Cornell (Johnson) 2012 - Calling All Applicants

Anyone willing to take a look at my 'Table of Contents' essay? This thing is killing me--wish it was a normal essay!

I will be up in Ithaca this weekend as my interview is Monday. If anyone wants to meet up to watch the NFL games or whatnot, feel free to send me a PM!
I'll give an overview of how the interview goes when I return on Tuesday or Wednesday!

Definitely!
I would be happy to help out, My grandfather (a PhD) helped me with mine and gave me some really great advice.
He was the one who helped my uncle get into Johnson a few years back and my uncle later served as an admissions officer at Johnson.

I'm definitely not an expert, but I had a lot of great help in writing mine!

I just sent you a PM

If you feel that your application is strong, then you certainly stand a chance to get accepted. Dont worry about the round, but applying early gives you an opportunity to get selected for scholarship

Hi guys,

If you have already lost any hopes and got dings at all schools you applied to, you are welcomed to visit this thread the-2011-2012-zero-admit-club-126296.html and share your profiles and experiences.

Dude, I think your post may be a bit preemptive, dont ya think. People are still receiving interview invites, and not trying to think about about going 0-for, no need for the doom-and-gloom. Lets try and keep the positive energy in these threads, for now at least.

Not cool bro

I’ve gotten a few pm requests for help with this essay So I thought I might share a little more of my personal thoughts if they might be of help to others. I’m by no means a professional writer, I had just as much of a hard time on this essay as anyone else, but I’m starting to realize just how lucky I was to have five incredible essay reviewers to help me along the process. Thought I should pass it on to everyone still going for R4 or next year. Too bad I wasnt done earlier, it seems like most of us are already done writing and did rounds 1-3

The problem I first game across in this TOC essay is that I wanted my chapter headings to include all of my details from work (promotion received, money saved, project completed, etc.) my chapter titles were super long and loaded with details (mostly because I wanted to avoid being vague)

However in my first essay revision I was told that I missed the point completely.

This essay was for me to show creativity and be unique. The adcom already has my resume and a few other essays, they are not looking for another resume here, and they probably have hundreds of applicants who turned this table of contents into a second resume, so make sure it is different, don’t become one of those.

Also write it like a table of contents, avoid the outline format (III, A, 1, i, etc), having chapters 1-30 makes it clean, concise, and easy to read

I think this essay is a great place to talk about influential people who helped you in your life, and anything else you didn’t get to mention in your other essays and resume. My grandfather said to focus on who you are and what made you this person, talk about a life changing event from boy scouts or something, things that happened to you, people who taught you, something your parents did, and personal feelings, reflections on your own past, things you've learned, people you've helped.

Think about how a professional writer would see your life, they would try to turn every event into a compelling story that catches the reader’s attention. To make my story engaging I had to set aside a lot of my work details. I wanted to write chapter headings that would be memorable and pique the interest of my interviewer. I wanted to show up to interview and have him/her to say "hey tell me about that time you drove across 13 countries with only a tent to sleep in, that sounds crazy!".

I also think adcoms see plenty of essays that are simply brag sheets, I think it would be refreshing for an adcom to see something else, so really use this time to be unique. Your chapter headings can definitely still show leadership, ambition, decication etc. but write about who you are, not what you think the adcom wants you to be, they can see right through that.

finally, be yourself. :D


These are just my opinions on this essay in general, most of which came from feedback and critiques I received. I hope this advice helps someone get going in the right direction. This is definitely one of the toughest essays in my opinion, I had a good amount of writers bloc on this one.

Feel free to PM me with more questions, or if you want another set of eyes to read a draft, I’m happy to help wherever I can. I’ve definitely had a lot of help from others in the process, so hopefully I can pass it on.

I don't think there is anything wrong with PTK's post. Some people already have their admissions decisions so I think it's appropriate to have a thread for the people that didn't get into a school this go-round. R1 decisions are over and done with and R2 interview invite season will be wrapping up soon. Let's stop being so sensitive

If you google help for this specific essay question, most websites will suggest using this to highlight personal experiences, leadership and ambition. I remember reading somewhere that the Johnson admissions team really enjoy reading this essay in particular

Personally, I made mine super personal and funny. I even have Justin Bieber and Kobe Bryant's names somewhere in my table of contents. Lol so maybe this is why I haven't been invited to an interview

I am from India and I am still to hear. I applied to the 30 Nov round. Do you guys think there is still a chance?

Invited to interview…Received mail on last Monday.

Whoa Whoa Whoa....
I got an invite from Johnson 4 hours ago. How did i not find out until now?? crazy Gmail..

anyway, Sweet!
going to Consortium Interview Days Feb 9th and 10th!

My work is going to get suspicious of my sudden surge of vacations to the north east in the middle of the winter...

Just submitted for R3. Here is to finally being done with Apps!

Got an invite to interview at Johnson. All the best to those who are still waiting!

Dude,
I said "if"..... No way i am trying to discourage people here, i just provide an information. Some guys like me, applied only to their top choice schools and only in R1. So there are may be people like me.
Good luck to all of you and fingers crossed!

Me too.. now the wait...

How flexible is Cornell with the word count in the essays?

The outline format is taking precious space in my TOC essay!