To (All) the Colleges That Rejected Me

This senior is getting an early lesson of how far BS on a resume can go in the real world. I think this quote is funny:

"I also probably should have started a fake charity. Providing veterinary services for homeless people's pets. Collecting donations for the underprivileged chimpanzees of the Congo. Raising awareness for Chapped-Lips-in-the-Winter Syndrome. Fun-runs, dance-a-thons, bake sales—as long as you're using someone else's misfortunes to try to propel yourself into the Ivy League, you're golden."

If you set up a site called "savethecongowithbongos.org", copy and pasted the correct affiliate code and HTML for Amazon.com's catalog of bongo and bongo-like instruments, posted it on your Facebook page, and then donated the meager proceeds to some Congo-related charity, why couldn't you credibly claim in an application essay:

----- "As a sophomore in high school, we learned about the great need of the impoverished in the Congo. But I felt unsatisfied about writing just reports about the problem. So I built a HTML5 website, using Twitter's latest bootstrap technology, and partnered with Amazon.com to crowdsource funding using a Kickstarter like model to Congo charities in need.

While most of my friends were at the swimming pool in the summer, my charity, Save the Congo with Bongos, received hundreds of page views, thanks to a successful viral and grassroots social media campaign, and delivered to Congo charities donations from places as varied as Tokyo, Japan to Boise, Idaho.

Since starting Save the Congo with Bongos, I've become more greatly aware of how the world is tied together through today's networks and I hope to continue to harness these amazing connections to save the Earth."

----

Now this is not a bad project, maybe. but it's not even close to this-kid-could-make-the-next-facebook-in-her-dorm-room quality, and a lot less work and character-building experience than the typical teen summer job. But I bet it'd be a killer story for a application essay

Although the essay is well-written, this isn't necessarily true. I think the best way to get noticed by a top-notch university is to be damn great at something. It doesn't really matter what that something is, and more fundamentally, I think it's important to have a life goal to be damn great at something (irrespective of college). If you find a passion and work hard at it, applying to college is actually pretty straightforward. From my experience, top colleges (at least the handful I got into) respected me for my extreme passions rather than looking for a stereotypical club president, NHS leader, community service organizer, all-stater, etc. (none of which I had).

Yea, it's obviously important to get good grades and SATs, but beyond that, there's no silver bullet formula. Of course some kids can apply with filler resumes full of leadership positions, etc. and get in, but the majority of kids I've talked to who go to great schools have great passions that they would've pursued college or not.

Well, hopp on a plane and study in Germany. You'll get a world class education for free (more or less).

About the "Just be yourself" advice. Of course this is the best advice from the colleges point of view, if everyone adhered to it it would make things much easier.

She left out another way to get into college: get an essay published in the WSJ.

This is wonderfully written. Much better than a lot of other content that makes it to the front page.