<p>On a similar, but IMHO, more sinister note:</p>
<p>A friend of mine confessed to writing an essay for her D that earned the D a hefty four-year college scholarship. She justified it by saying that her family had been unable to save money for college and this was the only way the D could attend the school. </p>
<p>I wonder, how widespread it is for parents to write essays and apply for scholarships in their kids’ names? </p>
<p>I know my D is so busy with school and college apps right now that she hasn’t had time to search for scholarships, let alone write the essays they require. So I wonder where some kids find the time and how widespread the ghost writing is for these scholarships.</p>
<p>I would never let my parents write my essay.</p>
<p>Then again, they are from China. There really isn’t a scenario for it though…if they were really phenomenal writers, it would be unlikely you would have the credentials in your application to back up such writing, and if they aren’t that good…well why have them write it?</p>
<p>S wrote a bizillion essays for scholarship competitions. He did them all by himself. Once or twice I helped him cut down an essay he had already finished, so as to tailor it to a different application where the prompt was similar but the word limit was lower. Other than that, the work was all his. This was important, because for several of these there were interviews. If he hadn’t written them himself, and then had shown himself to be inarticulate or unknowledgeable about the topic, he would have been exposed as a fraud. One lady even made him tell her his thought processes step by step when writing his essay.</p>
<p>Like sanguinity, my son would never stand for that. He would probably refuse point-blank to go to college if it was being financed by a fraudulently obtained scholarship.</p>
<p>If the colleges would give more concrete directions with regard to their expectations for essay review/editing, I’d be glad. In our town I know of two private schools where the Senior English classes spend a great deal of time all Fall working of each student’s essays. In my daughter’s case, she started last weekend (due to a heavy workload) and is asking her brother and a friend to review hers. I hope she asks me when I return to town. But we’re at the stage where she values independence and really wants to achieve this goal without mom’s input. It’s a good thing, but I do feel the scales are tipped …</p>
<p>Neither of my older kids had this option at their private school, but apparently it is a new elective for seniors for one semester (they take AP lit jr year). There’s been some backlash, but for those who aren’t strong writers, I can see it being helpful. Thing is, we have a big push against “packaging” kids and essays can feed into it. I honestly think they are less important than some seem to think, but since I am no admissions director, I really have no clue.</p>
<p>S2 wrote his main admissions essay in about 45 minutes. His brother checked it over, suggested a couple of minor wording changes and that was it. I read it and was floored. I had no idea he could write so creatively. I have read many essays for kids, and have read all the essay books, few are as good in my opinion. The point, I’m not convinced all these rewrites are all that helpful. Finding one’s voice in an interesting way is perhaps more important.</p>
<p>Our public h.s. used to have the kids do their college essay as an assignment at the beginning of senior year, but they have gotten away from it. Their reasoning is that this assignment is between the student and the college, and it needs to be what the student wants to say and how they want to say it. The English teachers were uncomfortable giving feedback on topics (I don’t think they mind editing grammar). So now they say that seniors can ask their English teacher to meet with them during a free period or after school to review their essay if they’d like. To minimize the load on the popular teachers, kids can only ask their current English teacher. We also have a new Writing Specialist in the library, and students can go to her for advice and feedback as well. </p>
<p>Our 11th & 12th grade English classes also do a lot of peer editing. I’ve heard people say that they think peer editing is a way for the teachers to get the kids to do their work for them, but I strongly disagree. S’07 tells me that what helped him become a good writer, more than anything else, was the year that he and 2 high-achieving friends did all the peer-editing for each other. They made a game out of it, trying to see who could slash the other one’s essay to pieces more. D has also found that editing other people’s papers makes her more aware of her own tendencies in writing.</p>
<p>(Note: I was NOT impressed with these essays at all – I used to review essays for students on CC, and most of what I saw was a lot better than any of these so-called winning essays. But I figure that this link might help some – at least it proves that it is not necessary for parents to rewrite clumsily worded essays in order to get their kids into the Ivy League)</p>
<p>I have stayed out of the essay fray…the results that he has shown me have been really good and I have only made some comma fault corrections. However, I have a question about the supplement essays that he is tackling right now. </p>
<p>QUESTION> in these essays about why a student chooses a school, should the student mention if they have attended an info session or visited the school? FOr example, should he say “I was floored by the facilities at the XYZ school of art that I visited on XX/XX”, or “attracted by the flexibility in majors that I learned about at tour/interview”. It sounds a little forced but is actually the truth. I dragged my son to a Carnegie Mellon info session his junior year and he just lit up when they talked about interdisciplinary majors and minors and being able to participate in robot building and theatre…physics/art…etc. It is still his first choice based on that info session. should he say so?</p>
<p>^I think that sounds fine. It was the visit that convinced my son that CMU was the right place for him too. (But he didn’t see it till after he got in, as I recall his why CMU essay was pretty lame.)</p>
<p>Mathmom…Do you think the essays matter at all based on your experience? I can’t imagine that they matter much unless you are a borderline student; it kill off the admissions officers if they actually tried to read them all so I have only put pressure on S to actually complete them so the application can be finalized.</p>
<p>I think it’s a rare essay that makes or breaks an application. As the American info guy said “Just don’t be creepy.” For a fine arts student the portfolio is paramount. For a computer nerd like my guy, I’m sure essays are not scintillating reading for the most part. I think he had an advantage at CMU where the admissions is done by school - so they got his very computer-nerdy essay.</p>
<p>With different wording, this is precisely what my S mentioned in his “Why Stanford” essay that was submitted two days ago. His desire for interdisciplinary science study shows through his entire application, which I just looked at again yesterday since a relative was interested in looking at some of his writing (which he agreed to.) From his writing about the summer internship where he got to do work with paleoclimatology (hugely interdsicplinary), to his other summer studies since pre-HS in electrical engineering, probability and game theory, and fast paced physics, to his essay on the fictional character (he chose Dr. Gregory House from House, MD and why? Because, among other reasons, he loved the ties back to Sherlock Holmes and the deductive reasoning across the dsiciplines) … If the Ad Comm doesn’t know what THIS propspective student is aiming for, they will have to be totally asleep at the wheel!</p>
<p>idad said: “The point, I’m not convinced all these rewrites are all that helpful. Finding one’s voice in an interesting way is perhaps more important.”</p>
<p>Last night I read D’s newly revised essays. I’ve gotta say that I think they were more “her” before she edited them. They’re better organized and tighter now, so that’s good, but something has been lost…This is a tough task, it really is.</p>
<p>Findaplace–congrats on your son’'s success. </p>
<p>My son is a more typical teen with average stats and average interests…neither his resume nor his essay are going to be some sort of obvious “this kid is made for Stanford” or CMU or whatever. Basically, he finds the interdisciplinary aspect of CMU “cool” and has shown some moderate talent/interest in both art and science. Honestly, he can’t communicate much more than that and I don’t think he can exaggerate a dedication to an interdisciplinary focus that he doesn’t have. Certainly, he has no summers studying paleontolgy or the physics of anim</p>
<p>^I don’t think that sounds scripted at all; I think he and/or you may be worrying too much. This is exactly the kind of response admissions offices are hoping for from student visits, after all. If he writes it in a way that straightforwardly expresses his actual experience and thoughts, it’s unlikely to come across as brown-nosing.</p>