<p>"...a growing number of colleges of all types are putting more emphasis on students' essays and the difficulty of applicants' high school classes." 'Guess essays weren't all that important before.</p>
<p>8</a> Big Changes to College Admissions in 2010 and 2011 - US News and World Report</p>
<p>Based on the data given, it’s incorrect to say that “essays weren’t all that important before”. You can only conclusively say that they are more important now.</p>
<p>I was wondering if “ability to pay full tuition/no need for financial aid” would come into this article. Guess not and its not likely colleges want to admit they are using ability to pay as part of the admissions process. But I think that was also part of the change in admissions within the past 2 years.</p>
<p>@R3d3mpti0n, that was Dave’s joke…</p>
<p>Essays IMHO are a very poor indicator of a student’s ability to suceed in college. Rather than relying on essays, I’d advise elite colleges to put a much greater emphasis on interviews, which should follow the British (specifically Oxbridge) model, i.e. interviews should be conducted by faculty members and be of a technical nature, including aptitude tests, to assess the applicant’s preparation for his/her intended major. The difficulty to do that in the US system are two-fold:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Unlike in the UK, professors are not directly involved in undergraduate admissions in the US, which are “outsourced” to administrative staff and alumni who normally are not academics themselves.</p></li>
<li><p>Because of the generalist nature of US undergraduate education, most students apply to college as undeclared majors, which makes it difficult to have Oxbridge-like interviews that are heavily subject-specific.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I too believe in emphasizing the interview aspect of admissions, as that really gives the real impression of a student. Not some over-edited essay written for the student by a horribly expensive admissions adviser.</p>
<p>I also have to agree. I think many essays are more a measure of how good the people that reviewed it. Interviews would be a good way to eliminate that. I also find it troubling to think that an essay or two should count for much as compared to your 4 years of schoolwork/ ec’s and even SAT/ACT which although not perfect at least subjective</p>
<p>@Drelnis, I was making one too.</p>
<p>Based on the article, 15 admissions officers are handling 30,000 apps at SUNY Binghamton; is this trying to imply that each of them are reading 2,000 essays???</p>
<p>no way…</p>
<p>While essays MAY be more important for the “cream of the crop” schools, I cannot believe that the enormous applicant pools in many publics (and some privates) are allowing essays to have any factor at all in the process…</p>
<p>The problem with articles like the one referenced is that it is impossible to generalize across the admissions spectrum. </p>
<p>Consider what admission to a flagship state U like Wisconsin has with admissions to Williams? Yes, they both have applications, essays and such. But the number of applicants, the approach, admissions staffing etc vary hugely. Some places use numerical scores. Some don’t. Some have rolling admissions. Many don’t. </p>
<p>Then there’s the credibility problem that adcoms have regarding how they really make decisions. Much has been written about the difference between what they say they do, and what they do in practice, at least at elite universities. (State U are often forced by the state legislatures to be much more transparent). See Karabel’s book “The Chosen” and “The Early Admissions Game” for well documented discussions, based on actual data, not adcom interviews, regarding what really goes on.</p>
<p>Bottom line is that an applicant can’t assume anything regarding how a decision will be made. You must assume every part of the application could be pivotal.</p>
<p>A side note: All too many posts on these boards seem to be trying to figure out the “secret formula” behind the process, almost like finding hints for a computer game. While the admissions process does have game like aspects to some people (although more of us view it as a lottery…), IMHO it is a wasted effort to view the process as a game. Why? The rules are secret, as they should be, and no doubt flexible and changing. How can you game that? Be yourself, not a game figure. </p>
<p>It’s much like the “typical” american family with 2.1 kids. Find me that family.</p>
<p>I call BS on Pitzer’s assertion that half of its applicants have perfect or near perfect scores.</p>
<p>Honestly in many large schools like Binghamton… If your essay is what will get you in then the chances of it even having that effect are very sick.
Imagine this: You wake up early after getting plenty of sleep. You watch the daily show, read the paper and grab some coffee and even have time to eat a REAL breakfast. Your favorite talk radio show is having a discussion on your favorite topic. You walk into your office and pick up an essay and love it because you can relate!!</p>
<p>Now imagine this:
You have read 200 essays today, are out of coffee, your email is broken, your daughter is sick at school… Now this one last essay seems interesting but the block isn’t moving any slower…</p>
<p>UMichigan can’t put the same effort that Pomona can into essay reading. Honest truth. That is why the effects of essays vary per school and in general aren’t very high.</p>
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<p>One problem I have with this statement is the assumption that the essay is used as an indicator of the student’s ability to succeed. I don’t think that is the purpose of the essay at all. The hard data such as test scores, grades, rigor of HS curriculum, class rank, etc. are a basis of “ability to succeed” at X college. But the selection of the class is NOT simply who on the application pile can succeed there. In fact, at very selective colleges, they have WAY WAY more applicants who have the “ability” to succeed than they can accept. The essays are ONE piece that show OTHER things than ability to succeed. The essays are a look into knowing the applicant as a person. The colleges are not just accepting numbers but want people. Highly selective colleges want all types of people and further, ones that seem interesting or have certain qualities that will add to the make up of the student body. Add in extracurriculars and such. </p>
<p>I do agree that interviews are another way to get to know the applicant. I am an alum interviewer at a very selective college, but that college still has essays and even allows for video submissions as well to show the adcoms something about the applicant, so that all these pieces together give a full picture of the person, beyond their “stats.” However, for some schools, it is not feasible to interview the huge number of applicants. The only way to truly do that is like my alma mater does through alumni interviews in all states and many countries. So, the essays are one way to reach every applicant and also are read by adcoms and not alumni.</p>
<p>By the way, many applications have a “Why X College?” prompt where the student hopefully demonstrates why the school is a good fit for that student and vice versa. This is often in an interview question and so doing it via writing is just another way to ascertain that factor.</p>
<p>It has aways troubled me that essays are given such high importance. It’s by far the easiest part of the application to have ‘outsourced’. </p>
<p>Cheating on the SAT, while rampant in my country is not easy and is risky.
Cheating your 4 year HS record is next to impossible.
Cheating recos, I have to admit, from what I have heard is pretty easy - but I am guessing it will be easy to call bluff on that, and like the article said, it will most likely be generic.</p>
<p>Still… I don’t think the essay system can be that flawed. It just struck me, that if essays and ECs were ported from student X to Y (with different personalities), then it might not make sense in the context of the counselor and teacher recos… </p>
<p>and btw, while I think interviews are a good option, it is not exactly ‘fair’. For example, the first two interviews I gave were to my dreams… now, I’ve given more interviews since then and I can confidently say I would have fared much better in those first two interviews if I gave it now. The problem is that interviewing is a skill… and I guess with essays, there’s a lot of help out there to make the playing field even.</p>
<p>I can see the merit of essays from a fit point of view. Im not sure how much you will get to know someone based on an essay though as they are frequently edited by so many people. If they really want to get to know the applicant I think interviews are the only real way.</p>
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<p>It is true that interviewing is a skill that one gets better at with more practice. However, writing essays is also a skill and that playing field is not even. As someone who advises applicants to college, I see a WIDE WIDE range in writing ability when viewing applicants’ essays. It is a skill and it varies a great deal between applicants, no less so than the skill in interviewing (I also interview applicants) which also varies a great deal between applicants. </p>
<p>You mention help with essays, but not every kid gets help with it. And even for those who do get help with it, unless the “helper” were to write the essay (unethical), the finished product for a student with excellent writing skills is still going to differ from the finished product for a student with mediocre writing skills. In any case, many students receive no guidance with their college essays. </p>
<p>For interviews, one can be coached and one can practice before the real thing too. I also would recommend not scheduling the interviews for your favorite schools first, so that you can get the experience under your belt before the most important interviews. I also advise applicants who audition to get into college and auditioning is a skill in itself (besides the requisite talent involved) and it is advisable to not audition at one’s favorite school first. I have a kid of my own who auditioned to get into 8 colleges and her results were positive for the final 6 of the 8 auditions.</p>
<p>Well, my son writes good essays, and his home-school curriculum has been very rigorous indeed, so I guess I actually welcome this news from U.S. News. :)</p>
<p>I understand there are online services out there that will actually write the essays for the kids. I assume colleges must have some way to red-flag these bogus essays? (Like, maybe they just <em>sound</em> canned??)</p>
<p>Application essays can be compared to ACT/SAT writing to check for the student’s “voice of a 17-18 year old”. While I doubt that this is done with the vast number of applications the schools receive, it is certainly an option for Admissions.</p>
<p>BTW–I think it’s important to make <em>suggestions</em> to kids WRT their essays – e.g., alert them to dangling modifiers, incorrect tenses, and faulty word usage; or even suggest a stronger “hook” for the opening paragraph or whatever. But I think actual <em>editing</em> should be very, very light. You don’t want to impose your voice on the kid’s. </p>
<p>I have to watch that, myself, because my son tends to use big words where smaller ones would do. I, on the other hand, as a 30-year veteran of the advertising business, incline more toward short words and brief sentences. But, if I impose my style and voice on my son’s essays, then they’ll no longer sound like <em>him.</em> And I think that’s wrong. I don’t want to let egregious errors slide by, but, in general, I do feel that it’s best to back off and let him say things <em>his</em> way, even if it’s not the way I would.</p>
<p>I’ve heard the most basic human urge is the urge to edit other people’s copy, LOL. But parents and teachers need to back off as much as they can, methinks, and let the kid develop his own voice.</p>
<p>OK, this is not directly related to the OT, but I thought I’d mention it, because it’s something I’ve been dealing with lately.</p>