In Defense of Mediocrity
17th February 2018
Theodore Dalrymple peeks behind the curtain.
The son of a friend of mine applied for a place at medical school and was turned down on the grounds that his personal statement was inadequate. I don’t know what was wrong with it; perhaps he employed incorrect old clichés rather than the correct new ones. Having the means to do so, my friend sent his son to a tutor who specialized in personal statements (every bureaucratic requirement is an economic opportunity for an ex-bureaucrat wanting to strike out for himself). No doubt the tutor in personal statements advised him to put in more about his passion for social justice and equality. At any rate, it worked and he was accepted.
February 17th, 2018 at 07:25
Only the mediocre are always at their best
~ Jean Giraudoux (attributed)
February 17th, 2018 at 08:20
And sometimes not even that.