<p>Let’s say a student were, hypothetically, to have sliced and diced and reused essays from one college to the next. He applied to perhaps five schools, all of which are in the same tier and communicate with one another. Would they discover his trick? And if so, would they care?</p>
<p>They don’t care. It’s fine and advised to send the same essay to different colleges as long as you don’t for instance, send your “Why I want to go to Harvard” essay to “Wash U”.</p>
<p>I know it’s a myth that Ivies communicate with each other by comparing applicants. I imagine the same is true of other colleges.</p>
<p>I used the same three essays for all of my applications. If any of them noticed, they didn’t seem to care since I got in exactly where I wanted.</p>
<p>No, almost everyone does it. It’s just recycling essays.</p>
<p>As long as it’s all your work, then it really doesn’t matter</p>
<p>I don’t consider this a “trick” at all. It’s his own work. There can be a basic essay, with variations for individual schools or scholarships etc. Just be sure to proof read and send the right essay to the appropriate school. There are lots of anecdotal posts here and on blogs about admissions officers getting essays with the wrong college name/mascot/location listed! And many schools have such totally different essay requirements, so you will need more than just one essay.</p>
<p>Thanks. This is mostly what I thought, until I saw in another thread something from MIT that explicitly warned against cutting and pasting essays between colleges.</p>
<p>Ah, found it:
This sounds pretty damning. It’s written by [Brian</a> Nance](<a href=“http://www.mitadmissions.org/Nance.shtml]Brian”>Bryan G. Nance | MIT Admissions) of the M.I.T. admissions staff; he’s certainly no ■■■■■. What gives?</p>
<p>^yes, but that’s cutting and pasting without proofreading</p>
<p>I think he just means that you shouldn’t copy the whole thing if the wrong name is in it. Make sure that you personalize it for all schools if you did so for one.</p>