why even have college application essays anymore?
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Anonymous
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If the goal is to make sure kid can write properly constructed sentences and convey their thoughts clearly, then a timed testing center situation is the only way to go - the only way they know the kid actually wrote the sentences.
If the goal is to see the applicant's ability to use resources to write their essay - AI editing, adults editing, and using websites that give suggestions and tell how to write..... then the current system does that - but it does NOT tell the college if the applicant can actually write coherently or if the applicant had the insights or if the applicant even wrote it. I've read essays from people who barely speak English and the essay is beautiful complex English sentences. The essay currently tests creative writing. Writing clearly and succintly is a much more useful skill than creative writing. The endless essays are a waste of time and brainpower for the kids. They could be spending it on learning academics, connecting socially, sports/exercise for health, community service, - things way more useful to society and to the student. The essay system is a poor one at best. |
Anonymous
Prescription glasses? They aren’t fake if that’s what you are implying, though of course they would be available with just clear lenses as well. |
Anonymous
This. |
Anonymous
If this is what is required of a 500-650 word essay, to spend weeks of the summer on it and put this much effort into it, most college bound kids are screwed. Also, so much of what is a “great” essay vs a “good” essay is subjective anyway, once you get past the grammar and readability aspects of an essay. |
Anonymous
Are you talking to me? I that was /sarcasm. I don't love the fact that people aren't learning how to write for themselves now. My child attends a writing intensive private school where the teachers go out of their way to discourage use of AI. My child is obsessively honest, and writes her own essay and doesn't even use ChatGPT to brainstorm or check for grammar because of the school's strict anti-AI policy, but I know for a fact that at a few kids have used ChatGPT because they are caught and I'm guessing that sometimes they are not caught. The only real way to prevent AI use is in-class proctored exams with surprise prompts. There is no way colleges can proctor admissions essays for 60,000+ applicants, so at this point, even though I value writing skills, I no longer see the point of weighting essays highly in the admissions process, if at all. The models are good, especially if you know how to write prompts, and they are only getting better. Paid essay "editors" are also good. |
Anonymous
Colleges should be able to see the list of where else someone applies. There should be one common app in order to do that. Then colleges would know how much the kid wanted that specific college. |
Anonymous
| The College Board seems to be testing an essay component to the SAT. Maybe it’s to address the desire for unedited/“clean” writing samples. (The College Board emailed my kid an offer of a practice SAT with essay and would have paid I think $50 if the whole test with essay was completed. Kid declined because they wouldn’t get a score.) |
Anonymous
| my kid is a recruited athlete - he just needs to check the boxes with the essay, nothing extravagant- chatgpt is perfect ! |
Anonymous
Then why are you on this thread? That isn’t the same situation as the vast majority of college applicants. |
Anonymous
| I forget how old people here are. Biff? Seriously? |
Anonymous
Where have you been? They did this already and the essays were so bad they abandoned it. The College Board just wants to make money off schools and the lemmings run full tilt towards them with open arms. It’s insane. |
Anonymous
Not the OP but I asked it to create one that I cross posted to the other essay thread. Here it is below. Thoughts? Personally, I think it is better than many of the samples I have seen from "essays that worked" sites and books. ______ At six years old, I stood at the edge of a sandbox in suburban Ohio and forgot how to say “hello.” In Ukraine, I had been the precocious child who read aloud to babusia before I could tie my shoes. I relished the rhythm of Ukrainian folk tales and corrected my parents’ grammar with theatrical confidence. But when we moved to the U.S., I began to watch my language—literally—slip from me. I learned quickly to blend in: a new alphabet, lunchbox English, phonics worksheets that taught me how to flatten the sounds in my name. At home, my mother still spoke to me in Ukrainian, but my responses grew halting, patched with English fillers. I still understood everything. I just didn’t know how to say it anymore. That quiet erosion stayed with me. It wasn’t just the loss of a mother tongue—it felt like a loss of access to a version of myself. The girl who once asked her great-aunt to explain why words like “viter” (wind) were masculine and “vesna” (spring) were feminine became the girl who stayed silent during Ukrainian Skype calls with relatives. But I never stopped chasing language. If anything, the disappearance of one made me more determined to explore others. When Latin was offered at my high school, I leapt. Here was a language no one spoke—but everyone used. I found it strangely comforting: etched into stone, fixed in endings, immune to forgetting. Parsing the first sentence of Caesar’s Gallic Wars was like watching a machine unspool its parts. I didn’t just want to understand the sentence—I wanted to understand the way Latin thought. This curiosity turned obsessive. I memorized conjugation charts like other kids memorize song lyrics. I taught myself the Greek alphabet over spring break. I started writing down bits of dialogue from old Roman plays and translating them as puzzles on the bus ride to school. My Latin teacher, Mr. Templeton, eventually gave me a key to the supply cabinet so I could check out textbooks that hadn’t been touched since 1994. Yet, learning Latin also made me think about the languages that aren’t preserved in textbooks. At night, I started recording my grandmother’s phone calls, trying to recover forgotten idioms. I’d cross-reference them with old Ukrainian grammar books I found online, piecing together a voice I thought I had lost. It was like being an archaeologist of my own childhood. If Classics has taught me anything, it’s that language isn’t just a tool—it’s a memory. A monument. A map of how people once made sense of the world. Studying Latin hasn’t just made me a better linguist; it’s made me braver about reclaiming what I once let slip away. At Harvard, I hope to study Classics with the same hunger I once brought to those lost Ukrainian lullabies. I want to ask hard questions—not just about syntax and scansion, but about identity, belonging, and what it means to carry more than one tongue. And this time, I won’t forget how to say “hello.” |
Anonymous
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In the past, some schools used the essay for evidence of writing ability, but others use the essay for the purpose of understanding something about the person, how they think.
I am skeptical that college AOs can necessarily tell whether an essay was AI and AI detectors aren't super accurate, though typically they lean toward detecting everything as AI rather than failing to detect. I agree with a PP that students aiming for top schools should avoid AI entirely. For schools outside, say, the top 50, or narrower, maybe outside the top 30, using AI or not probably makes no difference, as the essay is not a significant factor if other aspects of the app point toward admission. |
Anonymous
Agree - should be declan, cooper, etc etc |
Anonymous
NP. Yeah, I guess my kid is screwed if that’s what it takes. She spent one afternoon this summer brainstorming and then decided to put it off til later. I’m ok with it though. The industry that’s popped up around this process—the paid counselors, editors, AI tools—is nauseating to me. Completely defeats the purpose of the essay. |