<p>@ginalee11 My only concerns about publically publishing my Supplementary Essay are as follows:
(Please keep in mind that I’m not attempting to argue a point, but merely trying to answer your question as in-depth as possible, as well as to provoke thought in others for future reference. On a side note, when I was younger, I wanted to be a lawyer and then a philosopher. As a future foreign diplomat, both passions have stayed with me, so this is quite lengthy! 
)</p>
<p>A) The potential to be identified</p>
<p>Whether by strangers or the Wellesley College Admissions Team, I wish to remain (somewhat) anonymous. Though I believe that my actions online reflect my actions offline in a consistent and positive respect and may even help to better communicate my candidacy in the presented evidence and manner of both one-on-one and group social interaction, the possibility of identification remains somewhat unsettling and possibly threatening (in the case of strangers). </p>
<p>Yet I am dually aware, as the AUTHOR and PUBLISHER of all written commentary, that the public’s viewing of my comments is entirely ethical due to my own deliverance of conscious consent to submit the information for public viewing, having consented in clicking ‘post comment’ and, before having done so, having already fulfilled the responsibility of any self-respecting author, which is to have re-read (and to have socially filtered, if need be) the content intended for publication. </p>
<p>Therefore, were the Wellesley Admissions Team to view this thread because the thread is in association with the institution and the institution’s reputation (Wellesley’s presence on College Confidential, in turn, being governed by their own consent), when applicants consent to the publications of self-expression in association with the institution, it would be entirely ethical should the comments and decisions made on this thread by the participating individuals be used to further gauge individual applicants, just as easily as if the applicants were sitting in the Admission’s Office (applicants being identified online in their comments’ content and more easily by their individually published essays). In retrospect, the effect would be minimal and moreover unexpected due to the lack of notification concerning consenting and publication, this having been assumed or perhaps included in the website’s terms and conditions, but the possibility remains viable all the same in my mind. (…In the advantage of lacking transparency, it could be argued that such review is unethical, further so in its potential encroachment on free speech by gauging applicants based on their expressed sentiments, but doesn’t an interview employ the same judgment of sentiments? But, seeing as this is an entirely hypothetical example to stress my earlier point about anonymity, any such debate is irrelevant, so pay me no mind). </p>
<p>B) The potential to be plagiarized</p>
<p>The most obvious cause for concern when publicizing a supplementary essay is the possibility of future students replicating the essay – whether word for word, or simply changing the subject or organization. Although there are a limited amount of topics, inevitably causing the same subject combinations/techniques to repeat, the ability to completely assume another applicant’s hours of hard word is generally considered unethical – but while some may call it “plagiarism,” others call it “inspiration” (a mere matter of perspective and magnitude, extremely situational). With thousands of essays submitted per year, it’s hard to draw the line, and it’s even harder to keep track of all the essays ever submitted, just to identify the true plagiarists; it’s harder yet to check every corner of the internet each year to see which have been uploaded! Of course, some may attain essays from current students, calling into question, again, where the line must be drawn – a conflict between public versus private sharing.</p>
<p>Ultimately, however, the school has no jurisdiction over individual actions (both ethically and, as demonstrated above, realistically), rather, it’s an individual’s choice whether to share their essays, and it’s another individual’s choice whether to plagiarize the essay or be inspired by it… I suppose the choice to publicize boils down to whether you are more bothered by the potential for a student to enter Wellesley by plagiarizing your essay or whether you more greatly wish to quell the anxieties of prospective students and act as a possible source of inspiration and insight – both are dually possible at the same time. So, as for the publisher, virtually unaffected by the second individual’s choice to plagiarize/be inspired, the choice to publicize is merely a matter of preference and will be decided on an individual basis. Is there anything wrong with publishing a supplementary essay? Absolutely not. Might you lose a little sleep over it? Well, that’s a matter of individual perception and will vary from individual to individual case. </p>
<p>C) The potential to set a precedent</p>
<p>On the flip-side of plagiarism is the potential to create a “precedent” for prospective students by publishing your essay – if a potential student sees your essay and also observes that you were accepted, then they will likely use your essay as a basis of judgment as to what they believe Wellesley is looking for in its applicants’ essays. The result? A stream of essays mimicking formerly accepted applicant’s essays, which they believe to be a formula to getting in. Though Wellesley and all other schools wish only to read original essays capturing a sense of the individual applicant, by setting a precedent in publication, this effort is essentially corrupted, or, at the very least, make it more difficult to differentiate the true essays from the formulated ones, and would again instate a need to save all submitted essays and monitor websites for publications as aforementioned, which is, again, unrealistic and will likely be unsuccessful.</p>
<p>In this situation, the choice falls to the individuals, separately the publishers and the applications, as above.</p>
<p>I hope this sheds a little light on the issue of publicizing Supplementary essays – keep in mind, there’s no right answer and the choice is ultimately the individual’s! </p>
</p>
</p>