Thoughts about your kid's essay?
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Anonymous
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DC is an awesome, incredibly smart and funny, kid, who has an average/lowish GPA from a private in D.C., really strong scores (ACT composite 34), and some really niche interests for extra-curriculars. He's not really come into his own. And definitely a humanities kid, not STEM, who is only looking at LACs.
He spent some time working on his essays, I gave some high-level thoughts, older sibling did too. At the end, the essay was interesting and pretty well-written but I felt like it tried to do some ambitious things but didn't really quite pull together about him. But it was definitely written by him, no question, and to my mind showcased both his very catchy writing style and the fact he hasn't quite integrated all those skills yet. Please give me some assurance that this is not a bad thing? Just now sure what the average looks like. |
Anonymous
| They skim essays really fast. They're not looking to understand the intricacies of your child through his essay. |
Anonymous
| He sounds great, and it sounds like he went about his essay the right way. Try to relax. Everything will work out. |
Anonymous
| My kid wouldn’t even let me see his essay. I’d like to think their essay will help them get into the right level school, for better or worse. |
Anonymous
| Just let him be. Don’t let your worries influence him. |
Anonymous
Same here, haven’t seen the essays. I’m trusting my kid and the process, it will all work out. |
Anonymous
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An admissions officer at Wesleyan said in a virtual session “no one has ever gotten in because of their essay and no one has gotten rejected just because of their essay.”
That made me feel better when thinking about my kid’s essays. |
Anonymous
| Agree that you should trust the kid. Mine wanted to be brutally honest about some gaps and I wasn’t too sure about it. It turned out fine, kid admitted to all the schools on his list. Not sure what the impact of essay was but it certainly didn’t pose a barrier. |
Anonymous
+1. I’m kind of glad DD didn’t let us see her essays. She got into her ED school, so I’m assuming they weren’t horrible. |
Anonymous
| I asked to see the essay after applications were done. |
Anonymous
Why? |
Anonymous
| I think the essays and extra-curricular activities are pretty important. We enlisted reviews on essays and ec list to perfect. It paid off in the end. |
Anonymous
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You've done what you can to help, and the essays demonstrate his writing skill and open the door to who he is, so this is probably all good.
My dd was rejected SCEA (expected deferral), and I hadn't seen essay, so I took a look. It was disjointed and had some cliched and clunky bits, so I'm glad I did before all the RD schools. She reworked it, and it is much better. I also looked over her common app and suggested revisions to some awards and activities. She had left out some things that I thought were impressive, so she tweaked and added a bit there. That's all we can ask at this point. Good luck to your kid! |
Anonymous
| The essay is not important for kids who are clear No’s or clear Yes’. They can have j influence around the middle group, but more so if they give the admissions rep a personal view if the student. Something that would motivate her to advocate for the kid in the discussion. Sounds like your kid’s essay did capture him on some level, and he had integrity (as did you), so I think it will work out. |
Anonymous
| My child struggles with writing. It’s hard because writing has always been one of my strengths and DC doesn’t seem to ever want my help. We had a tutor for test prep who we used to help DC with essays. Tutor mainly helped DC brainstorm and think through possible ideas and DC did all the writing which tutor then proofread. I did get to see the essays and they were much more reflective of my DC than if I had gotten involved. I would not have done it differently. |