How much does Stern care about ECs?

AoDay
Thu, 04 Feb 2016 21:26:07 +0000

As @adreamer22 mentioned, it’s a holistic application. You will hear stories where applicants will have stated a greater impact due to ECs or academic performance because it is often case by case and the admissions office is looking for applicants with complete skill sets and potential. Some students will have average academic performance but exceptional ECs which can make the difference in their acceptance and vice versa.

As @Fazioli also mentioned, the essay is how applicants are able to tell their holistic story. Applications obviously break out ECs, HS stats, standardized test scores, etc. into structured and digestible forms for the AOs, but the essay is what gives you your voice and opportunity to weave your application’s individual parts to tell the single story they are looking for.

What makes the essay the x variable is that it is, (after everything is all said and done and you’re completing your application), the only thing you can control. It’s difficult for me to view an essay as “fine” as you referred to your own, rather when I wrote and revised my own essay as well as others’ I either felt it was passionate, apathetic, or lacked voice. With passionate essay I developed a strong familiarity with the candidate strictly through their prose and would be able to gain a sense of their personality and application. Essays that were apathetic or lacked voice weren’t necessarily “bad” but they didn’t help myself as the reader bring in the individual parts to form a cohesive understanding of the applicant.