<p>how much do essays really account for? Do they first look at your transcripts, and standardized test scores, then make sure you fit in with their demographics, then as a final check look at your essay - or is it one of the first things they look at? B/c for my Columbia ED essay I wrote about sorta a controversial topic, and am making sure to keep all my other college apps conservative. info is appreciated.</p>
<p>i've heard some reps say they look at essays first, others say they check out your school and transcript and stuff. Usually standardized scores are the last thing they look at.</p>
<p>How controversial? Like, cheating on a test or something? By the way, you probably don't have much of a chance of getting into Penn unless you do really well in AP English, especially in the writing assignments.</p>
<p>"you probably don't have much of a chance of getting into Penn unless you do really well in AP English"</p>
<p>honestly, I have no idea why you said that.....there is no way that Penn will know how you are doing on the writing assignments in AP English....if you infer that verbal/writing standardized test-taking correlates to one's grade on writing assignments, you are wrong....i have a 780 verbal and 800 writing, yet i have an 82 in AP English, because i got a 50% on an essay (didnt follow format) lol....but seriously, the quote up there is totally unfounded....plus, you forget that some people get in on being well lopsided towards math/science....</p>
<p>From what I've heard, the most important thing about getting into these ivies is that you have ec's. Like.........the school newspaper etc.</p>