I have to respectfully disagree. I know that University of South Carolina also puts great emphasis on the essays (7 of them) to get in. My daughter missed NMF by 1 point in a state where the qualifying score is much higher than others. She really wanted to go to USC so she spent time on the essays. She knows people with lesser stats in the honors and ones with higher stats not in the honors. We all know that a grade point can vary greatly from one school to another. At our public high school (which is very highly regarded) the top 60% graduate with over a 4.0 and the top do the class is graduating with OVER a 5.0!!! So a 4.3 or so really isn’t the same as the school that my daughter went to!
The percentage of kids getting admitted to USC and UK’s honors is also very much smaller than Alabama’s honors college. At USC it is around 5% and I believe Alabama’s is close to 25%.
Shame on anyone that uses outside “help” for essays. I didn’t even read my daughters and I know she didn’t have anyone else read them.