Will MC require application essay?

By Michelle Anstett
Courier Staff

The college application process is one that fills every high school senior with anxiety as he or she spends weeks agonizing over responding to the prompt.

The responses given can range anywhere from a paragraph on “Why do you want to attend [blank] college?” to thorough essays on unconventional topics.

As a result of requiring students to write an entrance essay, a college can determine the best ways to serve its incoming students.

A college can use application essays as a launching point for curriculum reform by recommending ways in which the faculty can adjust the materials they teach in classes, especially introductory-level composition courses, to best serve the students.

Tutors can also prepare for the kinds of problems they may see throughout the year and train more fully to become more able to help every student who needs it.

Of the 14 institutions in the Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM), of which Monmouth College is a member, only one does not require an essay as part of application materials: Monmouth.

When asked why they believe Monmouth does not require an essay, seniors Kaitlin Horst and Kathleen Koelbl thought it was to make the application easier for students to complete.

“The [Monmouth] application is pushed as being free and easy to complete,” Horst said, and having an essay may discourage some students from applying.

In accepting students to ACM schools, vice president for enrollment, John Klockentager, stated that the essay does not play a major role in deciding whether a student will be admitted or not.

He speculated the reason behind the lack of essay is that, “In today’s environment, no one’s ever sure of who is writing” an application essay.

With numerous services dedicated to selling “personalized” essays to students willing to pay, authorship is a major concern for admission officers.

Also, Klockentager said most essay questions are “worded in a general way,” which allows for the use of one essay on multiple applications.

Even though all potential students are not required to write an essay, those deemed “marginal,” as to their status, are asked to complete an essay.

Klockentager said they are asked to come to campus for an interview, complete a writing sample while here and provide two teacher recommendations.

The writing sample, however, has little bearing on whether or not a student is accepted or denied. It is simply a way to determine that student’s desire to succeed as a member of Monmouth College.

Klockentager acknowledged the potential diagnostic purposes of admission essays, but said that authorship also comes into play.

In addition, a student who was able to polish one short essay for an application may not be a strong writer, but that would not be reflected in the essay.

A more effective diagnostic tool, Klockentager stated, would be to have “an in-class essay assignment, which professors use as a launch point.”

There would then be no question as to who wrote the essay, and it would be more reflective of a student’s ability.

“A student’s success at Monmouth College does not depend fully on what is seen in a file, but on that student’s desire to succeed,” Klockentager said.