<p>I frequently hear of how important Chicago’s essays are, but are they really the determinant variable when transcripts, grades, and test scores are about equal between applicants? Does anyone know if the essays carry more/less weight for transfers than freshmen?</p>
<p>I’m a prospective transfer and from searching this site, it looks like most (and by most I mean 90%+) of the transfer applicants this year have excellent objective stats. I personally have a 3.94 college gpa, 3.5 hs gpa, and a 33 act and I feel like I’ve brought a knife to a gun fight.</p>
<p>Looking at the accepted freshmen EA stats, it looks like the vast majority of admits are in the top 5-10% and have a 2200/2300+ unless they’re a minority. </p>
<p>I’ve been working on my essays for months but perhaps I’m overestimating the efficacy of their impact on admission.</p>
<p>I do not think it is necessary to spend huge amounts of time on the essays. Just try to write something that expresses who you are and makes you seem interesting. </p>
<p>I started and wrote half of my essay from 4-4:30am one night when i was suffering from insomnia. Another large chunk of it was done after i got home from a Halloween party. I applied EA and got in. </p>
<p>My point is not that i wrote a poor essay, but that the most important thing is that you write about something interesting and meaningful.</p>
<p>Of course the essays matter. They matter everywhere, and especially at the schools that (a) reject a fair percentage of applicants who are numerically qualified, and (b) aren’t accepting people to fill their sports teams, engineering programs, performance programs, where written communication is less important.</p>
<p>“Not Ideas About The Thing, But The Thing Itself”: That’s the title of a Wallace Stevens poem, and that’s what the essays are. Everything else in an application reflects someone else’s assessment of the applicant. Essays ARE the applicant, actual performance of an actual person, that the admissions committee can read and judge for itself. How can that not be more influential than write-ups from 600 alumni interviewers with no inter-rater reliability? Than recommendations from 10,000 teachers from vastly different schools, with vastly different understandings of what constitutes praise? Than 10, or 20, or 30 SAT points? Than slightly different GPAs from vastly different schools, and different teachers within those schools?</p>
<p>It’s the person him- or herself, unique, personal, rich with meaning. Do you want to meet that person, hang out with him or her? Or not? How can that not be massively important?</p>
<p>1) I didn’t have a 2300, a 2200, or even a 2100.
2) I wasn’t ranked in high school, and if I had been, I highly doubt I would have ranked in the top 10% (or, if I did, it would have been because fluff classes like band and art brought me there). In other words, I had room to improve grade-wise within my own high school.
3) I’m not an Russian princess, a future WNBA player, nor do I have anything else about me that is particularly amazing or memorable.
4) I was admitted.</p>
<p>I do know that there were points on my application where I stood out, and my essay was one of them. I was actually telling a friend tonight that while I don’t always feel like I belong here intelligence-wise, I feel like my essay said everything it needed to say about the person I was and expressed it in a way that my admissions counselor probably read it and thought, “Damn, this girl is really going to love this school.”</p>
<p>To me, the essay seems like a great way to give a voice to a sea of 3.7’s and 1400’s, distinguishing one applicant from another. I don’t think a good essay can salvage other gaping holes in your app for which there aren’t explanations, but I do think it can push a “maybe” (as I think that grade/scorewise, I was a “maybe”) into a "yes.</p>
<p>“I personally have a 3.94 college gpa, 3.5 hs gpa, and a 33 act and I feel like I’ve brought a knife to a gun fight.”</p>
<p>You know, the reason that there aren’t more gun-related homicides is that most people don’t actually <em>aim</em> their guns very well. Reread JHS’s and unalove’s posts and give it your best effort.</p>