Did anyone get a handwritten card in the mail from a school they applied to saying that they enjoyed reading your essay?
My daughter applied EA to a Willamette University in Oregon & they quoted her essay in the acceptance letter. Not a highly select school but they liked her story about why she decided to study foreign languages (Japanese/Arabic/Spanish.) The real question is whether her love of Japan (she’s not Asian) will be interesting to the more select schools! Two years ago, my son applied to a highly select school where he was deferred and then rejected. That school emailed him an apologetic rejection letter (not boiler plate) commending him for life long struggle with Leukemia but nevertheless, they couldn’t admit him. So somebody DOES read these essays!!