Good stats/not-so-great personal statement?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I am an in-state student, currently a senior, East Indian (neither of my parents attended college), and UW is my top choice by far.</p>

<p>My stats:
3.95 GPA, Top 10-15% of class. Note: Haven't gotten anything lower than an A since 1st semester of freshman year.
4 AP's total (AP Lang., AP Environmental, AP Lit., and AP Psych.), 3 Running Start classes (all fairly rigorous).
SAT: 2090 (720 Reading, 650 Math, 720 Writing - Essay:10).</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
Student Government - 2 years, Exec. Treasurer 11th grade, Team Leader 12th
Honor Society, 10-12th
JV Soccer, 9-12th
Knowledge Bowl, 12th
Basketball, 9-10th
Also have had a job since 10th grade and have some community service (20-30 hours/year).</p>

<p>So I guess my stats are obviously good enough for UW, and my extracurriculars aren't too bad either, but I've been working on my essays for over a month (whenever I can find time), and I haven't come up with anything good at all, so my question is that if I apply with these stats but have an average-ish, somewhat cliche personal statement (polished, grammatically correct, but lacking in unique/good content), would I still get in? How about some other schools, like the UCs or NYU?</p>

<p>Note: Running Start is a dual enrollment program in Washington state.</p>

2

<p>I think you should be fine, I remember someone in another thread mentioning that essays are a reason to admit not a reason to deny and I think that’s true. Basically, if your stats were low, and you needed that little extra push to get accepted, it would be a bit more worrisome. If your stats are on target, which it seems like they are, I wouldn’t be too worried.</p>

<p>You’ve taken a month to work on these, if the topic is cliche than that’s not a deal breaker as long as the essay is polished and not disastrously written (or has some kind of glaring error like mentioning the wrong college). A lot of kids have trouble with the personal statement. Get someone you trust (or post in the college essay forum is you feel comfortable doing so) to read the essay and give you feedback, writers are always their own harshest critics, so maybe you’re giving these essays a bad rep just because you’ve gone over them so many times. See what other people think.</p>