Word: verbalism
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...leadership position. A Cornell applicant submitted a one-page, single-spaced addendum to his application that cataloged, as an admissions officer exasperatedly termed it, "every activity he's ever participated in." With the "spread too thin" designation on his voting sheet, even his perfect 800 score on the verbal half of the SAT wasn't enough to stave off rejection...
...officers accept that student essays are often heavily edited and adapted for multiple applications. But if an essay seems too polished, they'll often compare the writing with that in other parts of the application, and even to a student's verbal SAT score...
...their violent extremes, and what better venue than Harvard? Daniel MacIvor's "play in 13 rounds" as it has been called, pits boyhood friends Bill (Daniel P. Berwick '01) and Frank (James A. Carmichael '01) against one another in a series of contests, from mundane height comparisons to explosive verbal sparring to physical violence. The match is refereed by a mysterious woman (Kathleen A. Agresta '01), who, in addition to narrating, also becomes a specter from the boys' past...
...beginning of the play starts off with a simple height comparison and progresses though pretty silly contests, with plenty of laughs along the way. Berwick and Carmichael play off each other remarkably well, finishing each other's sentences and creating huge verbal fugues. (Kudos to director Jordan R. Berkow on choreographing such a complicated verbal ballet.) Both men are appealing and personable, in spite of their faults and their one-upmanship. But as the play goes on, the verbal spars become far more aggressive as they needle each other about affairs, jobs, and kids...
...most disturbing aspect about fights between best friends, as I'm sure most of us know, is that friends know just where to aim. And Carmichael and Berwick show themselves to be masters of this point-blank verbal sparing. The quick one-liners keep flowing throughout the play, even as the tension increases between the two men. But the source of the hate between the two is revealed as they reenact a scene from a childhood summer, in which a girl-chillingly portrayed with both detachment and energy by Agresta-dies while they race each other to the point, leaving...