Rejection by Princeton Made Him Blossom Into Song

Richard Moll was brokenhearted when he was rejected by Princeton University. Now he sings about it.

A former college admissions officer, Moll has written a musical review on the unlikely subject of trying to get into college.

His mini-musical, “Playing the Selective College Admissions Game,” was recently presented to 500 college aspirants and their parents at Beverly Hills High School.

Now a writer and free-lance academic consultant, Moll, 53, has lectured and written extensively about coping with the admissions process and plans to take his musical on the road. His next stop will be Wednesday at Buckley School in Sherman Oaks.

Nobody left the auditorium at Beverly Hills High humming “Take Me,” a rousing number about the nice but not notably gifted student who doesn’t know how to persuade the prestigious college of his choice to choose him.

But the show appeared to be a hit nonetheless.

Moll said his academic musicale is an attempt to relieve some of the anguish most students and their parents experience while they apply to colleges and wait for the results. A former dean of admissions at UC Santa Cruz and Vassar and Bowdoin colleges, Moll said he decided to add original songs to his presentation because he loves to write them and they seem to “lift kids’ spirits and give them confidence.”

“We would beg you to have a few moments of not taking this too seriously,” he advised his audience.

Moll began his show by telling his audience, “I am a Princeton reject.” A graduate of Duke University and Yale Divinity School, he describes his disappointment, still vivid after 35 years, at being rebuffed by Princeton, the only college he applied to.

“My parents and I were stunned when the letter from Princeton was so thin, which means rejection,” he recalled.

“I was so destroyed at the time,” he said. “Now that I’m in the business, I’m glad it happened because now I know what a rejection letter is.”

Princeton sent Moll a form letter with the rejection box checked. As a result, he said, he always took great care to write rejection letters that were as unhurtful as possible.

Whenever his talk threatened to turn tragic or tedious, he pounded out a song. His audience roared at:

I need Stanford or my life is done.

Texas State’s not my idea of fun.

Power, money, self-respect’s at stake.

I need a break. Give me a break.

Moll dedicates his program to mothers, including his own. “We in admissions know that it is the mothers who are applying for college,” he said.

It is important for parents and children to communicate at this time, Moll believes. “Parents feel as judged as young people,” he said.

Moll’s program contained practical advice on how to survive applying, much of it based on his experience in admissions offices.

He advised women in the audience to consider women’s colleges, where, he said, there is often less sexism than on co-ed campuses. He urged students to resist the pressure to go to the most prestigious college if it doesn’t fit their needs. Some of his tips were as basic as: “If you are asking a teacher to write for you, find a teacher who can write.”

He reminded students that, if they choose to go to Bowdoin, which is in Brunswick, Me., they will be there for four cold Februarys as well as for four fine Octobers.

Moll began writing songs in high school, wrote two original musicals at Duke and music and lyrics for political campaigns. “I’ve never written for a candidate that won,” he said, citing George Lodge, who lost a U.S. Senate race to Ted Kennedy despite Moll’s satiric “Are You Ready, Teddy, to Walk Out on the Senate Floor?”

Moll said his hero and role model is Tom Lehrer, the mathematician and songwriter who was his colleague at Santa Cruz.

Moll left his audience with a blessing: “May you all get into everywhere!”