Excuse the string of posts here...
atlmba2009 wrote:
I am saying that his argument is taking a very complex subject (the judgment of whether a person, relative to another, is worthy of an admit to a top program) and paring it down to the essays as the single component that those decisions turned on.
Personally, I read it as the "message" the entire app delivered, not just the essays.
atlmba2009 wrote:
You cannot take two people, summarize their qualifications in a page
Sure you can. Hell, I can summarize two people in a couple sentences, let alone a page.
atlmba2009 wrote:
That is like saying:
"I know these two guys who ran for President- let me run down their profiles: one bravely served in the military, was a long-time well-respected Senator, and had loads of foreign policy experience. The other had no military experience, and had been a Senator for merely two years, but his speeches were eloquent and beautiful.
Who do you think won the election?
It wasn't the first candidate. Clearly, the candidate who gives the best speeches wins the election."
That is not like saying that at all. My response to that would be that you didn't summarize the two candidates adequately, which is why you are drawing an inaccurate conclusion from your summary.
atlmba2009 wrote:
My point is that his story, as told, is an obvious attempt to downplay one person's accomplishments and promote his own- NOT with the intent to impress anybody or lie- but rather to draw a conclusion.
I would agree with this, which is why I made the comment that his style elicits skeptical responses.
atlmba2009 wrote:
In reality the female applicant in question likely had many terrific accomplishments that he did not mention, that contributed to her acceptances.
Having two X chromosomes is a terrific accomplishment now?
(sorry, I could not resist
)
atlmba2009 wrote:
I would love to believe I could, despite every shortcoming in my background, sit down and write brilliant essays and get admitted to Harvard based on that alone. However the app process is way more complicated than that. There are applicants who can write prose to rival Faulkner who just aren't getting into certain programs for other reasons.
The difference is Faulkner is free to write fiction. An applicant is not. It is really not the quality of the writing that helps your case for acceptance, it is the story you are telling, and that story has to be at least partially true (which is also why it's not just the essays that count, it is the supporting evidence, so to speak, that you present in the rest of your app).