<p>Do they stress quality of writing as much or do they focus more on content and creativity?</p>
<p>Also do ECs really matter that much for engineering? I feel like they just want good stats and that my ECs won’t help me much</p>
<p>Engineers need quality of work and creativity. The school is looking to get a sense of your ability to prepare written materials clearly, and also to get a sense of who you are as a person in order to determine whether or not you are a good fit for their program and the class that they are assembling.</p>
<p>With equal GPA’s and test scores, the personality and the writing abilities of the applicants become the tipping point for who is or is not accepted.</p>
<p>Depends on where you’re aiming for. Lower tier schools, yeah they probably will focus on stats. But as you get more and more selective and prestigious (UCB, UCLA, Carnegie mellon, Stanford, caltech, MIT, etc) , essays and ECs will become paramount.</p>
<p>Every hopeful engineer applying to these schools will be pretty bright. Probably in robotics club. Probably good at math, took calc BC. Probably plays piano or the violin or the cello. Probably is introverted, maybe lacks leadership positions. How are you different? How are you cultured? Show this through ECs and your essay. </p>
<p>Depends on the school you’re looking at. Most state flagships are formula schools - they plug your numbers in and if you get a passing score, you’re in. Cornell, Stanford, CalTech, or MIT, they’re going to look at ECs and essays a whole lot closer.</p>
<p>I think you are making a mistake if you don’t think your English and communication skills aren’t important to colleges, not to mention career.</p>