<p><a href="http://web.mit.edu/ir/cds/2005/c.html%5B/url%5D">http://web.mit.edu/ir/cds/2005/c.html</a></p>
<p>I was looking through MIT's common data set for '04-05 and it said that
class rank
recommendations and
standardized test scores
were ranked as 'important', while the essay was only ranked as 'considered'.</p>
<p>Is this true?</p>
<p>Obviously, if it comes from the official MIT CDS :p
Point is, with such competitive admissions process, unless it's marked as "irrelevant", it is just as important as the other parts of your app! [my take]</p>
<p>Your application and all parts of it are considered as a whole; benjones has discussed that here in many posts, and Ben's and Matt's blogs are full of this assertion. In the sense that some things are "important", those aspects of your application may be initially given some more weight. But the essays are used to put your more statistical items in context and to show the Admissions folks who you really are, to give them an idea of how you'd contribute to and help shape the MIT and Class of '10 community. They probably can't list for the Common Data Set that <em>everything</em> in the application is "important", but I think it would be correct to say the essays contribute to the discussions during the committee deliberations in a major way.</p>
<p>(Disclaimer: I am not an Admissions person, but I'm fairly confident this is accurate.)</p>
<p>ok thanks!
I was just curious..</p>
<p>Note that "character / personal qualities" is ranked "very important" - higher than the three you mentioned above - and tied only with "secondary school record."</p>
<p>The essay is the first place I look for an applicant's voice, and the applicant's voice is paramount in my assesment of his/her "character / personal qualities."</p>
<p>Sorry for the confusing nature of the CDS. If you ask me, it's a bit misleading; I wouldn't read too much into it.</p>