<p>My friend and I are both applying to Columbia University ED (both of our own accord, not necessarily because we want to go to college together). Having both submitted our apps on the 1st, we just now decided to give each other’s essays a look. They are remarkably similar, in more ways than simply the idea, and we hadn’t discussed our essays at all up to this point. Basically, I wrote about photography and it’s connection to my childhood and used photography as a vehicle to more broadly discuss my past and self-perception. He did more of less the same thing with film. Some specific lines are eerily similar. Even the construction and progression are similar. It’s kind of hilarious, except that it has me worried about how admissions committees might perceive the similarities if they notice them (assuming that readers are assigned to specific regions, the same reader would see both our essays). Your thoughts?</p>
<p>You know, that seems a very unlikely coincidence. If you didn’t know each other and were from different schools, it would seem more plausible. Are you certain that one of you didn’t read the other’s essay - ever?</p>
<p>it’ll be fine, dw. im sure professional essay readers will realize that your writing styles are different and that they’re on different topics. obviously, if you guys are smart enough to apply to columbia ED, you wont be as dumb as to copy each others’ essays.</p>
<p>absolutely positive. he’s actually living in paris this year, and although we skype a bit we haven’t really discussed college admissions that much at all. i might’ve exaggerated the similarities. The progression isn’t that similar, but we definitely end on a similar note: “As I walk on, my portfolio grows; with each new picture, I recreate myself” and “I move fast through life, always making tracking shots.” And there are definitely parts of the essays that go off in different directions, but then we have lines like “Combine this with my box of tapes, play the images in quick succession, and you will have the illusion of smooth motion. This motion will be me, the human zoetrope” and “In my mind, my photographs and all their inextricably linked memories combine to form a collage of flashing images, sounds, tastes and other less easily classified sensations. This is me.”</p>
<p>Those are the two most similar lines I think, and there aren’t really any others like them. But they’re really similar. If these are suspiciously similar, I don’t know what to do. We obviously both submitted our apps already, and a coincidence like this, though unfortunate, is not intentional and above all, not my fault.</p>
<p>thanks lovex, that’s reassuring</p>
<p>Zoetrope sounds awkward in that sentence. IMO prime example of using vocabulary outside of one’s means.</p>