How much does an average essay hurt chances?

<p>We're coming down to crunch time, and I'm stressing out over my essays.
So, I wrote them, had parents, friends, teachers, review it, and sent them out without a second thought.</p>

<p>However, looking at all these excellent essays, I'm worried because I wrote mine more like a standard essay rather than this "narrative" format that seems to be extremely successful.
I wrote a personal, slightly humorous, and solid essay about my founding of a club at my school and how it grew, but it doesn't have flashy writing or searing wit. In other words, I don't have any phrases like, "The sweat dripped down my heavy brow as I peered towards the clock..." or dialogue that'll make you break out in a fit of laughter.</p>

<p>So, what I want to know is: how much can a solid, but stylistically mediocre (and comparatively boring) hurt someone's chances if they have a pretty good application otherwise?</p>

<p>You seem to be conflating the quality of an admissions essay with the extent to which it is a narrative. Not all good essays are narratives. Some are, but some bad essays are also narratives.</p>

<p>If you wrote an “average” essay in general, that is bad because you are competing with enough people who wrote stellar essays to fill up the class twice over, and you want every advantage you can get. But if you wrote a good essay that happens to not be in narrative form, that’s nothing to worry about.</p>

<p>Well said, IKE.</p>

<p>Like DwightEisenhower said, it doesn’t need to be a narrative to be good.</p>

<p>But if it is truly average, it can hurt your chances significantly.</p>

<p>Alright, thanks guys for giving me some mental peace, you’re really helpful.
I’m confident in the quality of my essays, I was just nervous because while they’re solid and do paint an accurate picture of who I am, they may not JUMP off the page like other, more narrative-driven essays might.</p>

<p>Anyways, we’ll see in a few days.</p>

<p>Really, don’t worry about it. If you feel like you portrayed yourself (no matter in what format), you have done your job.</p>

<p>Best of luck to you.</p>