Awful essays?

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>So, these threads are really fun to read. I'm feeling pretty depressed at the moment. My college counselor/proofreader basically just said my essays are awful and it's too late to fix them because I'd have to totally rewrite them. Lovely! Hmmm...so, this is a depressed "chance me":</p>

<p>4.0 UW GPA
36 composite ACT
2290 SAT-I (reading: 800 math: 780 writing: 710 - essay: 8)
800 SAT-II Math Level II
760 SAT-II Biology-E
Tennis captain (3 years), NHS (2 years), chess captain (3 years), band (forever), student council (1 year)
National merit semi-finalist
4 - AP US History
5 - AP Biology
Multivariable calculus (A-) and infinite series (A-) at University of Oregon
Most rigorous classes taken at my HS (not saying too much, but what can I do?)</p>

<p>Oh, and awful essays. Crap. Not grammatically bad or anything, apparently they're just boring and read like a research paper. Lovely! Just lovely.</p>

<p>So, colleges:
Olin College of Engineering
MIT
Northwestern
Cornell
Oregon State (Honors College)
Harvey Mudd College
Bucknell
Carnegie-Mellon</p>

<p>So, am I going anywhere?? :( how much weight do colleges really put on essays? Aaaaaaaaagh! Can't they just look at scores? hahaha. Well, I got accepted to Colorado School of Mines (ultra-safety) already so I guess it's not going to be the community college...</p>

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<p>With Bad essays (he/she could be wrong) MIT is out and so is Northwestern and Cornell ... but most of the others should be obtainable maybe not CMU.</p>

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<p>hmmm, thanks:-&lt;/p>

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<p>But I'd be willing to put money on Bucknell.</p>

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<p>Haha:) That's reassuring. Bucknell seems like a good school. and, they probably don't get TOO many 36 ACT applicants, so maybe they'll forgive a less-than-personal essay.</p>

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<p>Gender and ethnicity?</p>

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<p>Oh pshhh, your stats are excellent. And don't trust one person's opinion on your essays; that stuff is all subjective. And YOU wrote the essays, so you must think that they do a good job of representing you as a person and what not, right? I'm sure they're fine!</p>

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<p>@ Gaffe: White male! Haha, why couldn't I be an illegal immigrant?</p>

<p>Ahhhh...thanks Poseur! That's what I needed to hear. But, I couldn't really say it to myself, it doesn't work like that:)</p>

<p>Most of them are probably pretty high reaches but maybe I'll get into one or two good ones.</p>

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<p>It's a standard question I ask if the poster does not provide them.
Plus, it makes a difference if you are an underrepresented minority (not in your case).</p>

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<p>I don't think too highly of your counselor telling you that you have awful essays and then not even offering to help you with them.</p>

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<p>I think some people are being a little too harsh. Those are amazing scores and grades, and you should get into a lot of great schools, with NU and Cornell not out of the picture. MIT is always a reach. But I don't think a school like NU would reject you because of an average essay. Just do your best, essays do not usually ruin an application, there are tons of other factors.</p>

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<h2>best, essays do not usually ruin an application</h2>

<p>umm...WRONG</p>

<p>an excellent essay can get a person with less-than-mediocre scores into top-tier colleges</p>

<p>a horrible essay can get a person with perfect scores rejected from top-tier colleges</p>

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<p>Well, I wouldn't call it horrible. The grammar's perfect, no spelling mistakes, sentence fragments, etc. Just impersonal and boring, at the worst.</p>

<p>I was tempted to write it in Leet after hearing how boring it was <em>laughs</em> THAT would have gotten me rejected.</p>

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<p>impersonal is the worst thing that can occur to a college essay</p>

<p>since the whole point is to get to KNOW YOU</p>

<p>but i wouldnt necessarily believe your counselor 100%</p>

<p>any couselor who shootsdown an essay like that without any offering to help is a bad counselor
just hopeth adcoms like it, thats all i can say</p>