<p>Hi, I'm a rising senior and a prospective applicant. A lot of the more prestigious schools seem to value research papers and lab reports written during internships, etc and I was wondering if anyone knew/had opinions on an EE (that's an Extended Essay) being valid material to send in? As most IBers would know, a lot of supervisors and teachers consider the EE as a piece of pretty legit research writing (...for high schoolers), it's 4000 words of concentrated analysis. Would it be considered appropriate?</p>
<p>If it helps, I'm writing mine in English Literature. I'm not going to apply as a lit major though, most likely something related to sustainability and environmentalism (something like EnvEng or environmental studies and economics). The EE is something IBers pore over the holidays and what not, so it would be great news for me if I could show something I'm genuinely proud of to someone other than the examination board. Any opinions would be immensely helpful -- especially so if anyone knows about sending in the EE elsewhere e.g. Ivies, top LACs.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Depends on the university and how familiar they are with the IBDP and EE. While some consider it a legitimate research essay others don’t. Your counsellor might be able to help you with this.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply (: I go to a British international school in southeast Asia so my counsellor isn’t too knowledgeable on the subject. Providing I get predicted an A (and I think I will) in your opinion would it be worth sending?</p>
<p>You should definitely send it in! I submitted part of mine, and while I don’t know if it helped, it might set you apart from some of the other applicants. For some reason I can’t remember what UChicago wanted, but I <em>think</em> it was the abstract and a few pages – you should e-mail the admissions office as to what would be appropriate. Good luck with the EE! :)</p>
<p>^I’m not so certain I agree.
In high school, I too was a diploma candidate and received an A on the EE (in fact, it was published) and it had never even occurred to me to send it in.
The admissions counselors are already swamped with thousands upon thousands of applications, and to make your application absurdly long in comparison to other applicants will not do you any favors.
The EE probably wouldn’t make you really stand out either. Many Chicago students/applicants were diploma candidates.
Also, I distinctly remember browsing the website for Dartmouth admissions back in fall 2009. On their FAQ section about undergrad admissions, one question they frequently receive is whether or not to send in an EE. The response? Preferably not, but if you really must, send in the abstract only. (Never applied to Dartmouth, but I’m sure top schools share similar philosophies.)</p>
<p>Anyway, good luck in the IB and with admissions!</p>
<p>Thanks guys, I think this is something I have to think over. Kind of swaying towards sending a concise summary rather than the whole essay at this point.</p>
<p>Hi hongkonggirl, you are welcome to submit a research supplement if you wish, but it is not necessary to do so. Although we realize that the IB extended essay presents a significant amount of work, usually students submit research projects that were completed for purposes other than their required work in school. This is not to say you can’t send it by any means, but to give context for how these are usually reviewed. In any case, we would strongly prefer that any applicant electing to send a research project send a concise summary or abstract instead of the whole paper.</p>