<p>When I was asking my teacher to edit my essay and I was explaining this whole essay. This girl was also waiting and she over heard and she said she really liked the essay. </p>
<p>Now today, I just found out she wrote a new essay and totally copied off my idea. She was like the writing style is different and blah blah blah but it’s my very ideas she copied! </p>
<p>We are applying to the same school! What do I do???</p>
<p>Kill her quietly.</p>
<p>..... that sucks, i would say tell that teacher that was editing your essay to talk with this person first, before calling the admissions office</p>
<p>I could write another essay but I just do'nt think it's fair that she took it. The problem is, this kinda of stuff is hard to proof when you didn't copy word for word. I don't know how to proof it. She could just lie and say she thought of it too. She just copied the idea, which is the biggest thing in my essay.</p>
<p>tell your teacher about it, and go from there.</p>
<p>hmm but what can the teacher do? he can't prove it...</p>
<p>he can talk to the student. if the student won't budge then, the teacher can write a letter on your behalf, perhaps?</p>
<p>but the problem is that she sent it in already...</p>
<p>well that sucks.</p>
<p>tell your guidance counselor, and have your teacher back you up. try to pressure her with support from school authority (teachers, guidance counselor, principals, etc) to withdraw her essay (and possibly even her application). you need to get her to admit that she did take the idea from you.</p>
<p>but maybe you should wait till you get advice from someone with more experience. someone like Northstarmom will probably know how to go about things, and how harvard usually deals with situations like this. maybe wait until she comes by or drop her a PM.</p>
<p>geez who would do that? that is ridiculously scummy</p>
<p>Is your idea so original that it's not possible that YOU're really one in a long line of idea-plagiarizers?</p>
<p>The teacher who read my essay said it was one of the best essays he has ever read. But that's his opinion, who knows what other people will think. For her, her stats are amazing but she didn't get in her EA school mostly b/c her essays were so dull.</p>
<p>Actually, she has been caught cheating once. But teacher was nice enough to just give her a warning instead of a referral.</p>
<p>" I just found out she wrote a new essay and totally copied off my idea. She was like the writing style is different and blah blah blah but it's my very ideas she copied! "</p>
<p>It's the execution (of the idea, not the girl) that counts when it comes to writing. </p>
<p>An idea that is trite or boring in the hands of one writer can soar in the hands of another.</p>
<p>Unless the other girl copied your essay, I really doubt that her essay bears any resemblance to what you did.</p>
<p>I used to teach writing, and have seen how students can write about the same subject in completely different ways.</p>
<p>It doesn't matter if no one can prove it. You definitely need to say something, and fast. It's not the end of the world, but it's still your future we're talking about. By not saying something, even if you KNOW nothing can be done about it, you're letting this scummy girl get away with this!</p>
<p>EDIT: Change of heart. I just saw what NSM wrote. I agree with her. Unless she stole your exact words, I don't see a life-changing problem. I doubt the topic you chose was so unique that no one else could've thought of it.</p>
<p>NSM makes a good point. forever21, what kind of "idea" was it that she stole? Was it a subject, a metaphor you wanted to use, or what?</p>
<p>I suggest that all you do is complain to your friends like you're doing now and just forget about it. Don't rat her out or anything. Then Harvard really will reject you. That's such an ***-y thing to do. Listen to Northstarmom.</p>
<p>Yeah, binarystar, I was trying to get at that before, too. Shakespeare was a great idea-plagiarizer, subject and plot stealer. Sometimes, he changed the names of characters, though. How good of him. As you know, Shakespeare's a genius.</p>
<p>It was an strong abstract idea I got out of a unique experience of mine. I didn't read her essay but my friend who read it said she used my exact idea. I don't know how strongly she convinced it though. But I guess there's nothing much to do now. I just thought it was really unfair that she took an idea that was not hers to help her get in college.</p>
<p>talk to that person first.. see if he she really did.. then if you ahve to. tell the admissions office.. simple</p>
<p>blehh..... don't tell the admissions office. "She stole my idea!" <-- very bad. says immature, intolerant, unconfident, vindictive things about you. Thing is about ideas is that it's always somewhat copied because ideas come shaped by every one of your life experiences, perhaps subconsciously...unless you're inventing something, people simply don't take it seriously. Therefore, if you tell the admissions office or get a letter written by a teacher....with something that can't be proven, they won't know if you're lying or if she's lying or if you two are trying to keep eachother out of the running....they will have to ignore you and evaluate both your apps, but neither with a favorable eye. To be safe : / they might just reject both of you.</p>
<p>I feel bad for you, forever 21. We had an incident at our school where a girl copied more than just the idea - the structure and comic style too. It doesn't get proven, although everyone hates the plagarizer now. But don't hurt yourself by tattling on her. </p>
<p>I'm sure many people write about the same ideas without having shared them with eachother. In our case, we did a research project at school and had to write up an evaluation on it -- I'm not surprised if several of us talked about it as an academic thingo we learned from.</p>
<p>good luck forever21. Scrw her! Use it as momentum to write a smashing essay...: )</p>