The invitation to applicants to reveal themselves allows Princeton to choose the ones it actually wants and get rid of the others whose grades might be high enough and whose test scores might qualify them for admission but who “wouldn’t fit in” at Princeton. “This may be the most difficult part of the application,” the application warned, before feeding applicants more of the doublespeak that more provincial or trusting applicants might be lured into taking to heart. “We do not ask a specific question or present a topic for this essay because the subject you choose tells us almost as much about you as the way you discuss it. We encourage you to choose your own topic and write about it in a way consistent with both the topic and your personality.” Hogue rose to the challenge with brio. “My advice to runaways, drop-outs, and gypsies in general can be found on the attached pages,” he wrote. What followed was a personal statement that was as honest as anything that Hogue ever said or wrote, and that told the Princeton admissions office everything they needed to know about their applicant.
