First of all, I want you to know I don’t mean “safety school” in the traditional sense, at all. I love each of these schools a lot, especially Michigan Tech.
Each of them have optional essays, however I am having a lot of difficulty what I like so much about their school because it is more or an abstract sense I have about them. Michigan Tech would trump a lot of other acceptance letters even from prestigious universities… I just can’t write down why because I don’t know, its an intangible reason.
Anyway quick stats are 33 ACT, 3.95 GPA with 6 AP classes on transcript (doing 5 more currently). I also have a lot of good and unique activities.
I don’t want these colleges to think I am applying just for a “safety school”. I am just worried that they might think I am considering them just a safety school and they might reject me.
As such I was thinking of filling out the optional essay on each of the schools’ application. I think I am probably going to have one paragraph where I do a brief mission statement: What my passions are, what my skills are, how I think, future plans. And then a paragraph about the school and why I like it.
Is this a good idea? Is this necessary?
BTW the main school’s in question are: (I included ACT scores)
Colorado School of Mines 28-32
Michigan Tech 25
Rose-Hullman 29
I am aware that Colorado and Rose-Hullman do have average stats in the ballpark of mine
Do the schools' Common Data Sets say they consider the level of applicant's interest?
If you do write an essay for Rose-Hulman, make sure you have the correct number of L's. That would definitely make it look like a slapdash "sure to get in so I don't care" app.
Yes and you need to do a good job on them as well. Our guidance counselors always say “optional essays are not optional”. Since you have above average stats, if you don’t show enough interest to do the optional essays your “safety” colleges may assume you are using the school as a safety and not accept you to protect their yield.
Don’t be too sure about the Colorado School of Mines. I’ve seen ppl use them as a safety (even wondering how much of a scholarship they might get) only to not be admitted at all. They are pretty good about figuring out who might really attend. For sure fill out whatever optional essays they have.
Def. fill them out. My brother went to Mines and got a pretty sweet scholarship, but our family lives where they typically get students from, and he visited there, too. He just filled in his stats and that was it, all in October, I think. His other school was Harvey Mudd ( his stats were really, really good).
I think schools can tell if you’re really serious or not. I’ve heard that about other places, too . They don’t want to be anybody’s safety. I visited all my safety schools and sent my ACT’s in early, just like my target schools.
I wouldn’t consider Mines a safety, our D14 was rejected and she was being actively recruited for soccer. Very similar stats, slightly lower act. Very strong ECs.
Fairly sure they could tell her heart was ED somewhere else.
How do they figure out who is using them as a safety? With these “optional” essays.
The kids that don’t bother to fill them out, or spend little time on them compared to their Common App essays all colleges see (and anyone who reads hundreds of apps can easily determine the effort put in), these kids are flashing a red flag that says “you are my safety”.
I didn’t do Minnesota’s optional essay and still got in OOS, so I’m sure you’re fine skipping out on them IF you believe your application looks complete without them
If you can in fact make the same essay work for most of your safeties it makes sense to put in the extra effort - tweak it and personalize for each school. Good luck.
a. If the school considers “level of applicant’s interest”, then it may use the essays as an indicator of such. Such schools may not truly be “safeties” for “overqualified” applicants, at least if they do not play the “level of applicant’s interest” game.
b. Some schools may admit or reject most applicants by stats, but use essays and other factors to determine admissions near the borderline.
c. Some schools may have some restricted majors. It is possible that, for a given applicant, the school may be a safety for admission to the school, but not for admission to the desired major. Essays and other factors may affect the latter even if the former is assured by stats.
My D was able to reuse essays for a number of different colleges. However, they were all tweaked in some way, in some cases being very different from the original form. If I were an AO, I would be unimpressed if an applicant didn’t submit optional essays.
Mines is a lot more selective than you’d think. I go to a school where they accept a lot of us because they aren’t terribly far from here, and they know our school’s great reputation. But I’d say you have a good chance to get in, but it wouldn’t hurt to do the optional essays. Our counselors tell us that anything optional, it’s a good idea to do them because it shows dedication and interest in the school.