"My trip to France."
"The roller coaster ride of college admissions."
"A list of humorous, but mostly unbelievable, accomplishments."
Each year Admissions Dean John A. Blackburn said he sees a handful of these same overused, sometimes plagiarized admissions essay themes pulled from nationally published books of the best college essays.
While it's not prevalent to cause alarm, college admissions offices across the country are looking for ways to improve accountability and truthfulness in college essays.
Some colleges such as Duke University have begun experimenting with their admissions requirements.
For the past two years, Duke's application has required students to explain their sources of aid on their college essays.
Typically, students responded with sources like English teachers or parents. However, about two dozen out of 15,800 Duke applicants listed the popular Internet editing services and personal consultants that can cost as much as $5,000. The figure raises suspicions among critics that not all applicants may be fully disclosing their sources. Critics speculate that if some students lie, students who answer honestly may be at a disadvantage.
However, Duke admissions director Christof Guttentag said he feels the spirit of the question does not contribute to lying and that honest responses help, rather than hurt, applicants.
"We acknowledge in our question that we expect students to have received help, and that that's okay," Guttentag said. "In other words, we try hard not to frame the question in a way that makes people think that receiving help is bad. It would be odd to see a case where a student didn't receive help."
He said the accountability question may give the Duke admissions committee an insight into what the college essays themselves are partly designed to showcase: the applicant's personality.
"All but a handful are written in the first person," Guttentag said. "What the students are describing is about something that matters a lot to them, and they're describing their interaction with people that they trust. There's often some insight into their character."
Brown University is experimenting with another policy to improve student accountability. In addition to their regular essays, Brown applicants can submit an essay from their SAT II subject tests, which are timed and proctored making it more likely that they reflect a student's genuine work.
"It is a sample that we know has not received any outside help in its preparation," said Michael Goldberger, director of admissions at Brown University. "This is one way of placing all applicants on a level playing field. We fully realize that good writing is a process that requires many drafts, thus the [SAT II] sample is only one assessment device for us to consider."
The University's admissions office has experimented with its own ways of assessing student writing ability.
About eight or nine years ago, "we required students to not only write their essays but also to send a graded paper with teacher comments on it," Blackburn said. "After three years of this review, there were a few cases where we could see the college essays were highly polished and did not compare favorably to the papers they wrote for class."
The University admissions committee also considers high school English grades and the SAT II Writing subject test score in determining a student's true writing skill. However, Blackburn is unsure whether or not the University would consider an optional SAT II essay policy like that of Brown.
"I think there's some merit to it," Blackburn said. Students "are so rushed in doing it. But that's an option we're considering."
Guttentag said that Duke has considered reviewing the SAT II sample essay, but feels it also could facilitate cheating.
"It costs extra money to get that information from the College Board, and the essay is not sent directly from the College Board to the college," he said.
Read More
Student Council votes to relocate Hereford orchard and basketball hoop
By Lauren Seeliger | 4 hours agoStudent Council passed a resolution Tuesday to relocate the orchard and basketball hoop of Hereford Residential College due to construction in the surrounding area.
Dean Rucker honored with Z Society’s highest honor, Pale Z Award
By Brendon Bordwine | 21 hours agoThe Society has a storied history of honoring University leaders with the Pale Z.
Students receive free STI testing through U.Va. Health and Wellness
By Jackie Bond | YesterdayThrough funding from Student Council, students are now able to receive free STI testing with SHW which includes tests for HIV, Syphilis, Gonorrhea, Chlamydia and Hepatitis C.
