Importance of why X in t14 Forum

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BoilerByBirth

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Importance of why X in t14

Post by BoilerByBirth » Thu Dec 28, 2017 1:02 am

My numbers are 174 and 3.62 with an engineering degree. I'm planning to blanket the t14 minus HYSB, but since I'm already pretty late in the cycle, in the interest of time, I would love some input about which schools I should be writing why X essays for. With my numbers am I shooting myself in the foot by not doing the why X for every school that includes it as an optional prompt?

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UVA2B

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Re: Importance of why X in t14

Post by UVA2B » Thu Dec 28, 2017 1:26 am

Write a Why X for MVP and below. Even if you wouldn’t attend, apply to all of the T6 for scholarship negotiations.

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KissMyAxe

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Re: Importance of why X in t14

Post by KissMyAxe » Thu Dec 28, 2017 10:20 am

UVA2B wrote:Write a Why X for MVP and below. Even if you wouldn’t attend, apply to all of the T6 for scholarship negotiations.
Agreed for MVP since they love to yield protect students who have too high of numbers for them. But all below? I think you'd be wasting your time with most of the others. Powerscore showed a couple of years ago that the number of high numbered candidates who were waitlisted was really high at MVP but below like 7% at the rest of the T14. I don't think well-written letters could hurt at the others, but I think you're looking at diminishing returns for effort expended. Personally, I'd stick to MVP + Berkeley and be done with it.

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UVA2B

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Re: Importance of why X in t14

Post by UVA2B » Thu Dec 28, 2017 10:43 am

KissMyAxe wrote:
UVA2B wrote:Write a Why X for MVP and below. Even if you wouldn’t attend, apply to all of the T6 for scholarship negotiations.
Agreed for MVP since they love to yield protect students who have too high of numbers for them. But all below? I think you'd be wasting your time with most of the others. Powerscore showed a couple of years ago that the number of high numbered candidates who were waitlisted was really high at MVP but below like 7% at the rest of the T14. I don't think well-written letters could hurt at the others, but I think you're looking at diminishing returns for effort expended. Personally, I'd stick to MVP + Berkeley and be done with it.
Duke should be on that list as well. It’s probably diminishing returns at somewhere like Cornell, but it’s really not that hard to find compelling reasons you’d want to attend a T13 and put that to paper. Some why X are stronger than others, but if the express goal is avoiding YP, providing even marginally decent reasons will help.

Maybe I’m weird in that I could probably write a why X in like 30 minutes without being completely disingenuous. And when you’re trying to avoid YP, that’s probably enough.

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