Kaavya Viswanathan’s Harvard Entrance Essay

Posted by Bill Hennessy

April 25, 2006

St. Louis, MO–I brushed the dust off my old journalism skills and dug to find this gem.� Elite schools like Harvard demand entrance essays.� (Schools like mine demand enthusiasm and� good command of a cooler.)� � So we’ve discovered Kaavya Viswanathan’s essay that got her into Harvard.� (Kaavya Viswanathan is accused of having plagiarized large portions of her best-selling book which I won’t advertise here.� See BostonConfidential, Crimson , and theFirstPost)

From Kaavya Viswanathan:

� � � If you really want to, like, hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born in New Jersey, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my immigrant parents were occupied before they had me, and all that Holden Caulfield kind of crap.� But I’m going to go into that, if you want to know the truth.� In the first place, that stuff bores me.� In the second place, my parents would have about two hemorhages apiece if I told anything quite personal about them . . .

� � � Actually, my childhood had its good point.� It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times.� It was a time when I was both wise and foolish.� It was a period of belief and of incredulity.� Juxtaposed were darkness and light.
� � �

Kaavya’s Harvard handlers point out that any similarities between her essay and previously published works of literature are purely coincidental.� Having said that, Kaavya’s Harvard application also states that her two favorite books are Catcher in the Rye and A Tale of Two Cities.

I’ll keep digging, but the girl seems pretty smart to me. . .�

UPDATE.� � Gotta love the tone of this fine blog.� And sepia mutiny makes a point I wish I had:

Normally I would be skeptical until I heard more about this, but the Crimson has just broken it down to the point where you know how this is all going to end. Her literary career is over. If I were her I would think about falling back on medical school or something real quick.

I wonder if Little Brown will want its $500,000 advance back.� I hope not, actually.� Though she doesn’t deserve the money, the fools at L-B have proven unworthy as well.