Do two or three sentences in an essay change the reader’s point of view, especially applying to Ivies and other top schools?
– Sundar, a student in California
Yes and no. Even if everything else on your application was impeccable, a two- to three-sentence blunder in your essay, can move you from the admit pile to the reject pile. However, on the other hand, if your application was already weak, two or three Pulitzer-worthy sentences in your essay probably won’t give you a leg up. That said, if everything else in your application is solid, three extremely positive sentences in your teacher recommendation letter can make a difference.
Why?
With acceptance rates at top schools being so low, many of their admissions officers have fewer than three minutes to review the entire application that you spent months working on. Recently, admissions officer Henry Whipple of top liberal arts college, Whitman College, confirmed that he gets only three to four minutes to evaluate an entire application.
Therefore, just two or three sentences of mistakes, though seemingly trivial, can stop an admissions officer from rooting for you.
- You say you’re excited to apply for engineering, but the school doesn’t offer an engineering major.
- You say you’re excited to be in a metropolis like New York when you applied to Cornell, a school in the country, four hours away from any major city.
- You describe yourself as violent, selfish, uncompassionate, and spoiled without any desire to change.
- You admit you hate school and barely made it through high school, but somehow now college will be different.
- Your vocabulary sounds like it’s that of a grownup…maybe your mom or dad.
It’s not a lot of space, but just two or three sentences of any of the above or a combination of them is enough to change your reader’s point of view — negatively.
With the sheer number of applications for schools you mentioned, like the Ivy Leagues and other top schools, admissions officers are trained to look out for those blunders quite quickly so they can spend their time actually advocating for top students who actually took the time to perfect their applications.
On a more positive note, two or three extremely positive sentences from your teacher recommendation letters can sway your reader’s opinion of you. Example: words like “this student was the most memorable, curious, and giving student I’d ever encountered in my 30 years of teaching” or “I’d never been so touched by anyone’s generosity” or another descriptor showing you were a true standout. If everything else in your application was solid, but all of your rec letters boasted just three sentences of worship-worthy words from your teachers, your reader might close your file more likely to advocate for you than before.
Two to three sentences can make a big difference in how you’re perceived, evaluated, and advocated. Even a single word or letter can make a difference. Imagine the dismay when a UCLA reader sees “Stanford” in your essays, or worse yet, “ULCA.” Every bit of your self-presentation matters, so don’t discount the power of a sentence or two.
