@gre8texp “This Another important aspect is that personality can be fake and can be exaggerated easily since there is almost no way to verify its truthfulness by just looking at the essay and ECs reported.”
is so true and what I have an issue with. For all the talk about essays have to be good and ECs and holistic the only things that are verifiable and measurarable are ur grades and Test scores . Some people are better at show casing and others are not. How can u even validate any of these stories in the essays?
More importantly why should a student who is interested in pursuing Engineering which is all about solving problems be judged on his ability to write ?
@momtomusicians As someone with a degree in engineering, I don’t understand your question. Communication is the bedrock of everything an engineer does. Solving technical part of problems is less than 5% of any job. Yes, it is an essential part, but it will get you nowhere on its own.
Communication and selling/marketing yourself are two entirely diff things. Most engineers are good at what they do and can explain it but more often than not need a sales/PR team . Diff skills and real world needs them both. I am an engineer and get hired and paid for my ability to solve problems and in many cases under tight deadlines. Nothing more nothing less.
Students applying into such majors should be considered based on that skill. Judging them for their essays is like judging an elephant for his ability to fly.
@momtomusicians Would you be able to do half as well if you were not able to write well?
I understand that someone who wants to be in sales/marketing needs a unique writing ability. Someone who needs to study poetry has their own abilities. …
When we used to interview for jobs that actually required extremely strong mathematical/statistical abilities, we very quickly eliminated ones that did not communicate well. I remember this all to well because I often wanted to spend more time on ones with exceptional technical abilities. But, for the more experienced of my coworkers, they did not want anything to do with ones that were poor at communication.
Most of the jobs I ever interviewed for (all, where I would need to work independently or supervise others) consistently asked for writing samples, etc.
When you have over 100K applications, and can only accept 30% of them, then considering factors like how well you communicate is valid. Sure, there are many great engineers who cannot communicate well. But there are also great engineers who can communicate as well. Take the cream of the crop. When you cannot take every talented student who wants to apply, then other factors have to be considered. Ability to communicate is valuable.
Let me try this once more and then I will stop as this is digressing from the OP. Ability to communicate an idea ,problem and its solution with all its pros and cons is very different from writing what is considered a good college essay these days which most closely resembles marketing in real world.
The difference is in the goal and the path taken. One clarifies intent and the other one converts/sells.
Each has its place. I am yet to turn down an engineer because he couldn’t sell himself.
@momtomusicians But top engineering applicants are not being turned away because a prospective English major wrote a better essay. In most all schools, Engineering (and some others) is one of those majors that is 1. capped and 2. considered for acceptance somewhat differently. UCSD will take a certain number of engineering majors every year and those slots are going to the top people who designated engineering as their major. And at that point, most employers would want an engineer who exhibits the math, problem solving, analytical skills to be a top engineer and exhbits good communication skills. The reviewers are savvy at good schools and want to get a sense of the kid, his personality, goals, challenges, interests, etc. through the essays. As they say, good writing helps but is not the ultimate for these essays.
@genesmasher Best of luck to your son. My son has decided that his Mech Eng placement at Cal Poly SLO fits him better than his acceptance for Engineering at Virginia tech. So he will be declining his acceptance. Here’s hoping your kid gets that now open spot!
“Well, I’ll tell you why… because… engineers are not good at dealing with customers…Look I already told you, I deal with the @#$% customers so the engineers don’t have to. I have people skills! I am good at dealing with people, can’t you understand that? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!”
@sawadeeka omg people here need to chill, its just college confidential so nobody cares
@lesimpson4 I believe it’s an Office Space reference. Amiright?
LOL thanks @Noliwat. Yup, all this talk about engineers not being required to communicate reminded me of the movie quote.
I’m really confused about the TOS for cc at this point. I thought this was a place to pleasantly discuss college choices and I thought that each posting was to be specific regarding that posting topic. However for 2 days now this UCSD post has blown up with honestly junk most of us can careless about, including the angry yelling of several posters. Does CC just pick and choose who to “time out” or because there are higher level members involved does it use not matter??
UCSB has begun notifying students
I don’t understand the issue about communication here but every major, to some certain degree, needs to have some form of recommended ability to communicate. The need for communication is one of our primal instincts as a species, and its in everything we do. Is communication required for a job? 100%. Whether that be texting, typing, or breathing we are always communicating in someway something. So lets not make hasty generalizations or resort to stereotyping careers.
Are we expecting the decision to come out this Friday?
Rejected form Davis and sb, waitlisted from Santa Cruz. Do u guys think I have chance getting in to San Diego/Irvine/la??
nope @liaaa
@teambyerline: I agree that CC is not a debating society. I have let this discussion go on longer than I should have. If there are any more posts not addressing UCSD specifically, I will have no problem using my delete button. @sawadeeka @momtomusicians @gkalman and others not specifically cited here.
@teambyerline, please report posts that you believe violate the Terms of Service. We rely heavily on users to help us moderate the boards. We cannot monitor thousands of threads every day.