Hot New Admissions Accessory: Mistakes (UPDATED)
*[Ed. note: Nick here. IvyGate ticks off the subjects of its coverage fairly regularly. Usually, it's easy to parry their take-this-down demands and libel threats because they act like bullies and jerks. In 12 months, there's been one exception: Steven Roy Goodman, who says our characterization below is unfair. And after the exceedingly polite, rational and productive conversation we just had, I have to agree. He seems like a stand-up guy, and, thinking back to my own miserable college application days, it would've been good to have someone like Goodman around to make the process sane and bearable.
Anyway: It's our policy to never delete stuff -- if we make an error of fact or taste, we correct it transparently, not by disappearing stuff off the site. Were we to ever make an exception, it'd be for nice guy Steven Roy Goodman. NS]
The college applicant arms race for increasing levels of achievement, polish, and panache has a new weapon: mistakes. An Associated Press article reports that snake-oil salesman* college counselor Steven Roy Goodman "tells clients to make a small mistake somewhere in their application," like bumping a low SAT score up a few hundred- I mean, with a carefully-chosen typo.
What Mr. Goodman is going for is "authenticity" - an increasingly hot selling point in college admissions as a new year rolls around. In an age when applicants all seem to have volunteered, played sports, and traveled abroad, colleges are wary of slick packaging. They're drawn to high grades and test scores, of course, but also to humility and to students who really got something out of their experiences, not just those trying to impress colleges with theiréreséme'.
Authentic typo from the original text.
The result, AP charges, is "students trying to fake authenticity, to package themselves as unpackaged." You've got to make them think you're not that interested. Deep down, admissions officers just want to be treated like shit; keep them on their toes, and craving your attention. Goodman revealed another sly tactic in a Washington Post opinion piece two years ago:
Recently, I was advising an Eagle Scout who was justifiably proud of his accomplishment and wanted to highlight it on his college applications. But I worried that the national Boy Scouts' stand against homosexuals as scout leaders might somehow count against him in the admissions process at some schools. So I suggested that he get involved in an AIDS hotline to show his sensitivity to an issue often linked to the gay community.
Nice save, counselor. Since the number one foe of that shadowy liberal conspiracy known as "college admissions" is, of course, the Boy Scouts of America and their lanyard-weaving, whistling-hearted ways, it's important to cover up blemishes like scout achievements and one's natural ability to type immaculate, grammatically-correct sentences for pages on end, which is so frequently misunderstood as inauthenticity! Why, if educators had it their way, we'd be a nation of typo-spewing hedonists who don't know the difference between there, their, and they're. Which is why IvyGate is calling for an unprecedented act of rebellion: Proofread your personal essays, and spell check twice. Otherwise, the error-ists win. --MAUREEN O'CONNOR
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August 23rd, 2007 at 11:34 pm
this post makes no sense…
August 23rd, 2007 at 11:42 pm
yeah, you kinda lost me at the end there…
August 23rd, 2007 at 11:49 pm
I’m confused.
August 23rd, 2007 at 11:56 pm
I hate anyone who ever had a “college counselor”. They’re ridiculous and unnecessary, and a lot of crap like this would go disappear with them.
I’m really thankful, and really proud, that I got into several Ivies ENTIRELY ON MY OWN MERIT. I’ve spoken with entirely too many people who are very comfortable misrepresenting themselves and outright lying if it means they have a better chance of “getting in”. It’s ridiculous, and it saddens me to know that I’ll probably be attending college with them in the fall. Sigh.
August 24th, 2007 at 12:50 am
Congrats. Truly amazing that your upbringing, the quality of your high school, your teachers’ recommendations, the country and family you happened to be born into and all of the other little things that help so many of us get into college didn’t have anything to do with your admission. You can rail against college counselors without being a douche. Enjoy orientation - I’ve heard you ’11s are real ragey.
August 24th, 2007 at 4:33 am
@ “@ Tristyn”, entirely unnecessary. You sound like an illegal immigrant.
August 24th, 2007 at 8:27 am
All this bickering doesn’t change the fact that I still don’t quite get this post.
August 24th, 2007 at 9:02 am
You know what’s amazing? Being a rural kid brought up on welfare in a town 5 hours from the nearest mall or airport, having your high school teachers let you teach portions of the Chemistry and Physics classes because they’re so incompetent, and having to explain to your guidance counsel what an SAT II is. Then despite working 20+ hours a week to keep your family’s electricity on, graduating valedictorian with a 4.0 and a perfect verbal SAT and being the first in your family to go to college (while your parents thought you were applying to the Ivy League for kicks) and the only one in your class to leave the state even though the border’s only 13 miles away. Oh, and continuing to financially support your family through 4 years of college while being a Varsity athlete (yes, walk-on). Operating without a support system or safety net - that’s amazing. I don’t begrudge those who didn’t have to work as hard to get where we are, but you shouldn’t make assumptions about what it took.
August 24th, 2007 at 9:57 am
What happened to the other guest editor? The last article I saw by him was on the 16th? Has Maureen been doing this single-handed since then?
August 24th, 2007 at 9:58 am
What happened to the other guest editor? The last article I saw by him was on the 16th. Has Maureen been doing this single-handed since then?
August 24th, 2007 at 10:12 am
Maureen O’Connor,
Stop writing about every tip you receive. This is the third irrelevant article you’ve posted. Shut up.
August 24th, 2007 at 10:28 am
If you find the articles irrelevant you can choose to visit another blog. Alternatively, you could start your own blog with articles that are relevant to you.
August 24th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
@ @ Tristyn, I wonder if you’re one of those anti-priviledge elitists who are more insufferable than the prep-school attending, polos-and-pearls legacy admits you look down on. no one wants to hear about how you afforded harvard while living out of a trash can. you can be proud that you have a 4.0 in tooting your own horn.
August 25th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
wtf? What was the point of this post, it didn’t make any sense. I thought I was going to read something about what kind of subtle mistakes were beneficial, instead I read some tangential article about … some other stuff.
August 26th, 2007 at 11:58 pm
uh, what?
August 28th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
I met with the counselor in question once. The man is smarmy and unpleasant, ridiculing my father’s lack of a college degree (he dropped out to take care of his two youngest siblings after his mother’s untimely death) and discussing how after “we” wrote “our” essays, I might stand a chance of being accepted to one of the schools on my list. Well, I got into nearly ever college I applied to without using a college counselor (thank god), with the essays and extracurriculars he deemed not up to his standards. He rubbed me completely the wrong way, and though he might have seemed polite in your phone conversation, I’d like to key his car. There is a difference between being honest and rude.