<p>Do colleges check for plagiarism in personal statements? I was looking back at my personal statement and realized that I sort of plagiarized. I’m very worried about this. I read something a long time ago and made notes during summer and used those notes to write my personal statement.</p>
<p>i doubt it, chill.</p>
<p>i don’t think so, either, unless it is a really really obvious case.</p>
<p>haha “This is one small step for man…”</p>
<p>Nah, they usually only spend 15 minutes reading your essays anyway.</p>
<p>15 minutes? More like 5 minutes. I read an article in which a reporter timed adcoms at some public institutions and most read and made a decision on the whole application in about 10 mins.</p>
<p>However, anyone considering lifting an essay from someone else should not take this as encouragement to do so. Adcoms are likely to recognize it when there’s a big discrepancy between an essay and a person’s English grades and verbal SAT scores.</p>
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It also depends on whether it’s a small LAC or big university.</p>
<p>What PavelB said is true. However, even at small LACs, I doubt that an adcom would take 15 minutes to read one applicant’s essays. Reading about 3 pages of essays just doesn’t take that long. It’s wriiting the essays that takes forever. ;)</p>
<p>read The Gatekeepers. At Wesleyan the admissions officer spent over an hour on each application I think</p>
<p>"read The Gatekeepers. At Wesleyan the admissions officer spent over an hour on each application "</p>
<p>I read it. The adcoms are not spending 15 minutes reading the essays. It does not take 15 minutes to read college essays. I’ve had to read essays and applications for major scholarship contests and internship programs. They are very quick reads, difficult to write, but quick to read.</p>
<p>thanks for the reponse, I hope you guys are right. I don’t even think college admissions officers even have the time to check for plagiarism. But still, my intention was not to take the easy way out. I spent a ridiculously long time to write just 1000 words. It was a paper I think showing parents what becomes of a student after taking honors and AP courses and I reflected using that paper. Sent mine to UCB, UCLA, UCI, UCSD.</p>
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<p>But you must remember that many are very well read and you never know who knows what. It would only have to take one to say I know where that line is from or to know where a phrase that you used stems from. while you may not think they have the time to look son’t ever assume that they won’t (because some have)</p>
<p>Also remember that they also now have access to yoru SAT writing scores and the actual writing sample. If there isn’t a sense of consistency in your writing style a red flag will be raised.</p>
<p>“Also remember that they also now have access to yoru SAT writing scores and the actual writing sample. If there isn’t a sense of consistency in your writing style a red flag will be raised.”</p>
<p>really? they can see your writing sample? i thought it was only the score. does collegeboard send the essay as well?</p>
<p>from the cc thread:
WSJ latest comments on SAT Writing </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=123562[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=123562</a></p>
<p>KAPLAN EXCLUSIVE: New SAT Scoring Policies from 374 Top Schools
To help students better understand how colleges and universities will be evaluating the new SAT, Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions conducted a survey of college admissions officers at 374 top schools nationwide. The survey reveals that many schools are taking a wait-and-see approach to scoring the new Writing section. In fact, nearly half of the survey respondents said they will adopt an interim policy of not counting the Writing score this year. However, many elite universities including Harvard, Dartmouth, Stanford, Brown, and others say that they will give Writing equal scoring weight as the Math and Critical Reading sections. </p>
<p>Kaplan’s survey also reveals key issues such as:
[ol]
[<em>]whether schools will only evaluate the Writing section in aggregate (combining both the grammar and essay components), or if they also plan to evaluate the essay separately
[</em>]whether they will evaluate the essay score for all applicants or only those who are borderline candidates
[li]**whether they will review the SAT essay against application essays **[/li][li]whether they will allow fall applicants to submit old SAT scores [/li]what the policy is regarding the ACT Writing section [/ol]</p>
<p>notice that the UCs are giving the writing section equal weight as the CR and the Math</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.kaptest.com/repository/templates/ArticleInitDroplet.jhtml;jsessionid=4TIPSNXDSXCEVLA3AQJHBOFMDUCBG2HB?_relPath=/repository/content/College/Learn_About_the_Tests/SAT/CO_sat_surveyresults.html[/url]”>404 File not Found | Kaplan Test Prep;
<p>but I don’t think comparing SAT writing to your essay is equitable. I know I write a lot worse on timed essays than ones I do at home. Ah…Sybbie is making me worry all over again. Is there any way to make changes to my personal statements?</p>
<p>I feel doomed. How many adcoms read the same application? And how many adcoms are there reading applications?</p>
<p>depending on the school each application is read by at least 2 readers.</p>
<p>is there anyway to make changes to my personal statement?</p>
<p>bump bump…</p>
<p>sorry to bring this topic back to life but do colleges such as the UCs keep a track of essays? my friend did eactly what vega07 did and he is so worried that somewhere down the line if he doesnt get caught, he will be kicked out of school :(</p>