<p>I wrote my college essay and then asked people to take a look at it.</p>
<p>Apparently, one person said that my essay's conclusion had some similar ideas to a published essay in some book. I didn't know and it kind of caught me by surprise. Even though ideas were similar, the writing styles were very different and I believe that my essay is very personal. However, would this "similarity" be seen as plagiarism by colleges?? Unfortunately, I had a philosophy similar to someone else's who got their essay published. =/ Would I have to write a new essay or can I keep it as is and possibly make only minor changes?</p>