<p>^^ I ran out of time to edit the above, but have you watched this video from Amherst College: <a href=“College Admissions: Inside the Decision Room - YouTube”>College Admissions: Inside the Decision Room - YouTube;
<p>Prior to this Committee Meeting, about 8,000 applications were reviewed for transcript rigor, GPA and test scores. The top 1,000 students are then brought to the Committee and students are either accepted or waitlisted. (The assumption is that the other 7,000 students who didn’t make it to committee were rejected.)</p>
<p>Notice the comments. All the comments save one – where the Admissions Director says “This is a quote from his essay” – are comments made by teachers in their recommendation letters or guidance counselors SSR reports.</p>
<p>So yes, essays do matter, but Admissions Officers rely heavily on their high school counterparts to tell them the truth about an applicant’s strengths and weaknesses. Consequently recommendations are exceedingly important in the process.</p>