Writing
Should you call yourself shy in a college essay?
A Princeton applicant's file shows how readers can repeat an applicant's own self-descriptions. Why to show what you do instead of relying on labels like shy.
SourceBased on what we at Aristo learned from Princeton admissions files that students saw, reported by the Daily Princetonian.
Princeton admissions readers have lifted applicants' own descriptions of themselves straight into the summaries they write, as students discovered when they viewed their files in 2015. One student found that her first reader had noted that she described herself as shy and quiet. The phrase was hers, taken from her own application and set in the summary, where it stood as a mark against her until a second reader, her regional officer, moved her up for other reasons.
Most applicants never think of a self-description as evidence a reader might quote, so they hand over the words casually, in essays, short answers and interviews. Not every student has a second reader willing to look past them.
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