<p>I believe Universities shouldn't rely so much on essay. As it could be written be parent, teacher, websites e.t.c.</p>
<p>I suppose. But most don't. They are certainly important, but if you look at the admissions factors of most institutions (say, on CollegeBoard or Princeton Review), they aren't usually weighted as much as your course load or rank.</p>
<p>That said, when competition is particularly brutal, or if you're a borderline candidate, the essay (in tandem with other pieces) becomes just more important. There's little more you can do to subjectify the process and yet be 100% sure there was no cheating involved. Interviewing every candidate would be overwhelming, and letters of rec could be forged too.</p>
<p>Colleges are well aware of web site essay services, the vulnerable parent's willingness to step in, etc. If I remember correctly, some schools will also compare it to your SAT Reasoning writing portion if things seem completely out of character.</p>
<p>OH my, i completley disagree.
I think the essays should be weighted after you GPA/coursework/classrank and BEFORE your SATs. </p>
<p>A good essay shows so much more about yourself then a test score. </p>
<p>You can do well on the SATs and be a horrible writer and you can also to poorly on the SATs and be an amazing writer. (i think someone graded a Hemingway work using the SAT rubric and he failed.)</p>
<p>You MUST to be able to write well in college, and the essay shows the adcoms that.</p>
<p>your logic doesnt really make any sense. yes you can get your parents to write the essay for you, but you can also get someone else to tak the SATs for you, you can cheat in school and become val etc...the admissions process is largely based on trust, and i think thats a good thing.</p>
<p>Also, adcoms are usually good at telling wether or not you wrote your own essay, so i wouldn't worry about it. Just focus on making your essays amazing, dont freak out about the competition.</p>
<p>You'll get into the college that youre supposed to go to, and you'll be happy.</p>
<p>Plus: virtually everyone who applies to the Ivies (and other top schools) has an impeccable GPA, unbelievably fantastic SAT scores, and amazing extracurriculars... so schools like Harvard depend on the essay to find something unique about the applicant.</p>
<p>I have to say, having read a lot of essay, a good essay is a rare thing. While a well written essay may not compensate for a poor SAT, when adcoms are comparing a bunch of really well qualified applicants, it is easy to eliminate those who can't write.....and there are a lot of them.</p>
<p>The SAT writing section does not test writing ability.</p>
<p>The ACT english section is better.</p>
<p>"You MUST to be able to write well in college, and the essay shows the adcoms that."</p>
<p>Well an amazing essay can be written by a parent of a mediocre writer. Thus an essay can misrepresent the writing ability of an applicant. And comparing of SAT essay to determine whether applicant himself has written the essay is not a good idea -and you yourself have said that- because a mediocre writer can sometimes score above 10 on SAT essay.</p>
<p>"yes you can get your parents to write the essay for you, but you can also get someone else to tak the SATs for you, you can cheat in school and become val etc...the admissions process is largely based on trust, and i think thats a good thing."</p>
<p>At least it is not as easy to cheat in school examination and make someone else take your SAT as it is to pay someone to write your essay.</p>
<p>"dcoms are usually good at telling wether or not you wrote your own essay, so i wouldn't worry about it.:</p>
<p>I have heard and read a lot that adcoms can tell. But it remains unproven. It may well be the rumor to discourage us from cheating.</p>
<p>Okay, let's suppose a student decides to pay someone to write his essay:</p>
<p>He gets into Harvard... but will he succeed at Harvard? Not likely.</p>
<p>At Harvard, he will be surrounded by students who ARE great writers (and actually wrote their own essays), so he would be the weakest one in the bunch. Because he is a mediocre writer among fantastic ones, he would get the lowest grades on his papers, and constantly feel left behind and inferior.</p>
<p>Ultimately, he fails because he cheated his way into a school that he did not deserve to go to.</p>
<p>It's terrible that it is easy for somebody to cheat on the essay, because I think that it is the MOST important part of the application. You don't have to have insight and creativity and personality to do well on the SAT or keep a good GPA. The essay shows what kind of person you are, and I think colleges should concern themselves with the kind of people they accept more than just their median SAT score. </p>
<p>The kind of people that pay someone to write their essay... I feel sad for them, because they will always wonder if maybe if they had written it they would have been accepted... or always be guilty that they cheated their way in.</p>
<p>See, the essay does a lot more than showcase your ability to write. The best essays are written when people bare their souls, and represent something revealing on paper. That, I must admit, is not an easy task. There are those who can write, and those who can write. It's the latter who win the hearts of the adcoms (although the former would also probably get in if they had impeccable numbers).</p>
<p>@ washableglue: Well let's suppose you are a not-so-good writer. You have harvard quality GPA, SAT scores, ECs, and Excellent recs. Will you not let someone else write your essay so that you could get into harvard? Or will you not even apply to Harvard because you think you will feel inferior there?</p>
<p>i also think colleges put too much emphasis on the essay.someone could be a great writer but have a low gpa and low SAT scores...that person is more likely to fail in college than a brilliant student who forges an essay. btw about forged essays, a few years ago a teacher in my country wrote the admission essay for three students as an experiment to see if the adcom can really differentiate between forged essays and real essays...according to the teacher those were the best three pieces of work in his life... two of the students were rejected and one got accepted.</p>
<p>Faizanzubair: If I were the mediocre writer in this hypothetical situation (and I do hope I'm not a mediocre writer because I actually am applying to Harvard!), I would never have someone else write MY essay. I would apply to Harvard, and if my essay impresses the adcoms, I would get in... with the knowledge that I DESERVED to get in. If I get rejected, I wouldn't stress about it, knowing that I did what I could.</p>
<p>Edit: The point of my last post was: Yes! People can trick adcoms and cheat their way into a school. However, they ultimately will not succeed so don't do it!</p>
<p>Well I wish all applicants were as honest as you. But I know quite well that many do in fact cheat regardless of whether they will be successful at their dream school or not. And not being a great writer doesn't necessarily that you are going to be a failure at Harvard. I applied to Harvard and though I have good excellent academic credentials, I think my essay is not Harvard standard as I am not-so-good writer.But I am absolutely motivated and quite confident that I will improve my writing.</p>
<p>Conversely, being great writer does not mean that you are going to be successful at Harvard.</p>
<p>My points: 1)Very few people realize that if they trick adcoms they will not succeed.
2)cheating does not neccessarily mean that your not going to be successful at Harvard or any other university.</p>
<p>
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If I remember correctly, some schools will also compare it to your SAT Reasoning writing portion if things seem completely out of character.
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</p>
<p>I remember seeing a reference to this on a few school profiles too. IMO I don't think the SAT writing is a good way to evaluate writing skills because of the time factor, etc. and most schools aren't even considering it when they look at overall scores. But the fact is adcoms do have access to the actual writing sample if they want to look at for whatever reason.</p>
<p>1)Very few people realize that if they trick adcoms they will not succeed.
--but eventually karma WILL kick them in the you-know-what</p>
<p>2)cheating does not neccessarily mean that your not going to be successful at Harvard or any other university.
--true, I guess there's nothing we can do there except hope that God/Allah/Jove/Zeus will one day strike down those darn cheaters!</p>
<p>Yeah. It does not. but you are no longer the person you started out as. So maybe if some people are willing to change themselves to gain something they deserve success. After all they are sacrificing their identities.</p>
<p>You also forget that if you send an incredible essay, but have no writing awards, no recs from teachers mentioning your writing ability, then it will raise a red flag, imo top schools have so many great applicants that if there is a red flag they don't have to bother checking their sat's- they just move on to the next applicant. Somebody who is a strong math/science person who also wrote like Hemingway would surely have had someone comment about it.</p>
<p>I hope essays are weighted heavily, because I feel very confident with mine and my sats are definitely my greatest downfall. (great gpa though!) stupid s.a.t.</p>