The American Spectator

Among the Intellectualoids

''There was more shaping to this book than we generally do," said Asya Muchnick, senior editor at Little, Brown. -- Boston Globe

Viswanathan is the 19-year-old who got a $500,000 book contract and a DreamWorks movie deal, and has since admitted appropriating numerous passages from another writer's teen angst novels for her own, "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life." -- Washington Post

p> September 4, 2003, 10:03 a.m. br> Dear Kaavya, /p>

This is Katherine over at IvyWise. I'm looking forward to working with you to make sure you can get into Harvard. I thought that your first sentence on your application was great. Remember, do not write more than one sentence at a time without passing it along to us so we can make sure it projects the right sense of who you are based on the automated personality inventory you took on our website. Please see to it that you give me a call when you finish going over this with your parents, so we can go forward.

Why do you want to go to Harvard?

I want to go to Harvard because I feel that Harvard's writing program is very strong, as well as its overall curriculum.

This is a great start! But let's see what we can do to make your first sentence really stand out. Also, personal conflict really gets these admissions officers excited. Let's see what we can add:

As I have come to understand Harvard's mission, I've also come to understand myself. My identity is split down the center, caught as I am along an ethnic divide; Am I an Indian or an American? For me, dealing with the stereotypes of what it is to be an Indian have helped me develop a sense of social justice, to know what I can do to change people's prejudices.

p>Let me know what you think! br> --Katherine /p> p>