<p>That’s a ridiculous, misleading headline for this story. Eric Furda did NOT say that “Penn only bothers to consider 1 of 7 college essays submitted by applicants.” If you read the article, he was saying that the essays only made a real difference in about 14% of the decisions. Which I take to mean that things BESIDES the essays determined the outcomes of the other decisions – things like grades, test scores, athletic ability, other accomplishments, and recommendations. That’s hardly shocking news.</p>
<p>Plus, the article didn’t have Furda going into detail about what he meant. Based on what’s in the article, he could have meant that essays were significant in 14.3% of all decisions. For a school with an acceptance rate of about 11%, that could mean that essays were important to every positive decision. (But I don’t think that’s what he meant.) </p>
<p>Using the same words, he also could have meant that the essays were the definitive factor in admission or rejection 14.3% of the time. That seems more likely what he meant, but that hardly means that the essays aren’t considered in other cases. It means that in the other cases the essays mainly confirm what you would have thought from the transcript, test scores, and recommendations, but in one of seven cases it adds enough new information, positive or negative, to change the tentative decision, positively or negatively. That would make the essays pretty important and pretty valuable.</p>