<p>hannah,
Sorry if I offended you – I’ve just seen way too many typos and painful grammatical errors from top-notch students to say it’s never an issue… </p>
<p>S1 never had his GC look at his essays; she was far too busy. S’s English teacher looked at his draft of his “Why Chicago?” essay and said it was totally inappropriate. This person had previously worked at a major university’s admissions office, too! Of course, that was precisely the version S used, after some tinkering and tightening.</p>
<p>If you have some adult friends who have known you a long time, you might consider them as a resource for taking a look-see at your essays. I find it hard to evaluate essays here because I don’t know you. What I’m looking for is to see how your essay shows who you are, in big ways and in small ones. One way to bring out those subtleties is to ask the right questions to draw more information out of you. Someone who has known you a long time can be a good resource in that regard.</p>
<p>While S didn’t show me his essays until they were almost done, he did come to me with questions about when he became interested in X, or how he learned about Y. He was looking for those threads that became the fabric of his being. For <em>that</em> part I could be of help to him.</p>
<p>Best of luck…you will be so glad when this process is finished!</p>