<p>Question: What are the consequences of plagiarizing a college admissions essay and getting caught? I was just wondering what would happen if a college admission officer notices that two essays that he has read are very similar, even exactly the same. What would he do about those two applicants? Would he contact them both, just [...]</p>
<p>They may be similar to a certain extent but if they are ditto similar then it is a bit of a problem and may hurt the both the applicants’ chances.At uber-selective schools they really look at the the essays carefully.</p>
<p>A few general questions:</p>
<p>If we submit our essays online by using the Common App, are the essays checked and filtered by ‘plagiarism checkers’ at each university, especially the selective ones?</p>
<p>And if we send in the Common App by post, then how does that procedure work? They are not checked for plagiarism right?</p>
<p>I just want to know for the sake of it. Whatever it be, I am going to apply via the online route. Just a bit curious how the system works.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Colleges, highly selective or otherwise, do not routinely check application essays for plagiarism … at least not yet. But all that could change. According to a June article in Inside Higher Ed, Penn State University’s MBA admission officials have already engaged an outside firm to scan application essays for authenticity. And it’s possible that the Common App will offer a similar service to member institutions in the not-too-distant future. See [News:</a> Finding Applicants Who Plagiarize - Inside Higher Ed](<a href=“http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/06/23/essays]News:”>http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/06/23/essays)</p>
<p>Currently, however, the process of plagiarism checks is largely sporadic and unofficial. When astute admission officers suspect that an application essay resembles an excerpt from The Thoreau Reader, they may follow up on their hunch. ;)</p>
<p>Although some college applicants certainly do submit work that is not at all their own … essays that may have been lifted from books, the Internet, older siblings, etc. … a more typical form of essay dishonesty comes from applicants who do submit “original” essays, but these essays have been so heavily edited by parents, family friends, private consultants, sometimes even teachers, that the candidate’s voice is almost unrecognizable. </p>
<p>Admission officials do keep their antennae up and may flag an essay that doesn’t seem to mesh with the applicant’s grades, test scores, teacher comments, or SAT/ACT Writing sample.</p>
<p>But, of course, no plagiarism software can check for this sort of infraction.</p>
<p>My daughter is an amazing writer and contributes to TeenInk and other literary online resources all the time. Sometimes I feel someone might just copy off her stuff and use it. Don’t you think it is not fair while one kid does all the hard work and the other just steals and gets into their choice of college. These days I discourage my daughter to post anything on the Internet. There should be some way the college admissions to find out plagiarism in the college admission essays.</p>
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<p>Lots about the admission process isn’t fair (doesn’t make it right, but it’s the world we live in right now). And it’s impossible to track how many applicants are stealing essays. My guess is that those numbers are small, although–as I pointed out above–the numbers of students who are getting significant help (i.e., to the point that it’s unethical) are far larger.</p>
<p>If your daughter is a strong and eager writer, I wouldn’t warn her away from posting her writing on appropriate Web sites such as TeenInk. But there’s no future in her putting her actual college essays online in a public place, at least until her college process is behind her.</p>
<p>However, she should feel free to send in some extra writing samples as part of her application materials unless the college specifically forbids such submissions, and few do.</p>
<p>Do college check with past essays that have been submitted for plagiarism? How does that work?</p>
<p>Routine use of plagiarism software to check essays is more common at the graduate level (especially by MBA programs) than at the undergrad level. However, some schools do it, particularly sporadically if a reader smells a rat. And even Googling paragraphs from a suspiciously familiar application essay may help an admissions officer turn up other versions of that same essay online. </p>
<p>Most incidents of plagiarism go undetected but not all. This article, although not current, may prove interesting:</p>
<p><a href=“College Uses Web Plagiarism Checks | News | The Harvard Crimson”>http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2007/4/10/college-uses-web-plagiarism-checks-as/</a></p>
<p>If i were to post my essay online for others to proof read, say on college confidential, would the essay i submit be considered plagiarized as it is an exact copy of something thats already on the internet? How would they know that it was me who posted my essay online in the first place? </p>
<p>^^ That’s why it’s a bad idea to do it. Ask for volunteers and PM the essay to them. The only essays you should post out in the open are practice SAT essays that you’ll never actually use.</p>
<p>If you copy and paste your college essay, they will copy and paste your rejection letter. </p>
<p>It is very easy to check for plagiarism, and the colleges have a right to. They have to buy access to plagiarism checking programs anyway for their classes, so they do not have to pay more or do anything more than a few key strokes to check the application essays for plagiarism.</p>
<p>This is why people pay someone to do their essays instead, and sue if the person plagiarized it.</p>
<p>I work at a state college, which cuts corners a lot, but they use plagiarism checking software for anything that requires essays. The software is out there.</p>
<p>What I see most often is that though plagiarism is a buzzword in the US, and American students often know it is bad and if they get caught, they will get in trouble, international students often do not get the concept. I have had issues with students who don’t even understand that you cannot copy part of a published work (published in any way) and submit it as your own.</p>
<p>Plagiarism,at least, can be proved. What really gets me are Parents who write the essays for their kids…and somehow they think that is ok, or paying a Professional to craft one. The deeper I get into this college application process the more I see it is slanted to the privileged. I only hope that colleges are aware.</p>
<p>@Explorer2215 Colleges are indeed aware. That’s one of the reasons recommendations and reports from the guidance counselor are part of the application. They’re a kind of verification that applicants really are the kind of people that their numbers suggest.</p>
<p>I agree completely, adding the GC rec is a way to minimize aggrandizement/fake essays.</p>
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