<p>I don’t think I ever eliminated a school because of heavy essay requirements, but I certainly kept or added a few because of light essay requirements. I was always lukewarm on WUSTL but kept it because it didn’t have any supplemental essays (although I later got rid of it after I got into my EA school, UChicago), and I added Harvard because I could essentially copy and paste the Yale essay I’d already written into the Harvard supplement. I figured the only thing I’d lose was the application fee.</p>
<p>I adored the UChicago supplement, though. Everything about it - the quirky questions, the absence of “hard” word limits, and emphasis on creativity and originality - suited my personality perfectly, and the supplement was one of the only ones I truly enjoyed writing. I think that the extended essay I wrote for that supplement is the best application essay I’ve written through the entire process.</p>
<p>I’m glad UChicago has such unusual essay prompts, because it made me even more enthusiastic about the school and maybe kept a few people who were lukewarm about it away - just like how I never would’ve seriously considered applying to WUSTL if it had had a significant supplement.</p>
<p>I dropped U of Maryland because of it’s crazy essays and <em>really</em> annoying questions that you have to respond to in 160 characters or less.</p>
<p>As many have said, UChicago was fun to apply to despite the fact that its requirements were more extensive. I thought the number of longer essays required by Stanford was overkill. I applied anyway.</p>
<p>I think it’s appropriate for schools to add more prompts to their applications. For one, they learn more about your creativity and depth of character, and for another, they easily wean out indifference; during my visit to Columbia the admissions department was very clear: “If you’re unsure whether this is for you, don’t waste your time or our time.” Personally that appealed to me more than the philosophy of “if you know, apply, if you don’t know, apply,” because I felt more like a student and less like a stepping stone to a higher U.S. News and World Report ranking. So no, I wasn’t daunted by more writing.</p>
<p>Our D’s problem was not with the Wake app but rather with Wake’s on-line interview. There was this ticking countdown clock and you had “x” amount of minutes to answer questions like “Who was the worst villain in literature and why?” (or something to that effect) That was the easy question if I recall. If you didn’t finish, too bad; it went on to the next question. Because I type really fast, I was assigned the role of typing while she dictated over my shoulder. After it was over (15-20 minutes maybe ?) I was perspiring. :eek: Our family agreed a personal interview with an alum is SO much easier! She was accepted to Wake but opted not to attend.</p>
<p>One of my children dropped Bennington College after visiting and liking it very much.
The essays were not something that endeared this particular to child to applying to Bennington, so it was dropped.</p>
<p>My S ended up doing specific essays for each school (although I think he could have used/recycled some of the same ones!) and while it was terribly time consuming, he didn’t complain too much. He indeed dropped two schools (from 10 to 8) because it just simply didn’t ring his bell to apply to two more “ridiculously hard to get into” schools that he didn’t feel strongly enough about. From my observation, here’s a summary:
UChic, Tufts, Brandeis, Macalester: Quirky prompts were fun and very creative. Probably the “Why ___” were the weakest essays!
American, Union: Seemed much more realistic and practical to complete without losing your marbles to get it done. Separate app for scholarship at American, however.
Georgetown & UWashington: completely separate applications and Georgetown required an extra something across the board (one more rec, two more SATs, no common app, etc.). UW has become a powerhouse and is surprisingly demanding (on their application). Who woulda thought???</p>
<p>He dropped Haverford and Carleton – when it came down to it, he lost interest in both schools. Both are terrific, but he lost his mojo for them. (I can’t really explain why!)</p>
<p>Also, he loves ALL the schools he’s applying to. As he said, “I’d like to go to and can picture myself at any of these schools, Mom.” Couldchya ask for anything more? We’re hoping he’ll have a number of choices in April…</p>
<p>Last year our son ended up dropping Wake Forest due to the multiple essays. He had been on the fence but their app took care of that. He applied to 10 schools with 9 common app and 1 non-common app. He ended up at the non-common app school with different essays, SAT II’s, and recs - Georgetown.</p>
<p>I didn’t really drop any colleges because of essay length, but I definitely did consider it. I looked at a ton of supplements unsure on whether or not I wanted to apply and essay length persuaded me not to apply to Stanford, uChicago, Duke, Vanderbilt, and Amherst. It’s not that I disliked the essays, I just wasn’t interested enough in the schools to do them. Actually, I think I dropped Swarthmore because of the “Why Swarthmore?” essay. That wasn’t the only reason, though. It was too small for me.</p>
<p>I did pick some colleges because of short essay length. I was always planning on applying to Harvard but I picked it SCEA over Yale and Princeton because of the whole “no essay” thing. I also picked up a couple of liberal arts colleges because of essay length (Wes and Midd) and a state school. I’m happy about that because I really like those colleges now.</p>
<p>Wake Forest. I interviewed at Wake very early in the application game, and really disliked the campus/vibe. Then, afterwards, I was sitting in front of a blank MS Word document trying to address all these annoying essay prompts (seven of them!!) and just realized that I didn’t want to put so much effort into a school I didn’t even like.</p>
<p>I love the weird prompts. After a mind numbing amount of ‘tell about a time you failed’, ‘who has inspired you’, and other such generic and uninteresting questions I was excited to see the creative prompts of UChicago and some other schools. Finally essays I actually wanted to write! Those were the ones I had the most fun with and felt most comfortable writing. I feel like the really revealed a lot about me, were honest, and relatively easy to write. I didn’t have to feel like I was trying too hard to sound good on something I didn’t care about.</p>
<p>I did not apply to Elon. I was already not positive about it and knew I had to cut some colleges from my list so when I saw the essays I decided that was a good time to drop it.<br>
On the contrary I applied to Columbi College Chicago simply because there were no essays and I had heard good things about it. Turns out I really love it, and it was nice to have full acceptance at a college I like before heading off to grueling auditions/interviews.</p>
<p>My son crossed Stanford off his list. He attended one of their on-the-road presentations that came to our city last year. What he heard was that he had a 7% chance of being accepted. Then he read the brochure they handed out and saw that more than half of Stanford undergraduates are “students of color” (he’s not) and of course half are female. It was at that point he decided the odds were over-whelming and the essays were way too much trouble given those odds. </p>
<p>He’s also leaving out the school with the last application deadline. He’s sick of essays and just can’t bring himself to write about what human right is the most significant to him and how will his education contribute to knowledge of and engagement with this human right.</p>
<p>MANY years ago, my DH dumped the Cornell app because of essays…He was going to be a STEM major and writing essays was like pulling teeth.</p>
<p>Our student (now a college freshman) NEVER considered removing college apps because of essays…thought it was a natural normal process. Is a non drama kid … and does whatever work is expected. Kiddo would be perhaps amused and maybe appalled that dad did that…</p>
My D liked the weird prompts, too. When one of them asked her what she’d carve from a block of stone, she wrote that she’d carve a smaller block of stone.</p>
<p>I agree. As a Senior next year, I plan on doing my Chicago essay first. I feel like if I become slowly acclimated to the banal essay prompts many schools ask applicants to address, the direction of my Chicago essay will stray on an unoriginal path, too; ultimately, the essays may not be intellectually or literally what I like it to be. Chicago essays will also stretch my mind and may result in some amazing ideas that can then be applied to the other, more standard prompts. It really works both ways, and if anything, Chicago helps students break out of a process in which they often grow too accustomed to - especially if they’re applying to 15+ colleges (lucky for me, school caps apps at 10).</p>
<p>I hate to break it to you, but this demographic breakdown is representative of most T20 schools, though if this were to any applicant’s advantage, it would be to your son’s. He is of the majority race at Stanford, and only a combination of every other race on campus equates to the presence of white people. Race doesn’t play as big of a role as many would like to believe, and even if it did, your son would, ceteris paribus, have the greatest statistical shot for any given race and gender combination than any other applicant. I fail to see how such a reality is off-putting, but to each his own.</p>
<p>Dropped UPenn. I couldn’t answer the essay honestly because I didn’t know if I could see myself studying at Penn anyway. Besides, I heard that Penn basically wants you to find a professor there that you would want to study with and talk about him/her. I feel that I would not be honestly representing my interests if I were to do that.</p>
<p>Gratisfaction (Re: post 117) – the question from the OP was “Did you scratch any colleges off your list once you’d looked at the required essays and said to yourself, “I don’t want to have to deal with that!”? </p>
<p>So, in answer to that question…. my son thought the supplemental essays for Stanford were something he didn’t want to deal with given the odds of getting in, even if in your opinion it shouldn’t be “off-putting”. He knew he was in the majority for both race and gender. He also knew he was missing relevant information, like how many of the 34k applicants were white males; the group he would be in competition with. But regardless, there are only about 600 spots he had a chance at and that was all the information he needed to decide he didn’t want to spend his time writing those three supplemental essays. Race wasn’t the issue. I don’t have a problem with Stanford seeking a diverse student body and neither does my son. He just didn’t feel like playing the lottery with his time when he had other schools he liked just as well or better.</p>
<p>And if you really are a high school junior…… Even though I chose to study Latin in high school, your use of ceteris paribus was, in your words, off-putting to me. Something you might want to consider next year when you’re answering “banal essay prompts” (your post #116) is that some adults will view that style of writing as pompous, not intellectual.</p>
<p>About 20 years ago I decided not to apply to William and Mary because of the essays involved. I just remember having no idea what to write. I really liked the idea of the school, having visited it early in HS. I pretty much dumped any app that needed more than a short answer essay, or the one or two I had written and ready to go. Essays were much tougher then…no computers to tweak and print another copy, each one had to be typed on a typewriter or done longhand. Maybe that was why I opted out after doing some…times sure have changed, you kids don’t know how easy you have it!</p>
<p>My daughter decided not to apply to Chicago in part b/c of its essay. She was too worn out to be bothered writing about their topics. She got in early action to her first choice, Georgetown, which required down to earth essays, and she did not take Subject tests either. I think good students are losing interest in schools that make applicants jump through hoops to get in.</p>