College Essays that Made a Difference, 3rd Edition (College Admissions Guides) [Paperback]

Princeton Review (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

College Essays That Made a Difference, 3rd Edition includes real-life essays written by applicants to Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Yale, MIT, and more, as well as complete application profiles of over 100 students, including test scores, GPAs, demographic information, and where they got in and where they didn't.

College Essays That Made a Difference, 3rd Edition includes essays submitted to the following schools:

Amherst College
Bard College
Barnard College
Brandeis University
Brown University
Bryn Mawr College
California Institute of Technology
Carleton College
Claremont McKenna College
Columbia University
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art
Cornell University
Dartmouth College
Davidson College
Duke University
Franklin W. Olin College of    Engineering
Georgetown University
Hamilton College
Harvard College
Kenyon College
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Middlebury College
New College of Florida
New York University
Northwestern University
Pomona College
Princeton University
Reed College
Rice University
Smith College
Stanford University
Swarthmore College
Tufts University
University of California–    Los Angeles
University of California–San Diego
University of Notre Dame
University of Pennsylvania
Washington & Lee University
Washington University in St. Louis
Wellesley College
Wesleyan University
Whitman College
Williams College
Yale University

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Review; 3 edition (September 16, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375428763
• ISBN-13: 978-0375428760
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #92,955 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars What a joke!, March 5, 2010

By	Elisabeth Forrest (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE)

This review is from: College Essays that Made a Difference, 3rd Edition (College Admissions Guides) (Paperback)

The kids who wrote these essays are part of that handful of students who are vying for admission to the same few upper-echelon schools. When a kid is ranked in the top 2% of their class, has an above perfect GPA (weighted of course so they can distance themselves from their merely intelligent classmates), and spends their summers building schools in Africa, they could copy the back of a Wheaties box for their essay and still get in to schools most kids would would consider a stretch.

These do not seem like typical kids. Their stories all sound as though a college admissions coach got hold of them (and their parent's checkbook) during their freshman year and groomed them to enhance their chances of getting into an ivy ("...now this year we'll have Tommy to start a non-profit"). Give me a kid who had to go out and earn their own money, and did it responsibly, any day.

I would want to see good essays from regular good kids, with regular good grades, and regular well-rounded activities whose essays got them into regular good colleges.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good essays, not your average students featured., June 22, 2009

By	Molly n Britts Mom (Southern CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: College Essays that Made a Difference, 3rd Edition (College Admissions Guides) (Paperback)

I bought this for my daughter who will be a Junior in high school this year, thinking she could read these essays from average to above average students and get an idea of what colleges were looking for. Each essay features a student, their photo, biography and what they do in high school/extra curriculars, along with their essay, where they applied and where they actually got in. Unfortunately, these students are all above average and very few are "real" students. Most have above a 4.0 and most are super students with above average accomplishments. The essays are good, but the studetns Princeton Review picked, were "hand picked" to make them look good. Keep this in mind and take the bio's with a grain of salt.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars College Essays that Made a Difference, 3rd Edition (College Admissions Guides), April 19, 2010

By	Jun Wang - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: College Essays that Made a Difference, 3rd Edition (College Admissions Guides) (Paperback)

This item came with condition as described by the seller. I am happy about the book.