Influence of the essays

JHS
Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:50:32 +0000

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.

“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?

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?