Anonymous
Post 06/28/2023 17:26     Subject: So many essays !!! Wtf?
Anonymous wrote:I do not remember so many essays when I applied to college.

So we have the common app essay- great, but every college my kid is looking at requires from 2-4 different additional essays and none of them overlap that much.

Kids have AP courses, sports, work, etc. when the hell are they doing all of this?

Let’s face it, rich kids just pay to have their essays written for them or spoon-fed anyways. It should just be common app essay, GPA, test scores and 2 teacher recs.

I can see why there are so fewer males to females in college.


My kids wrote all of their own essays. And we are "rich." You sound a little off.
Anonymous
Post 06/28/2023 17:18     Subject: So many essays !!! Wtf?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I do not remember so many essays when I applied to college.

So we have the common app essay- great, but every college my kid is looking at requires from 2-4 different additional essays and none of them overlap that much.

Kids have AP courses, sports, work, etc. when the hell are they doing all of this?

Let’s face it, rich kids just pay to have their essays written for them or spoon-fed anyways. It should just be common app essay, GPA, test scores and 2 teacher recs.

I can see why there are so fewer males to females in college.


Stop with the rich kid thing. It isn't true for 99.9% of kids. Why does it makes you feel better to create a scapegoat for a process every college applicant will go through?


yet people always say rich people buy SAT scores thus it's unfair



Test optional proponents freak out if you mention no essays


Yep. You can literally sense their "you know what" pucker when you read their responses!
Anonymous
Post 06/28/2023 17:13     Subject: So many essays !!! Wtf?
Anonymous wrote:I do not remember so many essays when I applied to college.

So we have the common app essay- great, but every college my kid is looking at requires from 2-4 different additional essays and none of them overlap that much.

Kids have AP courses, sports, work, etc. when the hell are they doing all of this?

Let’s face it, rich kids just pay to have their essays written for them or spoon-fed anyways. It should just be common app essay, GPA, test scores and 2 teacher recs.

I can see why there are so fewer males to females in college.


Wonder if ChatGPT will end up changing the college essays. The Stanford head of admissions said that if you know how to use ChatGPT properly it can produce essays that are in the top 1% of all essays that they read...it blew the person away.
Anonymous
Post 06/28/2023 17:10     Subject: So many essays !!! Wtf?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I do not remember so many essays when I applied to college.

So we have the common app essay- great, but every college my kid is looking at requires from 2-4 different additional essays and none of them overlap that much.

Kids have AP courses, sports, work, etc. when the hell are they doing all of this?

Let’s face it, rich kids just pay to have their essays written for them or spoon-fed anyways. It should just be common app essay, GPA, test scores and 2 teacher recs.

I can see why there are so fewer males to females in college.


Stop with the rich kid thing. It isn't true for 99.9% of kids. Why does it makes you feel better to create a scapegoat for a process every college applicant will go through?


Besides the issue is kids that constantly have tutors, who deem themselves “not rich”.
Anonymous
Post 06/28/2023 17:04     Subject: So many essays !!! Wtf?
OP- this is what summer before senior year is for unfortunately. Along with a job/volunteer, possible sports training, etc. But OMG they need to get it mostly done NOW. It's a PITA
Anonymous
Post 06/28/2023 17:01     Subject: So many essays !!! Wtf?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I do not remember so many essays when I applied to college.

So we have the common app essay- great, but every college my kid is looking at requires from 2-4 different additional essays and none of them overlap that much.

Kids have AP courses, sports, work, etc. when the hell are they doing all of this?

Let’s face it, rich kids just pay to have their essays written for them or spoon-fed anyways. It should just be common app essay, GPA, test scores and 2 teacher recs.

I can see why there are so fewer males to females in college.


Stop with the rich kid thing. It isn't true for 99.9% of kids. Why does it makes you feel better to create a scapegoat for a process every college applicant will go through?


yet people always say rich people buy SAT scores thus it's unfair



Test optional proponents freak out if you mention no essays


Because the majority of kids write their own essays. They may have guidance with brainstorming and editing, but most do not "pay someone to write the essay" .
Essays tell a lot more than some standardized test. It is the opportunity to tell the AO a bit more about yourself---whether it is true or not is up to the applicant. And yes for the ones that have 4+ supplementals, it does help weed out those that are not actually interested.
Anonymous
Post 06/28/2023 16:56     Subject: So many essays !!! Wtf?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I do not remember so many essays when I applied to college.

So we have the common app essay- great, but every college my kid is looking at requires from 2-4 different additional essays and none of them overlap that much.

Kids have AP courses, sports, work, etc. when the hell are they doing all of this?

Let’s face it, rich kids just pay to have their essays written for them or spoon-fed anyways. It should just be common app essay, GPA, test scores and 2 teacher recs.

I can see why there are so fewer males to females in college.


Let's face it, you come off in a way I doubt you intend with your saying such a thing. You sound uneducated when you make statements like this.


+1
Anonymous
Post 06/28/2023 16:56     Subject: So many essays !!! Wtf?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:And you wonder why Northeastern gets so many applications! No essays maybe? 😌


The purpose of essays is to select the right students for the school.
Northeastern is already one of the best in this aspect without requiring additional essays, as evidenced by the retention rate.
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/freshmen-least-most-likely-return

Students have put in four years of hard work, and schools have access to abundant information, including personal essays.
There is no need to burden students with unnecessary additional requirements.
Other schools should follow Northeastern's example.


Some claims that Northeastern make use of data engineeirng and AI to select students.

Schools, please do that.

I would trust that a lot more than underpaid biased AOs subjectively reading essays that we don't even know who actually wrote it.

Anonymous
Post 06/28/2023 16:46     Subject: Re:So many essays !!! Wtf?
Don’t apply to so many then.
Anonymous
Post 06/28/2023 16:45     Subject: So many essays !!! Wtf?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This is one of the reasons my DS only applied to State schools - and not the tippy top ones. Way too many essays. I went to college in the mid-80’s and even the Ivy’s only had a couple of essays.


UVA has 3-4 in addition to the common app essay.

We only had one essay extra last year. There were two short answers like less than 100 words.
Anonymous
Post 06/28/2023 16:44     Subject: So many essays !!! Wtf?
Anonymous wrote:OP if your kid wants they can apply to colleges that do not require essays.

California State - no essays and 22 colleges applied to in one sitting.

There's a list of US colleges that do not require essays:

64 colleges

https://blog.prepscholar.com/colleges-that-dont-require-essays


Quite a bad criterion to use though (in picking a college), wouldn’t you say??
Anonymous
Post 06/28/2023 16:42     Subject: So many essays !!! Wtf?
Most of the college-specific ones are short. Often just asking why you picked their school or what you will bring to the community. Those seem like fair questions.
Anonymous
Post 06/28/2023 16:42     Subject: So many essays !!! Wtf?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I do not remember so many essays when I applied to college.

So we have the common app essay- great, but every college my kid is looking at requires from 2-4 different additional essays and none of them overlap that much.

Kids have AP courses, sports, work, etc. when the hell are they doing all of this?

Let’s face it, rich kids just pay to have their essays written for them or spoon-fed anyways. It should just be common app essay, GPA, test scores and 2 teacher recs.

I can see why there are so fewer males to females in college.


Stop with the rich kid thing. It isn't true for 99.9% of kids. Why does it makes you feel better to create a scapegoat for a process every college applicant will go through?


yet people always say rich people buy SAT scores thus it's unfair



Test optional proponents freak out if you mention no essays
Anonymous
Post 06/28/2023 16:40     Subject: So many essays !!! Wtf?
Anonymous wrote:This is one of the reasons my DS only applied to State schools - and not the tippy top ones. Way too many essays. I went to college in the mid-80’s and even the Ivy’s only had a couple of essays.


UVA has 3-4 in addition to the common app essay.
Anonymous
Post 06/28/2023 16:40     Subject: So many essays !!! Wtf?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I do not remember so many essays when I applied to college.

So we have the common app essay- great, but every college my kid is looking at requires from 2-4 different additional essays and none of them overlap that much.

Kids have AP courses, sports, work, etc. when the hell are they doing all of this?

Let’s face it, rich kids just pay to have their essays written for them or spoon-fed anyways. It should just be common app essay, GPA, test scores and 2 teacher recs.

I can see why there are so fewer males to females in college.


Stop with the rich kid thing. It isn't true for 99.9% of kids. Why does it makes you feel better to create a scapegoat for a process every college applicant will go through?


yet people always say rich people buy SAT scores thus it's unfair



+100

The essays are even more apt for cheating than testing. Nobody knows who actually wrote it.