<p>What if college offers choice between 3 short essays or a single long essay?.. Some feel many short essays are preferable as they give the admission people more information about us…while some feel they don’t really care as they have to go through thousands of essays.</p>
<p>Please do suggest</p>
<p>what college is that… so weird</p>
<p>weird time to ask too. you’re applying to somewhere under rolling admissions?</p>
<p>anyway, if I had the time I’d try out both options. see which one works out best.</p>
<p>Just pick the option that works better for you. Obviously the college is giving you a choice to help you (students who are bad at crafting a longer essay can answer a few short answer questions instead; fair, isn’t it?). If a college did not want to read three short essays or a long one, they would not give you the choice in the first place. </p>
<p>At most colleges essays carry only very little weight anyway, so don’t worry about them too much.</p>
<p>^ I doubt essays carry very little weight especially for intels asking for aid…I have seen people with SAT scores of 1700 and 1800 getting into places like Franklin & Marshall just because of their essay</p>
<p>How do you know they were accepted “just because of their essays”?</p>
<p>I doubt essays make much of a difference unless they are really outstanding or really poor. Of course an essay on your intended major and on-campus involvement will naturally carry more significance than an essay on a significant childhood experience (but in the former case I would say that an applicant is admitted because of his interests and expected involvement, not because of his essay).</p>
<p>i meant their essay had a significant impact on their admission…people with 2100 or more in the SAT regularly get rejected from places they should get into because of poor essays…anyway i hope and wish you are right b@rium because my essays were’nt that well written this year</p>
<p>How do you know that the essays had any impact at all?</p>
<p>There are a lot of factors besides essays and the obvious numerical ones (SAT scores, GPA, class rank), especially in international admission. Country of citizenship, noteworthy accomplishments (or lack thereof), financial complications, recommendations*, interviews, prior correspondence with the admission office etc.</p>
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<li>When someone says he has great recs it might not always be the case. An outstanding rec in Germany would praise my intelligence and work ethics but not include out-of-classroom involvement or “subjective” judgments like my sociability or concern for others. An American reader might come to the conclusion that my intelligence and work habits are the only good thing to say about me, so I must be a very boring and socially awkward person.
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<p>Anyway, I am not saying you are wrong, I am just saying that there is no obvious evidence in support of your argument.</p>