How Much Do Essays Matter for Ivy League Admissions?

Short answer: Significantly.

Longer answer: The goal of the essays is to positively differentiate yourself from the pool of other highly-qualified applicants. It’s hard to compete on grades — there are lots of straight-A students with about the same number of APs, dual enrollment, and IB credits. You can’t get more than 99th percentile ACT/SAT. You have no control over your letters of recommendation, but those are probably all glowing too.

Once you reach the penultimate pile — the everyone-in-this-group-would-do-well-here pile — the essays and the activities list are your best and perhaps only chance to move the needle.

Fun fact: At the Ivy level, your essays and activities list may be the only things in your application that are actually yours.