Making an essay sound like a teenager wrote it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good lord do you really think your kids are the only good writers out there? Lots and lots and lots of kids are strong writers. Does kid have 5 on Eng Lang AP? In 700s for verbal SAT score? Good Rec from English teacher? Then they’ll know your DC, just like 1000s of others, is a strong writer. Be grateful and move along.

Blunt but yes, this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, what are you really asking I wonder.

Are you saying you find your kids' essays filled with a rich vocabulary and grammatically correct, but you don't find the essays compelling or interesting?

I just can't imagine you would ask this question otherwise.

So many other threads have AOs and Counselors saying that you have to have bad grammar and structure so that the AI doesn't think you cheated on the essay.

I have literally never heard this. The knock is that AI (with people using the free version that don't understand how to use it) writes very corporate and sterile, not that it spits out beautiful prose using wonderful vocabularies.

Ironically, if you want to have your essay sound like it is written by a teen, put it through the paid ChatGPT and ask it to rewrite it as though written by a teen and you can even provide the demographic of the teen whose voice you want it to represent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She could try the Hemingway Editor, which will indicate grade level readability. Might just help flag overly complicated sentences. Fancy vocabulary doesn’t always sound smarter.

This is true.

+1

OP doesn't have to worry about this at all. In part because I can virtually guarantee that it does sound like a teenager wrote it.

Agree! My excellent writer has little tells, for example, using old-fashioned words like "amongst." I made up "amongst" but there is always one word or two that sound like a bright young kid trying hard.

[Anonymous]

This is ridiculous.

Now that people can no longer blame URMs for "stealing" the spot that their privileged affluent child should have had by birthright, they are looking for other excuses to stave off disappointment.

If your kid doesn't get into their top choice, it will be because someone else, who deserved it just as much, impressed the committee more.

[Anonymous]

🙄

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe my average teen kid athlete can charge $250/hour making essays "sound like a teenager".

Who knew this was but another college counselor niche.

Mine too! They could go into business together. Jock Essay Coaches. My kid will be a pro - his essay definitely had that teen voice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is ridiculous.

Now that people can no longer blame URMs for "stealing" the spot that their privileged affluent child should have had by birthright, they are looking for other excuses to stave off disappointment.

If your kid doesn't get into their top choice, it will be because someone else, who deserved it just as much, impressed the committee more.

Did you not steal though?

[Anonymous]

Was trying to find older posts here on "best" essays and found this - what do you think of the writing style here?

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/careersandeducation/read-the-college-essay-a-harvard-grad-wrote-about-mcdonald-s-that-landed-him-offers-from-harvard-yale-and-princeton/ar-AA1paVaR

“To any frantic high school senior, the best advice I got was — keep in mind that the admissions officer is some dude lying on a couch reading your essay at 10 p.m.,” he revealed.

“Make sure that this person is entertained and thinks that you're an authentic human being.”

Or the writing style in this older post (essay on Romanian sweets?):

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/30/1223607.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD is a strong writer with a classical education. She’s planning to major in English or History. Her writing is very mature and has a formal tone, and she prides her self on her large vocabulary. How can she give her application essay more of a teenager feel, so she isn’t accused of being her mother? Are their tools that measure the “age” of writing?

Wow, this is a strange one even for DCUM. Some of you parents are real pieces of work. It's really not that deep and your kid isn't a unicorn.

[Anonymous]

Lots of kids are good writers with excellent vocabularies. I am sure admissions office staff are aware.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lots of kids are good writers with excellent vocabularies. I am sure admissions office staff are aware.

Often admission office staff appear to be total morons though, with zero understanding of grammar.

[Anonymous]

"Six million Jews were systematically murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust, a horrific event that began not with gas chambers, but with words and the erosion of human dignity".

[Anonymous]

If the essay is bolstered by a teacher rec you are good!

[Anonymous]

You can have ChatGPT change it to sound like a teenager.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Six million Jews were systematically murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust, a horrific event that began not with gas chambers, but with words and the erosion of human dignity".

That period should be before the end quotation marks