<p>I’ve never worked in an admissions office, but I would imagine that an answer to the “why This U” questions might keep you out, but probably not bear a lot of weight in getting you in."</p>
<p>“I want to go to ThisU because my Dad wants me to apply.”</p>
<p>“I want to go to ThisU because my cousin told me all the courses there are easy.”</p>
<p>“I want to go to ThisU because I hear you’ve got a boss party scene.”</p>
<p>I’m guessing answers like those are not unheard of - and that they give adcoms something to chuckle about during coffee breaks.</p>
<p>Actually, I think that the schools want you to write something unique about them otherwise you could just write a template essay and send the same one to Harvard, Yale and Cornell. </p>
<p>A student does need to research something about the school’s program which means either doing a visit (remember that shows interest too so you get points for that), combing their website or relaying the experience told to them by someone who went there.</p>
<p>That wonderful first date analogy works both ways. Schools that give unusual/precious/clever (your choice of adjectives) prompts attract a certain type of student. My D1 certainly isn’t the only high school senior who wanted to apply to schools with compelling prompts. Or that decided against applying to ones with “boring” essay topics. I know, a student should be able to retool an essay to fit any prompt, but this is dating we’re talking, which is of course irrational. </p>
<p>For the life of me I can’t remember what I wrote for my college essays eons ago. Clearly not a memorable first date. :)</p>
<p>^I remember what I wrote mine about. It was about a project that I did for a Girl Scout Gold Award (except that’s not what they called it back then.) I didn’t apply to Yale because it required weird essays and I couldn’t use the one I had.</p>
<p>“This kind of creative non-fiction is not even the kind of writing most students will do in college; the ability to write clear expository prose is what matters 99% of the time.”</p>
<p>Not every applicant has had the family support and academic background to write sound expository prose. Limiting essays to exposition would be shutting out many talented students who are artistic and expressive, but have been disadvantaged by not having been exposed to expository prose. This is part of the holistic process. What is a concise, gramatically correct expository essay going to show the committe that a transcript and SAT score won’t show?</p>
<p>Essays, particularly those such as found at UChicago, can indicate how a student handles ideas. This is something an SAT score, and perhaps even a transcript, can’t do.</p>
<p>SecondToGo just headed off to college … and let us see his essay after he had submitted his applications. He is not a great writer and even though it was proofread by others it still was a bit clunky. That said IMO it was an excellent essay and I would guess dovetailed well with recommendations. His acceptances were slightly better than expected and I would guess his essay and recommendations helped.</p>
<p>He wrote about a person he admired and the traits he admired in this person. He then continued on about the ways he wanted to emulate this person and what he wanted do to with his life. The essay was very open, honest, and insightful … is a school wanted to know what made SecondToGo tick they certainly found out … despite the less than perfect writing. </p>
<p>Frankly, I think the imperfect writing probably helped the essay with most readers … the essay certainly appears to be his voice. Personally, when I read about essay services I wonder if these can be self-defeating … if the essay is too polished that the rounds of rewrites and suggestions by other voices sometimes lose some of the student’s voice? </p>
<p>I was once a TA for a MBA communications class and I would say in general the best presentations were given by folks who had rehearsed their presentation 1 or 2 times … folks who had rehearsed many-many times tended to be stiffer and less enthusiastic in their presentations; having gone over the presentation so many times tended to make the speaker more robotic and less authentic. I wonder if the same is true about writing essays for many writers?</p>
<p>OP,
I believe that you have answered your own questions. Authentic definitely means that parents have nothing to do with it. So, as long as parents are staying as far as possible from their kids’ application process, and more so far from their essays, it should work.</p>
<p>Oh Please MiamiDAP. Parents are involved in the application process because it has gotten so out of hand, complicated and expensive to go college. The line for parental involvement depends on what each kid needs, not what someone who doesn’t know what a student’s abilities are with their regular workload, sports, working situation etc are. </p>
<p>So never remind your kid that the due date is 12-1 or 1-1 or 2-1 depending on which school they are applying to. Like school’s couldn’t possibly have one date. </p>
<p>Or never check with your student about whether they put in the right number of teacher recs. since some schools only accept one rec, or two rec, or up to 5 recs.</p>
<p>This are only two of the 50 variables that students are expected to track in addition to their regular schooling.</p>
<p>Sorry, Lakemom, we did not participate in writing D’s essay, filling applications…we just drove her to interviews, we did not feel she was old enough at 17 to drive herself to several other cities. Other stuff, deadlines and such was her responsibility, if not, who would tell them that at college? There are many more papers to write of much greater importance and many more deadlines to meet also of much greater importance at college. It is only one year away and you are not going to be there. You will complain in one year from now, that you have tried so hard, but they appear to have hardest time adusting, you taught them how to do laundry, how to write a check,…but how about taking care of their own responsibilities, apparently it is not that important, correct? I did not taught my kid to do laundry, if she could get herself to college, she could read labels on washing machine. I did not remind her of deadlines, so that she knew how to organize her own reminders to do what she needed to do every day. It appeared to be the most valuable skill at college in addition to working hard ethic.</p>
<p>Well MiamiDAP, you have done your job well. </p>
<p>There are things that I have never had to remind my son to do. Handwashing is one, even when he was small. Kids are all different with different strengths and you can’t know others, only your own child. You are fortunate that you have a daughter who is so capable and independent. I imagine she always was. </p>
<p>In terms of my own son. I have no idea what work he has due for what class and I havn’t read a history or english paper for school in years. I have no worries he will have difficulty getting his college work done. And he has done his own laundry for years since he folds his shirts better than I do. :)</p>
<p>But his college essay I read, not helped him compose. I helped him to cut it down from 950 words to the new required shorter length because no matter who you are, or how independent you are, it is difficult to edit your own work. As his parent I totally understood what parts he couldn’t remove. So I saw that as part of my role and I was glad to be there to help.</p>
<p>Lakemom,
I had to chuckle at your comment about “no matter who you are”… My daughter asked for lots of help from me in the essay process, and I advised her. Walking this road with her was an interesting journey for me personally - I think if you truly invest in it, you look backward at your own life and how you make your own decisions. For me, I became acutely aware of the influence a particular work-study boss had in my entire career, and realized that I never properly thanked him. I called the college, found out his new address (he is, of course, long retired) and wrote a heartfelt letter to him. I am a good to excellent writer, and thought it was well written. I then showed it to my DD, who tore it apart in a manner I have not seen since I was in college myself. I haven’t done it yet, but I plan to send it to her English teachers at high school with a note “If you ever think your teaching doesn’t make a difference, look what your former student can do.” In fact, you have inspired me to do that TODAY!</p>
<p>I’m in the “every kid is different” school. Kid #1 was a good writer but too literal. When told “write what you want” she got out-of-bounds in a hurry. Kid #2 was not as good a writer, but had a solid grasp of what the essay should be. A bit of punctuation advice was all her essay required.</p>
<p>So when is a kid independent enough to make decisions unaided? I get that giving kids an opportunity to make mistakes can develop strong adults. What I don’t get is why a parent would let their kid to send an abysmal SAT score to a test-optional college. “Rejected.” Where’s the lesson there?</p>
<p>It’s perfectly fine to read your child’s essays and offer a critique. I am pretty sure colleges expect this. My son had an English teacher at school read his and offer some suggestions. He got incredible feedback and turned a good essay into a great one. This is common for his school so I am guessing it is common for most.</p>
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