Our suburban (highly ranked) public high school does a “competitive college workshop” evening every fall with parents and students. The same exercises are done as stated by @RenaissanceMom except we didn’t have 20 colleges represented. Maybe 7 or so, but as she states, it was quite informative and eye opening. Kudos to our guidance office for putting this together.
When I interviewed for Brown most kids brought copies of their essays and the rest of their applications as a “leave behind”. Almost all of them were somewhere between OK and fine. A couple egregiously bad and a couple outstanding.
Over a decade of this I came to the conclusion that in very rare cases, an outstanding essay could make a difference. Otherwise, the kids were being admitted based on everything else. A terrible essay can keep a kid out; I imagine that a kid who is borderline might get admitted because of an outstanding essay (although personally I never saw this happen). It led me to my belief (all of your anecdotes notwithstanding) that essays are used to confirm a decision that an Adcom has already made by reading the application. If someone is leaning towards accepting a kid- an essay that is acceptable is “good enough”. If someone is leaning towards rejecting a kid, that same “good enough” essay will confirm the decision to reject the kid. Occasionally a stellar applicant will have a terrible essay or a marginal applicant will have a phenomenal essay- and likely there are LOTS of discussions which follow among the readers.
But I don’t believe given the huge numbers of applications that adcom’s are going to spend hours and hours parsing the meaning of your kids essay. If it’s well written and somewhat imaginative- that’s likely good enough, assuming your kid is a strong candidate for the school based on everything else.
Just don’t write about how your dead grandpa is your hero and you should be OK.
This is a GREAT thread. Weeding through some of the hyper-critical parsing over what’s valuable and what isn’t may take away some of the value but the basic themes and most of the posts have some wonderful insights for those of us navigating this for the first time. Thanks Hunt et al.
Just for fun, here are a few of my own kids’ essay topics. Oldest had probably 5-6 “And” factors, which probably led to being admitted to all his schools. (He didn’t apply to Stanford or Harvard nor any other Ivy besides Princeton and Penn, so who really knows if his “And” factors would have been up to snuff there) Middle son was admitted to only one top 10 school, Penn. I think their essays were interesting, but have no clue what, if any, role they played in admissions.
Calculus is Like Sucking My Thumb (using calculus for comfort)
Leading from the Bottom (being the worst player on chess team, but being team captain)
Getting Fired by Violin Teacher (pretty introspective)
How Cello Playing Turned a Painfully Shy Guy into a Performaholic (who took 7 years to perform in public) of sorts
Using Ecclesiastes 1:9 for an essay on creativity (There is nothing new under the sun)
I was very interested in the post by TiggyB62, about the “competitive college workshop” offer at their good suburban public school, albeit on a slightly smaller scale than the one at the Manhattan private school. Is that common at other posters’ kids’ schools?
That has not happened around here in living memory. There are frequently 10-12 students going to HYPSN, in a class of about 350 each year–so perhaps it is not worth the admissions officers’ time.
I am happy to stipulate that all of the students who had the advantage of the “competitive college workshop” would have been admitted anyway, without it. However, it obviously takes a lot of the mystery out the process, and requires a lot less work than is required for students who have no help of that type.
Our very large suburban high school (majority minority 600+ in the graduating class) has a big college night every spring. They did not do the essay exercise, but they always had one introductory speaker followed by smaller breakout sessions - usually eight in all and you could attend two, each had a half dozen or so admissions officers. The ones I’ve attended in the past were: “The highly selective school” (with Yale, Dartmouth, Vassar, U of Rochester, Harvard coming most years), “The liberal arts college”, “Engineering”, “New York State colleges”, there’s usually a session in Spanish as well. The next day they have a college fair in the cafeteria with more colleges present.
There’s a pretty big cohort going to selective schools, but HYP will never take more than one or two IME. I think it’s a lot of trouble to organize, but one of the things I thought our high school did well was get the most bang for their buck out of their understaffed counseling department.
A smart student can also look at the various exemplary essays that colleges post on line. (Or you can do what my oldest did and write a computer program that mashes them all together. 
)
@sbjdorlo my younger son got fired by his violin teacher. It turned out well, he liked the new one much better though he didn’t practice that much more for her than he had for the previous one.
I agree with this. You said earlier, blossom, that essays probably only make a difference in a tiny percentage of cases, and I agree with that – but nobody knows when they will be that marginal applicant for whom a really great essay could make a difference.
@RenaissanceMom’s post reminded me of my experience this spring being on the review committee for a PTA scholarship at my kids’ high school. When you’re reviewing applications, everything is numbers and dry facts – GPA, classes taken, sports played, blah blah blah. They absolutely all started to blend together after a while. Having something – anything – memorable made a difference. It might interest you to know that all of us on the scholarship committee gave all the kids nicknames to help us remember them – “Java TA,” “bluegrass festival,” “face painting.” Students should ask themselves, what nickname will adcoms give them, and is that the nickname you want to have? It won’t be “tennis team captain,” in case you’re wondering – there will be far too many of those for that to make you memorable.
Anyway, as RenaissanceMom said, the essay can make a big difference if only because it’s the only part of your application where you get to tell a story instead of just presenting dry, boring facts. Naturally it captures the imagination more than the rest of your app. Now that said, as @blossom said, this is only going to come into play for the borderline cases. A kid with GPA and scores well in the top of the applicant pool can write a boring essay and it doesn’t matter – they’re already in the “admit” pile and nothing short of bad grammar or incoherence is going to keep them out. And a kid with really low GPA and scores probably can’t get in with a great essay – if nothing else, adcoms may wonder if somebody else wrote that essay, since such a great writer couldn’t possibly have received straight C’s in all his English classes. But it could make a difference for those in the gray area.
The best essay I remember reading in that bunch was from a student who had worked to start a program at a local middle school to provide sports equipment and uniforms for low-income kids. She wrote about her struggles to get the program established, how she had to badger administrators at the school and the district and how she tried to get funding from local nonprofits, etc. It was a great narrative that showed her to be resourceful and persistent. It was also the only essay that I kept on reading because I was actually interested in what she was saying, rather than just because it was my job to read it. That’s good writing!
Blossom said
Okay here’s my takeaway from that. It never occurred to either one of my kids to bring a “leave behind.” coming from a middling HS, no one there would have known to tell them to do so, and even I, a longtime CC parent, didn’t know they should.
However, despite that, each had an interviewer who got behind their applications in a serious way (D’s sought me out and said something like–“we have to get her into [top LAC she wanted to transfer to]” and S’s made follow up calls to us for more info and to stay in touch to support his app to an Ivy.) Both ultimately got into these schools.
So my further takeaway is that a good interviewer can spot the AND if I kid is authentic.
@mathmom, I’m glad it worked out for your son. It took my son a year to be able to move onto another teacher. Being fired was devastating, but he learned from it. (Not to make flippant remarks that other people think are funny, but definitely angered his teacher) His last teacher was wonderful, and just what he needed.
Sorry to derail the thread. Carry on!
I first read CC after my son had applied. He wrote his first essays in a weekend to meet The last possible deadline. (Old timers may recall he was advised by his GC to apply as a junior, with one day before winter break).
Anyway, one essay focussed on the death of both his grandmother that year, and his GF’s stroke that followed. When I read CC, and how one should not be writing about Grandparents, my heart dropped. Even though he spoke of his granDparents as health care professionals in WW2, and how grand mom worked with POWs, it was a sad essay. His other essay showed his sense of humor. Still, I think he got into colleges that looked at scores.
We just never had time to read any books about how to write essays. Or what topics to avoid. He wrote that essay about his GM in a short time. It flowed, needed no editing. In hindsight, not what many colleges wanted.
I don’t see how, in holistic, a “stellar” applicant can get by with a “terrible” essay. The essay is integral to making one a stellar candidate. You just can’t write about, say, how your cat is your best friend and expect adcoms to fall all over you, when the competition is so fierce. Consider what Urena said about taking that 40% down to 14%. Yes, of course it’s brutal. And no, I suspect essays don;t matter so much as you move down to less competitive schools.
Otoh, the interview report can be where a borderline or "maybe/I don’t know"candidate can improve chances. After all, that’s “eyes on.” It can provide additional insights.
Bookworm, both of mine wrote on what has been called the deadly topics, but with insight that showed their adcoms the stuff they were made of.
Thanks, LF. I liked my sons 2 main essays, one serious, the other humorous. But I learned a lot reading CC.
Nonetheless, the tech schools liked him, not HYPenn. ( we had lots of family at Penn, and I was an alumni from H, and his interview went for 1 1/2 hour, but ‘no’) back then. No regrets, he was a good fit for tech schools.
I don’t think that anyone at Harvard was sweating over Yo-Yo Ma’s essay. Good, bad indifferent.
There are three handfuls of exceptional kids applying to college in any given year (I’m not talking about our own exceptional kids who we cherish and adore. But kids whose talents- either intellectual or artistic or both- are extraordinary). I don’t think a mediocre essay keeps those kids out.
One of my kids had a college classmate for whom there are no superlatives that really fit him. A significant contribution to science while in HS (and not a trumped up “Mommy got me a job in her lab” contribution). Recognized as co-author on a very significant paper, and traveling to conferences by his senior year. Gifted musician, taught himself a couple of languages “for fun”, and according to his friends, just the nicest, kindest, most thoughtful person you’d ever meet. This is the kind of kid who can write a mediocre essay and it just won’t matter.
I think the fetish over essay writing (the bootcamps, the summer spent locked inside writing and revising) is crazy. Kids who write well have a built in advantage… just like kids who are good test-takers have a built in advantage. But the likelihood that a phenomenal essay is going to take a kid whose stats are well below the bar and squeak them in… this I’m not buying except in very unusual situations.
I think that where an essay can make a difference is when it makes the kid’s personality come alive to the reader. Someone a few pages back excerpted a comment that mentioned “likability,” and someone else (lookingforward?) pointed out that it’s pretty common for us parents here on CC to know right away, within one or two posts, whether a student who posts here asking for advice is likable, smart, mature, impressive, etc. That’s not true of every student who posts here, but I’m sure we can all call to mind several of them who struck us right away as being simply really great kids. I bet those qualities came through in their essays as well, and I bet it made a difference with adcoms.
Tough example, as YYM applied more than 40 years ago.
We disagree on the general importance of the essay. We seem to agree that a poor stats/activities candidate will not be magically be swung by a good essay. In fact, it might even be a flag. Kids who can think well can produce a good essay. I don’t think it’s rocket science, but most kids are kids, no matter their hs standing. Most kids who make it past first cut are high performers. That doesn’t necessarily make them good thinkers, outside the hs demands or expectations.
@QuantMech, no hard feelings about being “dumped on.” I agree with everything you said. And you were right about the colleges’ motivation for showing up. That high school has about 35% of the class going to ivies and another 30% going to top 20, probably reflecting the stats the kids had to get into the high school. I live in a suburb of NYC. my second kid opted to stay in our local public school system for high school and the experience was light years away from our first kid’s.
@blossom, there was no need to spend hours to parse the 3 essays. We spent minutes…about 10 mins to read each app and then another 10 to discuss each app. These mock meetings only last an hour. When all the kids were otherwise equal & all excellent students, on one quick read of the essays, it became very clear who we wanted to admit, reject or wait list, & why. As an example, The person rejected in my husband’s group came off very dry and dull. And she chose an essay topic that wasn’t common…discussed a painting that hung in her family’s home–as described a trite floral still life, a few flowers in a vase–and how every time she saw it, she peeled back another layer. Except that as it was described, the painting seemed like it was superficial, nothing unique or thought- provoking, & she never explained what those layers were. The kid who got in wrote his essay on something that’s probably a relatively common topic for kids applying to a selective school–his experience working in a lab-- but took an ethical viewpoint and displayed nuanced thought.
It seemed from the exercise that when a school at that level of selectivity has around 5000-10,000 out of 30,000 applicants who are academically qualified with top grades, top scores and outstanding ECs (but not the 3 handfuls of truly exceptional kids you mention above, who I agree will get in no matter their essay) as these applicants were, then it may well come down to the essays and the recommendations bc they can’t take all 5000-10,000 unhooked kids. Because the three applicants, all unhooked, were amazing in terms of numbers & ECs, we selected based on how their voice came through in their essays, the main and the supplemental. The kid with the nuanced essay? Everyone wanted that kid. It was clear what he’d add to class discussions. When we got home and exchanged the applications from our respective groups, all three of us picked the same kids.
It seems that @dustypig experienced this with his/her scholarship review committee. When ppl are otherwise presenting the same outstanding qualifications, and you can only take so many, what else is there to help you cull? The kids who don’t really have a shot can’t be saved by their essay, as you say. What I’d like to know is if our experience in the mock meetings was true to life, then why aren’t the same kids with fantastic essays getting into all of their schools? The only answer I can think of is that the other important deciding factors are institutional needs being met & whether the kid seems suited to the culture/ ethos of the school.
What fraction of US high schools do you think offer college admissions sessions where admissions officers bring actual (redacted) applications for the students and their parents to review?
Apparently, this is not exclusively an event for private schools. Still, it really surprises me that admissions officers would share the actual applications and their outcomes with the next year’s applicants and their parents.
“. But the likelihood that a phenomenal essay is going to take a kid whose stats are well below the bar and squeak them in… this I’m not buying except in very unusual situations.”
Well, of course not. No one is suggesting that a phenomenal essay takes the kid who is dead stats-wise and lifts him up from the dead. We are suggesting that an essay helps to distinguish oneself in a pond of look-alike 2200’s/newspaper editors/3.8’s/varsity tennis players/whatevers.
How in the heck are we supposed tho know what fraction…? (And is it on topic?) Maybe try googling.
I think the essay was a help for my D2 at the very good schools she applied to. I think that because she got personal notes from several saying that it was the best essay that they had read that year. However, I think it helped her not because it was great (although it was), but because she had some interesting and unique professional writing experience on the resume and because the essay talked about her very, very specific goals that might not have been obvious without the backstory. She also has a true talent for self-deprecating humor, so the essay was genuinely funny, surprising and relateable. It also included a mystery that everyone who read it found extremely compelling. I don’t think it would have helped her if she didn’t have the scores/stats, and she wouldn’t have needed it if she had an absolute hook, but it did help her stand out in the context of what she was applying for. It also helped for less selective schools and merit money.