<p>I'm not asking for ideas or anything, but I just wanted to know, for those of you who are writing application essays, did you guys (or are you going to) get teachers and others to critisize your essays and short answers?</p>
<p>Yesterday we met with an admissions person and she said that they are really looking for the short answers and essays to be in the students own words and style. If your writing is not reflected in the 20 minute essay that is part of the SSAT, they are going to be suspicious of your other writing. My advice would be to just try to show some of your personality and highlight attributes that are not covered in the applications. Just my opinion. In some schools 5 people will be reading the essays and it will be real clear to them if you get excessive help.</p>
<p>don't you have to sign an "honor code" saying that all your work is yours? Im guessing from that, regardless of whether teachers in that school or reps of that school say they would be more than happy to revise your applications, i wouldn't buy it (i have had a couple, but i don't want it to be like some teacher says hey i edited this! while they're reviewing my app and there are blank stares at the teacher and my essay XD)</p>
<p>just work on it yourself, that's key :D</p>
<p>I actually got mines revised for grammar mistakes, typos, and for language, it's practically the same as my rough copy except cleaner and more readable...is that alright?</p>
<p>Yea, it makes it look better and easier to read =]</p>
<p>Hi Glitters,
i just posted this on the links thread, and I thought you might find it useful while preparing your essay. Great advise contained in this article.
Essays</a>, Admission Information, Undergraduate Admission, U.Va.</p>
<p>The way I approach this(If the essay permits peer review):
-Father reviews it(Mostly looking to "Clear up" grey areas and tell me if I am on the right track)
-2 best friends review it(I probably couldn't keep them from it anyway... we all basically spend half the day together)
-Person that went through the whole boarding school process before(Someone on CC infact)
-A girl currently attending Exeter and one attending Episcopal... Both really rip up my essay and show me the "girl's point of view"</p>
<p>If you look at my first and final drafts... Not alot changes. If anything 90% of it is: Word/sentence/paragraph/thought order, vocabulary issues and repeating the same phrase(Sometimes I'll use an adjective too much).</p>
<p>hmm... I'm wondering... What if between the SSAT essay and the admission essay there is a significant difference in quality? For the SSAT essay it is usually on some banal topic and we're only given twenty minutes to write it. I know that my SSAT essay will not be that good, but I've been writing and rewriting my admissions essays for a long time, and I <em>hope</em> they will be good. Will the admissions committee factor in that there was a time difference, and we could actually choose the topics for the admissions essays?</p>
<p>usually your "voice" comes through. i've had to edit papers that were made carelessly in an hour and others that were worked on for days at a time. though the latter is definitely much more "appealing" to our reading preferences, the two have the same core voice</p>
<p>oh noo.
my brain was malfunctioning during the writing essay part of the ssat.
all of my thoughts were jumbled...
:(</p>
<p>thanks!!!
are you all writing in the 5 paragraph essay structure then?</p>
<p>mmm i wouldnt.
"The bad. Ninety percent of the applications I read contain what I call McEssays - usually five-paragraph essays that consist primarily of abstractions and unsupported generalization."
Essays</a>, Admission Information, Undergraduate Admission, U.Va.</p>
<p>or maybe this just applies to college.</p>
<p>I'm not writing a five paragraph essay either. I wasn't planning not to, it just sort of developed when I was writing.</p>
<p>Paragraphs? I never even thought about that 5 paragraph stuff...I don't do that crap. But then again..i did back in middle school. I can't afford to waste any space on the papaer because all of mine have to be handwritten. Plus my ideas just don't fall into a 5 paragraph structure.
Sometimes people just develop a writing identity, like if you don't put your name on it your teacher will be able to guess its you because it "sounds" like you. I personally think its best to just write from what you really feel and then you will develop your own unique voice and portray your personality through your essay. Thats just my opinion though.</p>
<p>you should do the 5 paragraph for the SAT, when the board actually grades the essay (this ais a strong belief i have- since people have to correct loads and loads of SAT essays every year, an average of 2 minutes are spent on each essay. thus, length and structure at the first things that stand out and the last things to be remembered when making a grade.)_</p>
<p>but for the SSAT, I don't think you have to restrict yourself so much mainly because the schools, not the SSAT staff, are "evaluating" not "grading", get what I mean? lol</p>
<p>"For the SSAT essay it is usually on some banal topic..."</p>
<p>The topics are trite, yes, in that they are based on proverbs; but the ones my son had asked him to write about things that I imagine the adcom would want to know like, "Is it easier to begin or end a project?" This would give them some insight into how he tackles problems. The other was, "Is it better to trust everyone or trust no one?" Again, I would want to know what a potential roommate thought about that.</p>
<p>I wouldn't discount the ssat essay. Sure, they realize that you only had 25 minutes to write it and I'm sure they don't expect anything polished. But it does give them an idea of how you might respond to an essay question on an AP exam or one of their own course's exams, if they use essay exams.</p>
<p>I also suspect that they compare them to your admission essays for voice and style.</p>
<p>I would not lose sleep over the SSAT essay. Most, if not all, of the schools we've looked at stressed that "we teach writing." If you look at the course catalog for any school, you'll usually see that freshman English, at least, works on the mechanics of writing.</p>
<p>I suspect it's very useful for the schools to have a sample of your writing, produced without any other help.</p>
<p>most of the prep books (for the SSAT) i looked at said that the most important part of the SSAT was the essay though...
what topic did you guys get? I got quite an easy one- learning from experiences is important</p>
<p>Wait...Isn't the SSAT Essay the LEAST important part of the test and only used as last resort in accepting applicants?</p>
<p>really??
the princeton book I got, and some other people I talked to all said that the essay was the most important for the schools to see how well you could write without any help though</p>