Bob CollinsFor the life of me, I can’t recall needing to write an essay about why I wanted to attend a particular college or university. It was the early ’70s, education was in its experimental stage, and it’s quite possible they were just taking any old Bob who applied.
But it’s a requirement for many college now. How do you choose what to write about?
Brittany Stinson, an 18-year-old senior at Concord High School in Wilmington, wants to be a doctor. She also wanted to get into some Ivy League schools.
So, of course, she wrote about her love of Costco, NBC reports. And that impressed Yale, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth, and Cornell.
The assignment was to write about a “background, identity, interest or talent that is so meaningful.”
Again, Costco, of course.
“Just as I sampled buffalo chicken dip or chocolate truffles, I probed the realms of history, dance and biology, all in pursuit of the ideal cart-one overflowing with theoretical situations and notions both silly and serious,” she wrote. “I sampled calculus, cross-country running, scientific research, all of which are now household favorites. With cart in hand, I do what scares me; I absorb the warehouse that is the world.”
She tells NBC she needed to write about something that would make her stand out from all the other applicants.
“I couldn’t afford to go via the traditional route. I would actually be more worried about taking a traditional route at the risk of blending in with other applicants,” Stinson said. “I knew that writing about my experiences at Costco would at least make for a memorable essay, whether [admissions committees] loved or hated it. On another hand, I felt that the essay ended up being such an accurate representation of me and my personality.”
She said she has no clue which institution she’ll pick.
