I chat with Parke Muth, former Associate Dean of Admissions at UVA. We cover, among other things:

• What Parke has learned reading over 10,000 college essays
• We’ll go behind-the-scenes to look at how close decisions are sometimes made by committees at highly-selective universities (and why essays matter even more as a result)
• What Parke wrote his college essay about
• Parke’s 10% rule for when students should/shouldn’t write about their activities or achievements
• What an “authentic voice” is and why, contrary to popular wisdom, we maybe shouldn’t be encouraging students to write in it
• Some dos and don’ts for the “Why us” essay, including one thing students should definitely do but most don’t, and
• Why Parke believes his job is better than being a king