<p>I’m not arguing that grades and rigor of curriculum aren’t important. But given the competitiveness of the application process, a great essay can make a difference.</p>
<p>Well, I just wrote a pretty lengthy post and lost it. I’ll try to summarize what I wrote.</p>
<p>While we love getting a sense of an applicant’s personality through their writing, the essays don’t overshadow the four years of academic work that we see on the transcript.</p>
<p>guillaume, I don’t know anyone in UVA admissions but I can talk about the process at Georgetown. Grades are the least important part of your package there. They want to know if you’ll fit in with the student body and your essays are really critical to that. </p>
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<p>It would on average.</p>
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I don’t think Charlie Deacon would agree. </p>
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<p>If you read [the</a> article that contained that quote](<a href=“Inside Georgetown's Admissions Deliberations - ABC News”>Inside Georgetown's Admissions Deliberations - ABC News) and happen to know the name of the Dean of Admission at UVa…well, you’ll realize that admission officers are often familiar with how the review process differs from one university to the next.</p>
<p>@sabaray: I agree, although I would hasten to add that the naviance data indicate that you need to be very competitive already in order to be helped. As one admissions officer put it: “A great essay can heal the sick but it cannot raise the dead.”</p>
<p>No question of that, coase. Our HS doesn’t have naviance so I’m not sure how that works but there’s no question that you’ve got to be on top of it academically. I wouldn’t worry about which part of the application is the most important I’d just make sure they were all as good as they could be, regardless of the school.</p>
<p>@sabaray: I don’t doubt it…it does at every school though.</p>