20+ Baffling college admissions essays from students: 'I wrote a 750-word admissions essay describing the smell of baked potatoes... I got in'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Dec 10, 2024 11:00 AM EST

You've got one chance to wow the university of your dreams! The pen is in your hand (or more realistically, your fingers are on the home keys) and you're trying to find the inspiration to write the perfect admissions essay. Suddenly, you forget everything you've learned in the last 12 years of school… what could you possibly write to a college admissions office to get them to let you into their esteemed school? 

College applications can be a big stressor for high school seniors. They have to submit all of their academic info, but that's not all. They also need to write admission essays to prove how worthy they are to the college. Oftentimes, these will involve personal essays about the struggles students have overcome. As one person humorously noted, you haven't always been through a lot of struggles by age 18. Others were a little too honest with the college admissions committee. However, a lot of people also still got into their dream university despite their silliest efforts at admissions applications, so maybe their colleges still spotted talent despite their goofy essay attempts. 

Next up, these CEOs ran their companies into the ground, like one who realized that "Almost ¾ of the employees had quit… because their paychecks kept bouncing." 

Add as a preferred
source on Google
Advertisement
  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10439611648
    via Ahmed For Unsplash+

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    College admissions officers of reddit, what is the most ridiculous thing a student has put on their application?
    via u/stopjakeingoff
  • 03
    Nufity The amount of students who glue rice to their applications to Rice University is too high.
    via u/Nufity
  • 04
    [deleted] My favourite email I ever recieved was a reply to an admission where all the kid said was "AYYYYY WE MADE IT". I printed that out for my desk for sure.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 05
    TheMapesHotel Graduate school admissions. Our application requires 4 separate essays. This student wrote all four as a long, drawn out love letter to one of our faculty. members. The faculty member wasn't taking new students into the lab and had never met or talked to the perspective student. The student had taken all the info for her love letters from
    via u/TheMapesHotel
  • 06
    his website in addition to providing a list of his publications (also from his website) that she had read. I walked away from reading. her application with zero sense of who she was but having learned a lot more about the faculty member!
    via u/TheMapesHotel
  • 07
    daweiandahalf Less ridiculous, but we had an applicant send in a book they wrote and published themselves. It was difficult for us to really read it, because for some reason the book really stank. We just put it in their file and shut the door.
    via u/daweiandahalf
  • 08
    [deleted] I am a college soccer coach. I was at a college recruitment event. At these events they hand out profile booklets. In the section of 'interesting facts' one of the players bios had an ad for a car that he was selling.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 09
    [deleted] White water He meant white water rafting.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 10
    [deleted] My college proudly advertised that in my class, we had an Oreo stacking champion. Never figured out who it was after 4 years.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 11
    harddata At a law school I was considering attending the admissions people told the story of a woman who had sent in a shoe with her application along with a note that said "now I have a foot in the door"
    via u/harddata
  • 12
    diemidnight I once had an applicant come through who put that their preferred name was "The Turtle". On their college application.
    via u/diemidnight
  • 13
    stone4345 A applicant literally wrote something along the lines of please don't accept me I don't want to go to your school in the addendum section of our application because his parents forced him to apply.
    via u/stone4345
  • 14
    Another time an applicant submitted a essay composed of Japanese characters that when put through google translate turned out to be a loosely translated version of cat in the hat.
    via u/stone4345
  • 15
    InGord WeTrust That they were a people person, because they had multiple personalities.
    via u/InGordWeTrust
  • 16
    westywall Not an admissions officer, but I wrote a 750 word admissions essay describing the smell of baked potatoes. Maybe not what they had in mind, but I got accepted and went on to attend that university.
    via u/westywall
  • 17
    dimgray The worst CV I ever saw as part of an application to a graduate program was a barely-intelligible, un- formatted mess that included such bits of information as she likes to spend her free time reading and her favorite book is "fifty shade gray"
    via u/dimgray
  • 18
    T... I wont say how i know this person but he answered an essay question asking what he would do if he had 100 dollars by explaining he would go to the local playground where homeless people congregated and host a mini olympics where the homeless could compete for the 150 burgers he purchased with the money. The idea was to feed
    via u/TheTaoOfMe
  • 19
    them but also do a study in human behaviorz This was for johns hopkins and im pretty sure they were not pleased. Haha. Edit: hah I didnt really expect anyone to see this. To answer some repeated questions, its not that 100 dollars was a lot of money, it was more that JH wanted to see how you would spend a small amount of money for
    via u/TheTaoOfMe
  • 20
    the greatest effect. Also, the burgers were that cheap because at the time BK was having a special on Tuesdays; the essay went into all the pricing to demonstrate frugality... and nope this person, eh, didn't get in. I'm sure the essay is on their wall of shame now.
    via u/TheTaoOfMe
  • 21
    Kleoes Not an admissions officer but a couple years ago, a girl sent in an application to my university in larger than normal packaging. Someone in the admissions office decided it was suspicious looking and might be a bomb. A section of campus
    via u/Kleoes
  • 22
    got shut down and bomb squad got to use their fancy toys to figure out it was just a regular application that the girl attached lights to so her app would stand out.
    via u/Kleoes
  • 23
    PMME_ur_lovel... When I applied to medical school, one of the application essays had a prompt that asked us what we would do if we did not get into medical school. I wrote that I would go to law school and become a lawyer specializing in prosecuting
    via u/PMME_ur_lovely_b****
  • 24
    medical malpractice. I ended up getting an interview and had a good laugh about it with one of the interviewers. Did not get into that medical school.
    via u/PMME_ur_lovely_b****
  • 25
    W.. One of my high school teachers used to read a newsletter that highlighted these type of things. My favorite one was this: For one the essays the application asked, "Ask yourself a question and then answer it."
    via u/wakaranaiever12
  • 26
    The students response: "Do you play the tuba? No." He got accepted.
    via u/wakaranaiever12
  • 27
    gboy69 Rarely comment but I feel compelled to tell this story (even though it's slightly off topic) : I intern in the admissions office at a decently prestigious private California university and overhear the councellors making decisions. They regularly shout stats across the office to get other people's input
    via u/gboy69
  • 28
    on whether or not to accept/deny applicants. There was one kid who was right on the edge of what we normally accept--the lower end of the spectrum. My boss shouted out his stats and got mixed responses. Then she said the infamous phrase I'll never forget: "but guys, I Zillowed his house, it's $4 million dollars in Los Angeles"
    via u/gboy69
  • 29
    THEY LET HIM IN. That was the determining factor for this kids COLLEGE CAREER. I will never forget sitting there in horror listening to them joke about his wealth. I have so little respect for college admissions, at least at my school, and the administration after hearing that.
    via u/gboy69
  • 30
    OneGoodRib Every time this question comes up there's always people complaining about kids who have something really petty for their "hardship they overcame" essay but also they complain when kids writes those essays about how they've never really had a hardship to overcome.
    via u/OneGoodRib
  • 31
    I... Wow something I can answer! I have a few favorites and I'm on mobile so sorry for formatting. For their GPA they put 95. One student listed their high school as "idk" One student listed their intended major as teaching and their minor in "principle" I asked one person how to spell their name and they had to ask their mother how to spell it.
    via u/I-Hate-Hats
  • 32
    Multiple people have actually tried listing their IQ as a reason for admittance. If you get to write your own personal essay do not write "Why?" As the title and the entire essay be "why not?" Maybe not too ridiculous but they stuck with me Edit: to clarify the application makes it apparent for your GPA on a 4 point scale
    via u/I-Hate-Hats
  • 33
    BabyinAjar Not a college admissions person but I got into a great university and about a year later a guy from my hometown messaged me asking if I could look over his application form. Now, I was over the moon cause I was super proud of this guy for wanting to further himself cause I'd been worried he would fall into our towns
    via u/BabyinAjar
  • 34
    trap of poverty and dying. young. Now, I'm not saying I rewrote his application, but if what he gave me was the alphabet, then I gave him back the entire of Shakespeare. Some highlights include; works • when prompted to talk about what lead him to seek out university qualifications, he
    via u/BabyinAjar
  • 35
    answered something along the lines of (and this is grammatically exactly the same way he explained it) 'my mate went and seemed like she had fun, I want to have fun but also get smarter'. • when asked to talk about any prior work experience or volunteering, he mentioned his time in
    via u/BabyinAjar
  • 36
    McDonald's (not bad, still a job, but he didn't go into much depth besides that) and the time when he was younger and had to do community service for something. • when you get to the part of the application where it asks why you want to attend THAT university, he literally
    via u/BabyinAjar
  • 37
    said something along the lines of 'Google said it was good'. Now, obviously I couldn't rewrite it perfectly cause he would go to the interview and they'd tell someone else had done the work for him, but I tidied it up for him and I gave him a pep talk for the interview, and clearly they saw that he was a great guy just looking to further himself and he got in!
    via u/BabyinAjar
  • 38
    O... Under "What else would you like us to know?" I wrote about the birthday paw-ty I threw for my dog. At the end of that section I put, "If I were an admissions officer, I would feel that this is relevant to the application." Was shockingly accepted!
    via u/okaybutfirstcoffee
  • 39
    SE_Crew Not an admissions officer but had a friend who responded to the question "Tell us about yourself" by drawing himself using lines and dashes on the computer and labeling parts of his face. He was accepted.
    via u/SE_Crew

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

opinion ask reddit teens class school funny stories classes learning papers askreddit high school funny writing opinions
Scroll Down For The Next Article