Read what they wrote out loud to them. Just hearing it with someone else's inflections helps the student catch problems with flow. Ask clarifying questions when needed because the student made a big shift in ideas but didn't make enough connections to bring the reader along.

Anonymous wrote:Make sure they upload it. That's most important.

duh.

Make sure they upload it. That's most important.

Many many people on DCUM hire people to help their kids with their essays. Others are making suggested changes themselves. They aren’t going to volunteer this information on this thread. But I saw something from a highly selective college the other day that surveyed their students and more than half had paid college consultants.

Their ideas. I think a light edit or overall suggestions are perfectly appropriate. For example, one of my kids needed help cutting. It was nicely done but about 100 words too long, and they couldn't see the obvious places to cut because they were too wrapped up in it.

Anonymous wrote:our kids are in college now but we never saw them, had no idea what they wrote about and it turned out just fine.

This independence works for some kids, but definitely not for others. I volunteer to help high schoolers with college applications. Some understand the task of the college essay implicitly from the start while others take an approach that does them no favors, or at worst share things that would be red flags to admissions readers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Suggest grammar and misspelling changes. For areas that need more tightening or a different organization, don't be specific, just point out the areas and the problems - edits that are too specific risk losing the student's voice.

That's hilarious. Most kids either are past that now or have autocorrect.

Obviously, though those tools are not perfect.

Where are you living, in 1980?

I don’t line edit (and I’m an editor by trade). I did offer general feedback on appropriateness (like mentioning a line that read to me as harsh).

our kids are in college now but we never saw them, had no idea what they wrote about and it turned out just fine.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Suggest grammar and misspelling changes. For areas that need more tightening or a different organization, don't be specific, just point out the areas and the problems - edits that are too specific risk losing the student's voice.

That's hilarious. Most kids either are past that now or have autocorrect.

Obviously, though those tools are not perfect.

I'm still asking to see them 😕

Presumably the kid has already run it through grammerly or another AI. I mostly said "good job" or this sentence needs a break.

Anonymous wrote:Suggest grammar and misspelling changes. For areas that need more tightening or a different organization, don't be specific, just point out the areas and the problems - edits that are too specific risk losing the student's voice.

That's hilarious. Most kids either are past that now or have autocorrect.

Suggest grammar and misspelling changes. For areas that need more tightening or a different organization, don't be specific, just point out the areas and the problems - edits that are too specific risk losing the student's voice.

Are any of you doing last minute Google Docs edits to your kids essays? How much to edit??

Mine did not want us involved in the process at all - until last night and I just got dumped with 6 supplementals and the personal statement…