A month after I submitted my applications, I have edited my commonapp essay and made it quite better.
Would it be a good idea to email this to schools I applied to? (Princeton, Columbia, Penn) I emailed them and they all said that this will be an attachment to my file and will be reviewed in addition to my original essay.
I don’t want to seem annoying or feel like I get the privilege to send a better essay. TBH it’s completely my fault that the one I sent first wasn’t the best. Also, I don’t see the point in them reading two essays. Like if they are going to read my old one anyways, then what’s the point?
However, I do believe that my new essay is better and am hoping that sending it will slightly approve my chance of admission.
May I please have your opinion one whether sending it would be beneficial?
Thanks everyone!
I think it’s a really BAD idea to send a new or updated essay at this point. It will make you look entitled … i.e., why do YOU get a second chance while thousands of other applicants don’t? And the college folks don’t have time to read revised essays from their applicants.
A revised essay is only appropriate if there are significant extenuating circumstances that affected your initial effort (e.g., a parent died suddenly the day you were finalizing it). But these situations are rare. Otherwise, I promise you that sending a new essay will work AGAINST you. What you CAN do, however, is to send another type of unsolicited writing supplement that is NOT a college essay or anything close to one IF you typically do other sorts of writing (e.g., poetry, short stories, comic strips, screenplays). Admission officials may or may not read this, but it won’t work against you if you send it. But if your new submission is really just another application essay in disguise, you will probably be shooting yourself in the foot.
I agree with Ms. Rubenstone above. You can’t just submit a brand new essay because you don’t like the one you originally submitted. The deadline was a month ago, Jan 1st, and you had ample time to compose your college essay before that date. But who knows? It’s possible the admissions counselor wouldn’t care at all. Especially if you said they accepted it via email (like you wrote above).