<p>^The most important factor in MIT admissions is “Character/Personal Qualities” ([MIT</a> Office of the Provost, Institutional Research](<a href=“MIT Institutional Research”>MIT Institutional Research)). So, yes, it does place such emphasis on intangible attributes. However, the essay is only considered ,it is neither important nor very important (ibid).
Personally, my essays were not at all humorous. I do sometimes enjoy sneaking a literary reference into an English paper in a jocular manner, but most of what I wrote for MIT was rather elegiac.</p>