Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To me, it always looked like the main purpose of essays was to keep the number of applications individual students make under control. Without essays, you KNOW there would be plenty of students who would be applying to 40 or 50 colleges. And they could do so in a single afternoon.

Maybe in the distant past, but colleges jumped that moral shark since then. They encourage more people to apply now so they can make money on application fees - random mailers, test optional, spam e-mails all encouraging people to apply.

I don't think they actually make money on app fees. They all want more applicants for sure, and it is out of control for T20 schools, but that suggests that we should expand our definitions of top schools. It's not exactly jumping the moral shark, Fonzie.

How can they not be making money on the applications. Each application brings in $60-$90 bucks. They certainly don't spend that for each application for review and processing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To me, it always looked like the main purpose of essays was to keep the number of applications individual students make under control. Without essays, you KNOW there would be plenty of students who would be applying to 40 or 50 colleges. And they could do so in a single afternoon.

Maybe in the distant past, but colleges jumped that moral shark since then. They encourage more people to apply now so they can make money on application fees - random mailers, test optional, spam e-mails all encouraging people to apply.

I don't think they actually make money on app fees. They all want more applicants for sure, and it is out of control for T20 schools, but that suggests that we should expand our definitions of top schools. It's not exactly jumping the moral shark, Fonzie.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To me, it always looked like the main purpose of essays was to keep the number of applications individual students make under control. Without essays, you KNOW there would be plenty of students who would be applying to 40 or 50 colleges. And they could do so in a single afternoon.

Maybe in the distant past, but colleges jumped that moral shark since then. They encourage more people to apply now so they can make money on application fees - random mailers, test optional, spam e-mails all encouraging people to apply.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of my friends are writing these essays for their kids this cycle…..me as well.

All of the extraneous ones which require research etc. our outside college counselor is fine with it given DC other work/internship/EC/preseason sports/personal statement etc summer commitments.

Will be done with everything by mid to end of August.

FFS, do not write your kids' essays.

NP and my mother wrote my college essays back in the 90s. It’s been happening forever.

Same

My mom was far too illiterate compared to me to write my college essays. I was winning essay writing contests in high school, she could barely string together a sentence.

Anonymous wrote:I do not remember so many essays when I applied to college.

So we have the common app essay- great, but every college my kid is looking at requires from 2-4 different additional essays and none of them overlap that much.

Kids have AP courses, sports, work, etc. when the hell are they doing all of this?

Let’s face it, rich kids just pay to have their essays written for them or spoon-fed anyways. It should just be common app essay, GPA, test scores and 2 teacher recs.

I can see why there are so fewer males to females in college.

Anonymous wrote:To me, it always looked like the main purpose of essays was to keep the number of applications individual students make under control. Without essays, you KNOW there would be plenty of students who would be applying to 40 or 50 colleges. And they could do so in a single afternoon.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of my friends are writing these essays for their kids this cycle…..me as well.

All of the extraneous ones which require research etc. our outside college counselor is fine with it given DC other work/internship/EC/preseason sports/personal statement etc summer commitments.

Will be done with everything by mid to end of August.

FFS, do not write your kids' essays.

NP and my mother wrote my college essays back in the 90s. It’s been happening forever.

Same

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do not remember so many essays when I applied to college.

So we have the common app essay- great, but every college my kid is looking at requires from 2-4 different additional essays and none of them overlap that much.

Kids have AP courses, sports, work, etc. when the hell are they doing all of this?

Let’s face it, rich kids just pay to have their essays written for them or spoon-fed anyways. It should just be common app essay, GPA, test scores and 2 teacher recs.

I can see why there are so fewer males to females in college.

They have all of August to get them done, before school even starts. My youngest had all hers turned in by the first week of August, my oldest, a bit of a procrastinator, by November 1.

No, most rich kids do not pay to have their essays written for them - they do the work.

This. It’s just an assumption being made based on zero facts. We wealthy and my child has been working on the main essay for weeks. While it sounds extensive, at this point it’s maybe 20 minutes a day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do not remember so many essays when I applied to college.

So we have the common app essay- great, but every college my kid is looking at requires from 2-4 different additional essays and none of them overlap that much.

Kids have AP courses, sports, work, etc. when the hell are they doing all of this?

Let’s face it, rich kids just pay to have their essays written for them or spoon-fed anyways. It should just be common app essay, GPA, test scores and 2 teacher recs.

I can see why there are so fewer males to females in college.

They have all of August to get them done, before school even starts. My youngest had all hers turned in by the first week of August, my oldest, a bit of a procrastinator, by November 1.

No, most rich kids do not pay to have their essays written for them - they do the work.