Sara Harberson-essay editing

[Anonymous]

A book is a lot different from a consultant who charges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Noticing when people have posted a rec for another great resource - Jeff Selingo’s Who Gets in and Why - there’s no assumption that it is Jeff himself or his mother writing the post. Have seen this several times re Sara H. Interesting.

Perhaps it was less blatant?

[Anonymous]

Jeff Selingo also runs a business. Not private college consulting but a business. Buy
/ borrow his book. Or Sara’s, or no one’s. Good low cost resources

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Noticing when people have posted a rec for another great resource - Jeff Selingo’s Who Gets in and Why - there’s no assumption that it is Jeff himself or his mother writing the post. Have seen this several times re Sara H. Interesting.

Perhaps it was less blatant?

Pp here, yes you could be right about that. I know I wrote a pretty enthusiastic endorsement, but it was honestly my experience, during the past two tough cycles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can sign up for her weekly free emails. These include some useful worksheets for the student.

I have found them very sensible and helpful.

I don’t do Facebook so I appreciated being able to access them for free over email.

Someone told me her full-service package is upwards of $30k.

Yikes! we hired a by-the-hour guy and he was xlnt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jeff Selingo also runs a business. Not private college consulting but a business. Buy
/ borrow his book. Or Sara’s, or no one’s. Good low cost resources

This is what we did. My DW and I must have read 20 books over two cycles. and got some really good ideas from it all! But, had I to do it all over again, in today's climate, five years after last was admitted, I would hire someone on a by-the-hour track. There's just so much to learn out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jeff Selingo also runs a business. Not private college consulting but a business. Buy
/ borrow his book. Or Sara’s, or no one’s. Good low cost resources

This is what we did. My DW and I must have read 20 books over two cycles. and got some really good ideas from it all! But, had I to do it all over again, in today's climate, five years after last was admitted, I would hire someone on a by-the-hour track. There's just so much to learn out there.

NP. I agree with the advice to read a lot. My own issue is that I have a hard time believing all the advice from consultants. Much of it is correct, of course, especially that which has been around for a long time, and that would include Harberson's take on essay writing, for example. But, test optional was a massive change to the system and I'm not sure colleges themselves have a concrete handle on how they are making decisions even now; their processes are more opaque and subjective than ever. I don't think the AA issue will have a huge impact for non-URMs, though it may affect how URMs wish to complete their apps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA admissions is aware of her bc they Dean J responded on social media when she posted on her website that students shouldn’t mention they are Jewish/write about their Jewish identity.

Really? Why not? My kid did write about his Jewish identity - although he is going to a large flagship, and not one that is routinely discussed here - definitely not UVA.

My kid connected to his religion in high school, no thanks to his parents (we do not belong to a synagogue, etc); it was all him and that’s what he wrote about. I didn’t tell him not to - I had no idea it was taboo.

Dean J basically said that this advice was ridiculous and not to listen to it. Sara H suggests admissions folks are anti semitic.

What did Sara say this? She writes on her blog about how her mother is Jewish and immigrated to the US from a German displacement camp following the Holocaust. And that she'd use her mother's immigrant story to write a college essay

My mom was an immigrant. I know very little about her story. What I know is heart wrenching, just like the pictures coming from Afghanistan. My mom came to the U.S. as an infant after she and her family were released from a displacement camp in Germany, following the Holocaust. I know that she had nothing when she arrived here. And within a few years, she was living with her aunt and uncle in the back of a convenient store/gas station in a small farming village made up of immigrants like her.

If I could go back to my senior year of high school, I would have written my college essay on my visits to the gas station as a young child when my mom's aunt and uncle were still alive, and then as a young adult when there was nothing but an abandoned street corner where my mother grew up.

I remember the grease of the gas station. I remember how I could yell from the gas pumps to the post office/deli across the street that my cousins' grandparents managed. I remember eating wonderfully nostalgic Kosher salami sandwiches on a big kaiser roll with a glass bottle of Coca-Cola in my great-aunt and great-uncle's shop. I remember one day when my cousin made me laugh so hard the salami and soda came out of my nose. I remember how, no matter what, my mom would drop everything the moment she arrived at the gas station to pump gas the way she had always done.

Her hands were greasy. Sweat beating down. Her immigrant story—still taking place decades later for her. I may not have said anything to my mom in those moments, but I admired her so much. The gas station continues to keep me humble decades later, especially when my ego gets ahead of me.

https://www.saraharberson.com/blog/this-common-essay-topic-never-gets-old-for-admissions-officers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Noticing when people have posted a rec for another great resource - Jeff Selingo’s Who Gets in and Why - there’s no assumption that it is Jeff himself or his mother writing the post. Have seen this several times re Sara H. Interesting.

Perhaps it was less blatant?

Pp here, yes you could be right about that. I know I wrote a pretty enthusiastic endorsement, but it was honestly my experience, during the past two tough cycles.

+1 DP here. Count me in as a Sara Harberson fan, too. She has great advice, is less expensive than private consultants, and I believe her suggestions are valid, especially considering the results my kids had. She also builds a great community that is very supportive of each other, which is also why you may have people who are more enthusiastic about her than someone like Jeff Selingo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can sign up for her weekly free emails. These include some useful worksheets for the student.

I have found them very sensible and helpful.

I don’t do Facebook so I appreciated being able to access them for free over email.

Someone told me her full-service package is upwards of $30k.

Yikes! we hired a by-the-hour guy and he was xlnt.

I think she’s stopped offering those services. I don’t get the impression that she “needs” to work. I think she’s focusing on the group advice model now and upping her overall public profile. I follow her and Selingo both. I’d be stunned if she bothered posting on here.

[Anonymous]

I work in law school admissions for a T-10 school. We do not assign any value to the essay and in fact assume it was written by someone else. I wish undergraduate schools would do the same, or eliminate it entirely for this reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work in law school admissions for a T-10 school. We do not assign any value to the essay and in fact assume it was written by someone else. I wish undergraduate schools would do the same, or eliminate it entirely for this reason.

Agree. With so many people now gaming the system, essays have become worthless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in law school admissions for a T-10 school. We do not assign any value to the essay and in fact assume it was written by someone else. I wish undergraduate schools would do the same, or eliminate it entirely for this reason.

Agree. With so many people now gaming the system, essays have become worthless.

It is actually discriminatory to assign value to the essay. It gives outsize advantage to those who can afford "editors." The same way that SAT's give outsize advantage to those who can afford tutors and test prep. Its the same thing - Dream Hoarding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work in law school admissions for a T-10 school. We do not assign any value to the essay and in fact assume it was written by someone else. I wish undergraduate schools would do the same, or eliminate it entirely for this reason.

NP. My high-stats kid would be thrilled to get rid of the essay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in law school admissions for a T-10 school. We do not assign any value to the essay and in fact assume it was written by someone else. I wish undergraduate schools would do the same, or eliminate it entirely for this reason.

Agree. With so many people now gaming the system, essays have become worthless.

It is actually discriminatory to assign value to the essay. It gives outsize advantage to those who can afford "editors." The same way that SAT's give outsize advantage to those who can afford tutors and test prep. Its the same thing - Dream Hoarding.

Same for GPA and Rigor