<p>Yes, essays played a big part in my application process. From the start my parents had made clear that they would foot the bill for just three application fees. They would be fine, and even encourage tthat I apply to other schools as well, as long as I was footing the bill.
Cheapskate that I am, I was happy to adhere to the 3 app limit.
First app I used up on U of Washington. Like an earlier poster mentioned, that institution does seem to be on the rise, and their application reflected it( not a common app, 2 and a “half” for the regular, with an additional 2 for honors)</p>
<p>Come the January first deadline shared by most schools, I was in Amsterdam, frantically trying to use the 8 hour time difference to my advantage. I had been torn twixt Bowdoin and Middlebury for the longest time. End the end, it was Middlebury’s complete lack of an additional essay that one me over. Had it been not for that, that decision may have easily teetered the other way.
Ahh, Yale. despite the highly personalized aspect of it and the desperate time crunch, I quite enjoyed it. The why yale, I thought was hackneyed, seemed kinda how they create fodder for their brochures and booklets. I used teh essay I had written for U of Washington as my common app, and set to work on the short answers.
I remember waking up in the morning and thinking, my god, I’ve been in Amsterdam far too long and answered these way too honestly. I had reached that point where teh filter system in the brain deactivates from lack of sleep. As best as I can remember:
What else do you think Yale should ask its applicants- What Hogwarts House do you think you’d sort into, and why?
What do you plan on doing tomorrow in your free time- There is this extraordinary cheese shop that I really want to try
What do you wish you were better at- I wish i was less tounge tied when talking to boys I fancy.
What is one complement of which you are particularly proud?- At bootcamp My Drill Sargent once told me that I "stuck out more than a boner in sweatpants’ Undoubtedly crude, but coming from my Drill it meant a lot.</p>
<p>Looking back, I may have been a little too pert and honest in my replies. But I had a memorable time doing so, at the least.</p>
<p>This original post implies that the tipping point was the race breakdown. </p>
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<p>I understand that now, after you explained in more detail, and I apologize for posting what seemed to me like a reasonable response to a post in a public forum. I was trying to bring light to the fact this problem isn’t exclusive to Stanford, as many people come to these forums for advice. Clearly, you know that, but as is the nature of all things on public sites, other people may read my post and it may help clear up any misconceptions about race in college admissions, as your original post was not very clear. </p>
<p>“Ceteris paribus” has become a loanword in the English language and means “all other things being equal”, just as it does in Latin. I’ve never studied Latin, so my control of the language is obviously poor, but the phrase in this context is not incorrect. Speaking of context, I never said any of your actions were “off-putting”, so no, you weren’t using “my words”. I don’t see what warranted the random, personal attack on me, but it’s not appreciated. </p>
<p>If you really are an adult… I’d hope you don’t lash out on strangers simply because they were trying to help you out. And thanks for the literary advice, your evident command of the English language, as well as your own keyboard warrior tendencies really makes me cherish your input. I’ll be sure to try and write more unimaginatively, sticking to pasting phrases and cliches together instead of trying to experiment with language, when both writing in English class and applying to college!</p>
<p>I only applied to Hamilton College because the only extra essay they wanted was a simple why hamilton. I ended up getting in with a full ride. I enrolled and realised that Hamilton is the best place in the world.</p>
<p>I agree. Many top students are not only writing essays for school applications but also for top scholarships, interviewing for these scholarships and still keeping up with all of the things they do that make them top students like sports, volunteering, running clubs, taking multiple AP’s and still keeping A’s in all of them. There just isn’t enough time in the day/week/month to be able to do too many of the complicated applications! Any school that isn’t on the Common App REALLY needs to rethink what they are doing as it makes them seem so out of touch!</p>
<p>My D liked Tufts when we visited, and it was near the top of her list, but not at the very top. She was planning to apply, but was put off by the essays. She felt that if she got in to any of the schools above Tufts on her one list, she would not attend, so did not bother to apply.</p>
<p>It worked out for her, since she is currently attending her #1 choice school.</p>
<p>Yup. I took Brown, Amherst, and Wellesley off my list because I was sick of writing essays. ESPECIALLY Brown – they required six extra short answers for me, since I’m premed and a prospective chem major. Ridiculous. Unlike a lot of people, it seems, I kept Rice. I actually liked their essays more.</p>
<p>I wanted to apply to Princeton, but I really wasn’t in the mood for writing three more supplement essays, especially since it wasn’t my first choice. So I dropped it in favor of NYU, whose essays I could’ve (and did) copy and paste from my others.</p>
<p>I agree Brown’s supplements were ridiculous. I started them and couldn’t get through it. I also dropped NYU, Bowdoin, and others. I didn’t bother to write essays for schools that would probably reject me in the end anyway.</p>
<p>Yep I did - UniChicago. Would have loved to apply but it stressed me out thinking about what to write for those essays. Not to mention, I had so many other essays to write for other applications.</p>
<p>My D applied last year. She applied to her top 5-6 schools based purely on interest. The number of essays didn’t make a difference. In choosing the last 2 or 3 applications to round out the list to be honest, number of essays, type of essay – (i.e., would it be easy to adapt one she had already written), and whether the school was early action (she really wanted to be in ‘somewhere’ by Jan 1) made were factors.</p>
<p>My daughter absolutely hated the University of Chicago prompts and decided not to apply. For her, the school looked pretentious and arrogant. She thinks that U of Chicago encourages applicants to be fake rather than themselves. She also hated the emails the university sent her with a “winning” essay to get inspiration from (with all due respect to the candidate who wrote it).</p>
<p>After son got into first choice school EA, he decided not to apply anywhere else. Besides the fact that he was already certain of his EA school, I’m sure a part of this was that he just didn’t want to write any more essays!</p>