Admissions Essays

“Making an Art of the Sob Story” (Dec. 16) reminds me of Shakespeare, when he wrote, “Sweet are the uses of adversity.” Indeed, UCLA Director of Undergraduate Admissions Rae Lee Siporin’s observation of countless admission essay tales of dying grandparents portrays a more severe casualty, if these students actually think they can become unique victims to these very unfortunate and sad, yet very common and natural occurrences.

But perhaps, as the article suggests, it is the University of California that is prompting students to catch on that they can make effective use of such occurrences. Case in point: What I’ll call the “resurrection factor”--those previously dead grandparents, just around paper or midterm time next term, shall miraculously rise from the grave only to die once more in a note or e-mail from a student in peril.

MARC J. GARCIA-MARTINEZ

Teaching Assistant

Department of English

UC Santa Barbara