<p>Do colleges get annoyed if they can tell that someone wrote the essay for another college's prompt? I'm planning on submitting one of my Stanford essays (the roommate one to be exact) to Columbia after tweaking including school-specific information, but an astute officer can probably tell it was originally for stanford. But it works perfectly well for the Columbia "tell us about you" prompt: it really does tell them who I am! Would this be acceptable? (remember I WILL provide specifics for Columbia, but what would they go, "Ohh this wasn't JUST for us, eh? Grrrrr.")</p>
<p>I’m applying to Cornell, chicago, and Upenn</p>
<p>I used the Chicago prompt : How were you caught" to fulfill Cornells dreams and aspirations prompt and Upenns 271 page auto biography. </p>
<p>they wont know!
I tweaked the essays a bit and they felt so perfect!</p>
<p>no worries!</p>
<p>Everyone I have ever met adapts essays they’ve already written to fit similar prompts, and I’ve never heard of a college frowning on that. Just make sure not to do that on the “Why X university” essay; a generic response to that prompt gives the impression that you don’t much care about their school.</p>
<p>I’m applying to Cornell, chicago, and Upenn</p>
<p>I used the Chicago prompt : How were you caught" to fulfill Cornells dreams and aspirations prompt and Upenns 271 page auto biography. </p>
<p>they wont know!
I tweaked the essays a bit and they felt so perfect!</p>
<p>no worries!</p>
<p>Recycling tests is CB’s best friend. Why would recycling essays be a bad thing then? Don’t worry about reusing them!</p>
<p>I think it’s okay if they’re really general essays. Like I wrote an essay about a topic of my choosing to describe myself to Georgetown, and then I reused that essay for Harvard’s optional and Yale’s required essay. The Harvard one was tweaked a bit, and then I shortened the tweaked one for Yale. But it was essentially on a topic of my own choosing, on the thing I wanted to tell colleges, so I thought that was okay.</p>
<p>I think it might not be prudent to reuse an essay topic that’s well-known. A college could probably tell that you were using UPenn’s essay from a mile away. But if the topic is “Tell us something about yourself that we cannot learn from elsewhere in your application,” reuse to your heart’s delight.</p>
<p>I used my commonapp essay for Columbia…</p>
<p>Thanks for all the responses!
Hmm… thanks Millancad I might think again about recycling this particular one because the prompt may be kinda obvious, “Tell us something that will help your future roommate - and us - get to know you better.” I responded in kind of a letter format, starting with “Dear Future Roomie”. Yet I think it’s creative and I really like the essay. It represents me quite well. I’ll think again about it. Hopefully Columbia wouldn’t mind even if it’s an obvious Stanford question (still tailored to Columbia, come on!):P</p>
<p>and am I the only one who finds Columbia’s 250-500 word recommendation is a bit insufficient? My common app essay was around 650, and I really can’t shorten it down to be within reach of 500…</p>
<p>“I used the Chicago prompt : How were you caught” to fulfill Cornells dreams and aspirations prompt and Upenns 271 page auto biography."</p>
<p>Cornell’s dreams and aspirations prompt? What are you talking about? I’m not calling you a liar, you just made me worried that I missed something on their app.</p>