31 Comments
Race to acceptance
As IvyGate, Gawker, and New York Mag have picked up, some accepted members of the Columbia Class of 2017 decided to post their application essays publicly online (inciting Bwog to mutter “they’re making it too easy.”). Unfortunately, the files have since been deleted, but you can still catch some highlights at the linked articles. Frankly, perusing these essays has made Bwog even more excited to formally meet the incoming class–such creative kids with a broad spectrum of interests and life stories. We can’t wait to see what they bring to campus (and the 2017 Facebook group). We’ve reached out to Admissions for comment and will let you know if they get back to us.
Update, 5:40 pm: The Class of 2017 Facebook group has already begun reacting and they are not happy, you guys.
Update, 8:16 pm: Admissions released the following statement on the 2017 Facebook group:
We understand that personal statements that were shared by members of this private group a few weeks ago were regrettably made public and printed in the media this afternoon. Given the critical priority we place on maintaining the privacy of past, current and prospective students, we want to assure you that Columbia was not involved in the release of these essays to the public, and that the Google Drive where these statements were originally posted has now been taken down voluntarily by its creator. We are thrilled that you are getting to know one another and are excited to join the Columbia community, but we encourage you to always take appropriate privacy measures when sharing any personal information online. Please don’t hesitate to contact us at ugrad-welcome@columbia.edu if you have any questions or concerns.
Banks and America tortoise and hare via Shutterstock
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31 Comments
@huh VOLPONE
For Jacob, there’s lemonade to be made here. This is what the c.v. entry should look like, under “Publications.”
“The Tortoise and Goldstein the Banker.” College admissions essay. Published in New York Magazine. Blog Post, ed. K. Roose. 23 April 2013.
@al0 To be honest, whoever did this is an ammoral douchebag. There’s nothing anyone can do but say that karma will bite you in the ass. Do you cynical, self-referential, perpetually sarcastic Columbians even remember what it was like to be a freshman, to come to Columbia full of dreams and excitement, looking at the red brick plaza as if it was the highway to your future? Come on, sure it was a rookie mistake by the class of 2017, but releasing their info is certainly a way to sour the beginning of their freshman year. Can we come together to welcome the freshmen? Why do we need to tear them down, they’re not even here yet!
@SEAS'17 It’s times like this when I’m happy I don’t have a Facebook.
@omg so hip
@Other SEAS'17 I know right !?!
@Anonymous track
@URC be Trollin' URC members mirrored the whole thing and leaked it to Gawker and Ivygate because we wanted to show the world how effing stupid Columbia frosh and their essays are. I know this because I am one of the people who leaked it.
Seriously, how do people not know that putting their essays on a publicly accessible Google docs is a stupid idea? stupid, stupid frosh.
@URC? no crown there…nice try though!
-actual URC member
@URC be Trollin' Right, because I am definitely stupid enough to use my actual IP address while talking about things that I could get in big trouble for. I thought it was hilarious last yeas when DanaPav and the rest got super angry at the URC when we leaked Class of 2016 FB page stuff to Bwog, and when I saw that 2017ers were stupid enough to post their essays online, I knew I had to send it to Gawker and Peter Jacobs.
@URC? I wouldn’t say you’re “stupid enough”, but you’re sad enough to be (or pretend to be) in the URC when you hate (or pretend to hate) prospies.
Find something better to do with your life – if you’re actually in the URC, stop subjecting yourself to the “stupid, stupid frosh”; if you’re not in the URC, quit trolling. The URC works really hard to make sure admitted students have an awesome experience here on campus, so please stop.
@Anonymous ’17s, worst class ever or the absolute WORST class ever?
@Anonymous I believe the word that the class of 2017 is looking for is…
FAIL.
@lel Bored@Butler is down. Guess I’m going to have to go shitpost in the Facebook group instead.
@al0 hai tdh
@Julius Cheeser These shouldn’t have been up in the first place. Some of these kids just want to show off, and us non-Facebook-celebrities think it’s super weird and annoying.
@Anonymous YES. My thoughts exactly. Sites keep referring to the essays as try-hard and whatnot, but that’s just because the select people who actually chose to post their essays are like that…
@Anonymous @Anonymous: They don’t deserve to be at Columbia
@17 over 70 ppl posted their essays on that drive on a page where only about a 100 are active. I wouldn’t call it try-hard; I’d call it trying to get to know the people you may well be spending the next 4 years with. My own essay was in the drive; it wasn’t one of the ones put on display at IvyGate, NYmag or Gawker. Some of the essays in that drive may have seemed pompous/pretentious to the severely critical eyes of Gawker/IvyGate writers, but their job is to be snarky and unnecessarily mean. People put their days and nights, their hearts and souls into those essays, and ultimately, they represent what each person thought were their best qualities. Evidently, admissions thought so too. Yes, even I thought some were pretentious, or perhaps too high-fluted, but that doesn’t mean they are, or that everyone will think so.
@'14 to '17: That's Cute 17, you seem to forget that not only have the vast majority of commenters here already gotten into Columbia, they have the added insight and maturity of students with a few years of college under their belts. You may step off your soapbox.
If you meet the dude who wrote the hipster essay though, please tell him he’d be better off at the new school.
@dirty mike they deserve privacy they are the voices of a generation you guys
@Jaded Graduate Student I don’t know who should be more insulted, Lena Dunham or the Class of 2017…
@Anonymous Oh fuck, I actually might have been that nude model too…
@Anonymous Thanks for featuring my wonderful comment XD
@Anonymous “out their” – good luck in UWriting bro
@Anonymous Whoever leaked them should truly be ashamed, and should publicly apologize. That is how repentance works; especially when the moral infraction has such a strong public character.
@anonymous Not to say that what the person who leaked them did was moral, but if you put something on a publicly accessible google drive, it’s kind of up for grabs. That is how the internet works.