'Handful' of apps draws suspicion

As Penn's admissions officers review applications for the class of 2012, they are finding a handful of essays that seem too polished and mature to have been written by high-school seniors, interim Dean of Admissions Eric Kaplan said.

"There are definitely occasions where the writing seems too good to be true," he said.

An applicant's responses to the two short-answer and two longer essays draw suspicions when they seem to be plagiarized or substantially edited by parents and counselors.

Kaplan said the admissions office becomes suspicious when an essay on the application does not match the other parts of the student's profile, such as English grades, SAT and ACT scores and teacher recommendations.

When an essay raises a red flag, the admissions office will then take measures to investigate its authenticity.

For example, the admissions officers might request that a student provide a graded writing sample. Kaplan did not specify how many times the admissions office has done that this year.

Kaplan added that if the admissions office receives the same essay from multiple applicants, officers may search the Internet to see if they can confirm it was plagiarized. The admissions office may also be more direct in questioning the student in this case.

This has not happened this admissions cycle, Kaplan said, but it has occurred in the past.

Penn's applicants are required to sign a statement asserting that all material in their application is their own.

Other colleges take similar approaches when handling essays that appear to have been written by someone other than the applicant.

At Stanford University, admissions officers may talk to students' guidance counselors or request additional writing samples if there is concern about authorship, according to Shawn Abbott, Stanford's director of admissions.

Essays may be more edited and polished than expected because more students are using private college counselors, who may inject their own writing style into their clients' essays. However, Kaplan said this is not a major problem.

"Students are perhaps getting more coaching on their applications, but I don't think it's become rampant," he said.

College freshman Sydney Fenkell said the private college counselor she used did not make substantial changes to her essays.

"He gave me a better idea of what colleges were looking for, but he definitely did not over-edit my essays," she said.

Steven Goodman, a private college consultant based in Washington, D.C., said counselors generally will not rewrite students' essays significantly.

"When you lose a student's voice, you hurt their chances at admission," he said. "You don't want everyone under the sun to edit something."

Kaplan also said applicants can be hurt by over-editing.

"We're trying to find out who the student is," he said. "The bottom line is that we want authenticity."

Comments (8)

hahaha that guy rules

[QUOTE id="180eb75b-37b6-4981-9604-d15c62b8aa43"]"Penn's admissions officers ... are finding a handful of essays that seem too polished and mature to have been written by high-school seniors, interim Dean of Admissions Eric Kaplan said. "There are definitely occasions where the writing seems too good to be true," he said." This is par for the course when it comes to the lobbyists pushing for smoking bans based upon the letters of "children" who write to city councils and such, so why should it be such a surprise when the techique is carried over here? Ever known a 10 year old to say "In a manner of speaking...." or "As we've known for many years..." ? These are the sorts of phrases you see in "Lettters" supposedly written by children "pleading for clean air to breathe" in our politically correct society. The kids of course have been told by their parents that it's "OK" to parrot the words of others in a good cause. So why the big surprise here? Michael J. McFadden Author of "Dissecting Antismokers' Brains" www.TheTruthIsALie.com Wharton Doctoral Fellow 1973 Peace Science[/QUOTE] I don't like you.

Obviously a pitiful attempt to sell more books. Maybe he should try writing something that isn't total crap.

Penn's admissions officers ... are finding a handful of essays that seem too polished and mature to have been written by high-school seniors, interim Dean of Admissions Eric Kaplan said. There are definitely occasions where the writing seems too good to be true," he said." This is par for the course when it comes to the lobbyists pushing for smoking bans based upon the letters of "children" who write to city councils and such, so why should it be such a surprise when the techique is carried over here? Ever known a 10 year old to say "In a manner of speaking...." or "As we've known for many years..." ? These are the sorts of phrases you see in "Lettters" supposedly written by children "pleading for clean air to breathe" in our politically correct society. The kids of course have been told by their parents that it's "OK" to parrot the words of others in a good cause. So why the big surprise here? Michael J. McFadden Author of "Dissecting Antismokers' Brains" www.TheTruthIsALie.com Wharton Doctoral Fellow 1973 Peace Science

Michael I am not surprised the big industry lobbies selling smoking patches and drugs [10 billion dollar industry selling patched poison I hear] would stoop so low as to use emotional Black mail to sell their poor me tales of woe. It was always about the money and how they can make us pay more. It really surprises me, how few are intelligent enough to see through these protection scams. The children need protection, smoking bartenders need protection from their own smoke? What ever gets you through the night, or past that next bank payment I suppose. When you hear "there is no safe level" maybe you should start to realize, they are only admitting ignorance, using the term to scare people into following along, with what ever hair brained policy they dreamed up. Public Health used to be called Eugenics. It was used to protect companies from prosecution by blaming all harms on the individual, while encouraging individuals to blame each other. The bigotry which was inspired was never completely relinquished even today. Hitler used the same protection racket to secure his power and maintain authority. He was the first to use the term second hand smoke to his advantage. Perhaps instead of having politics shoved down their throats children should be allowed to be children. They could be taught a little more history, so they can avoid the same mistakes we made not that long ago and are now apparently prepared to make once again. Disease management is an avoidance of finding the cures which will no doubt embarrass many industry players, who are likely already more educated than they are prepared to admit. Now we have mapped the human genome, those cures may be only months away. Why change a long term scientific direction now? Understanding who is paying to coach the kids, might open a lot of eyes.

[QUOTE id="329812a1-38a0-46ab-ae2a-fb45c7775509"]Michael I am not surprised the big industry lobbies selling smoking patches and drugs [10 billion dollar industry selling patched poison I hear] would stoop so low as to use emotional Black mail to sell their poor me tales of woe. It was always about the money and how they can make us pay more. It really surprises me, how few are intelligent enough to see through these protection scams. The children need protection, smoking bartenders need protection from their own smoke? What ever gets you through the night, or past that next bank payment I suppose. When you hear "there is no safe level" maybe you should start to realize, they are only admitting ignorance, using the term to scare people into following along, with what ever hair brained policy they dreamed up. Public Health used to be called Eugenics. It was used to protect companies from prosecution by blaming all harms on the individual, while encouraging individuals to blame each other. The bigotry which was inspired was never completely relinquished even today. Hitler used the same protection racket to secure his power and maintain authority. He was the first to use the term second hand smoke to his advantage. Perhaps instead of having politics shoved down their throats children should be allowed to be children. They could be taught a little more history, so they can avoid the same mistakes we made not that long ago and are now apparently prepared to make once again. Disease management is an avoidance of finding the cures which will no doubt embarrass many industry players, who are likely already more educated than they are prepared to admit. Now we have mapped the human genome, those cures may be only months away. Why change a long term scientific direction now? Understanding who is paying to coach the kids, might open a lot of eyes.[/QUOTE] And this has to do with overly polished college application essays? Is that also a Hitlerian plot?

[QUOTE id="329812a1-38a0-46ab-ae2a-fb45c7775509"]Michael I am not surprised the big industry lobbies selling smoking patches and drugs [10 billion dollar industry selling patched poison I hear] would stoop so low as to use emotional Black mail to sell their poor me tales of woe. It was always about the money and how they can make us pay more. It really surprises me, how few are intelligent enough to see through these protection scams. The children need protection, smoking bartenders need protection from their own smoke? What ever gets you through the night, or past that next bank payment I suppose. When you hear "there is no safe level" maybe you should start to realize, they are only admitting ignorance, using the term to scare people into following along, with what ever hair brained policy they dreamed up. Public Health used to be called Eugenics. It was used to protect companies from prosecution by blaming all harms on the individual, while encouraging individuals to blame each other. The bigotry which was inspired was never completely relinquished even today. Hitler used the same protection racket to secure his power and maintain authority. He was the first to use the term second hand smoke to his advantage. Perhaps instead of having politics shoved down their throats children should be allowed to be children. They could be taught a little more history, so they can avoid the same mistakes we made not that long ago and are now apparently prepared to make once again. Disease management is an avoidance of finding the cures which will no doubt embarrass many industry players, who are likely already more educated than they are prepared to admit. Now we have mapped the human genome, those cures may be only months away. Why change a long term scientific direction now? Understanding who is paying to coach the kids, might open a lot of eyes.[/QUOTE] All that negativity Steve. What are you some kind of conspiracy nut or what? [[[smiling]]]

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