<p>If they’re that crazy, and you’re adamant about sending your essays the way they are, make a second “dummy” app to show them, and then send your copy to the colleges instead. How would they know what you ultimately sent?</p>
<p>Normally I wouldn’t condone lying, but it sounds like you have a good handle on things.</p>
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<p>In addition, they sometimes socialize with immigrants from other countries as well and start a rivalry of sorts over SAT scores and which colleges they were admitted to/graduated from. This was common in the neighborhoods my HS friends lived in and is one reason why the talk is not only about which elite college one has been admitted to, but also whether they’ve graduated from there with degree. </p>
<p>It’s one reason why I’m puzzled when I encountered a few colleagues/acquaintances with deep American roots after college who kept bragging about their acceptance to HYP two or more decades previously when they were forced to leave for academic reasons and finished at a non-flagship state/much lower-tiered private institution. If that had happened to anyone from those immigrant communities, the shame and perceived sense of failure would be such the individual concerned would be too embarrassed to bring the whole thing up in the first place.</p>