<p>I think the essay is the most “gamed” part of the admissions process-- Some kids receive massive amounts of professional level “editing”, others none whatsoever. I think admins delude themselves into thinking that they can detect professional editing, but there is no evidence that that is true (and lots of evidence that people, in general, grossly overestimate their ability to detect dishonesty in general). Obviously, students who are in a English class that spends weeks on college essays will have a built in advantage over the student without that opportunity.</p>
<p>In my son’s case, I worried that he would come across as being extensively edited, simply because he is an outstanding writer. Luckily, his recommendations (and ecs and awards to some extent), stressed his very high level writing ability.</p>
<p>There is a vast difference between writing and editing an essay. The first should without a doubt be handled by the student. It’s his or her essay and should reflect their point of view and their experiences. To do otherwise would be unethical.</p>
<p>Editing and proofreading are another matter. Many mistakes come from “aggressive” typing, mistakes like “its vs it’s”, “you vs your vs you’re” and “to vs too” often happen with mediocre typists and can be easily lost in the eye glazing self-editing process. If you’re arguing that editing is unethical, you might as well say spell and grammar check software is unethical. Or that it’s unethical to use a computer to prepare an essay because it hides the poor penmanship of some applicants? The point of the essay is the content.</p>
<p>Every writer from Dickens to Joyce to Hemingway has had an editor. An editor’s job is to make sure the writer’s message is getting across and not lost in foolish typographical errors. The point of a college essay is to provide insight into the applicant; to learn something about them personally, something that doesn’t come through from the standard questions. If they are incompetent writers, presumedly that will be reflected in their English grades and scores.</p>
Agree with all of the above. The college essay is one area where there can be and is a lot of inappropriate outside involvement.</p>
<p>My son, too, is an outstanding writer, and sounds older than his years. At one of his interviews for his full ride scholarship at a LAC, they had his essay there and told him that he wrote in a much more mature manner than most kids his age. I think they might have wondered if he really wrote those words. They must have been satisfied that he did indeed, since he got the full ride scholarship. They conversed with him. His ECs (especially his Lincoln Douglas debate championships), an outstanding writing award, and a recommendation from his AP English Language & Composition teacher confirmed his abilities.</p>
<p>OMG… too funny. Please tell me it was intended as such.</p>
<p>Just going to say this: putting a check mark outside a sentence so they find the error themselves reminds me of my father telling me to look it up whenever I asked how to spell something. It’s not that I don’t know how to look it up, but it sure does break the rhythm of whatever I was writing in the first place. The check mark outside would be like Price is Right where they might or might not guess or find the proper mistake. Not that I disagree per say, just that I wouldn’t do it. Childhood flashbacks not withstanding.</p>
<p>Second: I definitely worked with my kids from when they started writing on how to edit their work. In fact, to not edit is to not be writing, which in my opinion is why the writing portions of the the SAT is a non-starter.</p>
<p>And yes, a couple of schools asked for a piece of writing from the students, including Hamilton and Middlebury. Son sent in the latest paper he had written because he had no idea where any other paper was! (The concept of a filing them away doesn’t cross his mind and at his school recycling papers was strictly forbidden.) Fortunately, it was a paper about identity that the teacher liked very much and also had a lot of comments as well - and not all positive. I figured it was probably better for the colleges to see how seriously the school takes student writing vs perfect scores. Or maybe that’s what I told myself since son had no other choice over Christmas break when applications were due.</p>
<p>Yes, nearly every infamous case of blatant plagiarism started out as a little innocent experimentation with spell-check. From there it usually escalates to highly-questionable moves such as proof-reading, correcting typos, and debating the proper use of the apostrophe. It eventually advances to asking others if something “sounds right.” By then it’s too late to turn back. </p>
<p>“I would avoid spell-check. It’s a well-known gateway edit. Stay pure.”</p>
<p>Go ahead, laugh if you like, you have no idea about the devastation wrought by these pernicious programs: Ham-handed typists blithely swapping ampersands for apostrophes. English majors, shaking violently, jones-ing for a semi-colon…</p>
<p>This is a topic on which reasonable people seem to have extremely divergent views. I think colleges should provide more specific guidance about what they want. They should have a FAQ section on their admissions websites where they go into details about what level of help is okay and what is not. And I’m not talking about bland statements like it should be in “the student’s own voice”.</p>
<p>My son recently had to write a “practice” college essay for his English class. He came up with the topic himself but he needed some additional information from me (some details about the experience he was not sure of) - so we spent some time “re-living” that period. That discussion led to him remembering and thinking of other examples. When he was done, I looked it over and checked the grammar/punctuation. I also made a few comments/suggestions but then left it to him to decide if he wanted to take any of my suggestions.</p>
<p>So - did I help? Yes
Do I feel guilty? No
Is it still his work? Yes</p>
<p>I do appreciate the schools that ask students to submit a “graded paper” and think it does offer them a window into more than just the kid’s ability because it reflects something about kinds of assignments and level of teacher response. It doesn’t avoid the parental interference or possibility of faking the whole thing I suppose–but it seems more “real” than SAT writing or even ACT (which overall has a more open approach to the writing sample aspect)</p>
<p>Im my S’s essay he wrote about wanting to be a mathematician from an early age and included some rather dry (and to me confusing) math. So at my suggestion he added a part about about not being a great writer and how difficult it is for him when the math comes so easily. This ended up in his favor because his essay was rather “immature” in writing style and this then explained why. It was definitely “him” but it was an idea he probably would not have thought would be appropriate to include in a college essay on his own. I feel that this is just fine. No idea in the entire world is completely “original” and this suggestion helped him come up with an essay he felt reflected his true person - one who is not a dazzling writer but ensconsed in numbers.
He was asked to submit a graded paper at a few schools, none to which he gained admission, and I feel that is just as well. I agree with the poster who says that the ad com can see if the essay is in line with grades and test scores and they can tell if it is a real fake job.
Many schools do not even ask for essays and just admit based on GPA and test scores. I guess I feel the essay is a chance for students to show a true side of them that may or may not be what the school is looking for. Those who cheat, probably cheat themselves and may end up somewhere they should not be and are not comfortable being.</p>
<p>Tons of kids have other people edit or write their essays</p>
<p>Preps and top publics have staffs that review and edit essays</p>
<p>Preps are screaming that, because of the upsurge in ED/EA/rolling or just plain early applications, essays should be reasonably polished during the summer, ready to roll to the editors by the first week of school.</p>
<p>Adcoms are now looking more at the little essays and answers because they tend to be less edited/manipulated.</p>
<p>A knockout application can mean Tens of Thousands of dollars in merit aid - of course people will game the system!.</p>
<p>Should students seek and obtain help with their essays? Absolutely!
Should students seek and obtain help with their college applications? Absolutely!
Should students seek and obtain help with their preparation for standardized testing? Absolutely!
Should students seek and obtain help with their preparation from their parents? Absolutely!
Should students seek and obtain help ONLY from teachers and HS counselors? Absolutely NOT!</p>
<p>My only problem with all of this is it inherently favors the student that has more resources - hired GCs, school GCs and teachers with few students so they can give more individual help, educated parents. Inner city kids work at a great disadvantage in this environment.</p>
<p>AdComs, in particular at the schools that actually read and evaluate the essays, would know from the rest of the application what environment the student comes from and make adjustments accordingly.</p>
<p>This is my gripe with the issue - I have a friend who openly admitted to getting her son some major help with his essay. Whenever I’ve openly stated my experience of not only not ever helping my kids with their essays, but not ever even seeing them, her response was always, “Of course you don’t believe in it; your kids are so smart that they will have no problem getting into almost any college they apply to.” </p>
<p>I guess I would just not be a happy parent, if I knew that someone else’s kid took a place in the accepted students category over other students, when in reality the accepted student is a poorer student, but came across as brighter because they received lots of adult help with their essay.</p>
<p>I also remember one mom telling me that she wished her son would let her look over his essays because she was afraid he wasn’t going to get into the colleges he was applying to. My first thought was, well, maybe he should have picked schools that were more in line with his abilities; and secondly, why should he be admitted to schools that are likely going to be too difficult to achieve at, when someone who wrote their own essay without major adult involvement would be a better fit? </p>
<p>Thankfully my kids’ SAT/ACT scores/GPA/difficulty of curriculum reflected their writing abilities, so there could be no question as to whether they got additional adult help. However, D2’s school is an SAT optional school, and I often wonder how they determine, through the essay if this is really the kid’s writing or not. I guess they look much more critically at transcripts and GPA.</p>
<p>I think it is ok to check for errors and such. My H does this. because he is one of those people who can pick out a misspelled word in a nanosecond. Other than that it is their voice.</p>
<p>I was at the info session of a highly selective college and the admissions rep not only acknowledged that students would use “editors” for their college essays but did not say that was intrinsically a bad or unethical thing. The rep simply cautioned to make sure that the student’s own voice did not get lost in all the editing. This was at a regularly scheduled info session during a campus visit, and it was stated as a matter of fact. The rep actually used the word “editor”. </p>
<p>I was quite surprised…I would have thought the rep would recommend that the essays should be entirely produced by the students.</p>