Quite often when threads discuss whether someone will be admitted to a particular college, or why a top stat student was NOT admitted to that college, the non-quantifiable issue of the impact of essays on admission decisions (and EC’s) comes up. I want to share an example I heard the other day to suggest that they just might.
Several years ago a friend’s son was applying to colleges, in STEM programs–a few Ivies and some top state school programs. He had top grades and test scores, though weak EC’s and a quirky kid. He ended up at a top OOS public school, with merit aid, and later graduated with honors, then got a graduate degree in STEM at same school, and has started down a prestigious path in research-related jobs. It should be noted his undergraduate admission was based on his stats.
BUT, back in the day, he completed his Ivy application essays himself, and for one essay question, “What do you plan to do during the summer before entering college?” he wrote a few sentences, handwritten, to the effect that he intended to study to prepare himself for coursework. Period. That’s it. The essay prompt provided a certain amount of blank space, but said if more than 300 words to use a separate paper and to keep the response under 1,000 words. He wrote appx 50 words.
Now, this may be an extreme example, but with thousands of applications, some with hand-holding assistance by top counselors but many with little to no help, there must be a great range in the quality of responses. If nothing else, this kid in my (real-life) example could have been one of those coming on CC, providing their top stats, and wondering why they didn’t get in to their chosen reach school–and to him, he might very well have self-evaluated his essays as a 9/10 or something ridiculous.
Do essays matter? Probably. What’s a good essay to any given adcom? I have no idea. To spinoff another thread, I thought the Papa John’s essay was mediocre, but the Yale adcoms seemed to like it.
What I love about the essay is that it’s the only part of the entire process that gives them a taste of WHO you are, as opposed to WHAT you’ve done. It separates you from your statistics.
Agree. The essay should show who you are. It may be though, that ‘who you are’ doesn’t fill an institutional need at a particular school, but does at another. An essay that doesn’t show ‘who you are’ probably will not help admission anywhere.
The essay matters, no one will convince me otherwise. It won’t overcome glaring holes in an app. @bjkmom , I agree with you totally. Here are some examples:
My own kid was accepted to nine good schools, not just because of her essay, of course. One of those schools was very selective. Her grades were at around the 60th percentile for the school. She is ORM. No supplemental essays. She probably had decent recs, but her ECs were frankly run of the mill. It had to have been the essay.
A student recently contacted me here on CC, after I posted on a “why didn’t I get in anywhere?” thread. It was not the OP. The kid had very good stats and ECs. He applied to 16 in all, one was his in-state public. He was not a shoe-in for his reaches, Princeton and similar, but could have got into at least one, and there were a few high matches. Anyway, his essay was BAD. The first sentence said something about his “so-called family.” It oozed negativity. He was trying to convey how he overcame something despite lack of support, but it just sounded as though he had a huge chip on his shoulder. I asked him if anyone had read it before he submitted it. “A few friends. They liked it.” Face-palm. He was lucky he got into his instate public. I asked him if he had shown his counselor his list. The counselor said it was fine. Sure, with one instate public, it would do, but jeez.
Finally, there was the student who only got into UCB last year, after having written about his fascination with guns and how powerful they are, etc… He applied to all reaches, something like twenty. He at least had the good sense to realize that perhaps his essay made him sound like a gun-loving madman. He was pretty sure the essay sunk him, but it could have also been only applying to reaches.
I have read plenty of articles and books with AO’s saying that the vast majority of college essays are terrible. A good one sticks in their minds, because there aren’t enough of them.
UCB is the most prestigious public university in the country. If he still got in there, he must have done something right. I would imagine at some highly selective privates(Duke, Rice, Vanderbilt), a gun essay wouldn’t raise too many eyebrows. Granted, those schools aren’t the tippy tops this board is obsessed with.