Ivy Council to publish admissions essay book

Many prospective Penn students want to know how to get into an Ivy League school — and some students are working to provide the answer.

The Ivy Council — an inter-collegiate among Ivy League Universities intended to offer collaboration within the League — is working on a book, Behind The Leaves: 80 Effective Admissions Essays to the Ivy League, tentatively scheduled to be released in the summer.

Behind the Leaves is a “new and unique” initiative of the Council and is under the purview of the division IvyLEAVES, said College senior Minh Chau, Executive Vice President of Programs for the Ivy Council.

The idea for the initiative initially came from the Ivy League Committee at Penn. The book has since expanded to include the other Ivy League Committees. Behind the Leaves will be comprised of ten essays from each of the eight Ivy League schools, or 80 in total.

“The initiative began as an effort to illustrate the distinctiveness among the sister Ivy League schools, and progressed to become a ‘one-stop-shop’ guide to the admissions essay,” Chau said.

According to Lauren Harding, a College sophomore and Penn Ivy League Chair of IvyLEAVES, the book is a “collaborative effort” among the Ivies and will feature information on all eight schools.

It will differ from other college essay books, she said, in that it will focus on the unique qualities of each Ivy League school and provide an inside look into successful application essays from students at these colleges.

The purpose of the book is to “show the diversity of the schools and provide overviews to each of the schools in order that they be a model for high school students wanting to apply to Ivies and other schools,” Harding said.

College junior Mo Shahin, Penn’s Head Delegate for the Ivy Council, said the book will give readers a “sense of what each school is like in addition to showing a good essay.”

Each school’s characteristics, he added, will be reflected in the style and topics of the essays chosen.

The format of the book will also highlight these differences — it will have separate sections for each of the eight schools and provide a description of each, as well as distinctive essays and information about the students who submitted them.

The project has been in development for a year, Harding said, and the committee will soon review submitted essays.

The Ivy Council has been soliciting essays and will be directly involved in selecting them and publishing the book.Proceeds for the book will be channeled towards IvyCORPS, the philanthropic arm of the Council, and will also help further production for the book.

Sam Schwartz, a sophomore in the College, said he thinks the book will be “helpful” for prospective students applying to the Ivies because it will show them “how to pick a good topic and what a well-written essay reads like.”

However, he said he didn’t think the book would effectively highlight differences between the schools because “people use the same essay for all of the schools they apply to.”

* This article was edited on Dec. 1 at 1:39 p.m. to reflect the correct spelling of the philanthropic group IvyCORPS.

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