<p>“There will be some diversity even with a completely talent-based admissions process. And as for personal factors, I really don’t think many of us honestly believe a 500 word essay can tell enough about your personality – people are usually more complex than that. In the end, the burden is on the applicants to develop their talents and make them heard. It simply is not logical to reject someone who demonstrates tons of interest in something and achieves a lot at it in high school, and plans to pursue this something in college, in favor of those who give a favorable response to some personal essay question.”</p>
<p>Depending on the situation and the institution’s goals, it can be very logical to do exactly that.</p>
<p>For instance: an institution can have a choice of many people with sky high stats and extraordinary accomplishments in similar fields, but only has a few chances to offer admission to students who have the necessary stats, and also have written essays about how they managed to do well in school despite being homeless during most of their high school years. </p>
<p>Another example: a school has thousands of applicants with excellent grades and scores who want to be biochem majors and then go to med school, but has very few applicants with qualifying grades and scores who write essays indicating they want to enter fields like the ministry, social work, nursing, criminal justice or teaching.</p>