Don't make your college essays too good

I suspect that parental assistance on college admission essays has happened for decades. However, with the hyper-competitiveness to get one of a very limited number of admission slots, some parents (wanting to give their kids what they want, not what they need) are doing anything to help them. The modern "helicopter parent" is the stereotype of this type of parent.

The current application process is a bit archaic. Clearly, with the advent of the Internet and the quick and easy exchange of information, colleges should ask for portfolios of sample, graded school work. These portfolios should supplement applications and may be referenced when there's a need to compare the relative quality of two seemingly equal candidates or any question about the authenticity of the a student's application (including essay).

(On a side note, I'm surprised that more software developers don't keep and share their own portfolios of sample work for prospective clients/employers. A representative body of a person's work is clearly more of an indicator of the quality and skill of a person than any statements/certifications on a C.V. or résumé could possibly be.)

This is a topic that used to bother me before I graduated and left academia behind. When I attended a private middle and lower school, parents would call my mother and ask her how she completed the current project. The level of penetration of this practice was such that it was assumed that the parents would do their children's work. And this was for students younger than 14.

Did any of that work actually matter? Probably not, but the parents felt strongly enough about it to spend hours writing 4th grade reports on Gettysburg or the Cherokee Indian tribe.

With parents willing to go that far, I don't think its surprising that they're shelling out so much money for admissions editors or are writing the essays for their children.

Really, though, I think its just symbolic of how far the American education system has strayed from its imagined mandate to educate. Children don't learn how to write or research when they are thusly coddled, and they don't learn how to deal with new and challenging situations when their parents go along for their first job interviews and browbeat the interviewers.

I think that these misguided parents are elongating childhood in a society where childhood already lasts longer than it ever has before, and are stunting their children in their efforts to give them a foothold above their peers. These parents won't be thwarted by reason, and will find some other mechanism to 'help' their kids advance. I don't think trying to neutralize them will ever be a good investment of one's time.

My brother was threatened with expulsion were he to not stop 'having his parents write his essays'. But they were entirely his own. It took until eleventh grade before teachers started to appreciate this.

"Essays with some rough edges are not only authentic, they are better reads."

Next strategic refinement for advisers: sabotage the perfect essay a little bit to make it more credible.

"colleges should ask for portfolios of sample, graded school work."

There is some merit to this suggestion. It would make the counselor's job easier, the admissions officer's job easier, and the student's job much easier! But one concern is that this would tend to advantage students in private or top-tier public high schools even more than the current system does.