<p>Does anyone know how well essays factor into the admission process?
I'm totally not a arrogant person, but- realistically, i probably have pretty alright essays...
And i plan on majoring in English, in their creative writing program.</p>
<p>Like...will good essays redeem my mediocre numbers?(3.34 gpa, 30 ACT)</p>
<p>?</p>
<p>The essays are more of an afterthough to UIUC. Champaign cares most importantly about your GPA/rank/test scores. They definitely are seen as "tie breakers" just as much as ECs and awards are seen as tie breakers. </p>
<p>BTW you don't have mediocre numbers. Your GPA maybe low for UIUC but your ACT score is great. Only 22% of those accepted in 2006 had an ACT score of 31-36 (though 51% of those admitted had a score between 27-31). This year it's supposed to be a lot harder to get in but who knows.</p>
<p>take it seriously. i got rejected because of my essay. i asked. they said my grades were great, i just didnt show enough interest in my major. </p>
<p>...i appealed and told them they were full of **** and they actually let me in, but that never happens, i got incredibly lucky. don't half ass. write several drafts, have people check it.</p>
<p>haha, it censors my "s-h-i-t".. so lame.</p>
<p>See, i think that's what happened to my brother...
He was on the low honor roll, with a thirty ACT(pretty much same stats as me)
But he...can't write. His essays were godawful...and he was applying undecided, with no extra-curriculars that showed a passion, or statement in the essays to show he had any drive for anything..</p>
<p>Thank you. That gives me faith...
I'm still pretty sure i won't get in, but it's nice to know they actually read the essays..and that you gor rejected for the same reason i thought he did. hurrah.</p>
<p>And it's good you got in, anyways. Nice job with that.</p>
<p>Didn't krbarrett apply for advertising as a transfer? I'm sure that's a lot more competitive than freshman applications for LAS. UIUC used to explicitly state on their website that essays and other things were used largely to determine the fate of applicants who were borderline in terms of test scores and class rank (in other words, if you had a high SAT/ACT and rank, they would auto admit you). It seems rolling admissions and auto admits are a thing of the past now so maybe they will care more about essays this year. We know for sure that the business school puts a lot of emphasis on them but I don't know about LAS.</p>
<p>yep, i was a transfer student. they definitely look a bit harder at your essays when you're applying to your college of choice and the university at the same time. my point was that they do read them, and it's not unheard of for somone to be rejected because of their essay. </p>
<p>I spent a lot of time on my essays. i did at least 2 drafts of both (i did 5 drafts of my appeal letter though). I had people look at them, they said they were well written. writing has actually always been something i was a bit stronger in. the problem was that i wrote about volunteer work i did for a college radio station and they didn't see how it connected to advertising.</p>
<p>i'm normally not one to use cliche phrases and overly emotional words in my papers, but i think they are called for on something like this. words like "passion", "love", "dream", "determined" ...you basically need to be bursting with love for your major. my first essays left the connection between EC's and my major a little too open to interpretation. I learned to be more precise on the appeal letter, using those precious 20-or-so words to make the connection myself instead of leaving anything untied. You should use your major a lot in your paper too. The word "advertising" probably only appeared in my first letters once or twice each. In the appeal letter, it was probably there seven or eight times. that's my advice. good luck.</p>