IU should require applicants to write personal essays

Rather than emphasizing standardized test scores or a dull résumé of extracurricular activities, IU should consider requiring personal essays in the admissions process.

I found it curious I was not prompted to write anything for my application.

I submitted my materials to IU wondering if they would really learn anything about me.
What kind of formula must IU follow if admissions officers can glimpse at a student’s list of extracurricular activities, test scores and grades and decide which applicants will benefit from studying here?

The many hours high school students put into rehearsals and practice are reduced to a few bubbles on a screen.

Prospective students click to indicate what they have done but say nothing of what the activities meant to them, if anything.

A few filled bubbles don’t make students well-rounded.

They don’t signify the level of dedication students put into these activities or how these activities would enhance the projects and coursework they would assume at IU. Including small essays in this section of the application would encourage applicants to put their experiences in a meaningful context.

Personal essays don’t necessarily need to follow this route, either. IU can skip the uninspired questions about the best advice you’ve ever been given and who, in the special cast of people in your life, has influenced you the most.

Why not make an applicant respond to something they’ve seen in the world? A car accident. A work of art. A weird-looking animal. Make a prospective student tell the story of what they imagine would be the perfect first day at IU. Or the worst.
Ask students how they would react to aspects of a university setting to which they might not have had previous exposure. How they might benefit from sharing a class with students from across the state, the country and the world. How they would feel about a middle-aged man condemning them to hell between classes.

Instead of following a formula for bland and forced well-roundedness, the Office of Admissions should search for students who take a sincere interest in the world and are actively engaging that world.

IU could better gauge how it might shape a student and how a student might contribute it through a personal essay more than any other submitted materials, yet it is the one material the University doesn’t require.

If we want to continue to rise in the ranks of public universities, perhaps being more selective could be advantageous.

I would rather sit in class with a student who wrote a thoughtful essay about the Loch Ness monster than someone who exhausted his or her school’s club offerings to look good on paper.

­— ambhendr@indiana.edu