A friend of the family is extremely busy this week-end writing/ editing/massaging her daughter’s final application essays.
Apparently she has been told by numerous people that this is “what everyone does”, and it is her eldest and she has no experience with this so I don’t necessarily blame her. She was specifically told that no one really writes their own essays.
Is this what it has come to??
I never saw my daughter’s essays.
Do admissions officers really look for perfection in these writing samples?
It is sad that a seventeen year old is held to this standard (both of the families in question have a parent with a law degree)
“Do admissions officers really look for perfection in these writing samples?”
No, but they are attuned to the overly crafted, heavy-on-the-philosophical tripe that adults write.
Your friend is correct in that many people are, apparently, “massaging” their children’s essays. They are in the wrong for doing so, and could hurt the student’s chances at receiving a wholehearted, favorable review.
I have a child applying this year and have seen maybe two of her essays. Breathtaking, they were. I was so proud of her and her speaking voice. I think she’s doing an exemplary job.
I trust that most admissions professionals can tell the difference between a well-written personal essay and something a parent wrote.
I’m a professional writer and I’ll cop to copyediting for my kids once they think they’re done – with them sitting right there, free to accept or reject my edits – but I would never dream of writing their essays for them (or even insisting on edits). I think a second set of eyes is fine. Writing it for them? Are they planning on going to college for them as well??
That is BS. If the asmissions officers found out the essay was not the applicant’s own work, they are in big trouble. And these adcoms have years of experience; they can definitely tell when an essay was not written by a student or has been heavily edited.
If you look at the common data set for some schools, they say that they specifically use an applicant’s SAT essay scores to determine if the essay they submitted was likely to be their original work or not. If a student with an 7/12 essay score and a 600 on the writing section submits a flawless, deeply moving essay written at a college level or beyond, they may have suspicions. If they had an 87 in AP english but haven’t a single flaw in their supplementary essay, they may have suspicions. If the essay just has the feel of being heavily doctored, they will have suspicions.
It’s definitely not a bad thing that you never saw your daughter’s essays. If she wanted feedback, she would have asked; since she didn’t ask, she probably was feeling pretty confident about her essay.
I’ve written every single essay myself, as I’m sure most people on this website have, and gotten some editing tips from my english teacher and peer editing, but I do see some parents on this website writing their children’s essays for them (very few, thankfully.) If their children can’t even handle a ~500 word essay, even if they do get into colleges with that plagiarized essay, how could they possibly keep up with the work there?
Adcoms don’t expect perfection in these essays. They’re essays written by seventeen year olds. They just want to know about the applicant and get a feel of what kind of person they are.
Well, that’s pretty unethical. Her daughter is going to have to certify on her applications that her essays are all her own work.
Some editing is acceptable, but hopefully your friend knows where to draw the line. Suggesting a different word choice here and there, or making general comments (e.g. “you might want to add a couple of sentences describing how you did XYZ”) – that’s okay. But actually rewriting her daughter’s work is not okay.
Also, college application reviewers swear they can tell when something is not believably the work of a high school student.
That’s what I have always thought.
Adult writing seems way too contrived, but …who knows.
I don’t think any of my kids will let me be overly involved in this part of their college adventure.
Finances, on the other hand…
They better hope that none of their children are invited to a scholarship interview weekend. My son has had to write essays as part of his interview.
“Apparently she has been told by numerous people that this is what everyone does” is her way of justifying writing her daughter’s essays. I’ve read my son’s essays and I could not be prouder. I could never have written the essays my son wrote because we have different frames of reference as any two people with a 30 year age difference would. She should have more confidence in her daughter to have written her own essays. AOs are not looking for perfection but they are looking to learn about the student. Not the student through their parent’s voice. I guess she’ll want to go to college with her to help her write her papers too.
It does not surprise me that this happens. My wife is an English major, and freelance writer, and luckily our daughter inherited some of that skill, and wrote many great essay’s during the application process. My wife would only look the essay over if our daughter asked for a once over. It seems like this is just a natural progression of the “helicopter parenting”, which only hurts the kids in the long run. Too many parents think that preventing a child from ever failing they are helping,
For example, my wife went back to school several years ago to finish her degree. She came home one day, absolutely stunned by what she heard walking between classes. A girl in front of her was crying on the phone, very upset at her mother (wife heard her say mom) for not letting her know she had a test that morning.
" I could never have written the essays my son wrote because we have different frames of reference as any two people with a 30 year age difference would. "
Hear, hear. (Husband edited!)
[QUOTE=""]
I’ve read my son’s essays and I could not be prouder.
[/QUOTE]
Doesn’t it seem like high schools are teaching our kids to write at a level way beyond what we were? I could never have written at age 17 the kind of essays my kids are turning out.
Everyone does NOT rewrite and edit to death their kids’ essays. It’s certainly fine to ask for opinions and advice but adcoms can usually tell when it’s been written by an adult or parent. I offered opinions on my D’s essay, which were mostly ignored. She did great, got into nine colleges.
There is a student here on CC who let me read the essay his parent insisted he submit. The essay is dreadful, full of references to Balzac and Beethoven. It’s very well written, but it reads like what an essay would sound like if it were lifted out of an encyclopedia with a few “teen-like” witticisms thrown in. Not surprisingly, this student is applying to tippy top coleges and helpful dad is sure that Harvard wants to read this kind of intellectual tripe. The kid is very upset and submitted his own essay via email, asking them to please ignore the other. The student, surprisingly, has been waitlisted. Maybe they took pity because the essay was so obviously not that of a 17 year old. I am impressed with this student is who is going to great lengths to submit his own work.
That said, I also have a friend who did completely rewrite her son’s allegedly pretty terrible essay. I can’t tell her what to do, but I did warn her to be careful, because they are wise to these tricks. But this student isn’t applying to tippy top colleges, and she is worried he might not get in anywhere. So maybe some parents do it out of genuine concern. As far as I am aware though, the vast majority of kids write their own essays. If my inbox on CC reflects anything, that seems to be the case for students here, at any rate.
My kids all wrote their own essays. I offered my opinion regarding things that could be added/changed but my kids were free to add them or not. My kids GC always says she can tell if an essay was written by a 50 year old lawyer or a 17 year old.
My son only let me read a draft (at the insistence of his CC) when he was applying. The voice and perspective were so authentically one of a young person. I’d like to think that the adcoms can spot the difference pretty quickly. But to answer the question, – Yes, it is wrong to have someone else heavily involved in writing your personal essay. It is your application. Others are given a forum for their input in the form of recommendations. This is not that!
There also seems to be a competition to submit the “most original and clever” essay that the adcoms have ever read.
Of course they read this in the books and hear about it from guidance counselors.
Talk about writer’s block!
I am glad I don’t have to do this!!
What happens when these kids get admitted to a school and are expected to write something?
For the most part these students are probably fine writers. It is the system, I feel, which pushes everyone to assume that good is not good enough.
My parents did not even KNOW that I wrote essays for college admission.
My D came out of school last Fall with her big essay pretty much as it stands due to an English assignment but some of these little supplementals have proven to be very annoying and hard for her over this holiday break. I found myself saying over and over, “you need to be more specific,” “show don’t tell,” and “maybe try to tell a story about this that shows your personality rather than just repeating the three generic points that were in the admissions video you and everyone else just watched.” I’m sure a lot of people would think I’m heavy handed–I’m sure, even at moments, my D is one who thinks this. But I can’t tell you how proud I felt when the light clicked and she came up with her original story about a certain campus visit. Some kids are natural born writers and don’t need any help at all. But some need a brainstorming buddy, a thesaurus, to not settle for the first done draft, and a good proofreader, and I’m not convinced there’s anything wrong with that.
Agreed.
There is no way a parent can duplicate the freshness and point of view of a 17 or 18 year old, and if they do the most likely result is epic fail for their kid. Sad.