How truly important are your essays?

Southern5062
Tue, 13 Feb 2018 03:50:39 +0000

@blews7 I agree with other comments that they are a significant part of your overall application at the more selective schools, as well as most private schools. And I truly do believe they do their best to read them all the way through. That is why it also helps to have a clearly written essay, so they can really see from start to finish what your story / theme is, without having to stop and re-read it.

When I toured UVA last year, the counselor that gave our info session (who was one of their senior admissions directors) was asked how long she spends on each application and she said ‘roughly 15 minutes’. She said with a clearly written essay, that should be enough time to view your transcript, look at depth of coursework, look at your school profile, and read your essays - even the supplements.(UVA has quite a few supplements, although not too lengthy.) Also, she said at UVA they still physically print out each application. They don’t just quickly scroll through on their computer screen. She also said that at UVA, every appllcation is printed and read, and there is not a ‘cutoff’ on SAT’s or GPA’s where they don’t bother to even print / read the application. Granted, if you are way below average for that school, something better jump off the page pretty quickly or you probably are not going to make the cut. But in terms of them really taking the time to read the essays, ever thing that I’ve heard and read is that they really ‘do’ want to try to get to know you better through the essays so they do give them a thorough read-through. I believe this is true of most of the selective and private colleges.