I applied to a&m yesterday, and my application is sent it. However, today, I was informed by someone’s cousin that that someone had copied my essay (I gave it to him to edit) and used it to apply to a&m. His cousin found me on here and thankfully let me know, but what do I do? My application probably would have gotten there first, but either way, it’s the exact same essay! What will happen? Will they notice? Is he going to get in trouble for it or me too? I’m really scared!
A month ago it looks like you were offering to read essays for students applying to Texas schools. Is that, somehow, involved?
Yes. The guy who supposedly copied my essay is one of the students I traded essays with to edit from those posts.
First, document everything that you can. Second—and this should happen quickly—get in touch with your A&M admissions counselor (I don’t know how they’re parceled out, or where you’re from), and state that you believe that another applicant copied your essay. Include a brief, simple-to-understand timeline of what happened. Be up front about saying that you’re mentioning it to protect yourself.
Important: Do not be indignant.
I don’t think it’s a good idea to let current high school seniors read your essay. You may have to contact the school or write a new one if it has not been submitted.
I get that now. I just assumed, being a senior myself, that we could trade essays ans give serious input for one another. But obviously I was mistaken about the maturity levels of these students.
OP, maybe other students can avoid this problem by reading this. I realized it’s too late for you.
Following on the other advice: grab screenshots–PMs exchanged on here, who sent what when, etc… Unfortunately, you are going to have to prove that you wrote the essay first and document when he first had access. You may need to prepare a backup essay, just in case. It’s a bummer, but will work in your favor–if you can whip up another stellar essay, it will be even more obvious who the plagiarizer is. Sorry this happened to you 
Really awful situation! Yes, as it was advised, make screenshots to prove that you write the essay first, and then he had the opportunity to use your writing. Besides, if your application is going to be the leading, and his application appears after yours, it will be obvious, that he stole from you, not vice versa.
And use this case to learn more about people, hypocrisy and envy. Good luck to you, anyway!
In your communication make sure that they know that you heard 2nd hand about the plagiarism and are not a 100% sure it actually occurred.
Very sorry that happened. It is bizarre anyone would do that.
May not help. Many colleges run apps thru services like turnitin.com to see if they cribbed essays from the internet. Part of how these services work is that everything that is submitted gets added to their database. If so, your essay will be seen twice. The essays will just be submitted as a big bucket and will come back with flags indicating which are the same as public sources or others in their database. They won’t know which was submitted first, and in any event that isn’t really proof; maybe the guy who copied the essay rushed to get theirs in.
Do what the others said, including post #9, and I hope this turns out ok for you.
Given the age of this thread, I imagine OP has already taken whatever corrective measures he/she plans to take.