I would think most AO’s have their decision made up after reviewing the “meat” of the application, the GPA, class rigor, SAT/ACT, awards, and EC’s. Are the personal statement and supplemental essays going to put a “no” in the “yes” pile or a “yes” in the “no” pile - or are they just tie-breakers when the AO is on the fence?
At many places, the personal statement and supplemental essays are part of the meat of the application.
Do them well.
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When I was still doing alumni interviews, the admission officer who headed up the program told a story about a student who was denied admission because of a super obnoxious essay. Student was otherwise academically qualified and a legacy to boot. This ad com actually took the call from the irate parent, which he said he never did, and read him the kid’s essay. Parent apologized for wasting the ad com’s time.
So yes, an essay can tank your application.
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A really bad essay can tank your application, and a really good essay can give you an extra push. Most essays, though really well written many times, seem to be in the middle of the bell curve.
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Apologies in advance for the long response, but I think this is pretty important.
So one of the things we learned from the Harvard litigation is there were basically three co-equal components to holistic review for unhooked applicants: academics; activities (including not-recruited athletics); and the personal/fit factor.
I describe them as co-equal because basically as an unhooked applicant, you needed at least a very good score in all three areas to have a good chance of admission, and in fact it was pretty rare for someone unhooked to get such a good score in one area they would only need generally positive scores in the other areas.
As an aside, this was different for hooked applicants. Like, recruited athletes got an exclusive top score (a 1 on their 6-point scale) for Athletics, and that really did loosen the other requirements. But otherwise, 1s on Academics, Activities, or Personal were incredibly rare, and even then a 1 was not a guarantee of acceptance. So the vast majority of unhooked admits were some variation of a 2/2/2 sort of applicant, meaning they got a very good but not top score in all three major areas.
OK, so essays. Essays were one of the critical inputs into the personal factor, along with recommendations, some components of activities (like leadership positions), and interviews (although interviews were usually so positive they made little difference in practice).
And my point is that made them really as important as anything. Because even if you had very good academics and very good activities by Harvard’s high standards, if you only got a generally positive personal rating, and were unhooked, you probably would not get admitted.
In fact, in that era, Harvard was admitting around 4% of unhooked applicants, and yet around 16% of them had the combination of very strong academic and very strong activities ratings they needed for admission. So how did they get that down to 4%? Well, only about 25% of those applicants got a 2 for personal (very strong), and the other 75% got a 3 (generally positive). Virtually no one got a 1, or worse than a 3. And then the vast majority of the unhooked admits got that personal 2.
OK, so this was all kinda a big surprise to people who had really bought into what is known sometimes as spike theory. People had seen such a low acceptance rate among high numbers/good activities kids at colleges like Harvard, and a popular explanation was that these kids must all have done something really special in terms of academics/activities that made them stand out.
And it turns out, that was true of maybe like 10% of Harvard’s unhooked admits.
The rest had just been normally excellent at normal stuff for normal outstanding high school students–and then had also gotten that near-necessary 2 score for Personal.
Of course this was just Harvard, but I think there is an important lesson here about holistic review in general. There are a lot of kids online who are killing themselves to figure out how to get some sort of academic or activities edge to beat out other similar kids. And I suspect at many more colleges than Harvard, it is very hard to actually do that.
But meanwhile, far fewer kids in these online circles are taking things like being a really great person, finding colleges which are a really great fit, and so on as seriously as those academic/activity competitions. And yet, that is very likely the easiest path to really good college admissions.
But I note that understanding is implicit in like everything that happens at the sorts of high schools that feed a lot of kids to the most selective colleges, even when they are merely normal very good students. I know, because we use such a high school, and there is so much devoted to giving kids opportunities to be social, to be team members, to grow into meaningful leadership roles, to get to know their teachers well, and on and on. All that is good for their personal development, but it also is preparing them for holistic review at places like Harvard.
And then the dedicated college counselors work with each kid to carefully identify which exact colleges are the best fit for them. And they don’t apply everywhere, they apply to the best fits.
And so by the time they are writing essays and such, they don’t have to try to fake being what these colleges want in a person who would fit their college. They actually are such people, and can just work with our counselors and other essay consultants to reveal in a compelling way who they truly are. Because they are leaders, they are caring people, they are interesting people, they are quick to get involved in school activities, and so on. And they can put all that in an essay quite easily with a little help.
And so these kids are taking the personal/fit part of holistic review just as seriously as everything else, and it is demonstrably working.
And I am pointing this all out because not only are the kids who don’t know about all this missing an important part of how to maximize chances in college admissions, they are sometimes severely neglecting their own personal development in various ways. And that is very sad to me, because it is sacrificing their personal development in a way that is actually counter-productive.
Anyway, that’s a very big issue, beyond what you asked. But it puts essays into context, and explains why they might matter quite a bit more than some people seem to realize.
But not because it is yet another academic contest. Because it is an opportunity for you to show these colleges what a great person you are, and why they should really want to have you as part of their college community even aside from how you will do in your classes.
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This! I am emphasizing this very point to my son right now. He can’t do anything to improve his academics/scores - they are already outstanding and competitive anywhere, his ECs are solid enough - what he needs is a strong personal rating wherever he applies (he isn’t looking at HYPSM but the same rationale should apply at any selective school).
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Interesting question. If they use the common app to review, the essay would be next to last, after grades, activities, supps, etc. I guess Recs are last. ?
OP you didn’t even mention letters of recommendation. At all. That’s a mistake.
Oh and yes, essays matter a lot.
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And in fact, this is pretty much what I have seen every AO at a holistic review college say, and it is typically reflected on their admissions websites too, their answers on the CDS, and so on.
To be sure, some will imply, or simply say, that grades/rigor are the most important thing. And I think what they are trying to communicate is if you don’t meet their normal academic standards, it is very hard to get admitted.
But once you do meet that standard–whatever it is for that college–then it becomes a question of how ELSE you will fit into their college community. And so they all tend to really care about this sort of thing, assuming of course you are in fact academically well-qualified.
To me, the puzzle is why some people online seem so insistent that these AOs and admissions pages and CDS answers and such must be wrong, that in fact there is a secret formula to admissions in terms of number of APs or the right academic competitions or internships or publications or something, and they just aren’t telling us the formula.
And I do think it is basically an issue where they just can’t believe these colleges can have a, “OK, you seem good enough on academics and such, now what else will you be like in college?,” attitude. But of course they do, they value all that other stuff that is part of the college experience, and they want to know you will benefit from that, and contribute back to it.
And I think the other thing is maybe people just don’t realize how rare this gets when you combine a bunch of different things. Like, being in the top 30% of Harvard’s unhooked applications academically, top 30% in terms of activities/athletics, and top 25% in terms of personal, gets you down to 2.25%–about what their unhooked admit rate probably is.
So that kid who is a top student in the hard courses (maybe with a high SAT/ACT), and also the (non-recruited) captain of her lacrosse team, and also really kind and always looking to help out her fellow students? That kid is actually much rarer than people seem to realize.
And that is only one variation, but those “triple-threat” kids really are not dime-a-dozen.
Anyway, again you are right–at a certain point the grades, tests, activities, and such are what they are. But the whole personal/fit side of things, and just making a point of being able to show and not just tell what you are really like, seems like a neglected opportunity sometimes. And yet I really believe most of these kids could do really well in that area, they just need to know it is important to do it.
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Essays can separate you from the pack.
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We’ve attended numerous college admissions sessions. One thing that was emphasized to us is that you don’t know what order an AO will read your application.
I think many applicants assume that schools will review stats, then personal statement, and finish with supplementals, because that is the order that students complete the application. However, an AO might read the supplementals to get a feel of who you are and why you want to attend, before looking at course load/rigor, before looking at grades. Or, they might review academics, then supplementals and finish with the personal statement. Or a whole host of different scenarios.
Their point was that your supplementals should be able to stand on their own and not be a follow up to your personal statement
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The order in which the various app components are reviewed varies by college. Many colleges use Slate to read apps.
To answer OP’s question about how important essays are…that also depends on the college. Definitely more important for selective/highly selective schools. But big picture, many colleges don’t care about the essays.
To use the framework above, what I would suggest is that with many colleges, when you are comfortably well-qualified academically, they are likely (in some cases actually required) to admit you absent perhaps something really bad standing out. So for these colleges, even if they are nominally holistic, for high enough numbers kids, just having generally positive non-academic factors is fine, and again almost everyone who applies meets that standard.
This of course includes the vast bulk of selective but not very/highly selective colleges–they are selective in the sense not everyone who shows up is admitted, and they specifically are unlikely to admit unhooked applicants below their normal academic standards. But then not many people who are not within their normal academic standards bothers to apply, and they end up with a pretty high admit rate.
And that all works fine for both the colleges in question and the kids, and that is really the way the vast bulk of selective college admissions works in the US. And for that matter, how undergrad admissions works at most unis outside the US too.
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To clarify, I was talking about non-selective colleges (the sentence you quoted followed the one that said essays are more important at selective/highly selective colleges). The majority of non-selective colleges (defined as >50% acceptance rate) don’t care about essays. And most US colleges are non-selective… as they accept most applicants.
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Also, many schools hire seasonal workers to read & rate college essays.
I believe the essay is what helped both my kids get accepted to their #1 schools. They are great writers - it was a huge focus when they were homeschooled prior to middle school (IEW program - so good!!).
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Seasonal workers doesn’t mean that they are not experienced. Seasonal just means that they only work during the application review process.
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Some schools place ads for readers and do not require experience.
I can’t answer for every college, but I know at some selective colleges with a high volume of applications, there is a dual reader process where the less experienced readers take a first cut, but they are then supervised by more experienced readers who, among other things, make sure the college’s normal standards are being followed. And then all that will go before an admissions committee, which isn’t necessarily going to read everything, but if the essay is being used as a decision point, it will likely get discussed.
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If you look at C7 on a school’s Common Data Set, you can see how much emphasis they put on the application essays. Talent/ability, character/personal qualities, volunteer work, work experience, level of interest can be gleaned from personal statement and supplemental essays as well.
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