Do I still have a strong chance of getting into my safety schools if my grades are good but my essay isn’t special?Answered
-senior in high school
-safeties in particular are Iowa University and CU Boulder
Earn karma by helping others:
2 answers
Depends on what you define as "strong chance". Iowa's acceptance is 83%, so if you have GPA higher than the accepted range, you're probably all good even if you're essays aren't great. However, if you have terrible essays that show you didn't put the effort/didn't care about the school, then that could decrease your chances, but an "alright" essay won't. You don't need to write amazing essays like for Stanford, just put in some effort and you'll be set.
Hope that helps!
Hi! It honestly depends on how much the schools look at essays. Check this out on College Vine to see how much emphasis and importance they put on the essays. Also, how safe are these schools? If you're talking 90%+, I wouldn't worry too much about it. But if you're only looking at 70% ish, I would say try to focus more on the essays. Lastly, is there a reason your essay isn't "special?" Is it because you don't have time? Because you struggle to write? Because you don't know what to write about? Try to figure out why that is and work on it. At the end of the day, the essay might take you 5 hours at the most. Would you really rather jeopardize getting into a school you want to go to than spend the 5 hours on the essay? I hope that this helps. Best of luck!! :)
Your chance of acceptance
Your chancing factors
Community Guidelines
To keep this community safe and supportive:
- Be kind and respectful!
- Keep posts relevant to college admissions and high school.
- Don’t ask “chance-me” questions. Use CollegeVine’s chancing instead!
Thanks!