<p>Given the recent cheating scandal where some kids paid other kids to take their SAT exams for them, I wonder if anyone has considered the fact that it is even easier to cheat with respect to essays.</p>
<p>How can a college possibly know if a kid wrote his own essay?. They claim they can tell if the parent wrote the essay, but what if a friend wrote it, or an elder sibling?</p>
<p>Seems like this is a scandal waiting to happen.</p>
<p>I don’t see how they would be able to tell if a parent wrote an essay. I’m sure there are some kids who are better writers than their parents…</p>
<p>Ste:</p>
<p>They claim they can tell if the parents write the essay, because parents have a different “voice”.</p>
<p>Compared to the essays I’ve reviewed, I have a much more ‘mature’ writing voice. If my mother had written the essay, it would likely sound like something you’d expect from a high school freshman, as she dropped out. I really do hope I’m not punished for being gifted. Then again, I got perfect scores on my SAT and ACT writing section which will probably reflect well.</p>
<p>Well, adcoms may not have a full portfolio of applicants’ writing samples, but they do have the SAT W essay score + teacher recs at their disposal.</p>
<p>It would be a red flag if, for example, the applicant’s teacher rated the student with subpar writing abilities (one of the ratings on the common app teacher rec is on “Quality of Writing”), yet the student wrote a brilliant essay with perfect prose and beautiful flow.</p>
<p>Other areas such as awards won or extracurriculars in writing would also suggest to the applicant’s writing abilities (or lack thereof.)</p>
<p>JE - I’m sure you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>Consider, for instance, that applications require you to list your parents’ highest level of education and occupations. If your parents are not English PhD’s yet your teachers applaud you for your mature prose, adcoms will understand that.</p>
<p>I agree with stepabs entirely… but I do agree that they can easily tell. If you ever see older people posting on facebook you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about… they all just have this indescribable tone when they write.</p>
<p>Kids get away with it all the time. That’s why schools shouldn’t wiegh the essays so much for admission</p>
<p>jdlace, that would then be unfair for students who are under uncontrollable circumstances or are at a disadvantage in other areas. I could just as easily argue SAT/ACT scores shouldn’t be weighted heavily because some kids aren’t test takers, and cheating is definitely not unheard of. Then what are we left with?</p>
<p>I only scored an 1810 on my SAT and 28 on the ACT due to math while scoring perfect and near perfect on writing and reading respectively. I wrote a brilliant essay. I shouldn’t be punished because some kids don’t understand the value of earning and deserving their spot.</p>
<p>^
What was your SAT breakdown? </p>
<p>And I agree that essays shouldn’t be weighed heavily, and they likely aren’t compared to other parts of the application sans the interview.</p>
<p>I think the SAT, especially the essay section, is weighted too heavily. The only section that is moderately useful is the math section, because it can help engineering schools see who can handle the courseload.</p>
<p>This is coming from someone who did well (2300).</p>
<p>Saugus, I’ll see if I can get onto the college board site later and I’ll post them.</p>
<p>And Sheep, is everyone applying to engineering now? I feel like I missed the memo. Haha. What do we then do about students who will major in English or even go to an artsy school? That doesn’t make an awful lot of sense to me.</p>
<p>^^
Critical Reading is every bit as useful as math, and for some, equally or more challenging.</p>
<p>The writing section does feel much less important than the other two sections. Probably because most of the MC is nearly automatic if you’ve seen the type of problem before, while math has variations and CR will always be different.</p>
<p>I agree about reading being important too. You have to be able to comprehend written material no matter what your major is. If you don’t understand the text books, you will not do well in school. </p>
<p>I do think you need to have basic writing skills, but not everyone will be a “writer”.</p>
<p>^
The essay doesn’t tell a ton about writing ability given the strict time constraints. Except for the last 5 questions on the first writing section, all of the MC writing questions are on grammar rules. An 800 on this section doesn’t really imply that someone is a good writer, and a 500 doesn’t imply that they aren’t.</p>
<p>I think the Writing section is mostly a test of how good your grasp of English grammar is. I have a friend who got a perfect 800 on it both times he took the SAT, and he is probably one of the most knowledgeable people I know when it comes to grammar. (He jokingly suggests I should go to grammar jail each time I make a grammatical mistake, even over IM. :P)</p>
<p>Fladad was asking about admissions essays. I also think that they are too prone to tweaking by others. I know our school highly recommends students get with their English teachers for a review and editing help.</p>
<p>IMO essays should be one of the most important parts of the application. I’m pretty sure most colleges don’t want a bunch of boring study-robots who’ll live in the library. The essay’s the only way to find out about applicants’ personalities, unless there’s an interview available. Even if someone has a 4.0, 2400, leadership positions in 6 clubs, 8 varsity letters, I’m sure he would get rejected everywhere if he wrote a serious essay about how he’s too smart for society and that he wants to send anyone with less than a 2300 to labor camps in Siberia. </p>
<p>And about cheating on essays, I think it’s far harder to cheat than most people think. Sure, a student could get a teacher or a college counselor to heavily tweak his/her essay or even write it. However, what are the chances that the essay will still sound unique and genuine? Someone in my school (a big-time cheater I might add) got his entire essay written by a professional writer. I read it and it was beyond generic and boring.</p>