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10 replies
  1. Sheela Clary
    Sheela Clary says:

    First of all, I now will have to find a reason to use “faucet hierarchies” in a sentence. Thank you also for the reminder about what makes for good writing and reading; vulnerability and redemption. The vulnerability is essential, the redemption part optional, though the courage to write from your vulnerability is a species of redemption in and of itself, isn’t it?

    • Penelope Trunk
      Penelope Trunk says:

      Oh my gosh, I love the idea of vulnerability as redemption. It’s so encouraging and forgiving.

      And of course it puts less pressure on me to look for my nice-end-of-the-story redemption.

      Penelope

  2. jessica
    jessica says:

    I’ve read a lot of Ivy entry essays.
    Each one was an exaggerated story of redemption over hardship ‘I beat all the odds’ ‘I discovered a different way’ with impeccable use of grammar and vocabulary. I noticed they do prefer a positive conclusion, because it gives them a reason to cheer and vote for the applicant- ‘This person is a winner’. People like to be apart of a hero’s journey, I guess.
    As a suggestion, encourage your son to write about his homeschooling journey and how he overcame his hardships to succeed. His family dynamic is fascinating to me and maybe something he can write about. A few essays I read were about the family they came from.
    I’m sure you have plenty of ideas, but his experiences seem to lend to a lot of redemption stories. I’m excited to read about what he comes up with.

  3. Rita
    Rita says:

    I understand the faucet hierarchies, as I was very fussy about drinking water as a child and I still taste the difference between different faucets. Is it as arbitrary as you imply, or is he tasting the difference, and there’s usually a difference, even if it’s just that one tap is used more often and so has less metal tasting water. Water from bathrooms is tainted with the smell of the soaps round the sink, water from a laundry is stale and metalic musty etc.

  4. Mark W.
    Mark W. says:

    “In case you’re wondering, Stanford students don’t think their teacher matters. Social media matters, because there’s a big audience. And college essays matter because there’s big impact.”

    An alternative to the college essay (which I’m pretty sure wasn’t a requirement when I applied to institutions of higher learning) could be writing on a social media platform (website, blog, Instagram, Reddit, etc.). The applicant could point to their work and give a brief introduction, purpose, and summary including one entry they thought was their best. Their best would include comments from their readers and responses to them.

  5. Minami
    Minami says:

    He’s an INTJ. Give him a structure for how to write a college essay, help him pick a topic if he doesn’t have one yet, and leave him to it.

    Maybe he should write about how he wanted to be an archaeologist as a kid, got dragged to an archaeological site, and ended up hating it so much he barfed. And so now, instead of archaeology, he is applying to…whatever his intended major is.

    I probably screwed up some details, but hopefully you get the picture.

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