A student's Costco essay earned her admission to five Ivy League schools recently, as well as Stanford University
Brittany Stinson, an 18-year-old senior at Wilmington, Delaware's Concord High School, won admission to Stanford — as well as Yale, Columbia, Dartmouth, Cornell, and the University of Pennsylvania — by describing her love for the largest wholesale
warehouse in the United States, NBC News reported.
"I adopted my exploratory skills, fine-tuned by Costco, towards my intellectual endeavors," Stinson wrote in her essay. "Just as I sampled buffalo-chicken dip or chocolate truffles, I probed the realms of history, dance, and biology, all in pursuit of the ideal cart — one overflowing with theoretical situations and notions both silly and serious."
"I sampled calculus, cross-country running, scientific research, all of which are now household favorites. With cart in hand, I do what scares me; I absorb the warehouse that is the world. Whether it be through attempting aerial yoga, learning how to chart blackbody radiation using astronomical software, or dancing in front of hundreds of people, I am compelled to try any activity that interests me in the slightest," Stinson continued.
Stanford is one of the most exclusive universities in the country, accepting just
4.69 percent of applicants, according to Business Insider. The other Ivy League schools have acceptance rates up to 13.96 percent.
"I'm sort of still in shock," Stinson told the website. "I don't think I've processed everything yet."
While the Costco topic is unusual, it appears to be in line with what Janine Robinson, writing coach and founder of Essay Hell, suggested for students — stop trying to impress and get creative.
"One of the biggest mistakes students make is trying too hard to impress,"
Robinson told USA Today in 2014. "Trust that it is those every day, specific subjects that are much more interesting to read about."
"It's less about the topic and more about how you frame it and what you have to say about it. The better essay has the most interesting thing to say, regardless of a topic that involves a crisis or the mundane," she continued.
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