<p>I've noticed people increasingly emphasize the significance of the non-academic aspect of the application - specifically, the essay. </p>
<p>My question: Is it overstated, a little hyped up? Or is it that influential in the admissions process?</p>
<p>Personally, I thought if you were academically successful and completely qualified for a certain college, the essay would do little to tip the balance (assuming it wasn't completely horrible). If you weren't academically qualified, it didn't matter what you wrote. Buuut if you were on the bubble, only then would the essay be more of a deciding factor.</p>
<p>(Note: I'm not really talking about HYP-level colleges, but definitely competitive ones like the other ivies, top 40, etc.)'</p>
<p>I think that the essay can help them significantly. If they are on the fence about it, it will help to get them on your side. But an essay and bad grades will not help you. I would suggest reading the 50 Successful Harvard Admissions Essays to get an idea of an excellent essay :)</p>
<p>The essay is ABSOLUTELY that important at the schools that you’re talking about! You’re right in saying that the essay is used to distinguish students who are academically on the map, but at any Top 40 school, there are way more than enough students who academically fit the bill for acceptance. That means that the essay (especially how it contributes to your application as a whole) is really a very important part of your application.</p>
<p>Definitely depends on the school. I think that small liberal arts colleges tend to emphasize the essay more than large universities, but of course there are exceptions. Bottom line: in most cases, a mediocre essay would PROBABLY not mean rejection if your other stats were great, but an excellent essay would probably not outweigh a C average, for example.</p>
<p>I do think that LACs put a lot of emphasis on the essays.</p>
<p>Case in point: my friend and I both applied to Pomona. She had a 2390 SAT I, I had a 35 ACT. We both applied from the same school with approximately equally challenging courseloads and almost identical GPAs. One of my teacher recommendations was from the same teacher as one of her teacher recommendations, and we both had the same guidance counselor. Stats-wise, we were almost identical. But come April, I was accepted, and she was waitlisted. There’s really no other explanation for it besides the essays and MAYBE the fact that I had slightly stronger Subject Test scores, but I do think it came down to the essays.</p>
<p>i think the essay can help a lot – especially at private schools. a lot of adcoms take a lot of time in reading applications and they can get a lot of information about you from a well-written essay.</p>
<p>I subscribe to the philosophy espoused by one Adcom: 90% of the essays have virtually no impact on the admission decision, 5% push an applicant over the top, and 5% truly hurt the applicant.</p>
<p>On that basis, yes, the essay is vastly overrated.</p>
<p>One final thought: Get the name of the school correct, lest you fall in the last 5%. Cut and paste is a blessing and a curse. Telling Harvard why you always wanted to go to Yale may not win them over.</p>
<p>Eh? Essays are the most superficial thing imaginable - they aren’t concrete, there are no “right” answers, and they are open to interpretation by each individual reader.</p>
<p>I feel essays are completely useless as an admissions tool since most applicants have help in proofreading, content and editing from one or more sources. At my son’s school, the guidence counselor would practically rewrite an essay before it was submitted. Perhaps if the essays were somehow written in a proctored session, they would bear more weight imho.</p>
<p>If the GC is rewriting the essays, the GC probably is hurting the students because the colleges that care about essays also would be able to tell which appear to be written by teens and which appear to be reflective of a heavy hand by adults. Most colleges, however, use essays as only a minor admission factor because most colleges don’t have an overabundance of students with the stats and academic backgrounds indicating they would be able to handle well the college’s academics.</p>
<p>Think about it – at top schools, every qualified student will have a 3.6+ GPA (closer to 4.0 in most cases), 2100+ SAT scores, lots of varied extracurriculars and will be ranked highly in their classes. When you get that high on the scale, there’s not much to differentiate students in numbers, so they turn to more subjective measures. The essay is one of them (also the quality of your ECs and your teacher recommendations).</p>
<p>In any case, you should write a good essay. It doesn’t have to be publishable quality, but it should be solid and make sense.</p>