Hello everyone, I am hoping to apply to D3 schools that are ranked high academically (MIT, JHU, Chicago, CMU, etc).
If we assume that a coach at those school levels is willing to give me full support and have gotten a green light for pre-read, just how important or how much do essays matter?
Would an okay (maybe/probably won’t get accepted without athletic hook) essay be enough? Or would a decent (wait-list level) essay be needed?
Any advice or thoughts would be appreciated!
Note: I heard athletic boost for MIT recruits is fairly low so I would appreciate if I could hear about some of the other schools.
No direct experience here, but I worked with a student who is going to an Ivy for a D1 sport. This student has good, not stellar grades, and a below average test score for that school. He/she wrote an excellent essay. Certainly good enough to be “waitlist worthy” by the standard you give. How much did it help? I don’t know, but it didn’t hurt. The college was very clear that they cared most about grades and the student had to keep them up.
If you are looking at academically rigorous schools and submit a mediocre essay, it probably won’t do you any favors. Aim for a decent essay. It’s not that hard to do. There are many ways to get help, including reaching out to teachers and utilizing this website. You can start by reading some of the pinned posts in the College Essay forum.
Even with coach support at some of the schools you mention, admission is not guaranteed. I cannot imagine submitting an application, including essays, which was not the absolute strongest it could be. Being a recruit is not a free pass to skip the boring or hard parts of college application. For most students, especially D3 applicants, it just means that the hard work pays off with an ED acceptance so the student knows where they are going 4 months before RD applicants.
Just take it seriously and write a solid essay. That doesn’t mean you need to hire someone or stress over it, but you should give it the thought and time that it deserves. They aren’t going to be looking for reasons not to admit you but at the same time you are going to be waiting for weeks after you submit the app. You should feel comfortable that you did what you could with the essay.
Most essays will be average. By average, falls within the range of most of the essays the college gets from their applications. It’s rare an essay falls below or above that average even rarer that the essay is going to catapult a studebt who otherwise would not be accepted into the consideration and/or accept zone. Such cases, almost always are not solely the excellence of the writing, but because they open a window into an experience or skill or something about the student that the college wants.
An medical research project and paper, that a lot of kids are including in their app gets an extra punch written by kid undergoing Neuroblastoma immunotherapy in personal life. An essay sets the stage for bringing these experiences together in a way that the life experience and the research activities individually would not.
So, writing some great essay alone not likely to do it. Most all essays, ive been told by GCs and college admissions folks are average. Many painfully so after the first round of admissions readings. But even the stellar essays, not supported by the rest of the application or some resounding circumstance is not going to change admissions status.
You want to avoid cliches, subjectsthat can irritate random readers if you want to avoid a down tick in the essay score, unless you want to take that chance, IMO.
Thank you all for your responses, links, and advice.
I definitely will do my best on the essays but the problem is I’m not the best writer. So I’m grateful for the guidance to the links and will try not to stress too much over it!
Unless you are at a school that has quirky athletic admissions (Haverford, MIT, Chicago come to mind) honestly if you shoot for adequate you should be fine. This is the one time where a perfectly forgettable essay Is ok. Just don’t stand out on the bottom.
Having said that the penalty for not good enough is pretty severe. So I would treat it like you need to write an outstanding essay.
My S isn’t a good writer, so he had his favorite English teacher help him through a few drafts. It still wasn’t great, but that got him to adequate.
Put the same effort into the essay writing process that you put into the sport you’re being recruited for. It’s perfectly acceptable to seek editing help from those better at writing than you. Good luck.
Thank you dadof4kids and GKUnion, this is basically the last thing I have left to do so I’ll treat it very seriously. Definitely don’t want all of my effort to become wasted
@tracky21, actually each of the schools mentioned are among the more unpredictable with coach support and admissions. MIT, Chicago and CMU each tend to over-recruit because being on a coach’s list does not equal admission (exception being a likely letter at Chicago - usually meaning top two recruits). Although under any circumstances I can’t imagine a reason to “blow-off” college essays, I wouldn’t dare even to think about it at the identified schools.
goingthruaphase, thank you for the advice. I also read about another recruit receiving a likely letter at Chicago but do you think coaches will not over-recruit for a likely, and that it’s same as ivys where coaches receive a limited amount to give out?
Most teams need more than two recruits each year. From what I understand, Chicago is a true crap shoot after the first two recruits. In other words, a coach’s list could well be 25-30 recruits long, with the top two receiving likely letters, and the coach hoping to get another handful from the list of 25-30 admitted. There is not a lot of security unless you have received the likely letter. Your best bet would be to talk to the coach about where you stand.