<p>Everyone knows that parents, guidance counselers, etc.
ensure that the essay is good and check it and help.</p>
<p>The colleges should invite the possible students to the school and give the students 24 hours to write the essay without prior knowledge of the topic.</p>
<p>That would be fair, and the adcoms would know that the students is actually a good writer, instead of having to deal with other people basically writing the essay for them / giving the students the idea for the essay.</p>
<p>Most of the time colleges will know when someone else takes a large part in writing the essay.</p>
<p>Essays are not counted nearly as much as many people think they are; from what I've heard, they are most important in a tie-breaker scenario -- that is, if you're on the cusp of admission and they can't quite decide. If you write a great essay, that could convince them to let you in.</p>
<p>Obviously there's no 100% guarantee that the essays are your own. That said, I'm pretty sure that there is some system being set up to compare the writing in your essay and in the essay you write for the SATs, which could partially erase this problem. And as someone whose greatest strength is writing, I think that the essay is very important as a way for us to really demonstrate our personalities in ways that mere statistics and even recommendations cannot.</p>
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The colleges should invite the possible students to the school and give the students 24 hours to write the essay without prior knowledge of the topic.
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<p>that just isn't feasible.</p>
<p>i agree with hpa10, while in theory its a good idea, but in reality it wouldn't work</p>
<p>It's not really a good idea in theory. My essay allowed me to really express who I was - and took a realllly long time to perfect, even just a topic, as I ended up writing about a topic that is very sensitive to me, but that I wasn't even considering in the beginning because of its sensitivity. I am convinced that my essay really helped me get into the colleges I did (MIT, Harvard, Caltech, Berkeley). Sure, people helped me, but a) real writers have editors, and b) even with ALL the help in the world, unless the essay is written by someone else (which a quick comparison to SAT scores, English grades, etc. could suggest), the student's true voice and meaning will come across. Basically, the essay is the ONE place the student has a chance to speak for him/herself in the arms of the reader, and it is the once chance a student has to explain who he/she is and where s/he expects to be going. Definitely not an overexaggeration, and not something that, if done right, can be done in 24 hours.</p>
<p>If the whole 24 hour system was in place, the student would probably spend the prior months to such an event carefully orchestrating a perfect essay with the counselors and what not and basically rewriting it for this 24 hour period</p>
<p>^Like the essay writing portion of the SAT.
I completely agree with lalaloo6; the essay gives you the opportunity to write something personal, real, and interesting that will hopefully capture the interest of the reader. Plus, it would be impossible to have every applicant come to the school just to write an essay.</p>
<p>@OP
Can you really not see the inconveniences that idea puts on EVERYONE?</p>
<p>Jeez, all adcoms want is to have some insight into the applicant's personality and the way he or she thinks. It gives the application more dimension rather than numbers, figures, and lists. :p </p>
<p>24 hrs to write an essay sounds like death. :/</p>
<p>But like with Michelle Hernandez, she advised her client to write an essay about how he feels listening to classical music, which went along really well with his profile and helped him get in.</p>
<p>A solid essay can help, and a lot of times there is wayyy too much help received.</p>
<p>Something tells me adults are really good at writing techinically and often fail at the kind of creative brilliance that most colleges look for.</p>
<p>I've seen the kids at a local prep school spend an entire semester working in class on their essay-kids at the nearby Public High School get nothing. I hope admissions counselors understand this.</p>
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But like with Michelle Hernandez, she advised her client to write an essay about how he feels listening to classical music, which went along really well with his profile and helped him get in.
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<p>So you're complaining that she made a good suggestion? If he really feels a certain way listening to classical music and wrote an essay on it, there's nothing wrong with that.</p>
<p>To be frank, though- if we're going to complain about how people get unfair help on essays, let's just complain about how certain groups of privileged students get loads of help on their applications in GENERAL.</p>
<p>Life, unfortunately, is not fair. Those of us (un)lucky enough to be doing our own work for ourselves just have to deal with that.</p>
<p>Oh, boo hoo! Life is so unfair! Excuse me while I go back into my bubble of security and fairness to weep about the world's defects...</p>
<p>Dudes, wake up. Life is full of challenges. Change what you can change and move on from what you can't. You can't change the fact that there are people who are more privledged than you are. You CAN improve your freakin' writing skills.</p>
<p>Furthermore, a timed essay is one of the most ridiculous things I've heard of on this subject.</p>
<p>just to jet off topic for a quick second...</p>
<p>I think emphasis should be put on outside recommendations</p>
<p>I.E. if a person who knows what they want to be and has already decided and ran with their career by doing internships/gaining mentors.. recs from high ranked people should be taken into account because its not likely you'll be able to get a recommendation from a CEO of a big shot company or a Staff Neurosurgeon etc... (i say neurosurgeon cuz thats my career path... im set on it)</p>
<p>My thinking is that if you've gained the trust from someone very important and this important individual is very respected and knows you well and thinks you have potential, rec will be a very good admissions factor...</p>
<p>Cuz its easy as pie getting recs from high school profs... not as easy when getting some from the Top of the Field individuals (especially surgeons... trust me i know...)</p>
<p>THat just my opinion... i know in canada recommendations play a huge roll in medical school acceptances (besides test scores etc)... you got to be a very distinguished individual...</p>
<p>^I completely disagree with outside rec's. A vast majority of those sent in are worthless- people in 'power' just doing you (or your family) a favor. They don't really know you.</p>
<p>Only a ridiculously small percentage of applicants have had the opportunity to truly get to know someone in a field that well. In general, your high school teachers are able to tell adcoms far more about you as a student than the typical outside mentor.
Besides, US colleges aren't necessarily looking for students that already know what they want to do/major in - it's why so many top colleges stress that declaring 'undecided' on your app has no effect on admissions.</p>
<p>As to the original topic- yes, I got some help. But my essay was all me. And it certainly wasn't written in 24 hours. There were points where I would put it aside for that length of time just so that I could get a fresh look at it and make (major) changes.</p>
<p>^ well that what i mean.... i didnt make myself clear... if you've spent time getting to know a superior individual in his or her field then its worth it... I think high school recs are great to an certain extent... meaning any kid getting good grades or bad grades can get one... and high school isnt selective... if you've ever seen the amount of work needed to get a recommendation from a top physician ull see its considered better than any rec+essay....</p>
<p>again depends on the time they've known u... ur basing the ideology that by being in school etc a teacher will get to know u... the same thing can happen with a more important individual recognized in the community+outside world... any teacher can base a rec on grades... hence why teachers will write recs for everyone... it takes lots of effort getting a rec from a physician or higher individual.. trust me id know... recs are worth something in my opinion.. thats only because ive gotten to know some quite famous individuals... in neurosurgery field... and it was incredibly hard getting a rec from them because you had to serious prove it to them..... ive seen multiple kids with mediocre grades+work habits chill with teachers joke with them etc... and they get automatic great recs from teachers talking about their great potential etc and that they are doing great in class when some of them are barely passing...</p>
<p>^For some reason I thought you were implying that schools should completely do away with teacher recs.</p>