<p>I know I will write a good one, and I know I'll put all my effort into it. However, I was just wondering if they are THAT important. I'm trying to apply for NYU, and it says on a few websites that something that they look at closely are the essays.</p>
<p>Yes. essays are extremely important. besides the application/ resume, universities have no way of knowing who you are. essays are the way that you show your personality. if you write an essay that is poorly written and has bad grammar, it can only refelct badly on you and your outlook on life. its going to look like you dont care, and didnt spend any time on it. if i were you, i would spend the most time out of the whole appilcation on the essay.</p>
<p>I'm gonna say it depends on who you ask. I was at the Columbia U information session. The guy there said that you can't make up for 3 years of school with a single piece of paper that was polished to a high shine over a few months. </p>
<p>It doesn't really matter either way. Don't slack off on your essay. Make it as good as possible because you might have someone who thinks that the essay is everything reading it.</p>
<p>It matters, especially if you otherwise do not "come accross" on the application.</p>
<p>since I'm transfering, would I need to make any notes on why I dipped a bit from Freshmen ---> Junior year? I had a huge raise of 3.6 first semester and 3.8 2nd semeseter in my Senior year.</p>
<p>I'm transfering from a Freshmen ---> Sophomore.</p>
<p>It depends on the applicant. Some people are clear admits, so as long as they didn't eff up their essays they'll be good. Borderline applications, on the other hand, will be influenced more heavily by their essays.</p>
<p>i honestly believe that essays were the ones that got me into college.</p>
<p>Since judging essays is highly subjective, it allows Admissions Committees (among other things) to have plenty of leeway (e.g in future litigation) as to how and why they admitted certain affirmative action candidates with low SATs and sometimes even low grades</p>
<p>In other words, even though there is no way to ever know if the essay is the work product of the student - the various Admissions Committees can proclaim essays and recommendations (another very questionable tool) - the ultimate end all and be all as circumstances dictate</p>
<p>Stated another way, essays are becoming increasingly important as colleges need more and more ways to explain why test scores are really meaningless for certain candidates</p>
<p>anyone wanna critique my essays in about 2 weeks or so after my midterms? I'm pretty decent, but with stuff like this, I might need some help to set myself above and beyond, and most importantly unique to other students.</p>
<p>Probably depends on the college/university and how competitive it is. </p>
<p>Have you seen the Amherst admission video (link on this site somewhere) - the admission reps sitting around a table reading application stats like they were a boring grocery list (this one, yet again, perfect GPA, high SAT, same ol' clubs, honors, blah , blah, blah...) so what sets them APART? A killer (and usual) essay, background or special (usual) accomplishment.</p>
<p>I'll be sure to look for it, I'm in the library studying atm</p>
<p>For 99.9% of schools you do not need an estrodinary essay to get in. Generally your stats will put you in the in pile or the reject pile. An essay helps for schools where your stats are on the boarderline and for those super competiive schools where everyone has amazing stats. For your general state school, the essay just gives htem an idea of who they are admitting, and a really bad one will either show you have no interest in the school, or where you admit to doing something bad/illegal in which case they will not admit you. Essays are most important for small schools and schools that are very comeptitive, and least important for schools that admit 50%+ students and are huge (like stae schools).</p>