My son is applying to several schools that require graded essays. Unfortunately, our public school system has been assigning no essay writing since the pandemic started. Therefore, he does not have any graded essays. The last essay assignment that was given to him was from a year ago. Unfortunately, he no longer has the marked-up version of this. He could print out a copy of the essay, but it would not show the teacher’s comments. Also, his writing has improved since then. Has anyone else run into this issue?
DD submitted her essay but it had no grade. They submit electronically and there’s no “mark-ups” like paper corrections were back in the day. She just received a grade, also electronically. There has been no issue with her submitting that sample.
They are looking for a writing sample, not the actual post-graded, “what did you get on it” sample.
I think you can submit his most recent essay, and then send a note to the AOs explaining that it was pre-pandemic, due to the school’s decision to omit essays from the curriculum. (What a disservice to the kids IMHO).
Thank you for your reply! That’s a relief that it does not need to be a marked-up version of the essay.
I have been very disappointed with what our public school district has done with the curriculum since the pandemic started. My child’s teachers are wonderful, but they have been limited on what they are allowed to assign during distance learning. It really is a disservice to the kids.
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I will second what @buuzn03 advised.
The point of the “graded essay” is to see an example of how the kid writes for classroom purposes - not the (potentially overly) polished application essay, or the random no-time-to-think-or-edit SSAT essay.
(My kid’s application essays experienced no polishing, but I suspect some have more help with “editing” than others.)
I asked this same question recently and got similar answers. I’m sure there are several kids who apply who have a good number of things to choose from. But we are in the same boat, just slightly different details.
When I asked D about this, she said they haven’t done any essays this year (we are in person classes, so no COVID excuse). This is in honors English. I am starting to understand why my kids are not good writers.
She had an assignment yesterday that isn’t really an essay, but it’s about a page and a half of writing. I think that is what we are going to have to turn in. I doubt it gets many/any comments on it.
Question for you all:
how are you submitting your graded essays?
We just realized today that only one of the schools (of 13) on my daughter’s list has the “graded essay” link on SAO attached to their application. (Yet I know that more than 1 has asked for it.). I will go back and check each school one by one on their website but I just wondered if any of you have crossed this bridge already?
Usually the school that requires graded essay will (a) have a link to submit or (b)will provide an email address that parents can email the graded essay to.
@parentken yes, we can always email things. It just strikes me as poor planning to have a requirement, and then have a space for that requirement on SAO, and then have that repository not communicate with the school. (I’m finding the same problem BTW with the extra teacher recommendation and the personal recommendation.). I guess I’m just feeling a bit anti-SAO today because we just did a ton of work that turns out is going nowhere, and now we have to try to re-create those items and get them emailed out one by one to each school. Makes me want to shout: why have the link if no one is using it and things need to be emailed to the school directly? Save those direct emailed submissions for things that actually need a workaround, meaning things that don’t already have fields on the application portal. UGH.
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Another kid, another problem with the graded essay. I asked one school and said an essay for a CTY writing class was fine. I don’t have any of the corrections but I do have a written narrative for the class. The math class is harder.
So far, like our recommendations, DDs graded essay is being shown as received by the schools who required it.
I do know that the schools do not receive anything submitted by the applicant through the SAO until the application fee is paid. We did confirm that piece of information. So, it may show as received/completed on the SAO website, but has not been transmitted to the school until the fee for that particular school has been paid.
Most of our schools requesting the essay with receive it too. I think the not-receiving-graded-essay issue is limited to the schools who are requiring it only if you don’t submit SSATs. (I will be confirming this by combing through all the school websites again – I was naive in assuming the SAO was all-wise-and-knowing!) Which makes sense since the SAO does not allow a field to be optional for a school (at least according to my conversation with an AO yesterday, and also my experience in the SAO interface). I think that speaks to horrible system design – the software architect in me is SMH, but given the design, it’s logical. And, emailing an essay or two is easy enough – it’s our problem, not another project to ask of a recommender.
(Having recommender fields that turn out to be essentially useless bothers me much more because it’s a waste of the work of others. But that’s a different post.).
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I have the graded essay issue too. Does it have to show a grade (like A or 5) and some comments that the teacher wrote on it? Will it work if it is just an assignment I turned in through a google doc without any grade or comments?
Same here. I have a university requesting a graded essay to supplement my app. My AO even said they would prefer it to have teacher comments on it along with the grade. Problem is I’m online this year so it’s all digital - but also we haven’t written essays yet this year. My 2 IB classes have ones due at end of year but that’s too late for applications. Frustrating.
it does not have to be “graded” – the schools are looking for an example of work you turn into your teacher for your current academics. DD turned in off of Google docs, b/c this is the only way they turn in their work. Their grade shows up in the portal and is not associated with the document turned in.
The purpose is for the schools to see your current writing sample that you provided your teacher (who should be providing a recommendation letter) instead of the tailored, polished essay you wrote for your application.