Colleges should just get rid of the application essay

[Anonymous]

What's the point of it? You pretty much have to assume that every kid has gotten some kind of help or advise on it, even if just from a parent. Why put so much weight on something that there is absolutely no way to tell, how much help was received?

[Anonymous]

Or, they could use technology to figure out the likelihood that it is the same person that wrote it. You would need something that wasn’t manipulated, like in theory SAT essay or original work the school submitted on behalf of the student.

The essay is important to get a sense of who someone is beyond the numbers, how they would contribute to the school community, and perhaps how much they know about your school and why they think it would be a good fit for them. It also the chance for the student to advocate for themselves.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

? You're aware of the Papa John's pizza essay that got the girl into Yale? It is often a tie-breaker at more selective schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Or, they could use technology to figure out the likelihood that it is the same person that wrote it. You would need something that wasn’t manipulated, like in theory SAT essay or original work the school submitted on behalf of the student.

The essay is important to get a sense of who someone is beyond the numbers, how they would contribute to the school community, and perhaps how much they know about your school and why they think it would be a good fit for them. It also the chance for the student to advocate for themselves.[/quote]



Yes, in theory the essay would be a good tool for getting a sense of this, but sense there is no way of knowing whether the ideas came from the student or someone else, why bother?

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

Another assuming parent. Know a DC kid that was tutored from middle school in all classes prior to taking them at school. This kid ultimately won award after award .. national awards in high school. HPY graduate. Very successful business person You should not make assumptions about what people will do. The whole idea of taking hard classes over the summer at another private so you aced it the next fall
I learned about at my HPU in the 80s. My parent would never have 1 paid for that 2 allowed
Me
Tomdo
It 3 I had summer jobs. But I met a ton of kids that go to top schools through summer school class previews and tutors to do fine tuning a prepare for test and papers. Those kids perfect transcripts.

[Anonymous]

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.

This is what bothers me about essays. What judgments are admissions people making about the student? It seems so judgy and random (e.g. one student might write about some interesting life experiences, another writes about something else but has also had interesting life experiences--just didn't write about them, and an admissions panel deems only the first one worthy of admission, all things being equal. Or vice versa. This one is more creative. This one had hardship. This one is funny. These are just one essay in a kid's life and unless horribly written or offensive, I agree it doesn't make sense to give it weight. And as evidence of excellent writing, like the other posters said, how do admissions know it's legit).

Another issue for my DC is that DC writes like an adult, with an impressive vocabulary--DC is not showing off, just happens to have facility with language and enjoys writing. I've heard that the essay has to sound like a teenager wrote it. Will some admissions person think DC got help? Or find fault for not sounding like a typical teenager? I fear that's how they think.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[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 probably did work for a white audience - a highly specialized bubble of elite whites who live in ivory towers and relished the opportunity to demonstrate their wokeness.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Says someone unfamiliar with private school.

[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.

Another assuming parent. Know a DC kid that was tutored from middle school in all classes prior to taking them at school. This kid ultimately won award after award .. national awards in high school. HPY graduate. Very successful business person You should not make assumptions about what people will do. The whole idea of taking hard classes over the summer at another private so you aced it the next fall
I learned about at my HPU in the 80s. My parent would never have 1 paid for that 2 allowed
Me
Tomdo
It 3 I had summer jobs. But I met a ton of kids that go to top schools through summer school class previews and tutors to do fine tuning a prepare for test and papers. Those kids perfect transcripts.

Yes, there are kids that get excessively tutored, but not many do so to the extent you describe, and they still have to be able to do the work. Anyone can have someone else write an essay for them. That's the difference. At a minimum you almost have to assume that every kid has had some sort of help with it.

[Anonymous]

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.

Black kids can have a white person peruse their essay for them.