Is It Okay For Parents To Help Edit Their Childs College Essay?

Is It Okay For Parents To Help Edit Their Child's College Essay? Is your parent going to write your essays that are assigned by professors while you are in college? The college cares how you write not how your parent writes unless they are also applying to the same college as you. Parents may know other details about the student that they should include in the essay. Parents are also a great second pair of eyes for grammar and spelling errors. I would still suggest that a English professional still read over the essay for expert editing purposes. For the same reason, I do not think English teachers make great admissions essay readers. Your English teacher reads your essay as 1 out of 30. The admissions officers reads as 1 out of 1000’s and possibly even 10,000 or more. They should seek guidance from their counselors or teachers for this. The essay should be in the student’s voice and parent’s are not always the best advisors for this part of the application. The college is learning about you from what you write. Not what anyone else writes including your parent. But, if they start writing the essay know that the college may very well determine that the work was not yours. You’re the only person with your exact combination of personal qualities, beliefs, values, and experiences, so you don’t need to lie or exaggerate to make your essay unique. For the same reason, we recommend avoiding profanity and graphic language in your essays. Gail Berson, the dean of admissions at Wheaton College, shares a story about an applicant with excellent grades and test scores who wrote a graphic essay about a violent video game. The admissions team found the essay off-putting, and the student was rejected. Had he chosen a “safer” topic, he would have received an acceptance letter. Many applicants will have high GPA’s and SAT scores, volunteer in a local organization, or be the president of a club or captain of a sports team. Admissions officers are looking for something, anything, to distinguish your essay from the pile. However, they should not write or re-write the essay. Additionally, these types of essays frequently present the student as some type of savior, who is privileged enough to spend the money to fly and participate in an activity overseas. This “savior” trope could irk the admissions officer. Remember, you want to sound genuine, not sanctimonious. Both students and parents tend to think that writing about overseas volunteering or charity trips is a sure-fire way to impress admissions officers. Some of the best college application essays are written about small moments that are meaningful to the applicant. However, parents should not try to change the voice of the student, which can be difficult to refrain from. The essay needs to be a reflection of the student’s creativity, writing ability and personality; not the parent. One of the most common supplemental essays that students will come across is the infamous “Why This College? ” or a more specific question about how a student plans to contribute to the campus, colleges are looking for detailed and well-researched responses. Your English teacher reads your essay to assign one grade out of many. The admissions officer reads to determine if they should offer you one spot out of probably relatively very few. Yes, the stakes can seem high, but it is ultimately the applicant’s record and work that is being evaluated and it should be theirs that is submitted as well. I do not believe that parents make good essay editors because they are not admissions officers. They do not know what admissions officers are looking for. Essay’s should always been seen by someone else to look for grammatical and spelling errors. Many students do need help selecting a topic and organizing the essay. Your entire college application talks about who you were in high school; admission officers see what activities you did, what classes you took, and what scores you got. While these things are important, so much of your personality forms as a child too. of students who completed applications with Ivy Coach earned admission to their first college choice.