Hello All,
SO i see people on “chance me” threads saying their essays are 8 9 10 s etc, so I was wondering how they can jdueg their own essays as I cant seem to do it due to bias.
I was therefore wondering if some one had exmaples of 8 9 10 essays from the internet or something to see where mine would rank.
They tend not to judge well or accurately ha. I have read many essays, including from very confident CC posters and usually the essays do not rank a 9 or 10 (even if the student thinks they do). In the last three years I’ve read precisely 1 essay that was a 10 on the first draft; it made me cry (it was not from a CC member. She got into Harvard SCEA). I’ve seen essays that started as 7s be improved up to solid 9s. I’ve also seen applicants who thought they had a 9/10, really had a 5/6/7 and refuse to accept editing advice and ended up with a stagnant essay.
I recommend Googling “JHU Essays that worked.” Every year they post 6-10 stellar essays from admitted (and attending students). I’ve read them before and I’d call most of them solid 8, 9, 10 ranking essays. If you look at the Class of 2019 and read “Community Service Isn’t for Me,” the way she subverted the community service essay trope makes it a 9 or 10 essay; it’s very well done. I also personally really liked The Red Room.
I also like the essays that the NYT posts every year–a few years ago they posted essays about money and they were all stellar.
A 9/10 essay: tells a story and is entertaining, but above all offers true and genuine insight into who you are as a person via the lens of something important to you or that has happened to you. The writing is clear and cogent, striking a balance of straightforward prose and lyrical phrasing (one should demonstrate a command of language but those who use too many $2 words often are overcompensating and do so poorly). It isn’t braggy or arrogant, nor is it whiny. The thing is–you can get into great schools with a 7 or 8 essay, as long as they’re genuine and/or interesting. 9/10s are rare because not everyone has the gift of powerful personal memoir writing at age 17. (The girl who wrote the 10 I read is a writer who won a big writing-related honor from a major city; she wasn’t a novice.)