How truly important are your essays?

bjkmom
Tue, 20 Feb 2018 13:05:05 +0000

You’re right that no one can really pinpoint why they got into a particular school and someone else with similar qualifications didn’t. It is a matter of conjecture, regardless of what we read from so many kids here.

But something must have made the difference. And as long as the schools continue to ask for essays, I wouldn’t be willing to put anything less than my best foot forward in that area. It’s the single piece of the puzzle that speaks to you as in individual, as opposed to a series of statistics.

At the end of the day, no one really knows how much weight a particular adcom may choose to give to a good-- or a horrible-- essay. I would imagine they’re afforded a certain amount of leeway.