EVENT | Writing undergraduate applications essays: @America, Oct 2, 2013

I wrote my application essays for UC Berkeley based on the recommendations of an admissions dean at UC Berkeley — and it worked! So if you’re applying to George Washington University, don’t miss this event.

My story is, it was a pretty autumn day and instead of going biking in Tilden Park I went to the “how to write an admissions essay” workshop sponsored by Boalt Hall. After all, I was already living in Berkeley and the the park wasn’t going anywhere.

I just honestly thought it would be a waste of time since I already knew how to write and had even published articles and monographs.

So I decided to do the boring thing.  And I learned really a lot, applied everything, and got accepted, even though my test scores were slightly below median.

Now if I hadn’t gotten accepted would I be writing this “success story”? No. Good point. But I know it helped me write a better essay because I still remember some of the points made by Edward Tom, who is still dean of admissions at Boalt.