<p>I don't really believe that an amazing essay, by itself, can overcome a generally weak application. However, the essay may contain information about you that could be relevant, such as overcoming an illness or some other situation, or it may highlight an achievement that isn't adequately spelled out in the rest of your application.
As I've posted before, selective schools don't occasionally admit unqualified applicants just for the heck of it; they do sometimes admit applicants who are weak in some areas but who have something else that the school wants (such as sports ability, contribution to diversity, etc.).</p>
<p>i remember watching this report on the news hour about the admissions scene at amherst. The admissions officers were going over this guy's file and they said he wrote the best essay they've seen but they noticed he had a B- avg one year and decided to reject him. So I don't really think essays can help you get in if you have an unremarkable profile.</p>
<p>I know someone with a 3.6 weighted GPA and 2050 SAT who got into Harvard.</p>
<p>However, she was captain of 2 sports teams, and did 4 sports.</p>
<p>And probably other things.</p>
<p>Plus really outgoing, and her essay was probably unique.</p>
<p>@nooob, hes OOS =P i guess his gpa was solid though~ but that yr, i've seen better applicants got turned down =s</p>
<p>i had a friend who got mid 1500 on the SAT and was accepted into Carnegie Mellon because he was a really good artist.
same with friend who had below 1800, accepted into cornell</p>
<p>I shouldn't have got in were I'm going. I mean it's certainly not Harvard, but...</p>
<p>I know a guy who got into Harvard, Columbia, UCB(OOS) and Yale with an 89 UW GPA a 28 ACT and a 1300/1600 on his SATs. Though, he had great ECs and he is an awesome person who probably wrote amazing essays and had great recs cause everyone loves him. He's at Yale right now.</p>
<p>From my school, past 2 years:</p>
<p>1) Girl got into Columbia, Princeton, and Brown w/ a 2070, african american
2) Girl into UPenn w/ 1980, asian
3) Guy accepted into Cornell and Dartmouth w/ a 1770, african american
4) Guy accepted into Columbia and Cornell w/ a 1850, african american
5) Girl accepted into Princeton w/ a 1980, spanish</p>
<p>I think that we can all establish that essays can help paint a great picture of an applicant. Those who got into awesome schools with poor stats were probably very specialized. Some were math/science geeks while others were english/humanities scholars. The kid who wrote that amazing essay (mentioned above) but had a B- average probably didn't excel in anything, so his essay couldn't help him because it didn't capitalize on his fortes. In turn, the image beyond the numbers is especially important for admission to top notch universities.</p>
<p>i got into MIT with a 1960 (1920 not superscored) and GPA of 3.7</p>
<p>major hooks though: (URM, first generation college student, immigrant, moved around a lot, low-income, EFC=0)</p>
<p>There is hope!</p>
<p>I got my SAT's up to 2060 in December, after i got into MIT... lol </p>
<p>what a waste of time!</p>
<p>Not hope for white kids Carlos :P </p>
<p>We have to actually have the good stats.</p>
<p>ah this thread is giving me some kind of hope ..... @_@</p>
<p>"We have to actually have the good stats."</p>
<p>lol.</p>
<p>i don't know if I'm supposed to be offended by this or not but I'm just happy i got into my first choice school. lol</p>
<p>I should probably be offended that someone less qualified than me could get in over me because of race (not saying you obviously..I don't know where you got in and all that)...but I don't I just accept it is one more mistake in the system.</p>
<p>Well i'm not necessarily "less qualified."</p>
<p>If we are going to get into an affirmative action debate, just remember that i had to climb ten times harder than you just to get lower test scores.</p>
<p>It's not a "mistake" in the system. MIT in their website says 'we do not make mistakes about those we admit. We only make mistakes about those we reject.'</p>
<p>and btw, it's not really about race. This stopped becoming an issue after the Supreme Court UofM cases. It's about helping those down the class ladder. It just happens to be that those at the bottom are mostly African-American and Hispanic.</p>
<p>I have read that college admission officers very much prefer to admit the "white kid" with lower stats who is low-income and first generation than the black kid whose dad is a doctor from Harvard but has the same test scores and GPA as white kid. The former would be accepted while the latter would not.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I have read that college admission officers very much prefer to admit the "white kid" with lower stats who is low-income and first generation than the black kid whose dad is a doctor from Harvard but has the same test scores and GPA as white kid. The former would be accepted while the latter would not.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I strongly doubt it. Where did you read that?</p>
<p>"i had to climb ten times harder than you just to get lower test scores."</p>
<p>very much true !!</p>
<p>i do agree with fromthesouth haha. some of these cases people have mentioned where URM's have got into HYPS etc with <2000 SAT scores definitely irritates me seeing as i probably wouldn't get in to any of those with a score of 2180</p>
<p>but since SAT's correlate to family income, and you in all likelihood have a higher family income than carlos, your sat score is more a reflection of your parents success as opposed to greater capabilities</p>