I do know a parent who wrote their child’s essays and a parent who hired an essay tutor who re-wrote 75% of the child’s essays. What most parents think colleges want in an essay is not the case. My kids both wrote in their teen voices and left minor errors in I guess intentionally because they liked the way the essay read. I did very basic editing and they rejected most of my edits anyway. Both were accepted at schools that supposedly use the essays as an important decision point. It seems like most AOs are closer in age to our teens than ourselves and I’m sure they can sniff out adult written essays pretty easily.
Very good point about the relative age issue 
My eldest, who is now a Junior at Vandy, just told me over this break what her TOPICS were!
One of them involved me in a sort of funny way so I guess that explains some of the mystery.
If the parent writes the essay and the kid gets in, the kid might feel undeserving and like a fraud. That’s a pretty terrible thing to do to your kid. They start college with a shameful secret. It also gives the messages that the parent thinks cheating is okay, that the kid’s work isn’t worth enough, and that a parent-approved essay is more important than honesty.
Light proofreading and little suggestions are fine. Helping a kid to come up with a topic if they are stuck is fine. Suggesting they expand on or change something is fine as long as the kid has veto power. But writing or rewriting is not fine in my opinion. Now if what a kid writes is just awful, I’m not sure how a parent can best provide honest feedback and writing instruction under deadline, but doing the work for the kid still isn’t a good option.
Half the battle in helping kids through this process is managing our own anxiety, perfectionism and aspirations for them. We have to try to stay realistic and supportive of who they are, not who we wish they were.
Some people hire “consultants” for tens of thousands of dollars, esp for ivy schools and essay writing is a major component of that price. In one example I know of the consultant “worked with” the student to compose 2 essays which the entire family (it seemed) then chose between to submit. Much hand wringing was done over whether Mom had chosen the correct essay. One was deemed in the end more “intellectual” and therefore better for Ivy ED application. Yes the student got in ED to the targeted Ivy.
I agree with those here that the student should write his or her own essay. My kids are so independent that they’d probably be accepted and be asking me to write a tuition check for them before I knew that they were applying.
This is a symptom of the helicopter parent- taking the reins because they want so badly to control the outcome for their kid. Sad but true. They’ll either write it, overly edit it, or hire someone to write it. Shame on the college consultants who take on that kind of work rather than just supporting/empowering the kid to do it.
Entire section on this in the awesome book “How to Raise An Adult” by Julie Lythcott-Haims. She also has a TED talk that is fantastic. (And her podcast, Getting In, also discusses this.)
Parents who swoop in and do everything for their kids are doing them a huge disservice on many levels- the worst of which is that these kids wind up being dependent, lacking confidence in their own abilities, becoming depressed and feeling hopeless… 
As so many have said, no, it is not at all the common practice. I bet, however, that parents do edit essays. There can be a wide range in what’s an edit. Suggestions to your child? Preferred. Mandatory edits or actually rewriting sections? To be avoided. As @Lindagaf wrote with that sad example (I read those posts and my heart went out to the student even if I had no practical advice to offer), there is a real danger to parents involving themselves in the application. Parents can be blind to this for a variety of reasons. I daresay that for those parents who get too involved in the essay writing process, if there is a less than exciting result, they will still blame their child’s writing and only wish they could have done more (unintended consequences and all).
I am not an admissions official. I know they claim to be able to spot the difference between a 17-18 year-old voice and a 40 year-old one (there is a big difference between content and voice). I like to believe that’s true, but I have no real way of knowing. What I do believe is that admissions committees are looking at the essays to get a feeling about an individual applicant’s ‘real’ self, beyond the grades, test scores, ECs. To the extent that an applicant sounds middle-aged, it’s doubtful that person would be viewed as a strong addition to the diversity of a first-year class (the professors fulfill that middle-aged role on campus quite nicely I bet) (assuming we’re talking about the typical 18-yr old applicant here).
Admissions committees can easily tell when it is not a 17-18 year old writing their essays.
That’s good. How boring it would be to read a bunch of parent/consultant essays!
Even a rather poorly written but authentic (and possibly very funny as my kids will often inadvertently come up with)
must be very refreshing.
Maybe even put that app in the “good essay” pile
I’m pretty sure my parents haven’t read a single one of my essays, and I’m applying to twelve colleges. That is more from my resistance than theirs. They keep insisting they need to see them, but I’ve submitted them all without their viewing. I plan to let them read some once I’ve finished all of my applications for their sake.
I didn’t do this because I thought I didn’t need editing, although I’ve only shown a few of my many supplementals to others. I did this mostly because I didn’t want the opinions on how my ideas could express something better etc etc. I just wanted to send what I felt was my best answer to colleges without being judged for it. Maybe that speaks just to me and my parents, but I feel as if that may apply to a broader amount of kids.
So far it has worked out. I’ve been accepted to three schools and deferred at one. I mean I’ll have to see about the rest, but I am going somewhere.
I wrote my essays without any help but I get the sinking feeling more and more that many college applicants are getting something beyond general opinions in help on their essays. What do all these consultants do that is worth 1,000s of dollars? The only thing I can think of is to write the essay. What else would be worth that much money?
I never saw D’s until after she was admitted, and I’m very careful, when I read essays at the request of applicants who post here, to try to limit my comments to pointing out grammatical errors (e.g., wrong tense, lack of parallel structure), wrong words (the thesaurus syndrome), problems with idiomatic phrases (especially common among foreign applicants), and the like. It’s important to me that the “voice” remains that of the author, and I think a parent should take the same approach.
My father read over all of my essays for me, and we brainstormed nearly all of my topics together as I work best when I have a sounding board. We had a method that I think would work for future college applicants who would like parents to read over essays but not have too heavy a hand: the “suggestion” tool on Google Docs. It allows my dad to see my work, edit what he wants but then I have veto power over the edits. In the whole process 97% of these edits were grammar/word choice, and occasionally flow, but he never changed an idea. But I did see my peers have college consultants who would just write the essays for them.
I meant to mention this in my previous post, but somehow I only hinted at it. My parents wish to read my essays interesting all their friends read their children’s essay. I hear this daily. So and so has read and edited child’s essay etc. They’ll even comment how lucky the kid is because the dad is in PR or something of the sort. They believe every parent reads their children’s essays and helps them and that I am the anomaly. They always say at social functions when the topic comes up everyone is shocked they haven’t read mine yet. So there’s that. Sort of peer pressure? Maybe?
At this point a proctored essay such as the SAT seems a better way to evaluate student ability.
This is really getting ridiculous.
If a family can not afford expensive college advisers or go to prep schools where this service is provided they will likely be at a distinct disadvantage.
My daughter told me this morning that many/most of her friends had their essays mostly written by consultants who have cultivated the art of “sounding” like teenagers.
Wow.
I always find it so ridiculous when posters state that adcoms know when kids have someone else write/edit their essays. If you took sample essays from a group of high school students the content, maturity, style, and overall writing ability would be vastly different from student to student. There is no such thing as a “typical” high school senior writing sample. Many kids write far better than their parents or even their teachers. I read the GC LOR written for one of my kids. It wasn’t even adequate hs writing, neverless college/professional level writing.
It is just wonderful that all the posters on CC would never edit or hire someone to edit their kids essays.
I do not buy that admissions people can tell the difference in some cases. An excellent writer and excellent student can often write better than many adults. The admissions officers don’t assume a parent wrote it, they assume a top student wrote it. On the other hand, yes, it is apparent when a 17 year old wrote an essay, particularly if they have average writing skills. I have been asked to proof some essays recently and I am shocked at how poorly written they are, these kids need some guidance. In those cases, I wish someone would step in and help them with basic editing or direction because they don’t have a chance at getting in with them. Then we can hope they take more English classes in college.
There are very bright students (think STEM kids, very artistic types) who do not have strong writing skills and they are often denied because of poorly written (unedited or proofed) essays. It is ok and often times recommended to have an adult(s) overseeing the process, whether a parent, counselor, or hired hand.
There is a big difference between what someone can produce under stress with a 40 minute time limit and what can be produced in 4 months of rewrites. And a 600 does not mean a student is not capable of “deeply moving content.” I don’t think that an Adcom is willing to make that kind of call. I don’t buy it.
But then I also don’t buy that adcoms know if you send all of your test scores…or whether you apply to MIT EA and Yale SCEA, so maybe I am just a conspiracy theorist?
“It is just wonderful that all the posters on CC would never edit or hire someone to edit their kids essays.”
I think most parents here are responding from the perspective of not writing/massaging the essay, a chief concern of the OP.
Having students submit essays of questionable origin seems just as pointless as having “take home” finals handed out at the beginning of the semester.
On that topic, there is so much cheating at the high school level that many teachers have an inflated idea of students’ real abilities and no longer curve science and history tests at my kids’ college prep high school.
This surely disadvantages the non-cheating students GPA wise.
Do admissions officers consider that?
I tutor high school kids in the Palo Alto area in math, physics, and computer science. My fee started at $100/hour. After word got out my fee quickly went to $200/hour and I could easily get more if I asked for it. I do it more for enjoyment than money.
I get the feeling these wealthy parents would give half their fortunes away for their kids to get admitted to Stanford (or other dream schools for that matter). I don’t know if they will ask a consultant to write their kid’s application essays but it wouldn’t surprise me. There is still a large divide between wealthy families and others. I don’t know the answer to level the playing field.