<p>Common sense is you have the applicant write the essay himself, and then have someone edit and rewrite it, but not so that it looks so professional as to look fake. </p>
<p>My mother was a professional writer and editor and she helped me with my essays. I wasn’t rich with private tutors and so on. It probably worked well, but she was nastier than a tutor would be/</p>
<p>" One of the things I remember is that it was VERY easy to pick out the essay that’d been written for hire. The language, the approach, many things just didn’t sound like what a student would use, even in the more formal deliberate style of an admissions essay."</p>
<p>I’m wondering how often this is true. Both my kids have been questioned by teachers as to whether they really wrote their work themselves because it sounded too adult or the vocabulary seemed too advanced for their age (yes, they did and it was rarely even seen by parents before it was handed in). Some high school students are extremely sophisticated writers. And also, wouldn’t a good ghost writer be able to make it sound like a great high school student, not a professional consultant?</p>
<p>Along those ^ lines, will admissions officers throw an application into the reject pile, based on a suspicion that the applicant had help with his essays? That seems risky and wrong. My guess is that more often than not, they will accept it as the student’s own work because they don’t really have a choice not to.</p>
<p>^^ that might be when looking at the recs might help. A writer sufficiently mature and/or good to seem “adult” will probably have some mention of it in the recs.</p>
<p>This is why colleges should just go back to admitting by test score.</p>
<p>I went to school with a lot of premeds whose fathers were doctors and people who are looking to will exploit any system. There are ways to manipulate grades, test scores and so on.</p>
<p>I have done a little essay tutoring with clients I was mainly helping with SATs. There was a student who wrote his essay on his visit to his uncle who was a judge in the city of the school. You should probably mention that, but the essay was laying it on way too heavy. </p>
<p>There are a lot of mistakes a student can make on choice of topic. A tutor can also help with organization and making it good English. I think you are fine with essay books and a tutor. Sending in obviously canned essays would probably hurt your application somewhat.</p>
<p>Two comments.
<p>/applauds</p>
<p>Yet another example of the accumulation of advantage. Rich parents in great school district (or kids at expensive prep school) plus 14K essay camp and so much more. No wonder the American class structure is more rigid than before, with social mobility now harder than other industrialized countries.</p>
<p>This article about Ms. Hernandez from 2007 expands on this discussion and makes an interesting read.</p>
<p><a href=“Bloomberg - Are you a robot?”>Bloomberg - Are you a robot?;
<p>Interesting that people in this forum are up in arms about this. The general tone here seems to be that an expensive Ivy undergrad is supremely overrated and that grad/professional school are all that matter. If the most selective colleges are so overrated, why even concern yourselves with the “haves” spending their money on these admissions’ resources?</p>
<p>From the article AlbionGirl quoted…emphases added.
</p>
<p>And people still think this is ethical?</p>
<p>I wonder whether she doesn’t hype up some of what she does to make herself appear oh so clever. </p>
<p>@albiongirl: from Andrew Garza’s linkedin profile; things are going well for him <a href=“http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/in/andrewgarza”>http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/in/andrewgarza</a></p>
<p>So she helped him get into… Haverford a dozen years ago? Just goes to show these services are generally meaningless. You all are agitated over something that doesn’t make a bit of difference. The parents and children who seek out these college app schemes generally don’t have the numbers for the elite schools anyways.</p>
<p>The other student in the article who used Michelle Hernandez’s services is also doing well:</p>
<p><a href=“http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/in/benselznick”>http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/in/benselznick</a></p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Emphasis is mine.</p>
<p>How is having more books at home, attending better schools, and having well educated parents “unfair”?</p>
<p>@Nrdsb4 , ^^ it’s unfair because it’s similar to when the ballet dancer forgot to put on his leg weights to make sure that he couldn’t jump higher than the other dancers. </p>
<p>It is unfair, and I’m a good old-fashioned liberal, but the answer isn’t to denigrate the kids “stewing” in an enriched environment. </p>
<p>Of course it’s unfair. The Ivy League college application process is a racket. However, I do not see how it’s unethical to provide your kid with the advantages you can afford. The rest of us can ensure our students receive an equally high quality education at publics and other privates. What Hernandez is selling isn’t access to educational opportunity; she’s selling access to high social rank.</p>
<p>i didn’t read all of the article, but honestly - if they are getting a ton of knowledge out of the class and the parents can afford it… i don’t have a problem with it. though it does seem VERY high. </p>
<p>for comparisons sake, as an adult, in the last year i’ve taken various classes for my work… one was an 8 hr a day class for a full week… $4200… one was an 8 hour a day class for 2 days… $1000… one was an 8 hour a day class for 3 days… $2500… i’ve also had a couple that were one day only classes which run about $200-350 per class.</p>
<p>in my mind, it’s astronomical how much these types of classes cost… but when I look back at them, the more expensive the class was the more I got out of them (probably because they were longer and could go deeper into the content).</p>