<p>I am a huge believer in an essay carrying a writer’s “voice.” So <em>MY</em> preference is a more conversational tone, although that like does not like mean the word like every like third word. One way to accomplish this is to have the student read it out loud. If some words seem to cause a stumble or seem out of place, then ditch it for a simpler one. </p>
<p>There is some controversy about using contractions in an essay. Personally, I’m all for it. Or should I have said, “I am all for it”…? I think it’s important for application essays to have a certain flow that helps create that “voice” I was talking about. Thesaurusy-words sometimes break this flow.</p>
<p>Maybe Sally can respond to your question. She’s like read like a million essays.</p>
<p>—Robert Cronk, author of Concise Advice: Jump-Starting Your College Admissions Essays, and the upcoming Cracking the Common App Essay</p>
<p>Here’s what I wrote in Panicked Parents’ Guide to College Admissions many moons ago:</p>
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<p>I still stand by that advice today. And, like digmedia, I am a fan of the “conversational” tone, yet I also understand that some students prefer a more formal voice. “Formal” and “natural” aren’t necessarily in opposition. A parent, teacher, or other objective reader who knows the applicant can often discern between “formal” and “forced” and advise accordingly.</p>
<p>But you give me too much credit, Bob. I don’t think I’ve read a million essays just yet … more like half a million. ;)</p>
<p>I suspect that there are fads in terms of what appeals to adcoms in terms of style. My sense from reading things from the professionals (like Sally and Bob) is one kind of essay that works at many schools is a “slice of life” essay that give a senses of the person underneath and that moves from a thoughtful observation about some small incident in that kid’s life to something broader or more general, without being too heavy-handed (“the moral of this story is”). The latter step shows that the kid is indeed interesting, quirky, wry, the kind of person we’d like to have lunch with, … . This kind of essay is not laden with thesaurusy words for most kids. </p>
<p>Independent of the fashion trends in college essays, I would still guess that admissions officers are much more confident about their ability to discern whether a kid wrote the piece than they should be. As I mentioned above, people are quite confident that they can discern who is lying and who is not when they are watching and listening and in fact their judgment is significantly worse than a coin flip. I suspect they have less information than in an essay of a person they don’t know than they do in watching and listening to someone talk.</p>
<p>I totally agree. And a related issue for me is this: Even when a student writes the initial essay, often it goes through many hands before it reaches admission offices. For instance, it is becoming increasingly more common for college essay-writing to become part of the senior English curriculum. So the essay has been evaluated and edited by a teacher before it is submitted. Increasingly, too, students hire private consultants to weigh in, and this “weighing in” can mean anything from providing helpful suggestions to white-washing the original prose beyond recognition.</p>
<p>Granted, sometimes the “too-many-cooks” theory kicks in and the finished product is actually worse than the original. But, often, an essay that admission folks applaud could not have been written by the candidate without significant outside assistance.</p>
<p>If I ruled the world (or at least this crazy corner of it), I would impose a one-time-only application for all college-bound seniors that would be accepted by every college. It would include a couple essays … maybe one long and one or even two short ones … and would be completed in a proctored situation on a single Saturday morning in the fall of senior year. This system would reduce student (and parent) stress immeasurably and would also insure a greater amount of fairness among “competitor” candidates.</p>
<p>It is common for the rich kids to hire someone to write college essays for them. I took a part time job to be the college consultant for an international student (whose parents are very wealthy). I asked the kid to start the draft of her college essay on her own. Then the parent fired me and asked another agent to do the job for her daughter. Because it is expected that their son/daughter shall not need to do anything in terms of college application process. Well, I guess it is the common practice among the rich people. Too bad.</p>
I’ve read a college consultant state that they did a “gazillion” edits on their clients’ essays. Hmmm…that sounds like crossing the line from supposed “editing” or “proofreading” to actual writing of the essay. I’m sure it happens far more often than admitted. Of course no one in Lake CCWoebegon will admit to this happening. Of course not!</p>