parent1986 - WHY would ANYONE freely admit that? “Hey, did you know we helped Johnny cheat his way into Harvard?” That simply flies in the face of common sense. I agree that adcoms at these top schools have a sense of when an applicant hasn’t written his/her own essays. And I believe that earns the kid a spot in the “reject” pile at the kind of elite schools we’re discussing. It isn’t as if the other applicants can’t write well.</p>
<p>I consider myself a good writer, whom writes anaylitical reports in my job. However I could never have written my D’s college essays as well as she did. The student has the luxary of having their english teacher read & give suggestions on their essays. The parent who writes their childs essay doesn’thave this luxary because they can’t show anyone the essay, since they don’t want anyone to know how low they’ve stooped. I’d say that 95% of the time the student would do a better job</p>
<p>QM, do you even understand how marketing works? It works like this: Harvard Alum News, Princeton Alum News, Yale Alum News, etc: “Look, look: Jane Smith is now a Cabinet Member in the current presidential administration. Guess where she went to college? Here!”</p>
<p>Most college websites, and much of their marketing literature distributed to the general public, feature “Illustrious Grads.” They’re not relying on graduate students to provide those lists.</p>
<p>I could write a more polished essay than my daughter can (no wonder, since I’ve made my living primarily as a writer for 35 years). But I could never write as good an essay as she can, because her essays are supposed to be about her life experiences - which she has had and I haven’t (except vicariously) - and her reaction to those experiences.</p>
<p>Oldfort, yes they were all admitted students and parents. That is why comments that parent written applications are rejected and easily detectable aren’t always true.</p>
<p>Some told it to me as if everyone did it and it was the norm. Others knew it was wrong.</p>
<p>Others stated that they weren’t paying 50K for a lesser school.</p>
<p>I’ve also been told people do it for their kids applying to graduate school.</p>
<p>annasdad: Ironically, the collaborator I mentioned held a faculty position at MIT. I have asked some of my colleagues there whether they might become involved in an overview of the institutional admissions philosophy–not reading individual applications, just discussing the criteria with the admissions staff. The people I’ve talked with are too busy to do that–though not too busy to complain about a small-ish fraction of the students. (Can’t fault them, really–have done similar things myself.)</p>
<p>I should probably qualify my remarks as applicable to science and math faculty, only. When it comes to the Cabinet: Steven Chu, Nobel Laureate. I have no idea where he did his undergraduate work. I doubt that many of my colleagues would either–or care, actually. Maybe Harvard? Marketing works differently in different fields, I suspect.</p>
<p>csdad,
Plenty of applicants do NOT have help from English teachers, GC’s, etc. It is frowned upon at my D’s schools for the applicants to ask their teachers for help; the College Counselors do a very cursory review, basically to make sure the essay is completed. Yet, at many other schools, writing the college essay is part of the English curriculum. I will be lucky to see my D’s essays since she is away at boarding school, also. These things are not standardized at all. Who knows how much the Readers and AdComm know about the conditions for each essay writer?
Anyway, I am a sucker for good writing, quirkiness, being touched!!! I just hope my own D digs deep and reached high in her own essays. They will be her own, no question!!! (for better or for worse… wink)</p>
<p>If those kids were admitted, and adcoms knew those essays were written by someone else, wouldn’t they be condoning cheating? I don’t know if I believe that.</p>
<p>I think that the point is that the AdComms/Readers must NOT have detected that these essays were not written by the applicants.
If this is true.
And if true, how sickening.</p>
<p>Quote:
I’ve talked to too many parents and students at elite schools who blatantly have told me that the parent has written the childs’ application essays.</p>
<p>If I know this, the adcom’s must.</p>
<p>“parent1986 - WHY would ANYONE freely admit that? “Hey, did you know we helped Johnny cheat his way into Harvard?” That simply flies in the face of common sense. I agree that adcoms at these top schools have a sense of when an applicant hasn’t written his/her own essays. And I believe that earns the kid a spot in the “reject” pile at the kind of elite schools we’re discussing. It isn’t as if the other applicants can’t write well.” #frazzled1</p>
<p>Why would anyone freely admit this? Too many glasses of wine over dinner. Old friends -
people I know from my home in addition to people I’ve met on campus. Some of these people I’ve met on campus have become friends and told me as a friend. F/S connections which bestow a special type of camaraderie. The camaraderie you have with someone whose kid is attending the same elite school as you.</p>
<p>My unique ability to elicit information from people, which I’ve acquired as part of my education and profession.</p>
<p>Sickening, yes - but I’m filing that story under “urban legend” until someone proves it to me. It’s possible that a few kids whose essays were written by their parents somehow were admitted to the schools we’re discussing, but I’m never going to believe that it’s a significant number, and, in those cases, I’m never going to believe that their parents wouldn’t be ashamed to admit it.</p>
<p>At schools where admissions are more by the numbers, perhaps adcoms are looking more to confirm a certain level of writing facility, and don’t have time to consider the issue of authenticity. I just don’t believe that the Ivies and comparable schools are full of kids whose parents wrote their essays.</p>
<p>Unless I saw this quantified, and personally saw the supposed parent-written essays, I’m not buying it.</p>
<p>1 - Students often claim that their parents “wrote their essays.” (They lie. Bragging is part of the industry of college admissions. It’s part of the “psyching-out” effort.)</p>
<p>2- Parents often claim that they “wrote their children’s essays.” They also often lie. Part of it is due to ego. They want to believe they had a significant, defining part in that admission.</p>
<p>3 - Parents do often offer feedback on their student’s application essays. (a) Sometimes that feedback is incorporated. When the feedback is modified by the student’s own understanding and words, “the parent’s influence” can be legitimately undetected, and can be constructive, helpful. (b) Sometimes that feedback is not incorporated, meaning that the student thanks the parents and moves on (not changing a thing). (c) Sometimes that feedback is incorporated into an essay that is never submitted, because the student is pleasing Mom/Dad, but is too embarrassed/mortified to submit a parental product, and/or knows deep down this does not reflect himself. Student instead submits original authored product.</p>
<p>Conclusion: Don’t believe everything you hear.</p>
<p>I am a parent and I am yet to write a single essay for my current applicant. I have counted about 30-40 essays for about 15 applications.</p>
<p>Plenty of people do hire counselors outside to get their kids help in writing those essays. They seem to help them think through, and build the essay one sentence at a time. Not sure if this should be considered cheating. </p>
<p>I do like the idea of timed essays if the essays do have the extraordinary value people seem to attribute to them since the evaluation does nt seem fair if there is excess weightage to these essays.</p>
<p>I am also in the camp of not believing it. My kids went to the same private school from K, I knew a lot of those parents, had many glasses of wine with them. Since D1 was a junior, most of our conversations have been about college process. People actually whispered when they fessd up about hiring a private college counselor, but to write their kid’s essays? No. We have heard people giving a lot of money to help their kid getting admitted, but out right cheating? It is unheard of, at least in my circle.</p>
<p>I find it interesting that posters who claim to be in the profession of journalism make a point of attempting to discredit other posters, which is essentially censorship, as I see it.</p>
<p>“Discrediting other posters” is not censorship. It’s part of the free flow of ideas. It would only be censorship if I had the power to restrict your ability to express yourself, which I do not - and under the traditional definition of the term, only if I were a government entity who imposed the restriction.</p>