The College Essay

The College Essay Most schools fall in the “just don’t care” box at this point. Having at least one essay score is helpful in case a student decides to apply to a Required college, but it is unlikely to play a role at Optional colleges. We contacted Miami, and they are still maintaining that it is required for placement. If you feel that you would do well or would like to keep all of your options open, then I would encourage you to spend the extra time to take Writing. Either way, it will not hurt your ability to superscore. Son is sophomore who will be taking the September ACT. He is not a great writer, does not like writing, and does not want to take the writing portion. He likely will score in the range and apply to a variety of schools (a couple top [sub-10% acceptance rate] privates and top publics, as well as some less competitive universities and colleges). Do you think lacking the writing score â€" which likely would be average â€" will hurt him? In the same way, you should end your college essay with something that not only summarizes the most important aspects of you but that is also memorable. Memorable endings are poignant, making the reader feel an emotion. Or, they capture a several-line conclusion in one pithy, well-worded phrase or sentence. Or, maybe they end with a simple, clean truth written from the heart. I don’t know of any superscoring school that will not superscore across ACT and ACT with Writing. As you may have read, the essay is becoming less important every year â€" even at Duke. Put another way, would doing the writing help him at schools where it is “optional” assuming his score is not great but not terrible? Warn students not to write about high-minded topics or exotic locales simply to impress the reader. If you really can't find any length guidelines anywhere on the admissions website and you're at a loss, I advise calling the admissions office. Given their testing page, I find it hard to believe that they are rejecting students for not having an essay score. We will be leaving it up, however, until we get clearer guidance from the school. The did say that a single test with an essay is fine. They are so different that they can’t really be compared. Also, we know that the 25th-75th percentiles scores at the most competitive colleges are 8-10, so your essay score should not be a concern. Do not be just another of thousands of applicants that do not make an impression. If you are reading a newspaper article, the writer fades behind the facts and you know nothing about the writer except that s/he can collect, organize, and present the facts that you need to now. You want the admissions reader to say, “Ah, this is a real person writing to me. 8 falls within the 25th-75th range of enrolled students at even Berkeley and UCLA. More important, the UCs are likely to drop the essay requirement this year. That said, I don’t like to stand in the way of students motivated to retest. If he has the time and the desire, he could take the ACT again on Feb 8. He shouldn’t count on his Writing score making a difference. The college essay has to grab the attention of an admission’s reader. It is imperative, then, that the introduction to the college essay capture the reader’s attention and make the reader want to read more. Keep in mind that every college is different and individual admission officers may be influenced by different factors. With that said, the Essay is dying a quick death. They may not be able to give you an exact number (in fact, they probably won't), but they will probably at least be able to tell you how long most of the essays they see are. (And keep you from writing a panicked, 20-page dissertation about your relationship with your dog). So even though there's no word limit, they'd like somewhere in the 4-10 pages range. High school students are not usually writing papers that are longer than 10 pages anyways, so that isn't very limiting.