<p>I would hope that a reader would not be too rigorous in the comparison between the SATI Writing Essay and the college essay. My son wrote some pretty decent essays (for the conditions), but neither were as "quality" as he wrote for his college essay. How can that be? 25 minutes from prompt to finish, under stress, vs. take as long as you want, discuss it with family and friends, and have someone else read it and give you comments? There's no comparison.</p>
<p>Unless you write for a living, most people are not under the "write something about THIS (unexpected and unprepared), right NOW, and finish it in the next 25 MINUTES!" type of constraint. (Exception: frantic emails.)</p>
<p>I really feel for kids having to write to those prompts on the SAT and in less than 30 minutes at that. I'd freak out, and I'm in my 40's... they are only 17!</p>
<p>You know what I find really amazing? It's bad enough that people would write their kid's essays, for many many reasons, several of which have been discussed. But wouldn't you think that if you did that you would know not to tell anyone? I know this happens all the time, I've also had people tell me they wrote their kid's essays, or older (but younger than me) people who've said that they got into so-and-so because their mom wrote a great essay, and they have no qualms about it. My D has a tennis coach who is 28 who I otherwise like a lot and he casually told a group of 14-16 year olds that he routinely cheated in college. Like it was a funny story. I guess I'm a moral prude.</p>
<p>OMG, that tennis coach would be toast in my book. I don't care how good he plays tennis, he's an idiot for telling young people stuff like that. Just makes you wonder not only about his ability to distinguish right from wrong, but also his ability to distinguish good old common sense from... being an idiot. Doesn't it? Hmmm. This is not someone I would want mentoring my daughter.</p>
<p>I'm with you, HSN - continually amazed at the things people admit to. Do they do it because, more often than not, their behavior is validated when the confessor admits to having done the same thing? I guess they can do 'it' initially because they don't feel it's wrong - speaking about it then isn't a problem. It almost seems like an aversion to these kinds of behavior is hard wired into some people, and missing from others - look at all the public figures who get exposed for cheating, lying, etc. </p>
<p>I do think that it's fair to compare SAT writing with a polished essay - things like vocabulary indicate whether the two pieces could be written by the same person. I went to an undergrad school where there was no reason for anyone to cheat to gain admission - if you graduated from high school in that state, you were admitted - so it wasn't until grad school that I heard the story of "my dad's secretary filled out my application". Ironic that dad was a lawyer, but so it goes.</p>
<p>I think it's a bit interesting that we all assume that someone's parent can write a better college essay than their kid can. While I was a Lit major, and could fill a blue book with the best of them, 25 years ago, I doubt I'd be able to repeat that today. In fact, I know I couldn't. </p>
<p>Thankfully, I'm one of the (probably majority) parents whose kids can do just fine writing their own college essays, thank you very much. Who has the time to do all this stuff? And what makes them think they can write better than their kids, who do this sort of writing every day in class?</p>
<p>I can only hope that if these parents feel the need to write their kids' college essays for them, their kids will come back to live with them until they're in their 30's.....</p>
<p>I certainly hope no one compared my son's SAT essay with his college essays. He does not write quickly - he spent a long time just thinking about what to write and came up with several false starts before he found something that worked - something you have no time for on the SAT.</p>
<p>Erin's Mom, I agree with you, when's the last time I wrote an essay? 30 years ago? My S writes them all of the time, and I'm sure he could out write me any day. My S was also in an audition situation, I bugged him about readying and practicing his materails, I did the scheduling and travel plans and made sure he had the right things to wear. He did his aps and essays and the auditions and interviews. I think when a kid works hard to get into a school, and is accepted it has to mean alot more than having parents or others do it for them.</p>
<p>You can tell that most cc parents' kids write their own essays, because we could all be found here about this time of the year (or can be found here now) bemoaning the fact that they hadn't/haven't started yet :p.</p>
<p>I was, of course, one of them. But I will share this little side story about whether admissions readers can spot an essay not actually written by a teen. It is only one anecdote, but... Many of you here know that my S had a mondo-disrupted freshman year due to Hurricane Katrina. He loved his Katrina-term school and loved Tulane when he returned, but they eliminated his major so he had to transfer to yet a THIRD school. I was willing to do way more to help with this forced second application season than I did for freshman apps. So I did all of the logistics/application management/filling in blanks in forms. I did NOT write essays and could be found here on cc pulling out my hair yet again over <em>when</em> he was ever going to start. (Stick with me, I'm going somewhere with this ;) ). So, he wrote them; most were quite fine. Several of the short ones exceeded the space allocation, though, so (I admit it) I did the editing/shortening. Usually that just involved cutting, but sometimes it involved re-wording to make it all fit and still make sense. Some of my best-cc-friends looked over his essays for me as second opinions - made a few suggestions, some of which he took and some he didn't. But the one or two sentences that I'd re-written? One of my friends zeroed in on it like a laser beam. Said it just didn't sound like a phrase he'd write - she didn't know him personally either. Just knew 19-year olds and what his main essay had sounded like. </p>
<p>Moral of the story: maybe your friend's mom-written essay will be found out. Who knows?</p>
<p>JM Mom, that is so true. I have three teenage sons, and I have to constantly remind myself of how differently they think. I couldn't write in their voices for the life of me. </p>
<p>A savvy reader can tell the difference between a student and a mom from the way he or she writes. We parents rely on vocabulary and grammatical conventions that are obsolete to a teen. We have lost our youthful idealism, but it's a big part of the 17 year old character. We regard college in retrospect, not as our next big adventure. Trying to write like a teen is as ghastly as trying to dress like one.</p>
<p>When I see those scattergrams of a high achieving kid who didn't get accepted to a slam-dunk school, I always wonder if there was some question about the sincerity of the application.</p>
<p>I can believe the essay factories might be savvy enough to fool a few readers here and there. I doubt an ethically challenged parent, with a few drafts, could convincingly write one that appeared to be the work of a 17 year old.</p>
<p>I came across my essays (which got me into all schools incl several Ivies) in my stored papers. When I read them, I was amazed at how simple my language was -- yet I could also peer into the life and mind of a 17 year old who had attended an inner city HS. There's no way i could duplicate such a work today.</p>
<p>I'll sign off content to believe that the essays were easily spotted...</p>
<p>My little miss independence will not let me read her essays until the very end, and she is filling out her own applications and keeping track of her deadlines through her newly found love of Microsoft Outlook. I'm freaking out because I know that her "competition" has a much bigger warchest of support (consultants and Harward-educated relatives), but I know she is going to be OK in the end. She may not end up being admitted to her dream school, but she will end up more prepared for the realities of this life. My biggest comfort is that she ran her essays (she wrote several) by her English teacher to assess her topic originality, and she told me that she liked the feedback. I'm keeping my fingers crossed :)</p>
<p>DD refused to let me help in any way....she fired off her essay to the school she's at over my objections--it was a recycled essay and I thought it looked slapdashed together. It was well-written and light and fun to read-a couple of CC parents said it made her sound really friendly and warm--and lo if she did not get in EA with her recycled essay. Maybe the adcoms at her school are more tired than usual of earnest mission trip essays and her fluffiness was a refreshing read.</p>
<p>Edit: I cross-posted with BB--yes, it will be for the best. Your D. will get a good result and good for her for being so insistent on owning this process.</p>
<p>Mombot, I'm also not 100% happy with my D's school list, but I keep reminding me that it is not MY list (MINE would have had Harvey Mudd, Caltech, MIT...). Just today I had to shut my H up a little so he would not force his college choices onto her (gee, I never would have guessed all-girls schools would be so appealing to him).</p>
<p>DD applied to MIT but did not get in and we are all in retrospect extremely relieved. She just jettisoned her only lab science class and says she feels a huge weight off her shoulders. She started as a math major and foundered on the shoals of the lab science requirements. Her grades were fine but she said she just loathed it beyond all loathing. Luckily her school has TWO math tracks--one in science and one in arts and letters, so she is blissfully and divinely happy to discover she can double up---in Spanish and in Math. She is a humanist at heart but loves the art of math. </p>
<p>I can't say how relieved I am that she is where she is. She's getting an amazing classic liberal arts education. She shied away from liberal arts schools last year because she thought of herself as more math/engineering focused. A University really was the best choice given how she isn't clearly one or the other, but this worked really well as the University has such a strong liberal arts foundation.</p>
<p>I am relieved to hear many as are surprised as I was. I see nothing wrong personally with filling out all the basic info particularly if he is filling out numerous applications at once not the common app...IT IS A LOT OF MATERIAL! It requires so much time also. However I do believe in drawing the line with the essays, this is THEIR chance to have THEIR voice heard and to have a parent especially a very capable one do that is masking the childs voice, and that is unfortunate. I feel bad for the son because in the end he loses out, he will be lost when he has a huge load of work and his mom is not there to help out as she would put it.</p>
<p>In addition to the obvious ethical problems, my reaction is "who is going to this college?" While my son may be very busy and not thrilled about writing college essays, I believe the school needs to hear his voice, not mine. I want him to find the right school for him. If his voice is not the right one for a particular college, then he doesn't belong there.</p>
<p>I just have one thing to ask those who fill out their kids' apps and write their essays: are you going to do all their work for them when they go to college and then get a "real job???"</p>
<p>I remember that essay, mombot. I thought it highlighted your daughter's values also and was beautifully written. I'm not surprised she did so well on admissions.</p>
<p>I was an OM coach for 3 years and I know for a fact that some coaches provided tons of "outside assistance" because I saw them do it. My kids' productions never looked as polished and they never won, but we had fun with the process and it was THEIR process. I can also recall many of my son's school projects looking like what the cat dragged in, but they were all his own work.</p>
<p>I have no problem with parents filling in the factual part of the app--I didn't do it, but I did other clerical tasks. Writing the essay--that's just sad.</p>
<p>I know a pair of parents who did practically everything for their daughter as well. Even picked a lot of the schools she applied to because the child was not really able to motivate herself to get involved, a year ago. When the acceptances came in (very good schools), the girl was tepid at best about all of the schools. So Mom picked the school, too. Their friends and GC at school were all trying to get this family onto a more productive track with their D. It even involved contacting a coach, and participating in a sport, which no one really thought the D wanted to do. But the D didn't say anything one way or another to the mom. So can you guess what is happening with the D now? Right.. she is very depressed, coach is no longer playing her in the games, and the girl feels as though she is at the wrong school. We all feel so bad for the D, and I love the family, but I truly am not surprised. Parents who get over-involved, despite all of their good intentions, could be headed for heartache and their children could be headed for trouble. This girl is in the process of getting help from her school's psych services, but it just seems to me that the parents didn't really listen to her enough. Very sad situation.</p>