<p>The daughter of a friend of mine was recently accepted to a top 25 LAC. She had a good GPA and SATS but lacked in the "leadership" category. She trumped up her application to display "leadership" skills with the full cooperation of her public school staff. This is a bright, sweet, kid, but she is not a top flight athlete. She will not be a college athlete. She was on a high school sports team that made no cuts and on which she made little impact as an athlete. Yet, at application time each senior on this team, 8, including her, was told by the coach they could designate themselves as a "captain" for application purposes. My friend rationalizes this disingenuous behavior by referencing an expensive private school that his boss's daughter attends. The game there is that virtually every graduating senior may lay claim to some sort of "prestigious" award won under supposed competitive circumstance. In reality these are rubber stamp awards given away by the dozen and tailored to the field of study the soon to be freshman intends to pursue in college. Who's watching the store here? Parents and school staffs seem to be pimping thier kids based on less than candid or legitimate circumstances and rationalizing it based on the greater good of thier child and/or the shared malfeasance of other parents. How many honest kids with honest parents and school staffs, public and private, are losing out owed to these trumped up applications. What kind of fact checking goes on by the admissions office? This stuff would not stand up under scrutiny! Come on. Eight captains on one sports team? 72 out of 80 seniors winning "prestigious awards". Am I the only one hearing about stuff like this?</p>
<p>How gullible do you think the adcoms of prestigious schools are? LOL.</p>
<p>Not only trumping up EC's, but getting others to "assist" in essay-writing. When you see the atrocious spelling and grammar from student posters on CC (and I'm not talking about IM-type shorthand and purposeful misspellings), it makes me think colleges should require applicants to sit in a room on campus and write an essay rather than having an interview. I told my daughter, who was adamant that her writing be her own, that while I admire her integrity, she should be aware that her competition didn't necessarily feel the same way. I doubt that adcoms reading 10,000 apps have the time or wherewithal to see through the fake vs. real apps, let alone do fact-checking. Maybe they can institute a policy of random fact-checking and public flogging of offenders that would put the fear of God into applicants. Oh well, not likely. Not to mention the values lesson the kids are getting from schools that encourage application inflation. My philosophy is that if you have to make something up to get into a school, you don't belong at that school and you're only hurting yourself and your future if you go there.</p>
<p>While it has definitely been true in the past that many students receive assistance on their college essays, the implementation of the writing section on the new SAT can now help adcoms recognize discrepancies in students' writing abilities. I recently read an article (I believe in the NYTimes) that said many of the top colleges are comparing our SAT writing samples with our college essays. So perhaps this is a method that can help to put a halt on essay assistance.</p>
<p>My next door neighbor is a professor for a doctrate program at a local university. I was surprised to find out about many of the tools that they are now using to catch fraudulent papers. I assume that the AD's are using similar techniques.</p>
<p>I'm partway through a book titled "The Cheating Culture" by David Callahan. A lot of the book is a preachy rant about the evils of competition and free markets - but the author makes some good points about how people rationalize cheating. He discusses the pressure to get into top schools and how it affects student behavior. He'd probably say that the girl in the OP rationalized the padded resume by saying, "everyone else is doing it, if I don't, I'll be at a disadvantage". The fact that the school seems to encourage resume padding would further erode any ethical qualms.</p>
<p>Cheating on tests and using plagiarized essays fall into the same category of behavior. The combination of high pressure to excel and widspread similar behavior by peers breaks down barriers that might prevent dishonest behavior.</p>
<p>The one bright spot in the story is that at least the high school has a clue about elite admissions. The vast majority of high schools would never do this because they assume that a few years of band and Spanish Club are sufficient to demonstrate that a student is well-rounded. I can't say I agree with their approach, though, and elite colleges will catch on soon enough if the HS sends them too many mediocre students.</p>
<p>Of course, this isn't dissimilar to the grade inflation issue at some top colleges. When any non-vegetative student can graduate with honors, something's not right.</p>
<p>We've seen this trend at our public HS with regard to certain (not all) sports teams. Every year they added a captain until now there's a captain's spot for every senior. This appears more prevalent with girls teams, though. When you field 11 soccer players, do you need 6 captains? Do you need more than 2 captains for a basketball team of only 14 kids? Apparently, yes. This undermines the true accomplishment of the kid on a teams where the captainship has to be earned and there's jsut one. We've also seen quite a few "self-esteem boosting" appointments that were so glaring that the athetes complained en masse to the coach about the appointed individual's unsuitability, particularly their inabiltiy to command the respect of the team.</p>
<p>Another problem that appears to be adversely affecting my son is that of children who have the amazing ability to be in two places at once. At our HS, all clubs meet after school--at the same time as sports practices. (While it is true that some service club activities may occur on weekends, their planning meetings are still after school.) Somehow there are three-season athletes who have miraculously managed to be in multiple clubs. As far as my son was concerned, the two things were mutually exclusive because he believes in seriously committing to what he does, ie. attending all practices. Regrettably, he has had interviewers question why he didn't participate in certain clubs, and these were interviewer he knows also interviewed other kids from his HS. </p>
<p>We'll see when the results come in if the Ivies are as smart as they should be.</p>
<p>Makes you feel kind of bad for the 8 of the 72 seniors that did NOT get an award. At that point, why not just make up eight more "awards"?</p>
<p>Re clubs at school. My daughter is one of three presidents of one club. I guess they share. There is one club at her school that has one member (so, everyone in that club is president!). It seems to me that anyone who wants a "title" or "award" can get one. How seriously do schools take these things?</p>
<p>To have the school encourage this padding is too much. Making everyone captain or coming up with an award for every student...whoa.</p>
<p>Interesting about the captain story. My D was a three varsity sport athlete and for two of her teams, they had no captains. However, there are other achievements one can note and it is not always a "title" that colleges are looking at when noting accomplishments.</p>
<p>I work as a college counselor and when students write a draft for me of an activity resume, I look it over and question things. Sometimes, things are embellished and it is obvious. I make them revise and say it like it really is....be it hours involved, names of what it was, or so forth. I cannot condone embellishments. Sometimes, I know the "real" story and then when I see how it is represented, I make them revise as it is misleading.</p>
<p>I'm guessing that the "team captain" prob didn't mention that all eight seniors were team captains. . .</p>
<p>Cheating (2006 definition) - If I'm doing it, it's not cheating. If you're doing in, and I'm not, well that's cheating. (what are "we" teaching our kids?)</p>
<p>I do hope that colleges are checking essays against SAT writing samples as confedofdunces mentions since this does seem to me to be an area where a huge amount of fraud could take place.</p>
<p>I've wondered why essays play such a large roll in college admissions. I could certainly understand it if a student is being admitted to a writing program, and of course clear writing is important for any educated person, but some students who are very intelligent are not as talented in expressing themselves in writing. This might be especially true of students majoring in math and sciences. Why does the essay greatly influence admissions decisions at so many universities?</p>
<p>Logosprincipal....the essay shows a few things. First, it does demonstrate writing skills. Being able to write is critical for any educated person today.</p>
<p>But another purpose of an essay is to get to know the student beyond the stats and facts on the application. The essay is an opportunity to show one's personality, character, traits, interests, desires, etc. The essay is a chance for the student to show who they are. It makes an impression. It puts a face on all the numbers and other stats. A student can use the opportunity to highlight certain things about him/herself. It is not like a school paper supporting a thesis. So, it is not just a writing exercise. It is a demonstration of who the person is behind the application. It is not meant to tell information but to show the applicant's personality. </p>
<p>For selective schools, a large percentage of the applicants will have the requisite stats. So other things set them apart....be it extracurriculars, essays, recs, and other attributes. </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>By the way, you mention checking the essay against the SAT writing sample. That is one way. But I have also read essays by students who have poor academic records and poor SATs and I can TELL when their parent has written the essay. I can tell there is no way that the student did. If I can tell as a college counselor, I imagine the adcoms will also question essays that don't match up with the rest of the picture. Same with what is IN the essay. A kid claiming this or that needs to jive with what recs say and other aspects of the record.</p>
<p>A very good friend of mine asked another friend who owns a nursing home, to write a letter to college admissions on behalf of her son who had no community service. The letter stated that he had worked for four years volunteering at the facility and was a stellar individual. My son, on the other hand volunteered for 50 hours for four years at our local hospital, and balanced his volunteer time with scholastic and athletic endeavors. The lessons we teach our children at this point in their lives will probably be reflected in their future behavior. Enron, Tyco...</p>
<p>TuftsMom...hi, I'm a Tufts alum! :)
Yes, it is appalling when adults such as parents or teachers condone or contribute to this behavior. There are dishonest folks in this world unfortunately. Sometimes adcoms or others see through it and the dishonest person does not win out. But sometimes they do. So is life. Everyone has to live with themselves.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, cheaters seldom feel remorse. How often do you hear that everyone is doing it as an excuse for cheating? If the essay is going to play such a substantial role in the application, it should be written under supervision like the SAT. This only my opinion as a regular mom, but I just feel that too much weight is put onto this portion of the application that is too easily manipulated.</p>
<p>soozievt,</p>
<p>I can see how the essay portion could show forth an applicant's qualities that aren't easily captured by a standard application. This might be especially helpful to a student who doesn't have spectacular stats. However, there are wonderfully talented people who simply aren't as proficient at producing sparkling essays and, unless they aspire to be creative writers, I don't think that this should be held against them when schools are making decisions on whom to admit.</p>
<p>There should be a significant difference between an essay crafted and reworked for over a month on a subject dear to one (the admissions essay) and one written under pressure on an artificial subject in 20 minutes time(SAT),..</p>
<p>Talking is not writing,..</p>