Essays are overrated?

schitz
Wed, 24 Jan 2007 21:51:31 +0000

I REALLY hope so, because my essays sure sucked.

But it really depends on the college. Cornell, for instance, reads the essay first before looking at any stats, so it obviously taints the impression the adcoms have of your application later on. Other schools won’t place as much emphasis on it. For top schools, since most applicants have similar stats, the essay and recs are what separate the admittees from the rejectees, so the essay will be very important when applying to extremely selective schools.

But I do think having a creative, emotional, heartfelt essay is overrated. I hope (but this is probably due to my terrible essays) that colleges just want to see you can write well and exhibit some level of critical thinking and reflection, while revealing a bit about yourself as a candidate. Often people write about their parents’ divorce or the death of a relative and how profoundly it impacted them and how they persevered despite the odds because they believed in themselves… and it’s just like, well, I’d bet 1 out of 5 applicants are writing about the same thing. Adcoms have read it all, and the topic isn’t going to make your essay standout, so much as your writing style. So yeah, you can write about a generic topic, as long as you write about it well (which I’m assuming someone with impressive stats would readily do).

Wow, it would really suck to have to retake SATs in college. Hope you don’t have to!