<p>i really liked my yale supplement (and so did the people who proofread it) but my common application essay was pretty general sounding (still well written and kind of interesting.. but much more general). i guess my question is, assuming i have the grades/ec's to be considered as a successful applicant, will an "okay" comapp essay put me in the deferral/rejection pile before they can see my yale supplement?</p>
<p>thanks in advance chaps!
dan</p>
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<p>No, I doubt that’s how it works. And if it’s any comfort, I thought my Common App Essay was crap too, but the people that read it over liked it a lot more than my Yale supplement essay.</p>
<p>Actually, why didn’t you just switch the two? The prompt for the Yale essay was arguably the same as the Common App essay.</p>
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<p>I don’t think it should matter all that much which essay is which. They’re both 500 words, so they should be given somewhat similar weight.</p>
<p>The point of the essay is tell the readers something about you; as long as the adcom takes something meaningful away from your essay he won’t analyze whether it came from the common app vs supplement.</p>
<p>^I completely agree, but what I meant was, assuming the OP is applying to multiple schools, it would have been wiser to use the stronger essay as the Common App one, unless the Supplement essay is very Yale-specific.</p>
<p>I believe they read through the entirety of your application, regardless of how “good” or “bad” it is. They give each applicant an equal (somewhat) chance.
They are not going to read your CommonApp essay, stop there, and put it in the deferral/reject pile.</p>
<p>I have the same issue as you. While I really liked my supplemental essay, I felt my Common App essay was a bit on the weaker side. I don’t know if one essay is heavily preferred over the other, but I guess if they really like one and think the other is just ‘OK’ it wouldn’t be an automatic case for rejection just because of that one iffy essay.
But I really have no clue.</p>
<p>I have the same issue too! Strong Common App essay, weaker supplemental essay. I’m guessing/hoping they read the Common App first before reading the supplement…</p>
<p>[Q</a>. and A.: College Admissions - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://questions.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/17/qa-college-admissions/]Q”>Q. and A.: College Admissions - The New York Times)</p>
<p>“For us at Yale, for instance, standardized test scores generally do little to differentiate applicants, because virtually all our applicants score very well. Most important to us are the transcript and the school and teacher recommendations, which students can do little to influence once it comes time for an application. We also look closely to see where and how a student has developed talents or engaged the school or community outside the classroom. Essays and interviews round out an application, and we look here mostly to see whether they convey information that enlarges or enhances, while remaining consistent with what we hear from counselors and teachers.”</p>