Learn to write it now because...

An article in the Chronicle of Higher Education detailed a 25% drop in college applications at Boston College after the addition of an essay component to their application. Yikes.

The article frames the discussion around steps colleges might take to thin the ranks of prospective students by making the application less short-answer and generic. BC hoped to create a meaningful tool to use in the selection process:

One of the new questions mentions St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order, and asks how applicants plan to serve others in the future. Another quotes the author and historian David McCullough, who said during a recent commencement speech there that "facts alone are never enough." The question asks applicants to describe a time when they "had all the facts but missed the meaning."

The college's regular-decision application deadline was on January 6, and Mr. Mahoney expects the new questions to inform many discussions of applicants. 

The article goes on to say how some admission offices see essays as an additional opportunity for some students and while being an additional hurdle for another.

So our work here continues to be one of cultivating writing as an opportunity rather than as an obstacle for students.