I have to admit that I'm laughing pretty hard after I read some of the statements from Pitzer's Admission department in an article from U.S. News & World Report.
Here are two kernels of advice from Pitzer.
- Don't overdo extracurriculars. "If you add all the hours they say they're doing, you wonder how the hell are they going to school," says Arnaldo Rodriguez, vice president for admissions and financial aid at Pitzer College. "It becomes suspect at that point. Are they careless or just trying to pad the application to make themselves look more committed than they really are?"
- Handwriting counts. A few students apply the old-fashioned way—with penmanship so sloppy the college can't read the E-mail address to ask for clarifications. "Sometimes you get a handwritten application and it's clearly not the student who filled it out," adds Rodriguez of Pitzer College. "You wonder who's interested, parent or student?" One obvious tipoff is when the writing doesn't match the signature.
Just what kind of school is Pitzer? Apparently, some of the applicants are just so burning with social activism -- and their extracurriculars -- that they couldn't be bothered to fill out an application!
