COLLEGE GOP WORK A NEGATIVE TO LIBERAL ADCOMS????
COLLEGE GOP WORK A NEGATIVE TO LIBERAL ADCOMS????
Ha, ha most adcoms would be SHOCKED, SHOCKED to even think that whether you were GOP or Dem in your extra curris would make a dif, and they would then point to many GOP super-stars who have made it through their bi-partisan admission policies, including famous ‘body’ man to Geoge Bush who got accepted to both H and S. See http://hbsguru.com/media_econ.html for Economist story on Blake Gottesman the president’s 26-year-old personal aide, responsible for carrying his breath mints, logging his telephone calls and dog-sitting his Scottish terrier. Sure, when the White House writes your recs, and you got a powerful story about shepparding Big Shots on 9/11, schools will welcome you with open arms and turn you into Poster Boy for “blind” admissions process.
BUT!!!! With regular folks, the question of pzzble prejudice is worth revisiting: given Liberal bias in press, adcoms, academics in general, it would be no surprise if in close cases an application could be colored by political bias, a lot would depend on what you had done, what you say, and how you are coming across. If there is a wiff of GOP stereotype behavior in apps, e.g. a lack of bleeding heart awareness of impact of economic policies on communities, a rah-rah pro business attitude, and any pixel of race, gender, etc. bias, the added X factor of working for GOP orgs could “crystalize” a lot of incohate bad vibes in your app, and do some real damage. To be honest, if you were coming off as a flake, dreamer, and doper-head, and you had standard liberal extras, most adcoms would look that over, and shake their head as well, and say, “that figures” altho they may quicker on the draw on the GOP side.
Above describes most cases, where political affiliation can be an explaining factor to other issues in application, and pzzbly a bad aggregator. There are, however, certain 3-rd Rail issues which adcoms would be really, really hard pressed to consider in neutral light: to wit. ANTI-CHOSE LEADERHIP POSITIONS, PR0-GUN LOBBY LEADERSHIP POSITIONS, PRO-FAMILY LEADERSHIP POSITIONS (E.G. YOU ORGANIZED PETITION IN YOUR STATE TO DEFINE MARRIAGE AS BETWEEN MAN AND WOMAN). These, to the country at large are contentious issues over which folks split sorta 50-50, but adcoms DO NOT, and they would really have a hard time forgiving anyone who wrote powerful essay about, e.g. organizing Operation Rescue at Abortion Clinic to talk women out of abortions, and then using that as impact on group essay, to wit, MY IMPACT ON PREGNANT MOMS AND THE UNBORN. Adcoms may say they will read those essays just like essay about raising money for John Kerry, but I dont really think so. There is a way, maybe, to thread the needle w. a hot button topic, but it starts w. realization that adcom will have her undies in a bunch right from first sentence. I’d avoid stuff like that, or if it is really part of your leadership profile, I’d really be very careful about what I said.
During my undergrad years, I was involved with the College Republicans, even serving as president one year. I’m not very political anymore and I certainly don’t intend to write about the experience in any essays, but given your description of adcoms (very PC, which usually means liberal) I’m wondering whether my involvement could be viewed in a negative light. Any thoughts would be appreciated – thanks for your candor.
