Our appreciation, as always, to Thomas Harvey, for his wise advice, his experience, and his introduction.

Often support comes from a place where it is least expected. Thanks to the partnership of Schafe, Sean, and Now, who now know the true meaning of good jobs at good wages. Thanks also to Mike for providing an opportunity.

Special appreciation to Martha Dustin, for her General Attitude and her reading skills, to our sister Stephanie, who promised that all her friends’ children would buy a copy, and to Mary Beth Whitson for always knowing when to break for coffee.

Most of all, we’d like to thank our parents.

And, of course, special thanks to George Bear.

The following editors selected the 100 essays in this book from the hundreds of pieces submitted. Editors-in-chief: Christopher J. Georges (Executive Editor of the Harvard Crimson, 1987); Gigi E. Georges (Managing Editor of the Wellesley News, 1988); Managing Editor: Shari Rudavsky (Managing Editor of the Harvard Crimson, 1988).

Editorial Staff: Keith O. Boykin (Editor-in-chief and Chairman of the Dartmouth News, 1987); Sean Dobson (writer for the Yale Daily News, 1987); Martha Dustin (staff editor of the Harvard Independent Insider’s Guide to Prep Schools, 1987); Tony Laden (President of the Harvard Independent, 1988); David Lee (President of the Harvard Independent, 1987); Kevin Park (Publisher of the Harvard Independent, 1988); John R. Schafer (Co-Editor-in-chief of The Williams Record, 1987); Wade Roush (Editor-in-chief of the Harvard Independent, 1988).

Thanks, also, to the Graduate Board for their support in putting together this second edition. And to the following staff members for all of their efforts: Alexander P. Nyren, Alicia Llosa, Karen Kiang, and Will Reckler.

The following people provided the comments and remarks that follow the essays: Natalie Aharonian, former Director of Admission, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA; Stanley A. Bosworth, Headmaster, Saint Ann’s School, Brooklyn, NY; Ann A. Frietas, College Counselor, Bellarmine College Prep, San Jose, CA; Ted Grabowski, Director of Guidance, Holy Ghost Prep, Bensalem, PA; Tom D. Harvey, former Assistant Headmaster for External Affairs, Poly Prep Country Day School, Brooklyn, NY; Michael A. Hricko, Provincial Assistant for Secondary & Pre-Secondary Education, Maryland Province Jesuits, Baltimore, MD; Robert Koppert, Director of College Counseling, The Dalton School, New York, NY; John McClintoch, former College Counselor, Francis W. Parker School, Chicago, IL; John C. Merrill, III, Director of College Counseling, The Pingree School, South Hamilton, MA; Robert C. Miller, College Counselor, Happy Valley School, Ojai, CA; John W. Mudge, College Advisor, Garrison Forest School, Garrison, MD; Richard J. O’Hara, The Head of the School, The Wellington School, Columbus, OH; Maxine Rodberg, Director of the Writing Center and Senior Preceptor in Expository Writing, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; Bryan P. Seese, former Director of Placement, Milton Hershey School, Hershey, PA; Peter Taubman, Graduate Deputy for the School of Education and Head of Adolescent Education, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY; Hal D. Tayloe, former Chairman, English Dept., Hampton Roads Academy, Newport News, VA; Arthur S. Thomas, Director of College Counseling, The Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, NJ.

Why not? Perhaps you fear writing something that will not match the record displayed throughout the rest of the application. Perhaps because of the difficulty of capturing your personality on a single sheet of paper. Or maybe you still are waiting for an original idea—something that will prompt the admissions officers to place your application in their “great thinkers of the 21st century” folder.

You call a friend. “... Oh, you’ve already finished your essay, you say. ”Me? Oh, I’m almost there. Just have to finish thinking of a topic. . . . What did you write about? . . . No kidding. The electoral college. Nice choice. . . . ^»

You want to say something about yourself, but you don’t want to sound pretentious. You want to show them you’re different—better even—than the next applicant, and you want to show it on a single sheet of paper. You want to show them you’re funny, or creative, or bright, or athletic, or ambitious. You want to let them know that you deserve to go to their college.

The intent of this book is not to give advice. Nor is it a how-to guide. Instead, it is intended to inspire by way of example.

With that said, we will now offer three bits of somewhat ambiguous advice—which we hope the rest of this book serves to illustrate:

First, try not to accomplish too much in your essay. Less is more.

Second, poor essays make a big deal out of nothing (e.g., learn to respect mankind from serving as captain of j.v. basketball), and successful essays take respectable accomplishment and keep it in perspective.

Finally, be loose. This doesn’t mean writing a string of jokes. On the other hand, write for admissions officers, not for the law review. Keep it simple, easy to follow, and “be what thou art”—a high school student.

Throughout this book, we have attempted to illustrate that a successful college application essay need not be produced by a gifted writer—otherwise this would be a very short book. We could not, of course, resist including a number of essays written by talented writers; however, we also strove more to include essays that stood out for other reasons. And these, we believe, deserve greater attention simply because they illustrate what can be done with a little creativity and a little thought. And that, more than anything, may be what separates the average essay from the successful one.

After almost every essay, you’ll find a “Comment” written by one of the professional admissions officers or counselors who helped us with our selections. In the text, they are identified by their initials, their full names can be found on page viii.

The essays in this book are those that college and high school officials as well as the editors of this book have selected as outstanding, successful, unusual, or exceptionally thoughtful. The purpose of the book is simply to expose students to various techniques in essay writing and to illustrate that there is no one type of essay that should or should not be written.