<p>"Twenty-six percent of admissions offices deemed it of considerable importance in deciding who gets in, according to a 2009 survey by the National Association for College Admission Counseling.</p>
<p>It has become more important over time: only 14 percent said so in 1993.</p>
<p>The more exclusive the college, the more weight the essay is given. Among the most selective colleges defined by the counseling group as those accepting fewer than 50 percent nearly half said the essay was of considerable importance. In fact, these colleges give more weight to the essay than grade-point average. Let me restate that: one writing assignment is more critical to a high school seniors chances of getting into many top colleges than his or her average grades from four years of high school.</p>
<p>To be sure, the essay is not the single weightiest factor. Grades in college prep classes (as distinct from overall G.P.A.) and strength of a high schools curriculum count for more. Scores on the SAT or ACT outranked the essay in the latest survey, but just barely.</p>
<p>Factors like recommendations from teachers and guidance counselors and extracurricular activities trail far behind. "</p>
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<p>I have been saying the last bit for quite awhile. Extracurricular activities are overrated. Obviously you should do something, but you are not at a disadvantage for only doing one or two.</p>
<p>This frustrates me…“your essay is of greater importance than your GPA…”</p>
<p>I’m not very good at writing. But, i do know who i am, what i want out of college, what im good/bad at, and what i love to do. Now, my essay may not be “beautiful” writing but it will be about me. Now how in the world is it fair for that to be judged as more important than an extra curricular such as qualifying for USAMO (which i most likely will do my Junior and Senior year)? That my friends is not a dime a dozen, it is 200 or so out of the hundreds of thousands of college applicants each year. </p>
<p>This is pure idiocy, i will work hard on my essay come senior year, but if THIS is what it comes down to, that some kid who loves literature and writing gets in because of a better essay, well that’s absolutely pathetic.</p>
<p>USAMO is academic based. It would be counted as an award or qualification–not an extracurricular.</p>
<p>My view of extracurricular activities is this. It should help, but not necessarily hut someone’s chances because he or she did not want to do them. Some people can handle school with these activities, some can’t. And I think (and I believe they do) colleges should recognize this fact.</p>
<p>I do hope that they judge on more than just the style of the writing. I think we have reason to hope that that’s generally the case, though. I know some people whose essays were clunky but heartfelt, and did quite well in the college admissions process. I mean, the article does talk a lot about style. But the admissions officers themselves never do–they talk about the heartfelt topics of the essays. The author is the one who conflated “ability to write pretty sentences” with “ability to make the reader feel or realize something.” You can’t be a terrible writer to achieve the second, but neither do you have to be a ridiculously fantastic one.</p>
<p>I totally agree. I know some people who are brilliant in math and science, but their writing is just so dry. It is penalizing those types of people.</p>
<p>I mean, they’re basically saying your 4 years in HS < the few months/weeks you spent on your essay.</p>
<p>So much weight to an essay is nonsense if true. Gimme a break, an essay which might take a couple hours to write has bigger weight than 4 years of study/work to get a good GPA? Plus, how does the school know if the essay was actually written by the applicant vs maybe much help from parent, older sibling, teacher, paid essay write, etc?</p>
<p>To be honest I’m not surprised that the essay is catching up with the SAT and ACT. Both tests are overrated in my opinion. Your gpa, ECs, essay, and SAT subject tests should be the most important factor.</p>
<p>To the people lamenting their bad luck: 1. You will not be judged on your ability to write. Your essay has to be genuine and about you, NOT a literary masterpiece. Granted, if you did write a literary masterpiece, you’d probably fare much better than anyone else in college admissions–but can you honestly say that would be undeserved? 2. Writing is an essential skill. There is no division between writing and math, humanities and science. There’s a division between people who can write and people who never bothered to learn because they thought writing was optional, an alternative to science or math. Well, it’s not. Writing is thinking, and if you’re a science whiz, but can’t communicate your ideas and feelings verbally, you’re just not as smart as you think you are. 3. That being said, I want to reiterate my first point: you <em>can</em> write a good essay without being a “good” writer. As I said, just be yourself. Talk about what drives you, be genuine. That’s all.</p>
<p>The essay is so important because it’s the only part of your application that reveals your personality, the way you talk and think. Don’t resent that; take advantage of it.</p>
<p>I completely agree with the article! As a senior who just finished writing her college essays, I have to say that writing them has been the hardest part of the entire application process. It’s easy enough to say you’ll write something amazing, but when the time actually comes you find it’s hard to compose something that is not cliche or pretentious or trying too hard. And it’s tough to show “who you are” when you’re not even quite sure who that person is yet. </p>
<p>Also, like the article said, a lot of 17 year-olds have never been exposed to writing memoir-like essays. Sometimes it is not as much about your personality as it is the time you invest into writing the essay, the people you ask for critique/help, and any prior experience you’ve had writing such essays.</p>