I agree that colleges look into each students as individuals. They look more than just numbers on the transcripts or standardized test results. Personal essays submitted by students do tell the personal side of applicants and should be honest and sincere and should show passion for higher learning. Check out this blog http://topcollegeprep.com A blog written by a parent for other parents on the issue.
KAPLAN COLLEGE GUIDE
Keep It Honest, Keep It Real
A veteran admissions officer says students only hurt themselves when they attempt to game the system. Colleges want authenticity.
Published Sep 12, 2008
From the magazine issue dated Aug 18, 2008
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Were he alive today, Edvard Munch could visit virtually any high school and randomly pick a senior to model for his famous 1893 painting "The Scream." Most students are already likely to be in the terrified pose Munch depicted. He also could as easily have selected the parents of a college-bound senior. With no compunction, almost everyone in a senior's life (including those having nothing to do with the admissions process) asks inappropriately personal questions—"What is your GPA? What are your SAT or ACT scores? Do you need financial aid? Where are you applying?"—while offering unsolicited and sometimes unwelcome advice. It is no wonder the whole family is ready to scream. The quest to get into college feels overwhelming.
Students' lives are jammed with complicated course schedules, extracurricular commitments and résumé-building summers. When the actual application process begins, everyone suffers from information overload, as well as hyperbole. Catalogs inevitably show trees green or bursting with fall colors. Northern New England and the upper Midwest do include several winter months on the academic calendar, but classes still seem to be mostly outdoors. Everyone has perfect hair, blemish-free skin and perfect teeth.
Pick the correct school and you will, of course, become a Rhodes scholar, Nobel Prize winner, president/ CEO/titan of Industry, managing partner of a major law firm, biomedical wizard—or perhaps, if you plan it just right, all of the above. The college's aura will shield you from everything bad. Conversely, if you don't get into your first choice, life will cease. At least, that's how it seems when you are in the midst of it.
Equilibrium is possible, but it takes fundamental honesty and energy from all parties. Colleges shouldn't oversell, and students need to be realistic about their options based on their grades, test scores, interests and goals. The school that is best for you is the one that suits your talents and work style. Honesty for students also means resisting pressure to make bad choices. Some purchase "successful" application essays online. They may undermine their candidacies because the essay submitted doesn't fit the person described in the rest of the application. I recall with particular pain reading the same essay from three candidates coming from three different countries. We traced that essay to a Web source boasting "Harvard-educated editors improve your college application essay to win admission." All three students were rejected.
Some wealthier families turn to the handful of high-priced independent college consultants who charge—and have clients apparently willing to pay—tens of thousands of dollars for the advice provided. Remarkably, they do this without evidence that the advice actually opens any doors at the most selective colleges. Is this consultancy presumed effective simply because it costs a lot?
For students, a pivotal first step toward control in the application process requires a look in the mirror and asking simply, "Where do I stand?" You may have heard that after a second date, but now it truly demands a self-critical, honest answer. Grades provide some clue to answering the question, but likely not enough. According to the College Board, the national mean GPA among SAT Reasoning Test takers during the 2006–07 academic year was 3.33. While the huge variety of grading systems make using this as a reasonable common standard impossible and ill-advised, it does make a general point. This national GPA continues to increase, meaning B+ is now "average."
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