Like many of the folks reading this post, I never had any life-changing circumstances or sob stories I could write about for college applications. I lived a fairly normal, uneventful life. As such, I spent weeks mulling over what topics I could discuss — what essays would make me stand out as an applicant.
A few years ago, Harvard University was sued by Asian-American applicants for alleged bias in their affirmative action policies. In the wake of this lawsuit, the storied institution was forced to disclose some of their admissions practices. While I’m not here to pick a side in this matter, I did want to analyze what this lawsuit reveals about how Harvard accepts or denies applicants.
A few days ago, I thought I would revisit some of the essays that got me into Stanford University. I’ll start with some of the shorter supplemental essays, and if you all find this type of analysis helpful, let me know and I’ll post more of these!