<p>I also posted this in the Stanford board, but basically would Harvard be offended that I used my Stanford essay (something someone said to you) rather than write an original one (I'm pretty certain they'll know from the topic it was the one I used for Stanford's).</p>
<p>dude, they wouldnt even know!</p>
<p>Seriously? You'd think that top schools would know essay topics and such of similar caliber schools, and I figure other cross-applicants would do the same thing and it would look a little strange.</p>
<p>Wouldn't they think that I'm a bit lazy to just copy and paste and be offended that I didn't take the time and effort on their application as I did on Stanford's?</p>
<p>(ok, ok, I'll admit it. I am realllllly lazy right now and am playing the devil's advocate against myself to force me into writing another essay).</p>
<p>well if the topics are similar how would they know that you didnt write it specifically for harvard??</p>
<p>Lebron James, the quality of what you are writing means most. They probably know that many kids tweak essays and use them for many colleges, but I dont think this is that big of a factor. Just make sure the writing is good.</p>
<p>Because Stanford's App was due Dec. 15</p>
<p>I don't know, maybe I'm just paranoid.</p>
<p>This is basically what I think the admissions guy reading my essay will think:</p>
<p>"Hmm...pretty good...but the topic is like a lot of these others....must have just copied and pasted his Stanford essay....rejection!"</p>
<p>If you have time to post in this thread, you have time to write an essay. </p>
<p>Good luck in your applications.</p>
<p>lebron,</p>
<p>i'm with tokenadult. on the off chance that harvard does know the essay topic for stanford, it could reflect badly. i mean, it won't show them that you are a terrible writer or anything, but it may display that harvard is definitely not your top choice (considering that you couldn't even write an original essay for them). and, as you know, there are thousands of students to whom harvard is their first choice. but of course, there is a huge chance that harvard doesn't even know stanford's essay prompts, so just do whatever you want to.</p>
<p>good luck,
hotpiece</p>
<p>I will probably just tweek my stanford essay cus i'm pretty happy with it. How obvious it is that it was used for Stanford will depend on the essay. For mine, what was said to me is a small starting point for the essay and it moves on quite significantly, so I feel that it is not that obvious.</p>
<p>Of course, if you use the Stanford title in the essay, then it will be glaringly clear what you have done, but I doubt anyone would do this!</p>
<p>The classic problem with recycled essays, of course, is having a sentence in the essay along the lines of "and that's why I think Stanford would be an excellent fit for me," which would not be an expedient phrase to put in an Harvard application essay. Spell check helps with catching errors like that, as does having a proofreader, but writing an essay at least partly from the ground up can help more.</p>