<p>I know that college essays can "cement" an admissions officer's decision to accept a well qualified student, and it may even make an "accepted" student into a "denied," but will the essay every change an admission officer's decision from "denied" to "accepted"?</p>
<p>maybe. I saw some people with hella low GPAs like 3.4 transferring into some really competitive majors. </p>
<p>I asked and one person stated that they didn’t have a turnaround. They still kept getting Bs and even Cs during all their years. </p>
<p>@bomerr what about freshman applicants?</p>
<p>idk. low college grade is more acceptable because the courses are harder and no APs to weight the GPA beyond a 4.0</p>
<p>Most essays aren’t really good tho. So unless someone wrote that 1 in a million really great and memorable essay, I would probably say no. </p>
<p>@bomerr so if my GPA is high and my ACT is in the 25th percentile, my essay being good won’t make a difference bc i’ll get rejected anyway, right?</p>
<p>depends on where you are trying to apply to. </p>
<p>@OrangeAndWhite We’d have to know how good your EC’s and teacher recs are too, but 25th percentile ACT isn’t an automatic rejection.</p>
<p>I don’t know, I applied to two colleges that didn’t need essays.</p>
<p>D got in her school last year with a 25th percentile ACT, solid essay, good not great ECs, 3.9+ GPA, and 10 APs, but not great AP test scores (3’s and 4’s mostly), so sure it’s possible. Not guaranteed, but clearly that 25th percentile keeps you in the running.</p>