College Essay - Plagiarized?

Applying to College
1

So I wrote what I thought was a great college essay. I’ve always been a pretty creative writer and decided that I needed to make my essay stand out and show the adcoms I’m more than just stats and be able to put a character with the application. I decided to compare myself to a wallet, and talked about how a person can find out anything they want to know about me by searching through my wallet.
I thought it was a great idea, and my English teacher proofread it and said it was one of the best essays she’s ever read. I gave it to my guidance counselor to look over and she said that she had seen an essay with the same ideas before, and the person who wrote it applied (and got accepted) to the same school I’m sending it off to (Georgetown). I had no knowledge that ANYONE had written this type of essay, and I’ve already sent it off to Tulane. Now I’m considering re-writing an essay that took me a significant amount of time just to appease my guidance counselor.
My question is, if my guidance counselor has seen an essay with ideas like this, certainly the colleges have. Would having the same “idea” (comparing myself to a wallet) be considered plagiarism? I know there’s no way that the person who wrote this before me had the same contents in his wallet and that his essay is in no way similarly written to mine, but the idea is still the same. How screwed am I?

Thanks in advance.

2

<p>That's really a tough one. I can see how someone could have thought of this idea, because it doesn't strike me as particularly original. Like you say, it's all in the writing. But if the GC had seen an essay with a similar conceit, and knows that the essay went to Georgetown I'd go our of my way to find another gimmick.</p>

3

<p>That's what I guess I'm doing, I just won't send this one to Georgetown. I think it's a pretty original idea. . .I guess this doesn't bode too well if the colleges find out and I have "Integrity" and "Creativity" checked off as "One of the top few I've encountered" in all the recommendations :p</p>

4

<p>Same idea is no problem. If it's anywhere near the same phrasing, that's a problem.</p>

<p>Just about every "brilliant" or "creative" idea that someone gets for an essay has been done before. Including writing one in haiku. (Don't.)</p>

5

<p>Well if you consider how many people apply each year to Georgetown, even the most original ideas have surely been repeated. If this essay really was that great, I'd stick with it, rather than writing a more "original" essay that might be of a lesser quality.</p>