<p>BlackBunny103, I notice that you haven’t posted your JHU essays. Yet, in the first post opening this thread you say:</p>
<p>"Let’s post our essays, especially Why JHU essay, to help next years students get an idea of what they should write. This will be very beneficial to them.</p>
<p>“It’d be great if you guys can indicate whether you guys apply ED or RD and whether you get accepted/ wait-listed/ rejected as well =)”</p>
<p>Yea I wrote that in first post but since I’m wait-listed so I think it’d probably be best just for those who get accepted to post up their essays =) If I get off the waitlist & get accepted, I’ll definitely post up.</p>
<p>Guys, I really don’t see why you guys are so skeptical about this. I did apply to JHU and I got wait-listed. </p>
<p>JHU is my first choice, and since I get wait-listed, I just wanna help future applicants. If you guys don’t believe me, then sure I’ll post up my JHU essay then:</p>
<p>French has always enchanted me with its melodic accent, and luscious desserts (souffl</p>
<p>BlackBunn103,</p>
<p>“Guys, I really don’t see why you guys are so skeptical about this. I did apply to JHU and I got wait-listed.”</p>
<p>You’re an anonymous poster on the Internet. There’s no reason to either believe or disbelieve your assertions of fact. But that’s not really the point. I can give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you’re pure of heart and all your intentions are golden.</p>
<p>However, I would be surprised if there aren’t folks who look at these sites with less honorable motivations. I’m less concerned with the people who post here, especially those with any sort of history, than I am with those who might lurk. Getting into top-tier schools is pretty cut-throat, and I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever that there are people who would readily attempt to cheat to get in.</p>
<p>I don’t think we should assist those folks.</p>
<p>I applied RD for chemistry (and music, but was rejected from Peabody and accepted to JHU)</p>
<pre><code>I decided to dual-major in chemistry and music composition for a variety of reasons, particularly for my interests in careers. Since my freshman year I have aspired to work abroad with humanitarianism, distributing medicine to those in need, but music has played too large a part in my life for me to blatantly leave it behind.
I originally wanted to work in different fields related to chemistry, such as biomedical-engineering, toxicology, and pharmacology, but eventually narrowed it down to simply pharmacy. After taking chemistry sophomore year I immediately recognized my fervor for the subject, and took an introduction to college chemistry class at a local college, and my passion for the subject only intensified. Although I wish to follow either pre-pharmacy or pre-medicine in college, I realize that for the specific major, I would like to focus on chemistry. It’s a subject that has always appealed to me, and one that I hope to pursue further in college.
As for music composition, I have been involved in writing pieces of music since eighth grade, and as someone so involved in music, it felt impossible for me to not pursue a major in composition. I play about eleven instruments as of now, and am in marching band, indoor drumline, and am auditioning for the Tampa Bay Thunder Drum and Bugle Corps on mellophone, and as such I am musically-diverse. Music has had such a significant impact on my life, and as such I am driven to pursue a major in it.
</code></pre>
<p>My essay’s so boring though; it’s NOT a good indication of what to write.</p>
<p>@notjoe: Thanxx for pointing this out =)</p>
<p>You’re right. I now can see why you guys are skeptical of my intention of starting this thread.</p>
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<p>This is true to a certain extent. I heard ppl cheated on the SAT but well, personally I don’t know anybody who has cheated to get into top-tier schools. That’s why I don’t doubt anybody seeking for help on this forum. If they’re in need of help, they’re free to ask - nothing suspicious about that so one shouldn’t be too paranoid. That’s what this forum is for - to provide help to others. And whether one provides help to others is totally optional. If anybody doesn’t wanna help, they clearly don’t have to. </p>
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<p>Yes those folks are out there, but not everybody is like that. && I think you know about the Crimson’s 50 successful harvard application essays. Harvard doesn’t publish 3 books consisting of successful applicant essays to promote plagiarism or assist those with mal intentions. Harvard simply publishes such 3 books to help future applicants to “learn from examples: what works & what doesn’t” (quoting from the book). And my intention when starting this thread is just the same as them and also as the one who started “Post UChicago essays”.</p>
<p>I just wanna ppl who got accepted to post up their essays to give future applicants a clear indicator of what kind of quality is expected. That’s my sole intention. Just like UChicago thread helped me, now I just wanna give back & help others.</p>
<p>As Admission_Daniel said, one shouldn’t post their essay up before they get their decisions. Yes, you don’t know who’s out there looking at your essays. That’s why this thread is for ppl to post up essays AFTER they’ve received their decisions. And if any future applicants had any intention to plagiarise, then they would dig their own grave. But honestly, I don’t think anybody in their right mind would ever think of plagiarising essays that have been posted.</p>
<p>@Kwel1994: Thanxx for posting up your essay =) I really appreciate that, and I’m sure others will do too.</p>
<p>BlackBunny103,</p>
<p>“I now can see why you guys are skeptical of my intention of starting this thread.”</p>
<p>It’s not your intentions about which I’m necessarily skeptical. It’s folks who ■■■■■ the Internet for this sort of information, for less than appropriate uses.</p>
<p>“Yes those folks are out there, but not everybody is like that.”</p>
<p>I’m not concerned about people who aren’t like that, I’m concerned about the people who are like that. And when you post this information on a public forum, you can’t keep it only to the folks who are honest. Dishonest people will also see it.</p>
<p>“Harvard doesn’t publish 3 books consisting of successful applicant essays to promote plagiarism or assist those with mal intentions.”</p>
<p>First - you understand that the book to which you appear to be referring was written by students or former students, and not published by Harvard, right?</p>
<p>But even if Harvard does something similar to Hopkins, with its “Essays that worked”, the differences between what these schools do and what is being done here are two-fold. First, the schools can control what they publish. They may choose essays, like Hopkins chooses, that are pretty difficult to plagiarize because of their unique characteristics. </p>
<p>But second, each school KNOWS WHAT IT’S PUTTING OUT THERE, and thus, can compare essays that come in from applicants against the limited pool of essays that the schools published. On the other hand, whatever is published here, these schools are unaware of it, and if someone plagiarizes essays posted here, it’s much more likely to slip under the radar, undetected.</p>
<p>“As Admission_Daniel said, one shouldn’t post their essay up before they get their decisions.”</p>
<p>That misrepresents what Admissions_Daniel said. He was speaking specifically about the time before decisions are announced, but said nothing to indicate that his views are different for the time after that. And think about it, it’s ALWAYS the time before decisions. Essays posted here now won’t help any of this year’s high school seniors, but the information will be available for folks applying next fall and winter.</p>
<p>“And if any future applicants had any intention to plagiarise, then they would dig their own grave.”</p>
<p>Why? Hopkins got over 20,000 applications this year with multiple essays and short answers. They got a similar number last year, and the year before. They’ll get a similar number next year. And the next year. And the next. Do you think they can perfectly detect possible plagiarism from among many tens of thousands of essays that they’ve received over time?</p>
<p>“But honestly, I don’t think anybody in their right mind would ever think of plagiarising essays that have been posted.”</p>
<p>Why? People plagiarize all the time! Even when the stakes aren’t all that high. I work with the teachers at my sons’ high school, and they have to be on the lookout for academic dishonesty all the time. </p>
<p>There are websites that advertise that they will write your college admissions essays for you, drawing on the experience of their staff, many of whom have served on admissions committees to top-tier schools. These are folks who ADVERTISE that they’ll help you cheat. Do you think no one uses their services? You don’t think companies like this are trolling the Internet to add to their libraries of essays to help their writers write these essays?</p>
<p>Hey notjoe, whoa…</p>
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<p>Well my school counselor told me that each college has some kind of software to check for plagiarism, not turnitin of course.</p>
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<p>Ok well at my school, student’s works are checked very thoroughly for referencing and plagiairism since we’re tdoing IB. And nobody has ever plagiarised works before in my school. I’m only talking about those doing IB in my school.</p>
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<p>OK I didn’t know that there are essays that will write essays for you. I only heard that there are companies that will guide you with application process.</p>
<p>I totally understand your point. Well nobody ever had any problem or said anything with UChicago’s thread. Like I said this thread is entirely optional, if anybody doesn’t wanna post up their essays, they’re free to do so. Anyways, why don’t we just chill?.. It’s Easter hols XD</p>
<p>My computer crashed a while ago ( after I finished all my applications, thank God), and I lost all my application essays. I have them in hard copy, but I’m too lazy to retype them. Here’s roughly what they’re about:
<p>2) Tell us about yourself:
I talked about how I secretly wanted to be a writer and how I was intruiged by the power of words.</p>
<p>In hindsight, they probably weren’t very good essays. Not a good idea to talk about wanting to be a doctor when everyone else wants to be a doctor, too. The second one was probably also a little stereotypical because Johns Hopkins is well known for creative writing. Good thing they worked!</p>
<p>I don’t think the few essays posted on this thread will make any significant difference towards plagiarism. If one wants to copy an essay, there are thousands of others posted all across the internet that could easily be duplicated. It’s not like we’re going to end plagiarism by holding back our work from one thread.</p>
<p>mrc1222,</p>
<p>“If one wants to copy an essay, there are thousands of others posted all across the internet that could easily be duplicated.”</p>
<p>Yes, there are. And I imagine most of them got there, one posted essay at a time.</p>
<p>I suspect most “consumers” of stolen essays, that is, students who cheat, will go to companies that will “write” them for the students. It is the companies that aggregate the essays, so that they have templates from which to work, one or two or three at a time, and sites like College Confidential are probably a target-rich environment. There may be only three or four essays in this thread, but BlackBunny103 points out that there are other threads on the site with other essays.</p>
<p>BlackBunny103,</p>
<p>“Well my school counselor told me that each college has some kind of software to check for plagiarism, not turnitin of course.”</p>
<p>I’m sure they do. However, I’d think that the companies that openly advertise on the Internet that they’ll write your college admissions essays hardly copy other folks’ essays word-for-word. As their clients - who are students who cheat - were turned away from top-tier universities, and even accused of copying their work, word would get out and such a company’s reputation for successfully cheating to get folks into top schools would be ruined.</p>
<p>It’s easy enough to re-write an essay so that you maintain the gist, the power of it, while changing the precise wording sufficiently to avoid being caught plagiarizing.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, it IS plagiarism. It’s a lot easier to re-write something that is well-written to begin with than it is to create something worthwhile of whole cloth.</p>
<p>C’mon, I found one Internet-based company that actually bragged about the winning essays it kept in its library to assist them when they write your essay.</p>
<p>I addition to all the other aforementioned [valid] reasons not to post essays, I would like to ask BlackBunny103 a few things:</p>
<p>1) Why is this so darn important to you that you are spending large quantities of time arguing your case and trying to convince people to post essays? I got two different (though very similar) messages from you, enthusiastically congratulating me on my acceptance and asking me to post my essay. That tells me you went through at least two decision-related threads, sending messages to everyone accepted. Is there really no better use of your time?</p>
<p>2) Even if people only use posted essays as inspiration (which I highly doubt will be the case, seeing as plagiarism and intellectual property theft can be unconscious and unintentional… and there are less-than-morally-upright people out there), why should they even have access to this inspiration? Your essay is supposed to be about why you love JHU and your major, what makes you happy, who inspires you, etc. EVERYONE knows at least 100 people who have written college essays before. If you are really are so devoid of any passion that you can’t think of anything to say, talk to someone you know about their essays. If you can read something a random stranger on the internet wrote and feel passionate enough about it to write your essay on the topic, but can’t think of anything meaningful on your own, I don’t think you deserve to get accepted to Hopkins or any other top-tier school.</p>
<p>3) Why do people seem to think there’s some formula for essays? Admissions officers read the same essays over and over again, yet people think that if they write what other people are writing, it will help them get in. And do you think they can’t tell when you’re just going through the motions? Though some people find my prospective major boring, I wrote about how beautiful I find it. If someone else wrote on the same topic, there’s a good chance it would come across as BS because it’s obvious whether people really put feeling into their essays.</p>
<p>I thought of dropping this thread but after reading your post, I feel like I have to clarify sth.</p>
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<p>I didn’t go through the decision thread sending message to everyone accepted. I only sent messages to some ppl. I have my exams coming up so of course I don’t have all that time. In UChicago post essays thread, some ppl also sent me messages asking me and other ppl to post essays up. So I thought I should do the same thing with this thread, and I only sent to some ppl.</p>
<p>I’m not trying to convince anybody to post up their essays. I started this thread so I’m just simply expressing my pov - freedom of speech. Again really this thread is entirely optional. Nobody has ever had any problem with UChicago thread. If you guys don’t wanna share your essays then don’t. No harsh comment pls. I don’t see the need of coming in here and keep on arguing. It’s not like if you shared your essays, ppl would copy and base their essays on some kind of “formula”. I started this thread so future applicants would have a better idea of what kind of quality is expected. That is all.</p>
<p>My exams are coming up so I’m leaving this thread. If anyone would like to share then pls feel free to do so. If not, then pls don’t keep on arguing because it is pointless, really.</p>
<p>One last thing,</p>
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<p>If you read an essay on the net about for example: horse-riding and you feel passionate about it because you do horse-riding, it’s not like you would write your essay on horse-riding, jeez. Don’t over-generalise.</p>
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Why shouldn’t they?.. Oh gosh, forum is there to help ppl. Everybody needs some source of inspiration at some point in their life. Not everybody is fortunate enough to have helpful school counselors or access to college-prep books, etc. You won’t understand unless you’re in their shoes. I know how it is like when my school counselor doesn’t help at all, she did not give any advices or feedback to any students at my school. I started this thread simply because UChicago thread helped me, now I just wanna help others. If anybody is against this thread like you, then they won’t post their essays up and they obviously don’t have to, it’s optional.</p>
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I’m wait-listed at JHU so I pop in quite often to see if there are any advices or updates about wait-list. I don’t spend large quantities of my time to argue. Since I started this thread, I feel that I should at least have a say in it.</p>
<p>My exams are coming up so I’m leaving this thread. Anyways, we should all stop arguing. It really is not going anywhere.</p>
<p>ya need to stop</p>
<p>^ Amen …</p>
<p>uuh you peeps need to stop.
Blackbunny only answered just now cuz ameliab wanted to “ask” a few things.</p>
<p>I don’t think there’s anything wrong with reading others’ essays and posting up essays. I just checked Chicago’s thread, nobody ever complained anything there. And many ppl posted up their 12-marked SAT essays as well. They all want to share and help. If ppl are against this idea of posting up essays here for fear of plagiarism or other reasons, then don’t post essays up. Obviously it is optional. So y bother being mean n keep on arguing?! If ppl have nothing constructive to say then it’s best not to post here. It’s futile and pointless to argue instead of giving constructive feedback.
i’ll apply to Hopkins next year and i’m quite certain any essays posted will help me in one way or another. Maybe i should consider adding Chicago to my college list, ppl accepted to Chicago seems to be much nicer and more willing to help.</p>
<p>My name has come up a lot on this discussion, so I guess I need to respond. As I have written numerous times before, I strongly discourage students from ever sharing their essays on College Confidential. Here is what I have written previously:</p>
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