@DangerDoctor , wow, you kids and your modern technology! I think that is a great idea.
Also, another absolute worst situation if you don’t have a phone that works too well.
If you have a best friend that you really, really trust, you could always share your real essays with them, and do the same concept as the phone idea except this time
You come up with a code word for said friend. Friend knows your commonapp login and has all your essays ready to copy and paste (so like I said, make sure this is a best friend you really trust lol). Again, intentionally leave a few commonapp basic questions blank. After your dad reviews all your essays and is about to send the app in, be like “oh, I have to fill out those basic questions”. Even better to leave blank would be something like a Writing score on a standardized test, something you would have to “look up”.
This is when you send the friend the code word, and they copy and paste all your real essays in. They text you a code word back when done, and then you refresh commonapp, briefly look at one of the essays (I would reccomend one of your real essays having a small difference at the beginning your dad would never notice), then submit.
Again. The phone one might be better, assuming you have a smartphone that works well. Just trying to provide you with options here in case of absolute worst.
^ you can probably pull that only once before your dad gets suspicious so do it for the one school you like best and/or have the best change for.
Okay! Just went on my laptop and confirmed the phone theory! Some more detailed steps in case you are confused:
- Type your essays the way you want them when your dad isn’t around. If this is on the computer, put them on a Google Doc or other accessible notepad you can get to from your phone.
Just make sure to store each essay with its school and question in your phone’s notepad, and make sure it can be easily copy and pasted.
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Log into CommonApp on your computer. When your dad is not around, take away something REQUIRED in the CommonApp such as, what I did was I took out my ACT Writing score and date. Make sure it is something your Dad doesn’t know and can’t easily find (i.e, he doesn’t know your ACT login - if he does, change the password).
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Enter in the essays the way your dad wants them on the computer.
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Before submitting, ask to go to the restroom. Go to the restroom, take your phone with you, and just sit there and login to the Common App with your phone. Paste in your essays. Double check to make sure they are in the right spots, and remember to hit “continue” for all of them so that they save.
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Go back to your computer after “using the restroom.” Fill in your writing score or whatever Common App info you intentionally left out. Hit continue.
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Go back to the submit pages of the applications. I tested this, and it changed from (I haven’t done my essays yet so I just did a sample text) “dad essay” to “my essay”, so you should be good if you do this!
If there is any essay that your dad didn’t edit too heavily and it’s the only essay on a page, you could always check that one to make sure it’s yours, but I am assuring you that you should be fine if you do these steps. 
Oh, and I forgot to mention; you say you are staying up late doing these; so I assume you have a phone and computer, so you could always test it yourself! I did this on Chrome, if it matters any.
I thought you were already getting the GC involved. I doubt opinions on a forum would sway this parent.
@MYOS1634 or he could do them all at once, assuming they have jan. 1st deadlines. Put in all the “dad essays”, but as long as the common app is still not completed, no application can be submitted. Once OP switches all the essays in the bathroom (i would say it’d take at MOST 10 minutes. Probably less than 5), they fill in missing commonapp info and then all applciations can be submitted at once, i would assume.
@DangerDoctor I really, really, really, really, really appreciate your effort!! Thanks so much for checking all of that. This phone theory will be my last effort, for sure, but I’ll test it out today as well just to make sure it’s all working. If that doesn’t work out, your friend theory sounds slightly more appealing. I have told my friends about my situation, and they are shocked and willing to do anything to help. So, I love that theory!
@lookingforward @GnocchiB I did talk to her in his officer. I’m afraid my dad ignored him. My GC emailed my dad; unfortunately, she’s a new GC, so my dad wrote her off very quickly, saying he hasn’t been in the “game” long enough and is just siding with me. I’m going to talk to him once more if all goes south after break.
@MYOS1634 @GnocchiB Thanks! I’m applying to UA-Huntsville, my state flagship (which will give lots in scholarship money), UMich, UVA, Cal, Duke, UCB, UCLA, and MIT. All secretly, of course. I’m not expecting to get into MIT or Duke or maybe even Cal (I applied EECS), but I will get aid from the state flagship and whatever the max merit scholarship is from Huntsville.
@Lindagaf Thank you very much. Really, beyond the two theories, I think I might just submit at 3AM Jan 1 and take all the heat. I’m fine with doing so; it will be appear vindictive to him, but I think that’s the point hahaha.
My mom is a nicer person, but she is the classical, dutiful wife, who tells her husband everything. I appreciate the suggestion, but I just can’t take that chance.
Thanks to everyone. I very, very, very much appreciate the efforts.
No problem! Also hope you are aware the schools you are applying to “secretly”, unless you have fee waivers, do require application fees. Hopefully you are paying these yourself unless you have another plan for paying for these “secret” applications.
Hope all goes well.
Surely your dad knows when apps are due? Don’t leave it so late, heaven forbid there is some kind of last minute problem. Good luck.
Maybe I missed it, but have you already submitted your UC application? The deadline was in November. Check your other schools’ application deadlines, fees, and whether they use the Common App or their own.
Good luck to you. I agree with others that your writing is strong and will be an asset to your applications.
@Otterma Yes, I did.
Do you all know what the most welcoming sight is? Seeing that your father submitted all your January 1st applications without asking and putting in all “my” (his highly edited versions of my essays) in the Common App.
I can’t take it any longer. I just can’t. I can’t. I’m pacing through my room like a madman, screaming my heart out and crying at this. I feel lije I’m going insane. I have so many generous and lovely people like @psywar @Lindagaf @Fishnlines29 @GnocchiB @DangerDoctor help me our and read and edit my essays, and I edit them according to their suggestions, but my dad strikes down every one of them, ridicules them. Like he has no respect for any opinion but his own.
I really can’t take it. I can’t believe such a person could be a massive wall in my life. He, and this process, have transformed me forever. I will never see my family, especially my dad, the same way again. I think of all my lucky friends, with parents who trust them, and I think of my own parents, and I laugh at the difference. He monitors everything, trivializes everything, insists his contrived writing is the gold standard. He spends hours making me sit down with him and look at each edit he’s made, and while I contend them, he pretends to care but just dismisses me. Ultimately, the wasted time has meant I’m not even to re-edit my originals.
The best part is that he acts like this all belongs to him, “I’m not going to let you submit this essay.” Who are you to decide???
I show him the “50 successful Harvard application essays” and his response: just because they’re in there doesn’t meant they’re good, and he proceeds to write the whole book off as a fallacy. I show him a website with opinions of professional Admissions Counselors in respond to the inquiry if parents should edit essays. All respond in negation, but his response: what do they know? We know you well; we should edit your essays!
Honestly, I’ve given up. He wins. I’m tired of his extremely hurtful, traumatic verbal abusing, his calling my writing a “5th grade standard.” He can control what he wants. I’m going to rely on my UC and MIT applications that he didn’t touch (thanks again to @Lindagaf for the wonderful commentary and help for MIT).
Sorry for the rant, again, everyone.
@pocrocodro I’m so sorry that was your new year. Did you end up applying to UA?
Oh my gosh. I’m so sorry to hear. I was just checking back on here to see how things were going. And it’s going worse from what I hear. I think your dad is really not going to take anyone’s advice at this point now. I’d just give up on trying to convince him. I was reading through hoping that maybe things were going to work out with secret submissions (I ended up doing that for NYU and will do that for Bryn Mawr- My parents said I should apply, but then backed out and I honestly didn’t want to give up my work for supplement essays. I was too tired to convince them and the supplements I wrote were daring somewhat.))
Moving forward, I think you should definitely live on campus for wherever you go, even for your state uni. You definitely need to get away from your parents.
Now, are there any other schools to which you may want to apply to? Some might have approaching deadlines, but I think you’re set with the ones you already did.
And keep us updated on how everything goes with admissions. I wish you the best.
Well this answer is too late now but if you’ve won writing awards, and your teachers like your essays, then you are most likely a great writer and the essays were probably great. That is honestly awful parenting and I would be completely ashamed if I were your dad.
I’m terribly sorry he was like this during your application process. You were obviously a very smart kid who had/has a good chance of getting into a top school. Let me know what happens in the admissions process. Your father should be ashamed and you should show him every single response here because I’m sure everyone else here feels the same way. Just to ask, what was your mother’s stance. Did she agree with your father or side with you?
Let us know if you applied to UA and it’ll be great once you get into college and can get away!!
Look, if Harvard deferred you after you submitted your additional essay via email, then frankly, I think you have nothing to lose by doing it for all your schools. I am changing my tune about what I said way back in the beginning of this thread. Your father so desperately wants you to get in, that at least any college knows that he will pay for it should you be accepted. Maybe you should send a brief note to each regional rep for each school. State what happened, ask them to please only consider the attached essays. Maybe they will see it as a sign of integrity. I actually think you have nothing to lose by doing so at this point.
I really feel for you. I am sorry he did this. He may one day realize what a horrible thing he has done, but that doesn’t help you now.
Please keep us posted, and if you can take anything good from something bad, remember this when you have your own children. Remember that despite his actions, you are a better person. You will go to college and you will do great things. That college may not be Harvard, but you are going to stand out. Keep being you.
Did your father not know that by submitting work that isn’t yours, he may have invalidated those applications? This kind of stunt is the sort of thing that can lead to automatic rejection for forgery. Not likely, I know, because they are more likely to just be read as boring, not as written by someone other than the applicant.
Drop a line to the places you really care about. Send them the correct essays. You aren’t the first student they have met who has this kind of nutcase parent. They will have strategies for sorting things out.
Another option (and it only works for one school): Apply to Georgetown University. They don’t take the Common App, they have their own application online so your dad doesn’t have to know you’re applying. You might be able to pull that off behind his back. The application is due on January 10th.