<p>I really don't think essays are that important unless you are "on the edge" with respect to admissions. My essays were far worse than tetra's, and would sound like a 3rd grader's next to christine's. If you've got great stats, I wouldn't even worry about the essays.</p>
<p>I probably shouldn't be posting this because it might give people ideas, but...</p>
<p>My friend, the daughter of two doctors who lives in a mansion in the outskirts of town, wrote about how she grew up in a poor cottage in Poland's countryside. 1300 SAT/3.6 GPA. She lived in Poland for a year, in a nice house, moved to Canada, really nice house, has lived in Alabama for 15 years. She's going to Johns Hopkins next year.</p>
<p>You want to know who didn't get into Johns Hopkins and rightfully so? Me. But then again, I didn't exactly take any of their essays seriously...it was my fun, goof-off application (I wouldn't have gone anyway)...I made a board game based on Machiavelli's concept of fortune with my life on it and wrote about how birth control inspired me to learn...(not as bad as it sounds)</p>
<p>But seriously, birth control did change everything if you look at history...and then I put a disclaimer at the end about how I'm morally against birth control.</p>
<p>Essays matter to some schools, but probably less for Michigan. Do well on them anyway, right?</p>
<p>I would take the essays very seriously. I mean it's the one part of the app you have total control over - no matter what anything else looks like on your app you have the power to make your essays as good as they can be. I'm convinced the main essay was why I got a scholarship at UM. And I'm almost sure they played a big part in why I got in other schools too.</p>
<p>I just don't think it's worth your time trying to write a perfect essay for UM; I'd rather turn in my app a week earlier.</p>
<p>I am a fairly weak essay writer and my UM essay is ridiculously bad because I treated UM as a safety when I applied. My essays for other colleges aren't good either, but I did get into Johns Hopkins BME program and Duke.</p>
<p>I treated Michigan as a...I'm only applying because that's where my dad wants me to go type of school. I think essays really personalize things...and it's kind of like putting all those great statistics and credentials into use. I'm pretty sure my essays were what got me into Chicago, but that's a different type of admissions process altogether.</p>
<p>^
Don't waste your money on that ********.</p>
<p>yeah, just trust your gut and follow through on it.</p>
<p>You can probably find people who will edit for free on CC. Or English teachers. Or college counselors.</p>
<p>Plus, those people will tell you about content versus shortening/grammatical error...which is what really matters, anyway.</p>
<p>Here's a tip: For aspiring future wolverines the essay questions this year are the EXACT same ones as the year before.</p>
<p>I have some really unique ideas, but they really don't include much of the service I have done or any of that generic stuff...does this put me at a competitive disadvantage because now they don't know the true extent of my extracurriculars?</p>
<p>I have a pretty cool essay for my 500 word one. Should I take the safe route on the other two by including EC infos or not?</p>
<p>Include ECs in interesting ways, if possible. Kind of like how tetra did at the end?</p>
<p>My 500 word essay didn't have to do with ECs or anything academic at all, so I put them in my other ones. That should work.</p>
<p>Just finished the diversity essay. Basicaly just talked about how I'm open-minded and willing to accept everyone's ideas, blah, blah, blah. It required less BSing than if I tried to say how I was diverse. </p>
<p>And about including ECs, none of my essays really include any of mine. But, my ECs are pretty weak, so I focused more on the stuff I do that doesn't show up on the EC list.</p>
<p>My other kinda suck now since they deal with my ECs. I mean they are interesting but they don't show what kind of writer I am at all.</p>