<p>And IBclass, I’m actually not naive about cheating- I have a google alert out for stuff like this:[forum.japantoday.com</a> - View topic - Koreans cheating on SAT/GRE](<a href=“http://forum.japantoday.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=890365]forum.japantoday.com”>http://forum.japantoday.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=890365)</p>
<p>When will the CB wise up? Or maybe they don’t care, as long as they can collect big fees.</p>
<p>I really don’t get how you people feel someone else can write a better essay about you unless you are quite the incompetent writer; it doesn’t even have to be mind blowingly good writing, as long as it can really tell something about yourself. So you get a talented writer to write an essay with high quality writing; is it really going to reflect your essence and self better than if you wrote it? How is someone else supposed to capture your voice if you don’t write something? If someone else can write about yourself better than you can, if someone else can tap into your soul better than you can, you’ve got some real self-reflection to do.</p>
<p>^A google alert for this kind of stuff?..really?..</p>
<p>sanguinity,</p>
<p>Can the colleges tell your essay is really reflecting yourself?
Boosting your essay so that colleges will like it actually has little to do with how “you” your essay have to be.
That’s why it’s a problem</p>
<p>“Unfortunately, it is possible to hire a talented college student who will take your background materials, resumes, and other essays that you’ve written and write a very personal, compelling essay that sounds like your own genuine voice. I bet that essay can get you into the most competitive schools.”</p>
<p>I’ve been an award-winning professional writer, an editor as well as a journalism professional, and I don’t think that is true. It is very hard for even top professional writers to do that kind of ghost writing, and they’d need to spend lots of time with a person in order to do that. Even the most talented college student isn’t going to be able to spend that kind of time and effort to do the above.</p>
<p>I imagine that some people do manage to get opportunities with faked essays. I honestly don’t think, however, that such a person would have been able to take my place because what I have written about for applications for college, grad school, fellowships, etc. is so uniquely mine that I think that either the organization would want me or they wouldn’t want me. </p>
<p>I can remember my college essay was about what it was like growing up as one of only 5 black students in my town’s high school of 1,500 students. When I got a highly competitive internship at one of the country’s top newspapers, I wrote about how I’d taken over buildings in college, and I managed to tie that experience in with deToqueville’s view of America. </p>
<p>My subjects have always been a bit risky, and have reflected unusual aspects of my background and philosophy. </p>
<p>I think that if one really does honestly and creatively portray oneself in one’s essays, one won’t worry about what other people are doing. You may or may not get in – which is true for everyone – but you will have given it your best shot and would have allowed yourself to be evaluated on your real self, not someone forcing themselves to fit in some kind of mold like what presumably students do when they allow someone else to write their essay.</p>
<p>I know that no one could write about me better than I could.</p>
<p>In a perfect world, personal integrity, truth, and justice would shine through. But that’s not what we’re seeing in the world around us today, is it?</p>
<p>Some people know better what a college wants to hear. So they can tell stories to get you accepeted where you want to go.</p>
<p>I don’t have first hand experience with ghost writing but this is something I heard couple of years ago. There was an undergrad student at a prestigious university who figured out a good recipe for college essays. He’d interview the high school student, get some writing samples and a resume and write a riveting
college essay replete with personal stories, idiosyncracies, and even personal stylistics of the student. He got his clients admitted to ivy league colleges and paid his own college expenses.</p>
<p>Sanguinity, the adcoms don’t know the applicants, so how can they tell whose soul they are tapping into?</p>
<p>And Northstarmom-“You may or may not get in – which is true for everyone – but you will have given it your best shot and would have allowed yourself to be evaluated on your real self, not someone forcing themselves to fit in some kind of mold like what presumably students do when they allow someone else to write their essay.”</p>
<p>Once again, the adcoms don’t really know whose voice they are hearing, do they? And so the person who cheated, while he may not be as high minded as the applicant who does his essay independently, is admitted. It’s not right, no matter how you dress it up.</p>
<p>Of course it’s not right; nobody is claiming that. But cheating happens, and if you let it annoy you as much as the OP every time someone cheats you won’t get far in life.</p>
<p>^^^^^</p>
<p>The O.P. isn’t talking about individuals or specific instances but a systemic problem. Pay attention.</p>
<p>I don’t think that lots of people are getting into college because of others’ writing their essays.</p>
<p>I also don’t believe that college students can ghostwrite the kind of excellent essays that the OP is claiming they can. I can imagine college students earning money by lying and saying they can do such writing, but I doubt that much of that ever happens. Ghostwriting like that would be a lot of work and would take a lot of skill, skills that even very smart college students aren’t likely to have. I can imagine, though, that some students might con people into paying for such services even though their essays would not be as good as what the students would write themselves.</p>
<p>And if those students are going to places like Harvard, there are many extracurriculars that they could be participating in that would be far more personally rewarding for them than would be helping cheaters get into top colleges. Given the generous financial aid policies of places like Harvard and Yale, it’s unlikely that many students would turn to this kind of endeavor to make money.</p>
<p>Oh – and if you really know college students offering such business services, turn them in. That would help to end the problem.</p>
<p>No, there’s nothing you can do about it but be honest and write your own. </p>
<p>This is a really stupid thing to ***** about, btw. It’s not like you’re going to get someone to admit to doing it and rat themselves out.</p>
<p>and yeah, melin, even our crappiest writers can write a perfect college essay in about an hour or so. I don’t know if it’s the IB curriculum so much as it is our IB teachers. We focus a lot on writing even outside of the IB papers, portfolios, extended essay, etc.</p>