<p>@ricardo707: When you post your essay on-line for all to see, any applicant can steal a phrase, a sentence, a paragraph or the central idea and submit it to colleges as their own work. </p>
<p>Admissions Offices now run essays through large data-based software programs like turnitin.com checking for plagiarism. If any part of your essay is copied by another student and you both happen to apply to colleges that use turnitin.com, your essay will be “red flagged.” As an Admissions Officer won’t know which student copied from who, they will in all likelihood, reject you.</p>
<p>As a result, NONE of what you posted – no matter how wonderful your essay – is usable. </p>
<p>So, chalk this one up as a life lesson. You need to write another completely new essay and the next time offer to Private Message someone with your essay who has been through the college process already. Do not post it on line – that’s why College Confidential has warnings about doing so.</p>
<p>See: <a href=“http://turnitin.com/en_us/features/originalitycheck/content”>http://turnitin.com/en_us/features/originalitycheck/content</a>
</p>