Students stop at nothing to get admissions officers' attention

People will do anything to be accepted. Every year students send cookies and other treats to accompany their college applications into admissions offices, but there are always students who pick more unconventional means to spruce up their applications. The University's admissions office has received its fair share of eye-catching gimmicks. Admissions Dean Lee Stetson said that he once received a die covered with the names of the Ivy-League institutions. The die was weighted so that, when rolled, it would always land with the University's side facing up. Also in the fun-loving spirit, another applicant sent in a Wheel of Fortune wheel which stopped on the University's wedge every time, Stetson said. At Yale University's admissions office, one applicant wrote her essays on a piece of oversized parchment paper, burnt the edges, and rolled it up in a scroll. She tied pink and purple ribbons around the scroll and attached two trolls to the ends of the ribbons, said Diana Cooke, assistant director of admissions. "If she'd left the trolls off, I might have enjoyed it," Cooke said. She said she also received computer-printed essays which could only be read by reflecting them in a mirror. After trudging up two flights of stairs to the nearest bathroom, Cooke was out-of-breath and disappointed to read a essay about computers which was "not terribly substantive." Harvard University Director of Admissions Marlyn McGrath-lewis said an actor once sent in "very large poster-size" photographs of himself in various poses of his comedy act. He was not accepted. A luckier applicant wrote his entire application with his pen held between his toes. To prove his talent, he sent in a photograph of himself at work which was shot by his girlfriend, McGrath-lewis said. Dartmouth University Assistant Director of Admissions Heather McDaniel recalled one applicant who sent in a plaster of paris cast of his body. He was rejected. Another Dartmouth applicant sent his personal essays in a box made out of Legos with an essay attached to the outside warning that the box was "impossible to get opened." The admissions officers eventually opened the box, McDaniel said. A growing mode of expression among applicants seems to be their clothing. Yale's Cooke said she was impressed by an applicant who printed his personal essays on a t-shirt. And Mark Couch of the public relations department at Grinnell College in Iowa said one applicant sent in a pair of jeans covered with his essay and literary and intellectual quotes. Several admissions officials interviewed in the last two weeks said their decisions were unswayed by applicants' extra efforts. A number of officials said the value of such extreme measures is questionable. "If they're well done, it's amusing," said Amherst University Admissions Dean Jane Reynolds. "When it's all said and done, I think excessive self-promotion is more unappealing than appealing." Most officials agreed that applications have been growing less eccentric in the last few years. "The gimmicky stuff reached its heyday in the mid-80s when the applicant process was under media scrutiny," said Darthmouth's McDaniel. They further attributed this trend to current demographic trends which have helped generate a "buyers market" for students in the college business. "Students know that the number of 17-year-olds is smaller than it was 10 years ago . . . they can manipulate the process more than they used to," said Haverford College Director of Admission Delsie Phillips.