<p>I tend to think of the entire package and the role each item plays in moving your app into the accepted pile…
first, you have to have great grades in toughest classes available…
second, you have to have scores that cross a certain threshold…2100 is my own line in the sand…many say you need 1800 to be considered…
third, your recommendations have to strongly encourage the school to take you on…
fourth, your EC’s help color in between the lines, providing real depth to who you are… and what your interests/passions are…how well you integrate with any organization, ie are you a leader? are you a trail blazer? etc etc…
fifth, your essay is your last shot at selling yourself in your own words… I think it is a wonderful opportunity to somehow create a lasting impression of someone the reader will want to have as part of their student body…
finally, interviews give you a chance to provide that impression in person instead of on paper…unfortunately, few schools require them any more… </p>
<p>my son, a recruited athlete, who got a LL from his first choice, did one essay on learning how to knit (an intersession optional class chosen as a joke), and another essay on how he had taken several years of junior professional instruction to teach skiing…how he had always looked up to and liked his own instructors, but when he finally tried it over a February break, he didn’t actually like the job…by teaching others, he learned about some of his own limits… so, he mentioned sports (watching Celtics basketball while knitting in one and skiing in another)…neither are the sport he was being recruited for…but sports do figure in his life…professionally, recreationally and passively … </p>
<p>we have another friend, recruited soccer player who wrote an essay about the angst of kicking penalty kicks to decide a game, he was always chosen and it never got easier… he too received a LL from an ivy…</p>