<p>Hmm, these SAT scores aren’t “typical”…these grades aren’t “typical”…and these ECs? He/she won *what *contest? Scored *how many *touchdowns? Raised *goats <a href=“nod%20to%20Curmudgette%20:”>/I</a>)? None of that is typical–reject!</p>
<p>OK, let’s not go overboard here. I don’t think the article is really saying anything new. At least for the past 3 or 4 years, there have been posts all over these boards saying, “Let the student’s voice come through in the essay.” That’s all the article is saying - that admissions counselors who have been doing their jobs for a while know generally when a student has written an essay and when an adult or consultant has written an essay. There’s no “rubric” that says, If the essay contains x and so word then it’s by an adult. Or if it’s “too good” then it’s by an adult. </p>
<p>There are different styles of writing and different levels of maturity in writing. I may not be able to tell the difference between an essay written by a 17 year old or a 20 year old, but I bet I could spot the difference between 17 and 40!</p>
<p>Let your student’s voice show through his/her essay, excellent, good, bad, indifferent, and let the chips fall where they may.</p>
<p>I agree with Chedva here. </p>
<p>What admissions is sensitive to are red flags, anomalies in the application. A kid who writes a killer essay when not a single recommendation mentions his/her writing ability is going to raise eyebrows. Mountains, your son is an accomplished writer, it comes through in his application, and admissions would expect an amazing essay from a kid like that.</p>
<p>Of course, the next thing the adult helpers are going to do is write the essay with deliberate mistakes and rough edges.</p>
<p>ZS likely won’t apply to HYYPSM, but she’s always been told that she has a unique voice and I think she does. Scored upper 70s as a sophomore on CR and Writing PSAT, has a job as a professional writer, has writing ECs. Her “voice” is extremely sophisticated but is clearly her own. She plans to submit a few of her published pieces and a couple of graded things, one of which is spectacular so I think it will provide a record of her work. As a side note, she’s doing a program at Barnard (one of about 50 NYC public school kids chosen) with her English teacher in a few weeks. She is so excited about this and I think it’s a stroke of genius for the two to attend together.</p>
<p>sly_vt, Thanks for the reassurance. This second-guessing can sometimes get the better of me.</p>
<p>I believe some students need more time to write well than others. I do not believe that an essay written under time constraints and pressure is a good indication of overall writing skills. Also, in this generation, most students are used to writing on a keyboard versus the pencil and paper approach used on the writing sections of the SAT/ACT. So it is logical to say that an essay written by a student over several days, or even weeks, will be much better than that written on a standardized test. </p>
<p>Also, overall writing quality can be a result of familiarity with a topic or, even more so, ‘passion’. When students can write about something that really interests them or moves them, their writing can be taken to a higher level with much more insight and character.</p>
<p>This has been a concern of mine for years. Both my daughters just suddenly developed “the voice of one who knows” back in middle school. They started producing school writing assignments that I was just convinced they’d lifted from some place. I literally for several years was just mortified by how adult and polished their writing was. It took teachers to convince me it was really their stuff, their voice. I think by the time a student is applying to college, there are ample opportunities to signal to admissions folks that they are extremely accomplished writers - transcripts, recommendations, essay contests, and the reading as well as writing scores on the SAT and ACT. So we weren’t worried about D’s application essays. We worried that they were too risky in content but so far so good. If the non-literary student suddenly produces a super professional application essay, I think it would be very suspicious.</p>
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<p>Yeah, sort of a literary Tufts Syndrome –> “You write too well to attend school here” - with a tacit accusation of fraud thrown in.</p>
<p>If an essay seemed ‘too good’, the reasonable thing would be to look at the actual SAT essay sample, which I believe colleges have access to. You are looking for the authentic (or not) voice in the essay, not for a score.</p>
<p>May be I should have written my D’s essays after all… My poor writing skills would have added a sprinkle of authenticity ;)</p>
<p>ohio_mom: Unfortunately, SAT essays often contain less of the complex and creative diction that might mark a good writer’s application essay. I know mine did, for example. Was this because I slavishly re-edited my college essay until it was a thing of beauty? No.</p>
<p>It was because, on the SAT, if you use very creative wording and subtle diction, it will lose you points. The key to getting a 12 on the SAT essay is to be direct, not overly complex, and make points by relying on simple examples (generally from literature). Unfortunately, comparing the essay to an admissions essay will almost always result in discrepancies.</p>
<p>I disagree with Post #9 above. The SAT I writing scoring methods can punish creative and highly talented writers. I think that the writing portion, the essay, should not be graded, but, rather, it should be sent along with the SAT I math & critical reading scores as a writing sample: this is done with the SSAT exam for private prep schools.</p>
<p>icy: I do like the idea of sending in the writing sample as is (ungraded), since the consistency of the grading is questionable. But that could lead to another problem:</p>
<p>Several years ago, I had a meeting with an admissions counselor for a highly ranked elite prep school, and she was lamenting the fact that they had switched that year from requiring handwritten essays to allowing typed ones. “We’re going to miss the handwritten essays…they tell us so much about the students”, she said wi$tfully. Jeez. Scary.</p>
<p>Another relevant anecdote: I had a 10th grade History teacher who returned a long written report (only writing done for that class) with a grade of “C”, and it included the comment “it appears as if a lot of this is not in your own words.” Guess it was too well written for him to believe I had done it. It was in fact mine, and so I returned with several “A” essays that I had written for English and showed them to him, and he grudgingly changed the grade. The jerk had essentially accused me of plagiarism, and had no proof to back it up.</p>
<p>How can these admissions folks really be that confident about what they’re doing, unless there is a significant disconnect between the essay and all other indicators of the student’s writing ability?</p>
<p>Exactly. @ Chedva, while they are a rarity, there are those few 17 year old girls/boys who write with the complexity and diction of an adult. What if they are penalized just as yayverily was penalized? They can’t explain or send “proof” that their writing is authentic. What if they really <em>hadn’t</em> entered in any essay contests or exhibited their best writing in school writing assignments? They kids who are really so amazing they’re unbelievable- the best kids- will now be punished.</p>
<p>It seems like the college essay will soon become formulaic as well. If you use difficult words badly, you used a thesaurus; the fake pretentious tone is really not appealing, yada yada, I agree. But now, if you use them well, it’s bad too. The only essay that seems to work is the engaging, simple and sweet essay about a noncontroversial topic. But this is supposed to be academia… aren’t they looking for a spark?</p>
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<p>My CC laugh of the day! Thanks for contributing.</p>
<p>My d has occasionally had to peer-edit her classmates’ essays. She shared two of them with me earlier this year, written as response papers to a summer reading assignment. The first was a complete joke - the kid had obviously not even read the book. It was written on maybe a 6th-grade level, with the expected grammatical errors, repetitious reasoning, and mundane vocabulary.</p>
<p>The second was a stunner. There was wit, intellectual curiosity, a unique voice - wow! This kid has won writing awards throughout hs - and anyone who heard him speak would have no doubt the work was his own. He’s just got a gift for writing. Now, an adcom would probably not doubt this writer’s essay, because the context of his application should make clear that this is a kid who can write (no idea of his verbal score, but he’s a NMF, so I imagine it was up there). </p>
<p>My point is that there are some hs kids whose writing is not only their own, but really that good. They can spell ebullient, and use it correctly. (Anne Frank was what, 15? Hers was occasionally an adolescent voice, often more, expressed with a true gift.) I agree with those who suggest that the problem is the need for the media to create a new Crisis of the Month in the college admissions circus.</p>
<p>Keshira, I’m willing to concede that there are excellent teenaged writers, who write beautifully and in depth. But even with those writers, you can tell that they are teenagers. There’s a “feeling” to them that shows that the writers haven’t had a lot of experience out there in the real world (dare I say “innocence” or “sweetness”?). Anne Frank was a splendid writer, but disagreeing with frazzled, I believe that hers was always an adolescent voice. This was based on what she said and how she viewed her world.</p>
<p>There seems to be a feeling in this thread that “writing with an adolescent voice” means writing badly. I don’t think that’s true. And I still believe that, for the most part, admissions officers can tell the difference between a beautifully written essay by a teenager and a beautifully written essay (or a badly written essay) by someone who’s trying to sound like a teenager.</p>
<p>1of42 -
I see your point, but I would be willing to bet that your SAT essay and your CC posts and your college essay still sound, more or less, like the same person. Your SAT essay would be written to spec but it wouldn’t be dreadful, your CC posts (and perhaps your emails to your admissions counselor) would a bit more casual, and your essay would be the best you can produce. </p>
<p>It’s not easy to fake ‘voice’, although I’m sure its been done. I’ve probably reviewed over a hundred essays on CC - and the inconsistancies in voice (between the posts and the essay) seem to come from the essay’s being edited by assorted other people how have <em>changed</em> the words rather than having made suggestions on where the <em>author</em> could do so. A couple of these essays sent up red flags for me, and I’m just a parent looking at essays on discussion board, not an admissions professional.</p>
<p>zoosermom: Congrats on your D’s writing success. Barnard really treasures writers.</p>
<p>DS writes very, very well, but his essay topic “Star Wars” as the template for his life was clearly his own. Haha. No adult would have contributed that!</p>
<p>DD is a great humorist in her writing. Her essay started, “I am a dork.” Also not something I think an adult would have contributed. By some amazing fluke she scored 780 on SAT writing so I think adcoms would give her credit for the writing. The sentiment was clearly hers.</p>
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<p>These kids won’t be punished for their writing. This is why applications require not only a main essay, but also short answers. This is why applications sometimes request graded writing samples or other supplementary material. This is why the Writing portion of the SAT is sent not only as a number, but also, if I’m correct, with a copy of the essay (presumably, Harvard is consulting professors to see whether basics such as syntax, structure, etc. match up, imagery and ‘fluff’ aside). This is why colleges request recommendation letters. As a last resort, this is why colleges sometimes call guidance counselors.</p>
<p>If a kid is truly such an amazing writer as to be unbelievable, but doesn’t have anything other than one college essay to back himself up, or to convince adcoms to admit him (or to dig further)–not a history of strong English grades, not a particularly eloquent interview, not any other halfway decent writing sample–then there are other (larger) problems with the application.</p>
<p>ETA: Someone sent me this while I was reading this thread. So for those wondering how adolescent ‘voice’ can shine through strong writing, enjoy…</p>
<p>[The</a> 25 Funniest Analogies (Collected by High School English Teachers) Writing English](<a href=“http://writingenglish.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2006/09/12/the-25-funniest-analogies-collected-by-high-school-english-teachers/]The”>The 25 Funniest Analogies (Collected by High School English Teachers) | Writing English)</p>