"Finding Applicants Who Plagiarize "

cptofthehouse
Tue, 13 Jul 2010 10:13:57 +0000

I have no problem with any subject for an essay when it fulfills its purpose. When it’s because the kids is just trying so hard to be different and to impress the adcoms and avoid being run of the mill, it obscures the personalities. I didn’t see one bit of the student in her Cpt Crunch essay. I saw a student desperately trying to be clever, cute and original. The young lady truly writes well, and has many stories to tell, but just by definition, they tend to be typical.

It’s hard to say how much impact those danged things have anyways. My son’s essay was panned by everyone. Told nothing about his personalty. It was basically a research paper, which I guess does say something about him. But certainly not what anyone including myself, would recommend as a college essay. Two highly selective schools and one other school actually commented on the essay, and someone actually called to personally discuss the thing. Who would have guessed? But this is still not a venue that the gcs would recommend, because who the heck likes to read research papers? Son just hit it lucky that the person reading his app was into the subject matter or referred it to someone who was.

My fourth child is now preparing for the onslaught this fall, and let me tell you, his school had him write the essays over junior years and they have been edited and checked by mentor, English teacher, gc. Many parents have had or will have the essays worked over even further. Sure, there are kids whose essays have not been overtreated but there are too many who have especially for the selective colleges.

In my son’s case, the essays are not likely to make a huge difference as the schools on his list are not particularly selective. All accept more than half of their applicants. Also some of the schools are large, and I cannot believe that they are going to be reading all of those essays or giving them much weight. I know a number of kids who blew off their essays and easily got into state schools where admissions is really by the numbers.