The Perfect Application
By Mackenzie Bohannon And Anuraag Girdhar, The Dartmouth Staff
Published on Friday, April 27, 2012
The ideal peer recommendation
On Oct. 15, 2011, the Admissions Office received an application the likes of which they had never seen before — that of Leland Stanford VII, a prospective ’16 from Cheyenne, Wyo. Many parts of his application were pretty standard. For example, what prospective Dartmouth student wasn’t described as “intelligent,” “pompous” and “socially inept” on his or her peer recommendation? However, Leland’s application was found by the Admissions Office to be absolutely unique in both its complete disregard for form — having forgone the typical long-form Common App in favor of a resume — and its record-breaking number of self-calls.
In typical fashion, upon verifying the positively incredible details of his application, Leland Stanford VII was accepted to Dartmouth, if only because his application reminded them of Mark Zuckerberg as portrayed in “The Social Network” (2010). After all, the movie made clear how his future at Dartmouth would pan out — he would attend for a year, get a great idea, drop out and donate lots of money. In other words: small investment, big return.
They called it “The Perfect Application.”