EssayLens

College lists

Colleges where the essay matters most

Every college says the essay matters. These are the ones whose own Common Data Set rates the application essay very important, the highest level, meaning the writing genuinely moves the decision. At a holistic school like these, a vivid, specific essay can lift an application that is strong-but-not-spectacular on paper.

If your list is full of these, the essay is the highest-leverage thing you can work on. Get an honest, admissions-style read of your draft with the free essay analyzer, then see your odds at each school in the chances calculator.

77 schools on this list

Harvard admits 4.2% Princeton admits 4.4% UChicago admits 4.5% Vanderbilt admits 4.7% Duke admits 4.8% Penn admits 4.9% Northeastern admits 5.6% Dartmouth admits 6.0% Bowdoin admits 6.5% Amherst admits 6.8% Pomona admits 6.9% Colby admits 7% Northwestern admits 7% Swarthmore admits 7.4% Williams admits 7.4% NYU admits 7.7% Rice admits 8% Cornell admits 8.4% UCLA admits 8.7% Barnard admits 9% CMC admits 9.6% USC admits 10% Tufts admits 10.5% Carnegie Mellon admits 11% UC Berkeley admits 11.6% Emory admits 12% Georgetown admits 12% Notre Dame admits 12% WashU admits 12% UVA admits 12.5% Boston College admits 12.6% Davidson admits 13% Harvey Mudd admits 13% Hamilton admits 13.6% Wellesley admits 13.7% Middlebury admits 13.9% Haverford admits 14% Tulane admits 14% Bates admits 15% Grinnell admits 15% UNC admits 15% Denison admits 17% Holy Cross admits 18% Michigan admits 18% Wake Forest admits 18% Vassar admits 19% Sciences Po admits 20% Smith admits 21% Carleton admits 21.8% Olin admits 25% Pitzer admits 25% Reed admits 27% Columbia admits 29% Kenyon admits 31% UC Santa Barbara admits 33% Oberlin admits 34% Mount Holyoke admits 36% Scripps admits 38% Whitman admits 38% Macalester admits 44% BU admits 45% Rhodes admits 50% Emerson admits 51% Bard admits 52% MIT admits 52% USD admits 52% Virginia Tech admits 57% Colorado College admits 58% Yale admits 59% USF admits 60% Stanford admits 61% Sarah Lawrence admits 62% Beloit admits 63% SMU admits 63% Brown admits 65% Hampshire admits 75% Lewis & Clark admits 78%

See your real chances at every one of these.

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