By STEPHEN HEGARTY and ANITA KUMAR
Published November 16, 2003
[Times photo: Thomas M. Goethe]
Plant High's Chelsey Campbell is a prime candidate for top schools, but put off writing essays because ""I feel like it has to be the perfect essay.''
[Times photo: Lara Cerri]
Seminole High senior Julia Fedor is applying to at least five schools, all of which require essays, a task she has had trouble getting started on.
Plant High School senior Chelsey Campbell has the grades to impress even the toughest college admissions committee. Her SAT scores place her among the brightest of the bright.
But the 17-year-old still has to write essays.
"I guess the thing that's holding me up," Chelsey says, "is that I feel like it has to be the perfect essay."
Once a requirement only at upper-tier, out-of-state schools, the essay is now required at three Florida universities and soon will be mandatory at others.
That means many Florida high school graduates must contend with one of the most high-stress chores of the admissions process, and one of the least understood.
Students and their parents often see the essay as a last, best chance to impress. For a lot of students, though, it's not much of a factor.
Admissions officials say the essay can help or hurt students in the middle of the pack. But a sub-par essay generally won't ruin an application from an exceptional student, and a great essay won't overcome a bad academic record.
"For us, the essay is almost meaningless," said John Barnhill, Florida State University's director of records and admissions. "It's more of a tie-breaker."
The essays count for a lot more at the University of Florida and at New College, the state's small liberal arts school in Sarasota. At those universities, essays are more important than the SAT, but not nearly as important as grades and the difficulty of course work taken in high school.
"We're interested in the students' ability to think, through written expression," says Joel Bauman, New College's dean of admissions. "If you're an excellent student, but you turn in a bad essay, we will ask you to do better."
UF considers essays a key part of its "holistic" approach, a tool for getting to know an applicant, at least in a small way.
But some essays look like they were given little thought. A surprisingly high number have spelling and grammatical errors. Some include the wrong school name.
UF once asked applicants to write about someone who influenced them, and to tell how.
"It seemed like 90 percent of the kids wrote about their moms - how great their moms were," says UF admissions director Bill Kolb. "Our students have some great moms, but I'm not sure some of the essays told us much."
Janelle Sununtnasuk, a St. Petersburg High senior with a 4.7 GPA and a 1270 SAT score, understands the need for a solid essay. So far, she has written about how volunteer work has influenced her life and the importance of President Bush's educational policy.
"I want something a little different, something to set me apart," she says. "Also something that hits home and tells them something about myself."
Janelle, 17, whose father is from Thailand, says she knows including her race in her essays can help her, though it's not supposed to. "Hey, if it works to my benefit . . ."
Stephanie Key, 17, a senior at Chamberlain High School in Tampa, says she may turn to the moment in her life when she found Christ. She hopes that will help her essay stand out.
"There are a million kids that look like me on paper," she says.
Despite universal advice to make the essay interesting, many students play it safe. Some fear making a mistake. Some blame the questions.
"You want better essays? Ask better questions," Chelsey says. She says the UF question this year seemed like "your stereotypical college essay question." Chelsey already has written a short essay for UF but still needs to write for Duke and the University of North Carolina.
Julia Fedor, a Seminole High School senior, is applying to at least five schools, all of which require one to two essays. In her Advanced Placement English class, the 17-year-old was assigned to write a sample college essay. She chose to compare an item found in her garage, her black VW Jetta, to herself.
But she is having trouble getting started on the essays for her applications. She keeps telling herself to tackle the task.
