Do College Admissions Essays really matter?

[chisness]

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write great essays and you still might not get into northwestern

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I go to Northwestern and at least from my high school anyone with those stats was auto-in. My essays were definitely pretty mediocre. NU has a very high admit rate.

You'll need very good essays to get into HYPS, MC, and you're probably not auto in at some of the lower ivies either. You can probably get into anywhere NU or "worse" without anything too great though.