India2013

In one of my essays I kind of make an allusion to Marina Keegan's Opposite of Loneliness essay (she was a senior at Yale that died last year, the essay was one of her senior papers I guess). Could this be a risking move?

When I wrote it I was thinking that using that allusion, if an admission officer recognized it, would kind of show how much I am interested in the school.


**by the way, I basically used the line "That night we can't remember. That time we did, we went, we saw, we laughed, we felt. The hats."
It flows really nicely with the essay, i just want to make sure it is seen as an allusion and not plagiarism.

gibby

KEEGAN: The Opposite of Loneliness | Cross Campus | Yale Daily News

Marina's words: "When the check is paid and you stay at the table. When it’s four a.m. and no one goes to bed. That night with the guitar. That night we can’t remember. "That time we did, we went, we saw, we laughed, we felt. The hats."

If you DID NOT credit Marina with your sentence, then what you wrote is NOT allusion, but PLAGIARISM!

If you use that sentence without properly crediting Marina, you might as well throw your application away in the trash can!

Yale Admissions Directors are very familiar with "The Opposite of Loneliness" because it was distributed at graduation in May, as well as published in the Yale Daily News, the New York Times and The New Yorker Magazine.

So, I think it best if you just deleted the sentence altogether!

BTW: Some schools scan essays through software that is meant to weed out plagiarism -- intentional or not. I'm not sure if Yale does this, but I know Harvard does.

India2013

Thank you for the information and the response. I obviously don't want to plagiarize any of her work, but I did want to make some kind of passing reference for many reason that I won't go into here.

Do you mind reading over my essay? I am not really sure if I should try to cite it (with out making the essay sound awkward or contrived) or just take it out.

gibby

I don't need to read your essay to know that using a recent dead girl's published words to show your interest in Yale is absolutely wrong headed. And doing so without citing her will mean your application will be dead-on-arrival -- I am one hundred percent certain of it!

Yale asks "Why Yale?' You could cite "The Opposite of Loneliness" in that essay to show your interest in the school -- but please -- for your own good, do not use her words in the Common App Personal Statement or Yale Supplemental Essay. You seem like a bright kid, write something of your own.

India2013

I already took out that part. If you don't want to read it that's fine.