Grammar on College Apps and Essays

[Anonymous]

I recently went to a college information session with multiple schools. One of the panelist said to the students in the audience to triple check your spelling, write your own essay and triple check grammar and sentence structure. But then he said any application/essay that does not understand the distinction between 'your' and 'you're' will be immediately discarded.

The other panelists nodded strongly in agreement. I have never heard such a statement at an information session but was actually glad to hear it though the students in the audience were totally silent and stone faced. Some may call the panelists 'grammar nazis' but they are the ones who make the decisions.

Kudos to the panelists! They must be seeing the incorrect usage too frequently.

[Anonymous]

This is good advice that kids need to hear. I work in HR and I typically discard resumes from applicants with typographical and grammar mistakes.

[Anonymous]

I wonder if leniency is given to essays where English is not the primary language?

[Anonymous]

Not to excuse the misuse of "your" and "you're", because it is one of my pet peeves, but I think I see it much more days, particularly in emails - and I think some of that is due to the reliance on spell check and also the fact that "you're" has that apostrophe which you have to switch keyboards to add if you are typing from your phone...

[Anonymous]

OP - this must be your first child but this is not new. it's been around for many years. the point is to make sure kids take the essays seriously enough to check and double check... you can probably get by with one mistake but two would be one too many.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I recently went to a college information session with multiple schools. One of the panelist said to the students in the audience to triple check your spelling, write your own essay and triple check grammar and sentence structure. But then he said any application/essay that does not understand the distinction between 'your' and 'you're' will be immediately discarded.

The other panelists nodded strongly in agreement. I have never heard such a statement at an information session but was actually glad to hear it though the students in the audience were totally silent and stone faced. Some may call the panelists 'grammar nazis' but they are the ones who make the decisions.

Kudos to the panelists! They must be seeing the incorrect usage too frequently.

I totally support this, being a grammar nazi myself.
When my older kid was applying to colleges, I proofread all essays just to be safe. I plan on doing this with the younger kid, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if leniency is given to essays where English is not the primary language?

They hire native English speakers to write their essays anyway.

[Anonymous]

If you don't know the difference between "your" and "you're" by 11th or 12th grade, you probably shouldn't bother applying to college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if leniency is given to essays where English is not the primary language?

At colleges here the instruction and all assignments and tests will be in English, so I would think that applicants should demonstrate a high level of English proficiency. It wouldn't make sense to be lenient about the English grammar used in an application essay when the student will need to be using English at a college level should he or she be accepted and attend the school.

[Anonymous]

This was true when I applied to colleges - it was drilled into all of us senior year. Of course in those days a typo meant an actual typing mistake on the typewriter.

[Anonymous]

If you don't know the difference between "your" and "you're" by 11th or 12th grade, you probably shouldn't bother applying to college.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This was true when I applied to colleges - it was drilled into all of us senior year. Of course in those days a typo meant an actual typing mistake on the typewriter.

It was true when I chiseled my essays into a slate panel. Typos sucked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you don't know the difference between "your" and "you're" by 11th or 12th grade, you probably shouldn't bother applying to college.

DCUM is full or 'your' and you're' by adults, I assume.

Off Topics has had several debates on this with many posters stating they're unsure why people get so upset since it's not a big deal.

[Anonymous]

I'm in HR and when reading resumes I toss any with spelling or grammar issues. You should have learned that already (I give a pass to ESL candidates).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - this must be your first child but this is not new. it's been around for many years. the point is to make sure kids take the essays seriously enough to check and double check... you can probably get by with one mistake but two would be one too many.

You're not getting away with one mistake about your vs you're. The panelists sounded serious about tossing your application. The you vs you're is a pet peeve for a lot of people, like nails on a blackboard.