<p>I've seen multiple threads such as "please critique my essay." I was wondering how you parents felt about these admissions essays being sent over the Internet, through PMs on this site. </p>
<p>I actually critique quite a few essays, but I would never personally send my own essay out. My reasoning is why not help someone out, who probably can't get the help elsewhere. But I'm paranoid my ideas would be stolen if I sent mine out. </p>
<p>What do you guys think?</p>
<p>I have those same feelings right now. I just sent an essay that I’ve spent three entire weeks on to some random guy, and they haven’t replied to me. They’ve logged on but they haven’t replied and their public profile looks suspicious and I’m panicking. If my essay is stolen, I don’t know what I can do. My entire career will be thrown into the garbage. </p>
<p>Oh God, I hope they didn’t steal my essay.</p>
<p>Some good advice here:</p>
<p>[Ms</a>. Sun’s UC Admissions Blog - Why You Shouldn’t Post Your College Essays Online](<a href=“Error”>Error)</p>
<p>It’s easy to check the credibility of CC users from their history on the site. I think you can get excellent advice here if you choose your reviewers cautiously, as you would with Ebay sellers.</p>
<p>I’ve read and commented on dozens of student essays on CC over the years.
(I admit that I haven’t always gotten back to everyone who sent me an essay–especially if they don’t ask me first and just send it to me–I probably get to 95% of them, but it depends what else I have going on at the time. If it seems to be taking too long to get feedback, you could always contact the poster again and remind him/her about your essay.)
IMO, it is relatively safe to send essays–especially to parents and long-time posters. I can’t think of a single essay I’ve reviewed that anyone would want to steal. These are personal essays on a variety of topics that contain very specific life experiences that just wouldn’t fit in with any other application. And most of them aren’t that great anyway. Why steal when you can write a better one yourself?</p>
<p>Some school staff read these pages. You don’t want someone on your favorite school’s admission committee to see that you are soliciting help for your essay. One of them could be asking you to PM your essay. :eek:</p>
<p>^ That was my feeling, vonlost. I would advise all students to err on the side of caution when giving out their own work over the internet. In my case, I have plenty of help from friends/teachers/parents that I actually KNOW. Doesn’t every student have a teacher they can go to for essay help? I know some parents might not be very helpful with their kids, bu everyone must have at least somebody to go to for essay advice, right? I just don’t understand why anybody would send their essay out over the internet to an unknown person.</p>
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<p>True enough. But why would you assume everyone who steals an essay could actually write a better one than the one they steal? That isn’t really logical, is it? Why would the thief be a better writer than the writer? Or are you suggesting the writer also could write a better essay but just sends around a bad one? </p>
<p>Surely as an adult you can see the poor quality of the essays you read and you know you can do better… but you are perhaps overlooking the gigantic range of teenagers’ writing abilities. The ‘bad’ essay in your eyes is Shakespeare to the kid who struggles to muster a 400 on the verbal part of the SAT. Plus your own essay takes work and as we’ve seen, some kids don’t like to work. </p>
<p>I’d not send my essay to strangers on the internet if I were a student. But it is super kind that people help out those that need the help.</p>
<p>I’ve helped to edit many essays here. I’m very honest about who I am (not a teenager, but a teacher and former editor at a large fashion magazine). And I am very honest and thorough when I offer to help. The teacher in me wants the writer to learn something in the process.</p>