<p>im going back next year again so hopefully it will be better than last time. china is getting better but its happening a little slow. china’s economy is 2nd in the world but its not exactly as healthy as most people think. there is huge inflation problem right now and a lot of stress among the lower class because of high food prices. but yea, people are living better than they used to.</p>
<p>Even taking the “Chinese” aspect out of this, because of course this practice happens across the board as people have pointed out. I just think the fact that it is blatantly advertised (writing the essays for their clients) as a service that they provide makes me think they don’t even realize it is wrong to do so. I think that is the part that bothers me so much.</p>
<p>hey everyone,</p>
<p>my friend is actually doing this service 
they don’t write the essays for you. in fact, they don’t really edit it. they kind of just hold your hand through the admissions process…</p>
<p>as to “finding internships and programs” all they did was name common ones like COSMOS</p>
<p>It’s more of a waste of money. XD</p>
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<p>Did you actually read the article we are talking about from NYT? If not, there is a link on the first post. They state right there that they do in fact write the essays and modify the transcripts. Are you saying that your friend works for this exact company and that the Times is making this up?</p>
<p>Don’t laugh about the last part - as a former international student (with an excellent grasp of the English language compared to my peers I dare say :-)) I found out I could often tell where people were from based on their mistakes and/or writing style (English). It is not unreasonable to expect that Harvard would easily identify such things…</p>
<p>I agree with emory83’s views, but this thread is not about how bad China is.
Anyway I find the pricing for the services provided absolutely ridiculous. It’s even more astounding that so many families are willing/able to pay for it. Most international students I meet are probably rich at home, but they try to save $$ and most of them are smart and work hard. I certainly hope none of those I meet forge/cheat their way to Michigan.</p>
<p>Is the degree from a top school really worth that much? Asian parents really need to amend their mentality that not going to HYPSM is perfectly fine.</p>
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<p>Yeup I did! Exact company haha.</p>
<p>I haven’t heard of a company that writes essays from scratch but I’m sure there are. I know thinktank only edits though. I also heard they suck at editing…hahaha</p>
<p>There is a very firm line as to what is legal, ethical help and what is not. Selective colleges are not fond of college consultants anyways, so they generally lurk in the background. But I’ve yet to hear of one here that crosses the line to down right cheat. </p>
<p>So much for those brags from college admissions officer how they can tell if a student wrote the essays are not. Maybe they do catch a few, but it looks like they’ve missed out on a whole nest of cheats if this is true, but they love those perfect SAT scores (don’t know how authentic they necessarily are outside this country) and the full pay status of these internationals.</p>
<p>I think the people this really hurts are Asian-American students, who are fighting for the same slice of the admissions demographic but maybe with less money and expertise behind them. Helping kids showcase their talents in a way that college admissions will like is clever, but how does it help to write essays? Don’t these students have to take the TOEFL and won’t that show any big discrepancy between their level of fluency on the essay and their level of fluency on a standardized test?</p>
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<p>You would think so. Some schools say that is how they use the writing section of the SAT. Even if they don’t actually use the score, they use it as a verification on the essay.</p>
<p>TOEFL can be “planned” too,according to the article about this New Oriental tutoring class. I’ve read in that article that they 've figured out the way the oral & writing part & have the students memorized a planned answer w/ a few minor changes, for ex; if they hear the Q is about places, they repeated the small paragraph about place. About people, then they do the same …according to that article, New Oriental claimed that THIS works each time for their students & will get them a high enough TOEFL score on the oral & writing section…even though in real life, those students cannot carry a conversation in English w/out any help.
They got it all work out…so sad !</p>