<p>I was just blown away to be told by a 1st year MFA student in a highly competitive program that she was coached to make changes to her application and writing sample after it was submitted by an admissions officer and was then accepted. Isn’t this highly unethical? </p>
<p>Highly? I’d say no. Unethical? Perhaps.
Sounds like bull TBH. Why would an admissions officer risk their job to help an applicant unless he knows them personally or if they really wanted him. If she knows them, then that relationship should prevent the student from disclosing this kind of info to anyone since it might get the officer fired.</p>
<p>Was Tina Fey the admissions officer? <a href=“Admission (2013) - IMDb”>http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1814621/</a></p>
<p>lol</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure decisions to MFA programs are made by departments and professors, not “admissions officers.” ANd no, it’s not unethical to have help on the inside. It actually happens all the time, and is a perk of knowing people/having worked with them, and kind of the whole point of networking. It happens for job applications, too.</p>
<p>Yes I understand it happens with job interviews but I guess I thought college admissions were held to a more ethical standard. Seems grossly unfair for someone to game the system to get a personal favorite in by coaching AFTER they submitted their app. It would mislead the other reviewers into thinking the person was more qualified than they were. My understanding is this was not done without the knowledge of the others on the acceptance committee. </p>
<p>Your last sentence: what is your point? What would that have changed?</p>
<p>Yes I understand it happens with job interviews but I guess I thought college admissions were held to a more ethical standard.</p>
<p>There’s nothing unethical about this, though.</p>
<p>Seems grossly unfair for someone to game the system to get a personal favorite in by coaching AFTER they submitted their app. It would mislead the other reviewers into thinking the person was more qualified than they were. My understanding is this was not done without the knowledge of the others on the acceptance committee.</p>
<p>First of all, unfair =/= unethical.</p>
<p>Second of all, many things about graduate admissions (and life) are unfair. There’s someone in my cohort who is related to a faculty member in my department - doesn’t mean she’s unqualified for the role, but she probably did have an advantage in admissions. There are also several former lab managers and research assistants from my department who have an advantage in admissions because they already know the professors they want to work with. They very, very often get individualized attention and coaching when it comes to their personal statements and the other materials they need in order to gain admission to our program. Just like people often get books published because they know someone in the industry, or get invited to speak places and earn notoriety because they have a friend on the faculty, or get jobs because they know someone in the office. It’s not unethical. It’s unfair, but life in general is unfair.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter if the rest of the committee knew about it; they probably wouldn’t have thought anything was wrong with it, either, any more than it would’ve been wrong for you to hire a consultant to help you edit your essay. It doesn’t make you any less qualified; it just means that you needed help and feedback on one aspect of your application to get it better. Even the best writers (especially the best writers!) get feedback and use editors to help them work.</p>