<p>Well, I just find it weird that you lost them, when a little bit earlier you made that statement on another thread (if someone found a good essay it makes the rest of the app so much easier), without mentioning there that you lost essays.</p>
<p>this one came before</p>
<p>This thread came first, even more confusing then that you didn’t mention you lost your essays on the other thread. Either way, in fact, is odd. You lost the essays prior to either thread. It was relevant in the other thread, so why not mention it there?</p>
<p>Regardless of whether or not I believe you lost your essays, please don’t worry about them. Just like your other two worries (the signature and lower-case letter issue) they won’t impact whether or not you get admitted. I know someone who accidentally spelled Mary incorrectly in his essay for W&M (using the type when you propose…marry…) and was accepted ED to W&M.
So, chill out…</p>
<p>I realize a missed capitalization is relatively minor, but if someone sends in something that’s substantially similar to mine, one of ours will obviously be in violation of the common app’s honesty statement. While I have sufficient proof of my authorship, a competitive school might not take the time to investigate further, since they have so many other applicants to choose from. Then if I get rejected, I won’t know whether it’s because someone else used my essay or because I’m legitimately unqualified.</p>
<p>Ohhh, I see. Are you trying to prepare yourself for rejection, so you don’t have to take accountability for it? (“Well, they rejected me, but it wasn’t my fault. It was someone else…”)</p>
<p>Come on, have more faith in yourself. Chill out, you’ll probably get in somewhere. Even if not, you ARE in college anyway.</p>
<p>njd, it is too late to worry about it anymore … just wait for the decision and go from there …</p>
<p>where exactly are you applying ???</p>
<p>I’d much rather have the acceptance than whatever solace misdirected displacement of accountability can afford.</p>
<p>I’m applying to one school (not the one mentioned in the PM) that’s, especially locally, attractive enough to draw applications from people who might not otherwise be legitimate contenders–again, not to understate the abilities of the students here–one that those fluent in the college confidential vernacular might label as a “crapshoot.”</p>
<p>Hence, it’s not even a matter of whether I think any of my competitors has a solid chance of being accepted, but rather of, if one other person possess my essays and decides to apply because “the odds are slim anyway why not apply I have as good of a chance as the next person”, that obviously brings undesirable controversy to my application, even when I have not committed any misdeeds myself (be as cynical as you want).</p>
<p>However, I must confess some cynicism in myself, in that I don’t think integrity is as prioritized here as it might be elsewhere, especially since I’ve witnessed one account of plagiarism as committed by another, on an ungraded, oral assignment no less.</p>
<p>I’ve made some phone calls to give an anonymous heads up, though I doubt how anonymous the calls were since I only have one phone and it’s the same number that I put down on the application. Everybody who responded said the odds are so slim that it’s not worth fretting over, but that was before a janitorial discard was eliminated as a possibility, and the odds are probably no slimmer than the chance of admission whoever found my essays perceives.</p>
<p>I’ve read your essay. You have nothing to worry about. That is all.</p>
<p>If someone uses your essays and applies to the same university, and it becomes an honor issue, you would be notified; you would then be able to prove your case. So your “worry” that you might be rejected and not know if it was due to this, or due to a “legitimate” reason to reject you is moot.</p>
<p>How do you know I’ll be given the chance to prove my case?</p>
<p>All honor violations are brought before a committee. When you apply you sign the honor code and are therefore part of that process.</p>
<p>I think both should be rejected …
you for the carelessness and the other one for being dishonest, those are the consequences …</p>
<p>Yes that’s another part of what I’m worried about! Being rejected for losing my essay, which will convey inattentiveness. </p>
<p>Also, I left one of the Stanford print-outs alone, and a day later I find it shredded and hiding behind the monitor. It’s not just ripped in half–it’s totally destroyed. Who would care enough to rip something like that?</p>
<p>Also, the janitors aren’t very good at their job, apparently, since papers litter desks overnight all the time. Although I don’t remember whether I had checked the garbage cans the morning after, either someone discarded it or left with it, and I just can’t imagine anyone taking the time to get up to discard it. </p>
<p>Finally, are you sure all violations are brought before a committee? It’s a lot easier to reject both applicants, especially when the line between borderline and admit is thin.</p>
<p>njd1995, please, please relax and calm down. Applying and waiting for your answer is extremely stressful; don’t add to that with worries like this. Who knows who shredded the Stanford application? Some anxious kid hoping to speak to the cute girl/guy sitting across from them in the library mindlessly ripping a piece of paper is a likely scenario.
Number 1) it is highly unlikely that someone used your essays at all.
Number 2) if they liked them, they probably simply read them and moved on with their lives…perhaps throwing them away.
Number 3) more than likely a janitor did actually throw them away
I am not even going to speculate on if someone used your essays, whether or not they applied to the same universities as you did, but I will say if the same reader reads them both (in that far fetched scenario) than yes, they would bring it to the attention of an honors committee, not simply reject both…you signed the honors statement when you applied for a reason, they too sign honors statements…which means they would investigate.
So, I am telling you to forget this whole thing, relax, and know that if you are rejected it isn’t due to someone using your essays.</p>
<p>But it’s not like a book, which if someone found entertaining he would read the covers, maybe the first few pages. Picking up something like this could have huge implications on one’s future, since, attending Stanford gives one no small advantage, and I’m pretty sure everybody here knows that. Or, even if they don’t know Stanford, the local counterpart here is undoubtedly recognizable.</p>
<p>For the possibility that the janitor did throw it away, I once thought that was likely too, because I saw the janitor on another floor of the library vacuuming and cleaning desks. But the one who works down on this floor usually conducts a cursory check, and that’s putting it nicely.</p>
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<p>I don’t think I’m a sure thing at a school of Dartmouth’s caliber (Laskaris is Dartmouth’s dean who recently commented in a newspaper article). If my reader thinks I can go into either pile, but suddenly finds controversy, then that controversy might be enough to make the rejection pile a lot more attractive, since the choice is between a split-second toss or hours possibly days of investigation.</p>
<p>However, I think that article is about students who use Whitman-esque phrases without attribution; two applicants having similar essays is totally different.</p>
<p>Lastly, like leakers said, they might reject me for being careless, even though I probably overlooked it because I was so tired from 7 hours of working on them!</p>
<p>Well, it boils down to what you want to worry about then, doesn’t it. I just don’t want you believing you didn’t get in, if a decision goes that way, to your suspicion that some unknown person knowingly swiped your essays and decided suddenly to apply to Stanford or Dartmouth or any other highly selective school. You have insinuated that your classmates writing capability doesn’t match yours, and one would assume their SAT scores and grades don’t either.
If you don’t get in, it just means that students with similar applications to yours (not similar essays) did get in. That is the rule in admissions…for every accepted student there are numerous applicants who are equally qualified. And no, that doesn’t mean of those numerous that were rejected, that they were rejected due to other applicants having the exact same essays (or even slightly different, plagiarized essays) .</p>
<p>April 1st will be here soon. Worry about keeping your gpa up, and doing well on your current school work. Take a deep breath, relax, and stop envisioning that there is someone out there who suddenly has taken an interest in a highly selective school.</p>
<p>What I really want is to have the chance to prove my authorship if anything comes up. You said there’s an honor committee, and Dartmouth’s policy, as Dean Laskaris outlined, seems to be that an applicant whom the committee already wants to admit will be contacted and allowed chance for further clarification. Do you think the same applies for applicants that “will make the next stage of review but not sure yet”? I just don’t want a duplication to be an automatic reason for them to reject me, because that obviously saves them a lot of work, and we know they don’t have the lightest workloads around this time of the year. </p>
<p>Also, do schools note who called when about what, and if they match it up with this thread and see my (possibly) neurotic concern, will that work against me too?</p>
<p>If it comes up, have them look at your SAT essay to verify that it’s your writing style.</p>
<p>If it doesn’t (whether for being unlikely or unreal), then there’s nothing to worry about.</p>
<p>I was going to respond to some of your statements, but they seem intentionally contradictory.</p>
<p>One other statement is whether 3321’s statement that it will definitely go before an honor committee is true, or my application will be automatically rejected, since that saves them a lot of work, because their seasonal workload can use some lightening. </p>
<p>Other statement 2 regards whether calling to ask about a school’s policy governing messes like this reveals, like Dwight.Einsenhower said, my weirdness or neuroticism, or like theleaker said, my carelessness, thereby creating a note of such qualities, which this thread can only serve to bolster, if the call is matched up with my application (since I have only one phone number, and it’s the one I put down).</p>
<p>Or 3, whether, even after I prove my authorship, the carelessness conveyed by losing the essays gives further ground for rejection.</p>
<p>I am not in admissions so my statements regarding the honor committee are only reasonable conjecture.
I think you shouldn’t call to ascertain what they would do. I state this because you don’t know anyone took them, much less anyone is applying to the university using your essays. It would appear, again reasonable conjecture, as slightly neurotic to jump to the conclusions you have jumped to, and believe me, I am prone to my own “wild a** theories.” and in spite of that I am telling you in all sincerity to drop it.</p>