<p>My DD chose the essay prompt on ethical dilemma and she wrote about a final exam answer key being emailed to her (not at her request) and how she dealt with it. I cautioned her that her essay needed to be very original since this is such a common problem and the admissions officers probably see it a lot. Her essay was terrific. It did a great job of showing who she is and it was thoughtful and fun to read. My concern is that she may making her school look bad to admissions due to this, apparently undetected and unchecked cheating incident. Is this essay a bad idea?</p>
<p>If you feel it is well-written and not “same old same old”, I wouldn’t worry about it casting a bad light on ths school.</p>
<p>A well written and original essay will be viewed as exactly that. I wouldn’t worry about the school - it is not exactly a unique problem that there is some undetected cheating going on…</p>
<p>Slightly OT but somewhat related - S is taking a summer course on ethics at a college campus. His roommate-to-be is in the same course. </p>
<p>We arrived to the room first. The packet for the roommate had the materials / book. The packet for S had only some of the materials and a note saying “Your book won’t be in til Tuesday; please share with your roommate til then.” (I suspect the books were given out alphabetically – the roommate’s name is at the beginning of the alphabet and S is at the end.) </p>
<p>Anyway, part of me thought – well, we could just switch the book and the note and no one would be the wiser and then S could get to the reading first. Then the other part of me thought – is that the first lesson in the ethics class? To figure out who would switch the books? LOL.</p>
<p>Having taken ethics classes, it would not surprise me at all if that were what the professor intended. Some of the discussions we had in that class still bounce around in my head today - 20+ years later!!! Nothing like a Jesuit to get your head spinning…</p>
<p>I agree with your response. A well written and original essay is what admissions will be attending to. I didn’t even consider the fact that my D’s top choices are Jesuit schools. Do you think they will be especially interested in the ethics dilemma question?</p>
<p>At least at Santa Clara, the Jesuits are more on the teaching side of the university not on the admissions administration so I wouldn’t think that it would have any special interest one way or the other.</p>