opheliajane

SOS!

I'm a rising senior who has started on the Common App essay. I've found some sections from my own writing samples that I'd like to recycle. The problem is, a lot of these writing samples have been published in the past - mostly as entries for essay contests.

The good thing is that these entries are all credited with my name and high school/location. What worries me, however, is if admissions officers will just run my essay through turnitin, see that it has a high percentage of matching text, and immediately dispose of my application (without clicking on the matching text to see that I was simply reusing my own writing.)

Is the above scenario likely? Or do most committees scrutinize the essays more thoroughly than a cursory glance for plagiarism?

Thank you for helping a stressed-out college hopeful.

MD Mom

Ooooohhh. This is tricky. Turnitin has really complicated things. My gut reaction would be to start fresh with new admissions essays because it would not be worth the risk of someone checking and thinking you had taken someone else's work. For a good writer, which you must be if you have submitted to contests, the writing should come easy. THEN you can cut and paste and switch those essays around without worry.

What you are doing, in my opinion, is absolutely right. The dilemma is with Turnitin; someone might check it and not know that it was your work all along.

At my daughter's school four years ago, they worked on essays in their junior year English classes that could be used for college essays. However, they were never submitted to Turnitin. I think she used part of her class essays for admissions.

Today, the risk of someone checking is small. The question you have to ask yourself is this: would you rather just take the time and write new essays or worry all admissions season that someone may think you lifted your essays? Best wishes. This is an unintended complication of Turnitin, IMO.

EmilyRS

Honestly, I would contact the admissions officer that reads for your region, and explain that you feel like these earlier pieces really show what kind of a person you are, etc etc (so that it doesn't seem like you're just being lazy and don't want to write something new) and you would like to work them in (again, I'd be hesitant to give the impression that you're going to copy and paste them and then be done, but that parts of them you'd like to reuse). Ask if it would be okay. Usually schools will keep your email and put it in your file, so if anything comes up, they would have it on record. You might want to double check with your HS counselor before you do that too. And this might be a good question for the Ask the Dean thing they do here.