this kind of reception...
Schools are also taken with good students from families with little education or money. At Bowdoin, this is known as an "NC/BC" case, for no college/blue collar; at Rice, it's an application with "overcome" factors. At Cornell, admissions readers were initially not too impressed by a student with good test scores but whose grades were all over the map. Then a reader noticed that she came from a family with no higher education and worked up to 40 hours a week as a cashier. But it was her essay that really swayed the committee, as she described being derisively...
Before you go crafting your sob story, it bears noting that college admissions officers are among the world's finest b.s. detectors. A case in point: a student's Cornell essay about a relative's homosexuality struck an admissions reader as gratuitous: "This has got shock value written all over...
...less obvious faux pas, like stating your intended major without checking that it's offered. Students are sometimes asked the number of schools to which they're applying, and some colleges take offense at being one of many under consideration. Rice was weighing a superbly qualified applicant when a reader mentioned that the school was just one of 15 on his list. The student wound up on the wait list...
...Bush's pillow preference against him. In fact, I might point out that, if my experience is any guide, it could be an asset if he's President. I see him sitting next to the Prime Minister on a state visit to Greece. The Prime Minister, being a reader of the American press, is braced to be asked how the Grecians are doing or whether Athens has any major league pro teams. Instead, George W. Bush turns to him and says, in passable Greek, "Does this hotel have any down pillows?" The Prime Minister is charmed...