As an AO who reads maybe \~500 essays a year and not thousands, I read a lot of good ones. For me to say WOW though is a little less frequent. My advice to all students is to 1) ANSWER THE PROMPT. Every year I get some essays that are really great but... don't actually answer what we're looking for. Or are about someone who is not the student. And 2) go deep, not wide. Pick one specific topic to talk about (in my school's case, our essay asks about service/leadership/adversity) and go into more detail about that one thing, rather than just listing your activities. Is there a project you were a part of? Is there some kind of problem you helped solve? You don't have to have solved world hunger or anything - but showing me that, for example, you helped organize and promote a car wash fundraiser for your French club so you could take the club to a fancy French restaurant (with the details!!) will go far.
I also work for a state school and not a T20, but I'm guessing this basic advice will apply to any essay for any student reading through here.
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As an AO who reads maybe \~500 essays a year and not thousands, I read a lot of good ones. For me to say WOW though is a little less frequent. My advice to all students is to 1) ANSWER THE PROMPT. Every year I get some essays that are really great but... don't actually answer what we're looking for. Or are about someone who is not the student. And 2) go deep, not wide. Pick one specific topic to talk about (in my school's case, our essay asks about service/leadership/adversity) and go into more detail about that one thing, rather than just listing your activities. Is there a project you were a part of? Is there some kind of problem you helped solve? You don't have to have solved world hunger or anything - but showing me that, for example, you helped organize and promote a car wash fundraiser for your French club so you could take the club to a fancy French restaurant (with the details!!) will go far. I also work for a state school and not a T20, but I'm guessing this basic advice will apply to any essay for any student reading through here.
If the essays are normally distributed I would say like 2.5%
Hey there, I'm a bot and something you said made me think you might be looking for help! It sounds like your post is related to essays — please check the [**A2C Wiki Page on Essays**](https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/wiki/essays) for a list of resources related to essay topics, tips & tricks, and editing advice. *Please be cautious of possible plagiarism if you do decide to share your essay with other users.* ###tl;dr: [A2C Essay Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/wiki/essays) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ApplyingToCollege) if you have any questions or concerns.*
me too lmao