50 Successful Ivy League Application Essays

Don’t Pass Judgment on Others
“Pick an aspect or event of your life that boldly shows an important part 
of your personality. If someone is very interested in human rights, I think they 
should write about that part of their personality and how they plan on foster-
ing it with an education.
“Another overlooked but very important piece of advice that I really would 
like to share is: don’t ever pass any kind of judgment about others in essays. 
I’ve read applications where people would write (only for a sentence) about 
how someone else is dumb or awkward (basically ‘I am better than all of the 
other applicants because...’ or ‘My awkward looking friend did this...’) and it 
always ruins it and makes the individual come off as arrogant, which I don’t 
think is good.”
—Mathew Griffin, Brown University

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Chapter 22: Advice on Writing from Ivy League Students