This comes from the CEO of the best elite college admissions counselling firm in India (65% in Ivy League + Stanford"), but I’m doubting its veracity. Do give your thoughts.
“Academics and SAT account for around 60-65 per cent in the US; extra-curricular activities and recommendations are around 30-35 per cent; and the essay is around 5-10 per cent.”
"Essays matter only 5 to 10 per cent of the entire application. The reason is simple: If your academics and your SAT scores are not good, universities will not even look at your essay.
There’s been a whole halo created around essays and students have come to believe that it is very important. This is absolutely not so. While I must say it is important to write a good essay it is just one small component. Eventually, it is academics, SAT scores and extracurricular activities that matter. Essays make up just 5 to 10 per cent of the entire package."
“To put it another way: First is academics, second is academics, third is academics, fourth is academics and fifth is academics. I’m yet to meet someone who has got into a good college purely because of her ECAs. Yes, I admit you must have them but academics is primary and paramount.”
In general I agree that academics are the most important part of the application.
Look at the common data sets for the schools on your list. They’ll tell you exactly what they consider most important.
As to percentiles, that is just conjecture.
True. I agree with the academics part. But isn’t the essay way more important than a “5-10%”?
What follows is my understanding, but others here undoubtedly have more insight and knowledge
This passage looks at the admissions process the wrong way. Percentage-wise, it maybe correct–or close to correct. But it is misleading.
The grades and test scores get you past the first hurdle. If you don’t get past that first hurdle, then your ECs and LORs and essays are irrelevant.
But once you get past that first hurdle, your grades and test scores are largely IRRELEVANT. In other words, schools don’t line up all the applicants by some mathematical formula and then cut the list once they’ve met some number. No. If one student has a 1540 on the SAT and another gets a 1520, there is no difference. You’ll both get past that first hurdle.
Then it comes down to the rest of your application–to put it simply, what you’d add to the school community, as demonstrated by the LORs, ECs, and essays.
The LORs, ECs, and essays, by themselves, won’t get you consideration if your hard numbers aren’t there. But, they can doom you once you are at that second level of review.
Again–my understanding of the process. And there are obviously different “baskets” of applicants–foreign students are looked at differently than first-gen US students, etc. They each have their own first hurdle.
@RayManta is 100 percent correct. The counselor is correct.
But once in the seriously considered pile, the percentages flip the other way.
Exactly: you have to have the stats to get past that hurdle- but most applicants have the stats. It’s the Essays, LoRs and ECs that bring it home.
I agree with @RayManta , but you will find some schools that put ECs above test scores. Some put essays below ECs and some on the same level. GPA and class rigor are tops everywhere.