Colleges should just get rid of the application essay

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The college application essay may be the most white leaning metric out there.

Write the essay for a white audience and your essay will shine.

Yeah like the guy who wrote over and over #BlackLiveMatter and got into Stanford.

That kid had a ton more on his resume than that essay which is one of seven or so essays Stanford asks students to write. That’s not why he got in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The college application essay may be the most white leaning metric out there.

Write the essay for a white audience and your essay will shine.

Yeah like the guy who wrote over and over #BlackLiveMatter and got into Stanford.

That kid had a ton more on his resume than that essay which is one of seven or so essays Stanford asks students to write. That’s not why he got in.

That kid went to Yale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would be glad for the essays to go. It is just a big exercise in projecting and parroting back what one thinks admissions wants to hear. It also bugs me that the woe-is-me-type-essay seems to do so well.

And the recommended “my parent died and I supported the family” essay recommended by UVA No

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Regarding the kid who had a tutor for every class and summer school. That is a HIGH motivated child. Very rare for that age group.

That is a HIGH motivated parent. My Blair kid goes to school w/ kids like this. Many don't have a choice. One plays 2 instruments at high level and did extra classes (at least back at TPMS). Was up past midnight at MS every night working & practicing. In MS. Was not their choice. Also, interested in majoring in music now, but not allowed. Other kids fill summers/year w/ A++, Dr. Li, Hopkins CTY. The parents are usually the driving force here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who says they put a lot of weight on it?

Why not also toss out GPA (maybe they had a tutor) or SAT/ACT scores because they may have prepped?

Admissions departments aren't grading them the way a teacher would, they are looking to see what the student can reveal about him or herself or how they think.

If your essay was slapped together quickly, with or without help, it will show.

The difference is basically no one's kid is getting tutored for every subject through all four years of high school. And even SAT tutoring can only really raise a score by so much. But it is entirely possible for someone else to completely write an applicant's essay without a college knowing about it. And for what it's worth, when my husband was in college, he wrote an essay for his girlfriend who was still in HS, and she got into UVA with it, so I'm not really buying this idea that colleges can really tell that the essays weren't written by the students.

That's essentially what private school is.

??. What is your experience with private school? I'm going to go out on a limb here and say NONE in terms of personal experience, and word of mouth/gossip/bitter assumption in terms of
periphery knowledge.....

[Anonymous]

I think it would be interesting to have kids write in real time over Skype or something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who says they put a lot of weight on it?

Why not also toss out GPA (maybe they had a tutor) or SAT/ACT scores because they may have prepped?

Admissions departments aren't grading them the way a teacher would, they are looking to see what the student can reveal about him or herself or how they think.

If your essay was slapped together quickly, with or without help, it will show.

The difference is basically no one's kid is getting tutored for every subject through all four years of high school. And even SAT tutoring can only really raise a score by so much. But it is entirely possible for someone else to completely write an applicant's essay without a college knowing about it. And for what it's worth, when my husband was in college, he wrote an essay for his girlfriend who was still in HS, and she got into UVA with it, so I'm not really buying this idea that colleges can really tell that the essays weren't written by the students.

Um, my child goes to private and there are kids there that have daily tutors for all subjects. When you have $, you can do that.

Tutors typically charge $70/hour. Are there really that many kids whose parents are paying for $280 daily for 4 hours of tutoring?

This is why people are surprised. They are very very small minded. If I don’t do it no one will. News flash. My kids tutors cost way more than $70 and that was a while ago.. but they had PHDs. Second one thing this scandal made clear is that you don’t know. Also teachers double up topics, there are weekends and people buy packages. Finally people pay a few grand a month like another post o this forum discusses. You really have no idea what another family will do to get to a top school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regarding the kid who had a tutor for every class and summer school. That is a HIGH motivated child. Very rare for that age group.

Met a lot of kids like that at HPY in the 80s, then observed it as a parent. The idea is to get ahead on all the hard classes of its a repeat. Nearly impossible not to have a high GPA. Kids were not highly motivated. It just the way the family did things. They did not even know it was weird until maybe 10th grade. Why are all these kids enrolled in summer school at the wrong big 3 when they could take it at their own school and no one is putting it on their transcript.

If they are enrolled in summer school, then how are they doing some enriching activity that will pad their resume?

Summer school is 3-4 weeks. Summer is long. Service trips are often 2-4. If money is not a problem you can still fit in a family trip.

[Anonymous]

We write our essays at the end of high school like an exam.
There are 10 topics and they are revealed over the radio to the whole country the morning of the exam.
The teacher also has them in envelope as I remember but not allowed to open them until the exam starts. We have 3-4 hours to write.
The teachers don't grade the exam but they do get to see them later.

[Anonymous]

We?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We?

A high school student, probably an international one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would be glad for the essays to go. It is just a big exercise in projecting and parroting back what one thinks admissions wants to hear. It also bugs me that the woe-is-me-type-essay seems to do so well.

And the recommended “my parent died and I supported the family” essay recommended by UVA No

What are you talking about? The first essay is academic and the second is creative. There are a bunch of topics to choose from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The college application essay may be the most white leaning metric out there.

Write the essay for a white audience and your essay will shine.

Yeah like the guy who wrote over and over #BlackLiveMatter and got into Stanford.

That kid had a ton more on his resume than that essay which is one of seven or so essays Stanford asks students to write. That’s not why he got in.

That kid went to Yale.

No. He got into Stanford. The pizza essay girl got into Yale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The college application essay may be the most white leaning metric out there.

Write the essay for a white audience and your essay will shine.

Yeah like the guy who wrote over and over #BlackLiveMatter and got into Stanford.

That kid had a ton more on his resume than that essay which is one of seven or so essays Stanford asks students to write. That’s not why he got in.

That kid went to Yale.

No. He got into Stanford. The pizza essay girl got into Yale.

I think the BLM essay is brilliant. The pizza essay, not so much.

[Anonymous]

The better way to screen students would be to have a nuanced reading comprehension exam (like reading section of SAT), math exam, and essay exam with two essays--one academic, on a given topic and maybe readings to reference, the other, personal. Have them on separate days so students have plenty of time to do them--not crazy time limits. Done. No essay help and colleges can evaluate the academic ability of the students and truly separate them on a continuum (which they can't do now with the dumbed down SAT).