"Finding Applicants Who Plagiarize "

Hunt
Thu, 22 Jul 2010 10:50:51 +0000

All I can say is that if I were an adcom, I would find it hard to consider the essay as a major element, because I really can’t tell who wrote it. I simply don’t believe the claim that you can tell if the “voice” is really the student’s. How would you know if you can tell? I suppose the essay might be relevant if it conveys a piece of actual information that’s not elsewhere in the application, but I bet that’s fairly unusual.
In fact, it seems to me that only a really bad essay would make a difference. Everything from mediocre up to brilliant doesn’t necessarily tell you much about the applicant.