<p>S just finished writing and submitting a number of essays. As I read them I thought the writing itself was good but the reasoning in some cases seemed somewhat flawed, naive or immature. It was obvious the essays were written by an 18 year old; not a worldly individual.</p>
<p>While I helped him correct a few things, I essentially let him run with what he had done. I figure this is the person he is right now and to present anything else would be a fraud. </p>
<p>But I wonder as the ad coms read such essays whether they cut these kids any slack? Or do they expect everything to be Pulitzer level prose? Also he's applying to liberal arts schools ranked around 50 in USNWR; not Harvard or Stanford.</p>
<p>It seems silly to me that they would expect Pulitzer level prose. I mean, if your S was already writing at that level, why bother with college? Of course, equally silly that they expect student to have cured cancer while brokering peace in a small African nation despite having only one leg.</p>
<p>Don’t quote me, but I think your son’s essays should be fine, especially given his target audience. The more interesting question is, can’t the top schools tell that many of the essays they are reading were polished and finessed, if not completely created, by skilled paid professionals?</p>
<p>OP, one of the schools that admitted my daughter didn’t even READ her essay! I say this because during her visit to Admissions she had said she was applying to one particular program (under some parental pressure), but later she realized it wasn’t for her. So she wrote her application selecting the new program she preferred and her essay topic was why she wanted their school for that program.</p>
<p>When the admit letter came it included an additional letter from the department head of the original program welcoming her to their highly selective group!</p>
<p>(Disclaimer: she is a recruited athlete so this could be part of it. But I still am having trouble believing this one.)</p>
<p>On the whole her essays have been charming and even funny in a naive kind of way. We are 2 for 2 on admits so far. We agreed that I would only proofread each one once, she felt I would never be satisfied if she had to keep bringing them back to me.</p>
<p>I think the standards are going to vary vastly with the school…</p>
<p>The University of Georgia Admissions blog posts essays they say are good. The writing looks like that of mature adults. However, if your child’s essay is perfect, but they are not a 4.0 student, the admissions office may think something is fishy.</p>
<p>Most schools would understandably not want students coached by parents, tutors, etc. when writing the essays. However, my understanding is that it’s OK for students to get input from peers. What if the student’s peer is a great writer?</p>
<p>I ask this because my younger son is a mediocre writer, whose essays are only average. His older brother is a gifted writer, and has given him a lot of advice on improving his essays (much more advice than I would have given). Is this OK to do?</p>
<p>I know that in my son’s case. and I would imagine in a fair number of other kids, that the content itself is not compelling enough to make any reader go WOW. So I think that the genuine quirky teenage way a lot of these kids express themselves is what makes their essay attractive. My son let me read his essay, he had already had his English teacher check it for feedback, so he wasn’t looking for any from me. Was it a masterpiece? No. But I loved reading something in my son’s own voice and told him he did a good job, because he did. I think too many editors and too much feedback makes for a boring essay.</p>
<p>maggiedog, there is endless discussion about how much input is too much. Colleges don’t usually give much guidance here. At least one college my younger son applied to encouraged the applicant to have their essays read by friends, teachers, or trusted adults to make sure they sounded like themselves. I think at minimum a parents should check for typos. I don’t have a problem with someone saying, I understand the point you are making, but you need more examples, or your logic seems muddy here, or it just doesn’t sound like you. What you don’t want to do is rewrite every sentence. It’s clear though that most colleges are NOT looking for a writing sample, they are looking at this as another way to get to know the student. Do they sound like a nice roommate? Do they sound like involved students who will contribute to the college community? Do they show some sort of intellectual spark in the essay that leads one to think you’d love to have them in a seminar? It’s unlikely a single essay will do all of that, but the idea is to get a more complete picture of the applicant. Ideally you give them something that compliments and reinforces whatever good things the teachers and GC are already saying about you.</p>
<p>My main advice is don’t sound pompous, don’t use vocabulary you don’t use in real life, don’t be afraid to be a little lighthearted or even funny.</p>
<p>I think of it as akin to the school projects the kids did in elementary school and middle school. As a parent, you could always tell which projects were done by the student themselves, which had help form the parents and which were done exclusively by the parents. I think the college essays are the same and the admissions officers are smart enough to recognize the differences and act accordingly.</p>
<p>^I wish. My son’s best friend’s essay which I read because they borrowed my computer a day later to send again when Mom reread it and found a typo, sounded a lot more like his Mom than it sounded like him. I hated it. But he still got into Princeton, where he did rather badly. (Still hasn’t graduated while my son has been gainfully employed for a year and a half.) Many other issues going on, but I was always surprised that any college would think that essay sounded like an 18 year old boy.</p>
<p>Colleges can definitely tell the difference between 17 year old writing and 52 year old writing. As a parent, it’s best to stick to proofreading for typos - Better to get overall feedback from an English teacher or GC. Someone once sent me an essay to proof with the word “aforementioned” - a dead giveaway that an attorney parent was providing a little too much help.</p>
<p>What if you normally write sort of formally with those sorts of words, though? I always liked the sort of sweeping, elegant style that you see in romantic literature and have tried to incorporate it into my own work. That style sounds so vivid and alive! :)</p>
<p>I have known a few 18 year-olds who had very mature writing styles. One had trouble with English teachers not believing his work was his own; another received a prestigious full scholarship after the weekend interviews, so at least the committee could see that his essays matched his speaking. I wonder if schools ever take a look at the SAT essay for comparison. I know it is written quickly, but if it is also maturely written, could be confirmation of the application essay’s authenticity.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what a “mature” writing style entails, per se. Does it mean to be concise and still evoke much emotion? I guess one could look at the SAT essay as a “back up” but mine wasn’t very eloquent, although the examples were pretty interesting and probably uncommon.</p>